Leachman Buick-GMC, despite taking a significant hit in vehicle availability, is working on an expansion of a growing aspect of its business: vehicle repair.

In a marriage of well-established businesses, Leachman has purchased the 3B Body Shop, also in Bowling Green, at 6045 Scottsville Road, and plans to use it as a way of growing its collision-repair business and starting a truck accessory business.

Next to the new Hindu Temple of Bowling Green, 3B Body Shop has been in business for nearly three decades and will now continue as Leachman Body Shop.

“Our business (in vehicle repair) has grown so much over the last five or six years,” Leachman General Manager David Jaggers said. “Our body shop on Searcy Way was never structured to handle the customer base we have now.”

A growing demand for vehicle repair, some of it growing out of the shortage of new cars and some from the damage done by the December tornadoes that hit Bowling Green, has created a backlog Jaggers hopes to address by purchasing 3B.

“We had gotten to about a four-month backlog,” Jaggers said. “People can’t wait three or four months to get their vehicles repaired. We had to make a move of some sort.”

That move involved snapping up what Jaggers calls “the best independent body shop in town.”

“We were able to negotiate a buyout in which we kept all their employees and management,” Jaggers said. “They’re very well-run. This will take us from 5,000 square feet (on Searcy Way) to about 20,000 square feet. Now we’ll be able to handle the demand.”

Leachman bought the business and the real estate, and now Jaggers said the car dealership will…