Photo by Michelle Butzgy/Paraglide Sergeant Dennis Grooms, 18th Fires Brigade, stands by one of his works of art, his Ford Mustang.

A sergeant with the 18th Fires Brigade has been using his mechanical and artistic talent to help fellow Soldiers get their vehicles repainted, repaired or restored for a fair price.

Sergeant Dennis Grooms, an 18th Fires Brigade repairs and utility sergeant, has been working with cars and motorcycles since he was 11.

“My dad had a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang with a 429 (engine). I saw pictures and heard stories and from that day forward, I wanted to work on cars,” he said.

Grooms also has a talent for art. His mother and grandmother sent one of his drawings of Tippy the Turtle to the Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis.

“I came home from school one day and the CEO and another guy were in my living room. They thought I cheated,” said Grooms, a 34-year-old native of Sumter, S.C. “I had to retake the test and draw the little pictures in front of them. When I did that, they said, ‘You’re good. We’re going to give you a scholarship.’”

When Grooms entered the Army in 2006, he saw a lot of fellow Soldiers get taken advantage of at car and body repair shops.

“I’d tell them ‘I know how to do this, if you want to come over to the house, I’ll help you do that, look out for you, see what’s wrong and fix it’,” he said. Before Grooms knew it, other people were calling him to fix their vehicles.

Grooms does painting, custom fiberglass work, stereo installation, window tinting and some major but mostly minor mechanic work. “I don’t volunteer myself a lot unless I know they’re going to be taken advantage of,” he said.

Why does he do it? “(Some shops) just rob people. I like my money. It’s too hard to come by,” Grooms said.

Most of the work is done at his two-car garage, equipped with power tools, air compressors, welders, sanders and tools one would find at any professional garage. “Sometimes I’ll go to their house if it’s easier for them.”

One of Grooms’ favorite projects was restoring a Harley Electra-Glide for a Soldier he met at a unit prevention leader class.

“He said he wanted his motorcycle painted but didn’t want to pay the money that some of the shops around Fayetteville wanted,” said Grooms. “For the price I quoted him, he was expecting an okay-paint job. When he looked at it at my house, just the look on his face, saying ‘Wow, did you do that and you’re in the Army? Why are you in the Army?’”

Grooms has had similar reactions to his work. “The hardest thing is when you tell people all the stuff you can do and they look at you and say ‘there’s no way you know how to do all that stuff,’” he said. “When they come over to the house or they see my car, they say ‘Wow!’ That’s the best part for me,” Grooms added.

Thomas Dubreuil, a former Soldier with Company B, 1st Battalion, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, has seen Groom’s work and talent first-hand. “He painted my Chevy Lumina. It looked pretty good.

He’s way cheaper than any garage and just as good, too.” Dubreuil met Grooms when they were stationed in Germany.

Grooms has thought about working on motorcycles and cars full time when he leaves the Army. “I’ve always done this as a hobby. If I did this as a business, it would take the fun out of it. Then I would have to go do it instead of wanting to go do it. I’m still tossing it around,” he added.
For now, Grooms does what he loves to do when he isn’t serving his country — work on motorcycles, cars and save his fellow Soldiers some money.

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