The Eastwood name has been associated with the auto body trade for many years in Callaway, and now the next generation and a new business will carry on that legacy.

On Aug. 4, the Callaway Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Travis Eastwood in his new building that houses his business, The Shop.

A 1996 graduate of Callaway High School, Eastwood headed to Lincoln, where he attended some college, then lived and worked for about seven years. He said that over the years he has tried a variety of jobs, but eventually landed back at doing something he has enjoyed since he was young.

“A little over 20 years ago I started working for my uncle Gary, and he had a body shop in town here. He’s the one who kind of taught me how to do body work,” said Eastwood. “I cruised around to other places and worked at other body shops and kind of learned something new from every shop I worked at.”

He returned to Callaway full-time about 15 years ago, and for a while he rented his uncle’s old body shop. “Then he ended up selling the building a few years ago, and since then I had just been working out of my garage,” he explained.

Eastwood recently purchased a large building located at 308 South Woods Ave. in Callaway, and he said the additional space allows him to expand his business. “This building is nice and big. I am able to paint huge tractors and semis that other body shops won’t touch. I’ll paint about anything,” he laughed.

His auto body services include collision repairs, restorations, and beyond. “I also paint house doors, lawn furniture, and I do a lot of tractors,” he said. “I have a pretty huge paint booth, and that helps. One-quarter of my building is the paint booth.”

Being in a small town, Eastwood said, gives him more flexibility to take on a wider variety of jobs. “I don’t have 200 collisions a year to work on. Over the years I’ve painted a lot of different stuff, including a golf cart, fuel barrels. Right now I have a huge cattle chute. I’ll pretty much put paint on anything people want paint on,” he added.

Eastwood said he gets a lot of repeat customers and people who did business with his uncle for years. “Everyone around here knows me,” he chuckled. He has also drawn customers from Kearney and North Platte, as well as the surrounding area.

If you would like to learn more about The Shop, stop by and visit Travis in Callaway or call him at 308-8703253.