Colorado Springs Auto Repair Shop Shuts After 64 Years ness, he decided to close the shop for good. Elwood Buster II’s workspace for “Competing with the internet is over 40 years at Speedometer and really hard,” Rusty said. “Now, peoAlternator Service Co. could be a ple can go online and buy starters goldmine or a heap of junk. It de- and alternators cheaper than we can pends on your point of view. fix them.” Jumbled car manuals are heaped Rusty stopped rebuilding speedon shelves. Countertops are strewn ometers, alternators and generators with screwdrivers and wrenches and in August and began liquidating the weighted down by alternators and store’s merchandise, with a plan to speedometers, and pieces of auto- continue fixing only speedometers at motive electrical gear are propped in his house. every nook and cranny. Rusty sold the property to a real estate developer who bought several surrounding properties, too. The developer told him there were no immediate plans for the plot, Rusty said. “When the developer came by and made an offer on the building, I weighed out all of this and decided that the offer to sell would let me close down that porElwood Buster II, who goes by Rusty, poses for a portrait tion of the business on my at his shop, Speedometer and Alternator Service Co., in Colorado Springs on Aug. 11. Rusty took over the speedown terms, instead of tryometer, alternator and generator repair business from his ing to ride it out another 10 father, Elwood Buster. He is closing the doors after 64 years years and then being forced in business and plans to continue fixing only speedometers to close down,” Rusty said. at his home. Credit: Chancey Bush/The Gazette As a teen, Rusty spent “It’s like walking back in time,” his summers and afternoons helpBuster said, looking around the ing his dad in the shop. He never planned to spend his career at his room. Buster, who goes by the nick- dad’s car shop, but one full year name Rusty, took over the auto spent working at the business after repair business from his father, El- high school turned into a lifetime. wood Buster, who bought the busi- “I just kind of fell into the rouness in 1957 and then purchased the tine,” Rusty said. “And then never building that housed the business, at left.” 449 E. Kiowa St. on downtown Col- The transition of the business orado Springs’ east edge, in 1961. from father to son, however, was not Previously a grocery store, the an easy one. 16,000-square foot shop saw thou- While in the shop one day in sands of collector and hot rod cars 1989, 74-year-old Elwood Buster roll through its garage over the was visited by several of his longyears. time friends. “Where the parking lot is, there “They were all just having a used to be a house,” Rusty said. bull session, like sitting around a “And when my dad bought this general store,” Rusty said. “And I building in ‘61, he bought the house didn’t get any work done that day, next door. So we lived next door to because I was just listening to all the the shop. So I was always in here stories.” The time came to say goodbyes, and grew up around guys that like and the elder Buster went home becars.” But like many retailers and cause he didn’t feel well. He died small specialty businesses such as that night. his, Rusty discovered in recent years “The hardest thing I’ve ever had he was losing the sales race to online to do was to call those six or seven competitors. After 64 years in busi- guys and tell them that he passed by Jessica Snouwaert, The Gazette
14 OCTOBER 2021 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
away,” Rusty said. “And each one of them could not identify why they had stopped by. They just (said), ‘Hey, I haven’t seen him for a while. I’m going to stop and say hi.’” The family nature of the business went deeper than Buster and Rusty. Tom Nixon, who worked at the shop for 46 years, was a fixture of the store. “He would hang around and stop by after school,” Rusty said. “... My dad hired him in 1959, when he was 17, when he was a senior. And basically it was the only job he ever had.” Nixon, 79, said “old-timers” will miss the store when it’s gone, but even now, he misses working in the shop. “Buster was a great guy,” Nixon said. “I enjoyed working with him.” During the start of August, Rusty was preparing to clean out the shop when a customer walked in looking for alternator repairs. Rusty broke the news that the business shut down more than a week ago.
“Are you going to keep working on speedometers?” the customer, Nathan Nash, asked. “Yeah, definitely―I’m still going to be doing speedometers,” Rusty said. Rusty tested Nash’s alternator, hooking it up to a machine on the wall to see if it charged the proper way or if it needed to be replaced. The machine started to whir and hum. “It’s definitely bad,” Rusty said. He told Nash he could probably find the replacement at Quality Alternator and Turbo Service, one of the last shops of its kind in town, now that Speedometer and Alternator Service Co. is leaving the scene. “Guys like him are hard to find,” Nash said. “And now they’re going to be harder to find.”
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