Jeff Kary was getting deep into a side gig doing spray on bedliners for pickup trucks in his garage in Worland when he decided to strike out on his own, return to Powell and open a shop. 

He kept taking on different kinds of work, and after a few years on one side of town moved to his current spot on East South Street in 2004, where his business blossomed into a full auto body shop focused mostly on collision body and windshield repair — he no longer even does the bedliners. 

Kary said The Ding Pro deals mostly with vehicles that have collided with animals, mainly deer, accounting for 75%-80% of his business. 

He also sells accessories such as front bumpers to ease the damage of a deer strike.

“I’ll have a lot of people that will … have me put a ranch hand or a frontier, a big iron bumper on the front after hitting one,” he said, adding, “with the deer that are around here, it’s kind of like Australia with the kangaroos and stuff they have, they all have big, huge bumpers.”

The business of auto repair has changed over the years, whether it’s repairing damage from a collision with an animal, another vehicle or hail, in large part because of how much more complex the vehicles have gotten. 

Kary said the expense of parts has also gone up a lot since he started in the industry 26 years ago. 

“Because most deer strikes are in the front end, where a lot of stuff is — headlights, you know, radiators, I would say minimum, a deer strike’s probably $5,000, but anymore, everything, even headlights, are $1,000. You know, it doesn’t take much to add up.”

Some of the biggest repairs he does involve hail damage, as it affects the entire body. Kary said a brand new Rav-4 that was damaged by hail led to a roof replacement, and with all of the electronics in the vehicle, he needed to get the systems recalibrated after being fixed. 

 It’s a lot of work, but Kary said he still makes a point to provide a level of service that he hopes keeps his customers happy. 

“If you just call people back,” he said. “I get compliments on that all the time about, you know, calling people back and keeping them updated on how their car’s coming.”

He also does what he can to make a vehicle look as good as it did before and, in the case of nearly brand new cars, to make them look almost like new. 

“I’ve been in business 26 years here, so I think that says something, that it’s been successful,” he said. “I like to take pride in my work. And you know, when you’re dealing in body work like this, you’ve got to bring it back to almost brand new. So you got to really pay attention to that, because people are really looking it over. 

“So hopefully that’s what’s kept me going, is my quality of work.”

The Ding Pro is located at 1008 E. South St. Call 307-754-7181 for more information.