Martin Wallace, owner of Herc's Werks at 2005B Park Central Ave., replaced a taillight on a car Friday. Wallace opened the shop in April and has done body work on cars for the past 30 years. (Photo by Jonathan Kleppinger / September 22, 2011) |
After a decade of work in insurance, Martin Wallace returned to body work on cars, opening up his own shop in Nicholasville.
Herc’s Werks opened April 1 at 2005B Park Central Ave., off U.S. 27.
The name of the shop comes from a nickname Wallace earned as a young man.
“When I was a teenager, everybody called me ‘Herc.’ I don’t think I was really stronger than anybody else; I think I was just more foolish than everybody else,” Wallace said. “They’d say, ‘I bet you can’t move this.’ It was kind of a nickname like a big guy you call ‘Tiny.’”
Wallace spent 20 years doing body work before he left for work writing estimates for an insurance company. When the company left Kentucky this year, leaving Wallace without a job, he grabbed the opportunity.
“I told (his wife, Debbie), I said, ‘I’m still young enough to open up a shop again and old enough to know how to do it. Now’s the time — if I’m going to do it, I need to do it now,’ so I opened up the shop in April,” he said.
Wallace specializes in painting and body work but can also do some minor mechanical repairs. He said his love of the work began early in life.
“When I was a kid, if something had to be done to my car, I had to do it; I just had a knack for doing it,” he said. “... It’s just easy for me to do, and I really enjoy doing it, to take something that’s busted and tore up, and you fix it and paint it — there’s a feeling of accomplishment.”
The pleasure Wallace takes in his work is what sets Herc’s Werks apart from other body shops, he said.
“I enjoy doing the work I do,” he said. “Any time someone enjoys doing their work, they’re going to go do a good job.”
Wallace said he typically keeps hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, call 859-351-7725.
