East Area Schools Shop 3

When Jesus Verdejo, Jr. was an Army Major, he would take his Volkswagen New Beetle race car to the Ft. Belvoir (VA) Auto Craft Shop for repairs and installation of aftermarket performance parts. His son, now an Army Reservist, Sargent Jesus Verdejo iii, and his daughter, Angelie, would help him, installing auto parts and replacing stock parts for performance parts. Work done on the custom performance parts included breaking down the gear transmission to install a limited slip differential (L S D), (posi-traction), an extremely messy, week long job. Some of that custom work was done at the Ft Belvoir Auto Craft Shop and some of that grimy repair work took place in his home garage. Jesus thought it had to be easier. Military facility do-it-yourself auto shops were common throughout the world, but not so for civilians outside the gates. So, he began to plan an indoor do-it-yourself auto repair shop, just like the ones on military posts, where anybody could fix their cars at significant cost reductions! It all came together when following his Army retirement, 1SG (Ret) Oscar Verdejo, a mechanic by trade and a fan of tinkering on his1964 vintage Volkswagen Beetle race car, came to Jesus Jr. with a business opportunity—purchase an auto repair shop in Kissimmee. With the founders’ proud background in the United States Army, they adopted the official black and gold Army colors and a name derived from a military program, Do-it-Yourself Moves or DitY Moves, where service members moved themselves at less than Government cost. The do-it-yourself auto repair concept that had been brewing in Jesus’ mind became reality when Do-it-Yourself Auto Repair, LLC was formed as a limited liability company on January 8, 2009 and opened on March 1, 2009 in Kissimmee, Florida.