I've run the website for JK Automotive in Dayton for free since my friend started the shop. This year we changed direction: away from general repair and all in on high-performance builds and tuning. We also just got a working dyno. The old site was still advertising oil changes, and it had a few leftover issues from a partial update after our move, so it was time for a rebuild.
A few things needed updating:
- One: the services. We wanted to move toward being a performance shop rather than a general repair shop, and the site needed to say that.
- Two: the branding. Much of what I originally designed for us wasn't very sharp. I wasn't being paid for it and had other responsibilities at the time, so it got as much effort as I could spare.
- Three: a look that matches our growth. We started as a small, unknown shop that couldn't keep work booked. Now we're having trouble making space for people on the schedule.
What was wrong with the old site
- Search engines saw a blank page. Everything rendered client-side, so crawlers and link previews got an empty
<div id="root">. - Two different addresses were published in different places after the move, which is bad for local search.
- The reviews widget relied on a Google API that's now closed to new projects.
What I built (with Claude)
Five pages (home, services, videos, about, and contact) built with SolidJS, Vite and Tailwind, and prerendered to static HTML at build time. Every page is real, indexable HTML that still hydrates into an app.
- All the copy and business info lives in a couple of content files, so updates don't mean touching components.
- The structured data (
schema.org/AutoRepair) that Google reads is generated from those same files, so the address can't drift again. - The videos page shows YouTube thumbnails until you click play, which keeps pages light.
I call out Claude here because this was my first project using it as my AI assistant, and it nailed it. Honestly, I had very few notes and only needed small revisions. It captured the tone and design of the shop on the first try. That's kind of scary, and it's one of the first times I've felt like I need to get on the AI bandwagon before I get left behind. I have friends saying they're writing less than 5% of their own code right now, and with tools like this I can see why.
Check it out
If you want to see how it turned out, the new site is live at jkautodayton.com. And if you're around Dayton and your car could use more power, you know where to find us.