Our History
In 1947, Southern California had many undeveloped inland regions where severe winds created sandstorms that could wreak havoc on an automobile’s paint, windshields and chrome. The frequent windstorms would quite literally sandblast cars, causing owners and insurers to pay for expensive repairs. Paint and collision centers would do the repainting, but chrome parts were often replaced with expensive new parts. That is, until Virgil Benton, a savvy young entrepreneur and automotive enthusiast in Ontario, California, sensed an opportunity and acted upon it.
As the owner-operator of a small but thriving chrome-plating shop, Benton soon convinced insurers and collision centers to let him replate the damaged chrome parts at significantly less cost than replacing them. Collision centers, insurers and drivers alike were suitably impressed with Benton’s solution, and Keystone Automotive Industries was born. Benton’s original products were replated chrome bumpers and other chrome auto parts. Due to the cost savings, the concept rapidly gained acceptance and in a short time, expanded into straightening and repairing, along with replating collision damaged bumpers. During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the quality of Keystone’s work became more widely known and, with encouragement from a growing number of auto insurance companies and collision centers, the company expanded with new plants in the Midwest and Northeastern states. Emerging from out of the sandstorms of inland Southern California, a new era in the automobile collision repair industry had begun.
Beginning in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, the use of painted plastic bumpers began to gain wide acceptance by the new car manufacturers. Keystone quickly responded to this market change by developing recycling techniques to restore collision-damaged plastic bumpers to "like new" condition. Today, Keystone operates more than 50 dedicated plastic bumper recycling centers across the country and is the leading plastic bumper recycler in the industry.
The 1980s saw new replacement body parts such as fenders, hoods and grilles become more widely available from many independent parts manufacturers, providing a generic equivalent to the collision repair industry. These “aftermarket” parts created a competitive environment in which consumers, insurers and collision centers could all benefit. Keystone’s long-established distribution system to the industry was a perfect compliment to its manufacturer and production expertise and Keystone quickly became the nation's leading supplier of independently produced collision repair parts.
More recently, Keystone’s product line has expanded through our extensive aluminum wheel-remanufacturing program. Begun in 1996 with a single location in Denver, Colorado, Keystone is now the nation's leading wheel re-manufacturer with no less than twelve strategically-located facilities offering a top quality, environmentally-friendly alternative to new replacement wheels.
Keystone was determined to deliver quality assurance to our customers and wanted to ensure that our products were of the highest quality day in and day out. Not only did we actively engage with industry associations that independently reviewed and tested products, we also created the Platinum Plus line of products that carry the industry’s best warranty available today.
In 2007, Keystone merged with LKQ Corporation (NASDAQ: LKQX), the leading provider of recycled original equipment automotive parts. Together, with distribution facilities throughout the United States and Canada, Keystone and LKQ are the elading supplier of alternate parts to the collision repair industry.