SIDNEY -- Pittam Body Shop opened its doors to customers, family and the community today to celebrate 80 years of business.

Shad Pittam, grandson of the founder, said the Pittam Body Shop was started in 1943.

He started up in Gurley, Neb., in a small shop up there. He learned the business as he went along. He didn't really know much about auto body work, Pittam said. 

He was working on the railroad, and before that in the gold mines of Colorado. After opening the shop in Gurley and learning the trade, he moved to Sidney where he opened a shop behind E & S Auto Supply.

"In 1954, we moved into our current facility (819 18th Ave. Sidney) and we have been here ever since," Pittam said. 

Pittam Body Shop services tires, including new tires, repairs and rotating and balance; alignments, oil change and service, auto body work, crash and dent repair, paintless dent repair, windshields, rock pit repair, struts, shocks, brakes, starters and batteries.