Mark Presnell is one of the lucky few that has been able to make a thriving business out of a hobby he loves.
“I had always worked on cars, motorcycles, lawn mowers … anything with a motor,” said Presnell.
In high school in Wetumpka, he was a shop foreman in his welding class. The position helped him develop time management and people skills, and later, a technical instructor at the high school recommended him for a job at Caffco, where he worked on anything and everything with a motor.
“Cars, motor homes, dump trucks. If it had a motor in it, we worked on it,” he said.
Presnell stayed with the company for more than eight years and was shop manager for his last few years there, which gave him experience in purchasing and other business management skills.
He opened Mark’s Service Center & Body Shop in 1985 at a gas station in downtown Wetumpka and about two years later purchased property on Kelly Fitzpatrick Drive. At first, he had two employees; now, he has seven, and he has added onto the building twice. At 9,000 square feet, the auto shop next door to Wetumpka Elementary School includes plenty of room for the services Presnell provides to his customers.
In addition to general automotive repairs, brake service and repair, tires, paint and body work, Mark’s installs Jasper remanufactured engines and transmissions and performs used car inspections prior to purchase at no charge. The shop is equipped with a PPG paint mixing system; a Unicure paint booth; and Kar Grabber frame machine for proper frame and body repairs. Presnell’s mechanics work on foreign and domestic vehicles and are happy to do the welding on small fabrication jobs.
The square footage offers plenty of room for his ever-growing collection of models, gas pumps, historical documents and whimsical whatnots related to the car industry. The hundreds of items – from oil cans to large gasoline signs, photographs, antique automotive tools and car parts – are the scenery at the auto shop. They fill shelves, glass cases, walls and even floor space not only in Presnell’s office but also the lobby, the shop and the semi-attic storage space.
“I started collecting at the old shop downtown. If I saw something I could afford – at flea markets, yard sales, wherever – I bought it and put it in the shop,” Presnell explained. “I am fortunate to have understood the value of automotive memorabilia and appreciated it at a young age.
“Once people knew I liked old car stuff, they brought me things. Some of this belonged to their fathers and grandfathers, and they just didn’t know what else to do with it, so they brought it to me,” said Presnell.
There are two cardboard convertible models that originally served as gimmicky hamburger packages, and tucked into a corner of a glassfront shelf unit is an ashtray that bears the Carr Motor Company emblem.
“They gave those out as promotional items,” Presnell explained.
He has a cookie tin that was printed for T. Parker Auto Sales.
“When someone bought a car there, the company gave them some cookies in a tin,” he said.
There are antique car parts, a valve cover, hood ornaments and an old drive-in speaker that he emphatically avowed was not acquired by his own hand.
“That was given to me,” he said.
On display in the lobby are two antique gas pumps and a 1928 price quote that bears witness to economic inflation over the last century. Gas prices on the pumps remain at 31 and 58 cents, and the letter quoting service costs clearly states that the labor on a complete overhaul of engine and transmission would fall between $20 and $25, and replacement of four pistons and rings could be as much as $4.
“What’s really amazing is that the services they represent are still required on automobiles today, even with all the advances we’ve made,” Presnell said.
There’s an old battery tester that vaguely resembles an instrument of torture from a Frankenstein movie.
“But it still works!” Presnell said.
Paint cans with hand agitators for mixing the paint; a torch that melted lead for car repairs – given to him from the tool collection of a friend’s grandfather; a primitive grease gun; and oil cans that line shelves in every room – all given to him.
The lobby also holds a collage of auto nameplates, works of art that advertised a vehicle’s personality and character (back when cars had personality) by the choice of font or thickness of the metal used.
“Today, they just use stickers,” said Presnell.
And there is the quintessential wall car – a red 1962 Triumph Spitfire. Not the whole car, of course, but just what one might have seen as it sped past on the street 55 years ago, all shiny and new, and now mounted on the wall of Presnell’s lobby.
There’s an old magazine ad for an automobile that handled so smoothly it was like driving on carpet and photographs of cars in Wetumpka and the people who drove them. And a whimsical rendition of the old garage by the bridge under glass, a piece of art commissioned by Presnell’s mother as a Christmas present for her son.
This businessman who likes to work on cars treasures the gimmicks and baubles for the sentiment in them.
“It’s a Wetumpka thing to some extent,” said the man who served as president of the chamber of commerce in 2000. “That scale over there came out of an old store in town. When I was a kid, I weighed myself on that scale. Most of these things belonged to someone who knew someone I knew – a lot of them are gone now. Most of it isn’t worth more than 50 cents, but it speaks to quality and longevity, and that’s how I look at this business.
“We sell quality. I have well trained long-term employees who understand the value of quality automotive repair.”
Mark’s Service Center & Body Shop, Inc., is located at 743 Kelly Fitzpatrick Dr., Wetumpka. Visit the website at marksinwetumpka.com or call 334-567-9246.
