Backwoods Customs is a one-man auto body shop on Platform Road in Newport. Chris has been in the collision trade since 2007 and has run this shop since 2016, and he does the work himself rather than handing it down a line.

What owner-operated actually changes

The person who writes your estimate is the person holding the welder. Nothing gets lost between a service writer and a technician, because there is no handoff. If something turns up mid-repair, you hear it from the man who found it.

The trade-off is honest to state: this is not a shop that turns eight cars a week. Complex jobs take the time they take. Drivers who want it done properly rather than quickly are the ones who end up here.

The jobs other shops pass on

Tow operators across Herkimer County have been sending the difficult ones here for years. Heavy structural damage, vehicles that other shops looked at and declined, repairs where the insurer and the reality are some distance apart.

Central New York damage

Deer through the fall on the back roads toward Poland and Middleville. Snow and ice from December onward, and the ditches around here are deeper than they look. Vehicles that met something solid on a logging road or a trail. Winter around Old Forge produces damage that suburban shops rarely see.

Independent, and it matters here

No Direct Repair Program, no referral arrangement, no insurer setting the repair method. New York drivers pick their own shop. Chris argues for the repair the vehicle needs rather than the one that costs the carrier least, which is exactly why the complicated claims arrive here.

Free assessment

Call (315) 717-8894 or bring it to 922-A Platform Rd. Eight to five on weekdays, later by appointment, and weekends by arrangement. If it will not drive, ask about a tow.