Team Wilkinson pushing boundaries at Jack's Body Shop

Shon Wilkinson, 45, his daughter, Stefanie, 26, and Job Brown, 22, work as a team on auto body projects at Jack’s Body Shop on East Second Street in The Dalles. Shon has used his trade to teach his daughter auto body skills since the summer she turned 14. “She really latched onto it,” he said. Stefanie is now welding, patching and fabricating with the best of them as they restore classics and make repairs to everyday runners.

By Tom Peterson

Behind the MIG welder, the grinder, fiberglass and Bondo, Stefanie Wilkinson was working her magic on a 1972 Chevrolet El Camino at Jack’s Body Shop on Second Street in The Dalles last week.

The El Camino is a job for the boss’s friend, and it is like a lot of cars she sees.

There are some rust issues.

“Oh yeah,” the 26-year-old said. “That’s normal for a car this age. I just put on a new quarter panel in the back. I just rebuilt the inner wheel well.”

Did she have an English wheel?

Stefanie Wilkinson shows off some of her handy work. She had recently welded this quarter panel into a 1972 Chevrolet El Camino.

“Fabrication tools?” she questioned. “I’m doing it by hand with a hammer.”

Auto body repair and fabrication - it’s a lost art, Jack’s owner Vince Vann can tell you. It takes decades to perfect the skills and a dogged dedication to patience and quality.

Two skills of which Stefanie has been filling and sanding for some 12 years.

She’s, no doubt, unique. Both in her skills and her gender. There are not a lot of women in the industry.

And her story is uncommon as well. 

Her dad, Shon Wilkinson at 29 had a tough situation.

Stefanie was 14 and coming from Roseburg to live with him for the summer.

One problem.

Shon still had a job to do at Fix Auto.

So, how could he spend time with his daughter, provide guidance, give her standards to live up to and still earn a paycheck?

Simple solution: He took Stefanie to work.

“I had to make do with the time I had,” he said. 

“I really started working on cars when I was 14,” Stefanie said. “It was during the summer.”

“It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse,” Shon said of the first vehicle they worked on together. He added the model year. “It was a 2000.” 

Shon had to replace a quarter panel and Stefanie helped him prep the car.

“I could still work and meet the requirements of the job and spend time with her,” he said.

Stefanie Wilkinson grinds metal flat on the back of the cab of a ‘72 El Camino.

“I got to use a screw gun,” Stefanie said smiling and reflecting back on that summer. “I remember taking off the molding and the interior trim.”

“She really latched onto it,” Shon said, noting when she turned old enough, he began to pay her out of his own pocket. Shon and Stefanie have been at Jack’s Auto Body, now, 10 years. 

“It’s good hard work,” Stefanie said. “They’re giant puzzles. You have to figure out how to take them apart and then put them back together the same way.”

Stefanie, Shon and Job Brown finished a black ‘68 Pontiac Firebird last year. “It needed two quarter-panels, a hood and a door,” Shon said, noting there was a lot of Bondo in the original bodywork that was beyond repair. 

Stefanie has now turned her attention on the El Camino. She welded the rear driver-side quarter panel into the vehicle earlier in the day. There is a small gap where the panel meets the metal of the cab next to the driver’s window. 

“We use to fill those with lead,” Shon said with a smile. But given the health risks with using lead, his daughter will opt for some “kittyhair” - a mix of fiberglass and Bondo - to fill the gap. “I like to fabricate by hand,” she said. “There’s some creativity in it.”

When it comes to being a woman in an autobody shop, she said, “It doesn’t bother me. I can do everything they can do. Even better, I have smaller hands and can reach into spaces they can’t to get a hold of a bolt.”

Shon said he had to fight for his daughter to get full-time employment. “I had to prove myself, Stefanie added.

The job also eventually came with a Job. Job Brown that is.

Stefanie met Brown, 22, at the shop. Brown had a grandfather in the profession who recently retired and Brown is now following in his footsteps. And he and Stefanie hit it off. The two are now together and Shon has taken Job under his wing, providing training.

The three of them work as a team, sharing profit and loss together.

Vann said he was proud of Brown’s growth both in the profession and taking on responsibility for himself. “He’s grown into a man here,” Vann said. 

So, Stefanie, what do you do in your spare time?

“Cross stitch,” she laughed. “Gardening. Or at least I like the idea of gardening. My execution is a little lacking.”