Top Gun Auto Center was founded in 1992 in North Hollywood, CA. When it was purchased in 2014 by John Leblebici, it was a small shop painting about one car per week, but through word of mouth, Top Gun Auto Center’s reputation started to grow, and in 2023, Leblebici opened a second location in North Hollywood.
The shop’s two locations do it all — mechanical and collision repair, custom work, paint, wraps and detailing.
Top Gun Auto Center
North Hollywood, CA
818-980-6736
www.topgunautocenter.com
Company At A Glance...
Type: Collision & Mechanical Repair
Facility Employees: 15
In Business Since: 1992
Number of Locations: Two
Combined Production Space: 8,000 square feet
Leblebici said he got into the automotive service industry against his will. “Growing up, I was not really good in school, so as a punishment, my parents sent me to help at my family members’ different car businesses — dealership, tire shop, body shop, mechanic shop — just bouncing around,” he said.
When he was 22, Leblebici got a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts and hospitality. He tried working in restaurants, but he “realized I need to go back to my roots and stick with the auto business because I was not happy,” he said. “At that point, I realized it was not a punishment, but the best gift that my family could have provided.”
That was in 2014, when Leblebici bought Top Gun Auto Center’s original location. Now he and a staff of 15 employees have achieved ASE and I-CAR certification, and are working toward 14 OEM certifications.
The air circulation is so good, the shop’s waterborne paint dries quickly without blowers — or ceiling fans.
As Top Gun Auto Center grew to a point it was painting 20 cars a week, Leblebici knew he needed to invest in a new paint spray booth. Cleaning and prepping their previous booth between jobs was eating up too much of his painters’ time, and they had to do a lot of buffing to achieve a finish they could be proud of.
“That’s when we realized we needed help,” he said. “We needed a solution, and that’s when we found Blowtherm USA.”
Leblebici said he likes to look at what more successful shop owners are using, so he did some research on the big players, both in his local area and nationally. He found many of them chose Blowtherm USA spray booths.
When he reached out to Eurotech Distributors Inc., a Blowtherm USA distributor based in Paramount, CA, Leblebici spoke to Rob Summers, who gave him a list of nearby shops that had Blowtherm USA booths. Summers told him to visit those shops and, if he liked what he saw, meet Summers at the upcoming SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
“I spoke with a bunch of owners,” Leblebici said. “Usually, other owners in the same ZIP code don’t want to share too much info, but they couldn’t hide their faces with how happy they are with their current booth.”
Leblebici bought the Blowtherm World spray booth for his recently-opened second location. He said the investment has already paid for itself in six months, and he plans to buy another World booth for his original location in the coming year.
“The investment [in Blowtherm] has already paid for itself in six months,” Leblebici said.
He said the biggest advantage his shop has seen has been the efficiency.
“You can get a good finish in any booth, but it depends on how much time you have to clean it before jobs — are you going to spend 10 hours cleaning the booth and doing a lot of work to get a clean job, or do you want to just throw the car inside, do a basic cleaning and get an excellent paint job?
“That’s the biggest benefit we’ve seen from getting a Blowtherm booth,” Leblebici said.
The Blowtherm World has an advanced air circulation system that prevents diebacks during the bake cycle, Leblebici said. “With Blowtherm, after 30 minutes, we see the fresh clear finish after the bake cycle. We don’t have to buff cars anymore and we have no dieback issues.”
In fact, the air circulation is so good, the shop’s waterborne paint dries quickly without blowers.
Leblebici praised the support he has gotten from both Blowtherm USA and Eurotech.
Blowtherm USA designed a custom booth to fit the shop’s 12-foot ceilings, and Eurotech handled the installation of “everything A to Z,” giving Top Gun Auto Center the “booth ready to turn on,” Leblebici said.
“So far we haven’t had issues other than user problems when pressing the wrong button on the control panel,” Leblebici said, but when that has happened, he can reach out to Summers for immediate help.
“I’m so blessed; I have full support,” he said. “We paint 15 to 20 cars a week without any problem. I’m happy.”
Leblebici said shop operators should invest in quality equipment like Blowtherm USA to eliminate issues so they can focus on achieving quality repairs.
“Don’t go for the cheaper option, because you get what you pay for,” Leblebici said. “Don’t learn the hard way like me; in the past, I bought so many things that were cheaper and it ended up costing me more.
“Lately I’ve been making good decisions, and Blowtherm is one of them,” he said. “I can’t wait to see how it helps me grow my company."
Blowtherm USA & Training Center
855-463-9872 or 262-269-6265
www.blowtherm-usa.com
sales@blowtherm-usa.com
To read more auto body shop profiles from the October 2024 Shop and Product Showcase, click here.
