Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins

Where People Come First, and Millimeters Matter: Inside Modern Precision Auto Body Repair

• Nick George • Season 1 • Episode 127

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A tiny measurement can decide whether your airbag fires on time. That’s the line that stayed with us as we sat down with Megan Mueller of Ozzie's Body Shop, a Loveland institution that’s been restoring vehicles—and trust—since 1967. What starts as a neighborhood story quickly opens into a masterclass on modern collision repair, from high-strength steel and aluminum to carbon fiber, ADAS calibration, and the precise steps that bring a car back to safe operation instead of just looking good.

Megan walks us through Ozzie’s evolution from a family-run garage to certified collision care for northern Colorado drivers. We dig into how structural design, mixed-metal construction, and sensor placement mean that millimeters truly matter, especially for airbag timing and driver assistance systems. She explains why the right equipment, OEM repair procedures, and ongoing technician training aren’t extras—they’re essential—and how thorough documentation and calibrations protect owners on the road and at the negotiation table.

We also unpack the tricky world of insurance recommendations. Some carriers still prioritize quality, but cost-driven networks can steer work toward shops that skip the tools, training, or calibrations required by today’s vehicles. Megan’s advice is blunt and empowering: you choose the repair shop, not your insurer. Ask about OEM procedures, calibration capability, technician education, and measurement reports. If a shop can’t show their process and proof, keep looking.

Beyond the bays, Megan leads the Mountain States Collision Repair Association, advocating for higher standards across Colorado and Utah. Her north star never wavers: serve the vehicle owner first. When a repaired car leaves the shop and a family climbs in, the structure, sensors, and restraint systems must work as designed. That’s the promise Ozzie’s works to keep.

If this conversation helped you see collision repair in a new light, follow the show, share it with a neighbor, and leave a quick review. Your support helps more drivers find the knowledge—and the shops—that put safety first.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Megan Mueller, with Ozzy's Body Shop. Megan, how's it going today?

SPEAKER_02:

Hey Nick, I'm doing great. I really appreciate you having me on today.

SPEAKER_01:

No problem. Glad you're here. Tell us all about Ozzy's Body Shop.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Where to start? So Ozzy's has been located here in Loveland since 1967. We used to be down kind of south Loveland, down by the old fairgrounds, and um moved to our current location in 2001, which is on north 287. So um kind of north Loveland, very, very south Fort Collins. So just a nice central location for a lot of our um northern Colorado uh community.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us how you got into this business and why is it called Auszy.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, well, I grew up in it. Um, so it's called Aussies. Uh the original owner, Ozzy, um, was the one that started it in 1967. And then my dad was actually a painter for him in the um late 70s and early 80s. At the time, there were five employees when Ozzy was ready to uh retire. And my dad and three others went ahead and bought it together. Slowly, over about 15 years or so, my dad um became the sole owner. And I left my career in 2017 and came down full-time, but had handled some marketing and some behind-the-scenes stuff um for years before that.

SPEAKER_01:

And did you have any experience in the automotive world before you decided to uh to take over this position?

SPEAKER_02:

Um other than just kind of growing up in it, uh not necessarily, but you know, I had always been in the garage working with my dad. He he called me the boy of his three girls. Um and so yeah, just spent a lot of time out there with him and uh was in a lot of the parades growing up, that sort of thing. Now my boys get to be a part of that, which is a lot of fun. And um, yeah, when I when I left my career, came down full time and slowly just started learning the business from all aspects internally.

SPEAKER_01:

What are some myths or misconceptions in the body shop world that you'd like to dispel or that your customers are easily dispelled by once they get to know you?

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Um I would say the oh goodness, just two. The first one is how incredibly complicated collision repair is these days. Um, vehicles are made now out of many different metal substrates depending on where they are on the vehicle. Um there's even you know aluminum structural parts, there are um carbon fiber structural parts. It's it's very complex. And with the automatic driving systems these days, millimeters matter. Um with the airbag timing, millimeters matter. So it's I actually come from dental, is where my career was before I came down here full time. And it blows my mind because when you're thinking about teeth, you measure everything in millimeters. And to do that and on a vehicle, right, you compare a tooth to the size of a vehicle, and to know that airbag timing is not going to be the same if it's not within this certain spec of millimeters is a very intimidating task to take on. Um so yeah, so there's just so much more complex complexity to doing a proper repair. Um, and that I guess what scares me with our industry is the fact that you don't actually to be a technician, there's no certification or training required. So over in Europe, you have to actually go and get a degree um to be able to repair vehicles. And here in the States, you don't have to. You can just be anybody and you can repair these vehicles, even as complex as they are now. So um continuing education, training, um, certifications, that kind of stuff, finding technicians that are really putting time into the continuing education with how quickly the vehicles are changing is of the utmost importance. Um and then God, fallacy number two, I would say, is it used to be that a lot of like the partnershops between um insurance companies or like the recommended shops were often the ones that were doing the quality, we're doing the training, we're doing um, we're investing in equipment. Um, those were the ones that the insurance companies would often recommend. And that is still true with some um companies. However, a lot of other ones have chosen to go the route of where they can save the most. And um, those companies, if they're offering the work for a lot less expensive, are probably not investing in all of that training and the equipment.

SPEAKER_01:

Outside of podcasting, um, what are the ways that you're reaching out to your customers digitally right now so that they know that you're out there?

SPEAKER_02:

Um digitally, we can certainly be sound or I'm sorry, found on our website at www.ozzy's body shop.com. Otherwise, we are, I'm not really of the techie world, if I'm honest, um, but you can find us on YouTube. We've got some videos there. We are also on um Facebook, Instagram, and really hoping to expand into the podcast department.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh it looks like Ozzy's Body Shop is the best way to find you on all those platforms right now?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. So um I can't remember if we talked about whether or not I'm allowed to ask this question or not before we started the podcast, but I'm just gonna be candid and ask it. Um, is there a uh a hardship or a life's challenge or a struggle that you went through in your life that uh that made you so resilient about perfection and and making this business uh something spectacular?

SPEAKER_02:

I love that question. Um hardship. I would say a lot of those qualities are just instilled from my father. Um it's it's what he built the company on and and um you know what I'm trying to build upon as well, even though we're taking it in that we've had to adapt to the times as all businesses do, especially when you're around for 60 years. Um, and so so adapting from the um kind of insurance world over to the certified collision world um has been a really big challenge. As far as personally, I I've always just been a nerd when it comes to education and everything, and and to see some of the things that I've seen in this industry, I I am pushing really hard for the industry as a whole to have higher standards and higher values. Um, so I actually am the president of the um Mountain States Closure and Repair Association, and we represent uh Colorado and Utah independent shops that are really just trying to do the right thing and hopefully you know advocate for consumers uh because a lot of people have no idea what happens throughout the course of a repair.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you want people to take away from this interview? What is the most important thing you'd like for them to take away from this interview about you, Megan, and Ozzy's body shop and what it represents in the industry?

SPEAKER_02:

Um that I really believe that we are a shop that works for the vehicle owner. Um, we don't answer to anybody else. We do work with all insurance companies, but we don't work for them. Um, we repair the vehicles the way that the manufacturers want them repaired, and um, which I believe is in the vehicle owner's best interest. Um, and and we just every single person down here uh has a, I believe, a higher level of expectation as far as what needs to be done before that vehicle goes back out on the road and a family gets in it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Megan, we really appreciate you being on our show, and we definitely wish you and Ozzy's Body Shop the very best moving forward.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you, Nick. It was a pleasure. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollins.com. That's gnpfortcollins.com or call nine seven zero four three eight zero eight two five.