An auto repair shop opened in Lake Havasu City recently to the delight of one of the shop’s owners who has a lifelong love of cars and fixing them up.

Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Photo. Bob Casaburi and auto technician Santone DeCol look under the hood of white Ford pickup truck Friday at Bob’s My Shop on Commander Drive. The new auto shop opened April 1, April Fools’ Day of this year.

Bob’s My Shop, owned by Bob and Debbie Casaburi, opened on April Fools’ Day this year, a tradition and hallmark that has proven to be an important day in Bob Casaburi’s life.

Casaburi opened his first shop, on April 1, 1981 in Glendale, Calif. In the end, the shop closed its doors 23 years later, by chance, on April 1, 2004.

Casaburi met his wife Debbie in 1981 at his Glendale auto shop. The two were hitched during an April Fools’ Day wedding ceremony nine years ago. “My car broke down, and Bob’s shop was nearby. I rolled my car downhill to the shop to be fixed. That is how I met him,” said shop co-owner Debbie Casaburi.

The couple decided to be married on April 1 for two reasons, one was Debbie’s hope Bob would remember the day each passing year, and second, Bob’s friends at the time kept saying he was a fool to marry again, she said.

After the closing on the auto shop in California, the couple moved to Lake Havasu City in 2004. “We thought we would try something different so we bought R&D 3D The Mailbox People,” Debbie Casaburi said. “Mailboxes don’t make Bob happy. He loves working on cars, so the timing was right and we opened on April Fools’ Day,” she said of the recent opening of the new shop.

Bob Casaburi and his team of two auto technicians have the capability to “do basically anything”, according to Debbie Casaburi. Services include transmissions, engine overhauls, engine maintenance, shocks, clutches, and air conditioning to name a few, she said.

The two experienced technicians are Santone DeCol, who is an ASE L-1 certified master technician with 20 years experience in the auto service industry and Kim Kuemerle, GM certified technician, who has 13-years experience under his belt.

The shop has six bays and four hoists, one of which is dedicated solely for work on street rods. “Bob is really the only one who works on the street rods…it is a nicer bay out of the mainstream,” Debbie Casaburi said.

The Casaburi’s have a passion for street rods and own a red 1941 Chevy.

The shop also has two comfortable waiting rooms complete with a soda machine and a 53” television with satellite service and free reign of the remote control.

Bob’s My Shop is located at 1950 Commander Drive #100. The shop’s hours of operation are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information contact 453-BOBS (2627), or visit www.bobsmyshop.com on the Web.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.