Thanks in part to a pair of appearances on national TV, business is booming at French Lake Auto Parts.
The sprawling facility that includes acres of junk vehicles for spare parts, used vehicles for resale and crushed vehicles for scrap has been featured twice on the Discovery Channel’s "Fast and Loud" show, where unique vehicles are found, purchased and restored at Gas Monkey Garage in Texas.
French Lake Auto Parts’ first appearance came on March 24, when a Boss 429 Mustang was purchased from the company’s owner Skip Nolan. The title of the show, part of Fast and Loud’s fourth season, was "Mustang Mania."
The second appearance came on Monday, Oct. 13, when a longer segment featured a 1966 mini Volkswagen bus on a show called "The Shorty Short VW Bus." Filming for that show was done on May 15.
Nolan said the second appearance was easy to secure after the show’s first visit to the yard last winter. The crew was impressed by the facility, and a personal rapport was quickly forged as well.
"We hit it off," said Nolan, explaining that he figured the show would be interested in the bus and sent in a picture. "The normal person that tries to contact them has to go their website and it can take months because they get like 400 to 600 contacts a day, people saying what they have to sell. But we have their cell numbers, so within five minutes they answered."
The Fast and Loud crew was originally introduced to the business by a customer from Monticello, and after a visit from a show member to make sure the tip was worth following up on, a film crew arrived over the winter.
"The first time it was so cold. The camera guys were all from Hollywood and they all had little thin jackets and shirts on and it was 25 below out, so they didn’t want to be outside," said Nolan. "But this time it was good. They spent a lot of time in the driveway here and going around out back."
Business accelerates
After the second show aired last week, the French Lake business was nearly swamped by calls and emails from viewers around the country who wanted to find out more about the stock available.
"We couldn’t keep up," said Nolan. "We could have had three times as many people on the phones and we wouldn’t have been able to keep up. All the lines were lit up all day long, and hundreds of emails were coming in too."
Nolan had some idea what to expect as far as response after the first show earlier in the year, when the company’s website traffic spiked.
"It was just crazy, the number of hits on our website from 7 to 10 p.m. on that night," he said. "It was just thousands and thousands. We haven’t gotten the results from (the second show) yet, but I’m sure those will be just crazy too."
In response, Nolan said French Lake Auto Parts has set up a new Ebay store for online sales and has put together a whole new shipping area. One new online sales individual was added in April after the first show, and Nolan said a second online sales representative should be starting at the business this week. There are currently 33 employees.
"We just keep watching the numbers climb every month," he said. "I’d say another year from now we’ll probably have another one or two more people in just the Ebay part."
Nolan said French Lake Auto Parts brought in about 9,000 vehicles last year, and is well on its way to surpassing that mark this year. While most years have seen about a 10 percent increase in the number of vehicles handled, this year could have closer to a 20 percent increase. Along with his brother Shawn, Nolan handles a lot of the acquisitions.
"We have to keep going because we sell so much that we have to keep the stock coming in as it’s going out," he said.
The TV experience
Both film sessions were one-day affairs, and despite little if any advanced publicity, Nolan said the office was jammed with curious customers on hand to watch both film days.
"The first time it was real nerve-wracking. There were so many people here that had found out about it. They were all just packed in the office. We tried going in the shop. Well, everybody went over there and were making noise and the camera guys were getting mad. So we had to get everybody out and lock the door to do the filming."
At a personal level, Nolan said he was far more comfortable in front of the cameras the second time around since he had already been through the experience once and knew the camera crew as well as the show hosts.
"The first time I asked, ‘What are we supposed to say?’ He goes, ‘Just go with the flow. If I start talking and I stop, you just take on and go.’ Well, when you’ve got 10 camera guys there with those big LED lights and you’re wondering what you’re going to say wrong … this (second) time went real easy."
After the second filming the show crew, including host Richard Rawlings, stuck around for three to four hours after the filming to sign autographs and sell merchandise.
The night the second show aired, Nolan said he had about 25 people over to watch. In both cases, he said he was pleased with the portrayal.
"I was real happy with it, especially the second time" because there was more exposure – roughly a 15 to 20-minute segment that was longer than the first feature, Nolan said. A second portion of the show featured a car purchased from a woman in Monticello.
Good advertising
In the first show, Nolan sold his Mustang for the same price he bought it, figuring the extra business generated by the exposure would make up for any lack of up-front profit. In the second case, he said he bought the rusted mini bus for $3,200 and sold it for $2,000.
"Basically I paid $1,200 for advertising on national TV that’s going to keep getting played over and over and over," he said. "I bet they spent $30,000 bucks on it, easily. It went from kind of a piece of junk to just this beautiful, beautiful bus."
The publicity has opened doors for French Lake Auto Parts to acquire many more vehicles of interest from owners who had not previously known about that aspect of the business, and Nolan said he didn’t doubt that a relationship with Fast and Loud could extend into the future.
Staying in the family
Nolan’s father Floyd started French Lake Auto Parts with a partner in 1956, and became the sole owner in 1967. Forty years later, Nolan and four brothers bought the business and ran it until he bought them out in 2010. He said there was never any question in his mind about wanting to stay with the family business.
"It’s the only thing I’ve ever done, and my goal was to someday own it by myself," he said.
Only one brother, Shawn, still works there, and Nolan’s sister, Denis Ellis, is also still involved.
"My dad is still here every day too," said Nolan. "It’s still fun. That’s why we’re still doing it."