Since Lyons Auto Body has been in Mississauga, Ontario, every thing about the city has grown and changed, including Lyons. And neither the city nor the collision repair facility show any signs of slowing.

“My passion all my life has been, I guess, wheels—cars, bicycles, whatever,” Jack Lyons confessed.

By the time he was 14 years old, he already had a job in the industry, and before he finished high school he’d become Ontario’s youngest licensed bodyman. He knows this because when he went to write the licensing exam they wouldn’t let him—it was impossible, they told him, to have completed the required hours at that age. This despite the fact that he had the documents to prove that he had.

“I worked at Port Credit Motor Sales all through high school,” he said. “On Easter holidays and summer holidays etc.” Any chance he got, he worked.

Aft er a local politician intervened, they let him write his exam and start work as a journeyman in auto body repair. It wasn’t long aft er that he went into business for himself.

“I opened Lyons Auto body in 1952, and sort of never looked back,” he said.

Of course, in their nearly 60 years of business, things have changed a lot. They’ve put on four additions to the building and upgraded all the equipment as technology advanced.

Most recently, they’ve installed new spraybooths from Garmat, which allowed them to make the switch to waterborne.

“I was very, very pleased with the paint [booths]—they’re doing a wonderful job,” Lyons said. “...They might be saving us a little bit of time, and the quality is unbelievable, but the main thing is what it’s doing for the environment.”

Over the years, Lyons has gone through five or six spraybooths, starting with a cross-dra_ booth in 1952. “_ en later on we went to Nova Verta, which is an Italian booth,” Jack said. “It was a good booth.”

Most recently they did their work in a massive truck booth, which was divided into compartments so they could work on more than one vehicle at a time.

Jack has generally been happy with his selections, but like any thing they start to wear out over time and new technology eventually renders them obsolete.

For their newest installation, Jack had AutoQuip remove the old truck booth and install two new ones in its place. It’s been a good move for the business.

“That truck booth was probably 25–30 years old,” Jack said. “So the comparison was like you having a 30-year-old car, with wind up windows and no air conditioning and a heater that works some times and some times it doesn’t, and won’t start when it’s cold. And then you go out and buy a brand new car,” he continued.

“Th ere’s no question that the painters are much happier, because they’ve got something that’s new and something that’s wonderful.”

In the time they’ve been in business, everything has changed. Once on the side of a seldom-travelled concession road, Lyons has watched businesses come and go and one of Canada’s largest cities sprout up around them. If history tells us anything, Lyons will keep changing. Th ere remains one constant though: Jack’s philosophy.

“When I was going to high school I would tell the guidance councillor that I’m going to open a body shop.’ And he’d look at me like I was insane,” Jack said. “He’d say ‘no no. You’re not going to open a body shop. I could give you 100 different options.’ “But it was my passion all my life, and I’m a great believer that if you’re doing what you like to do, you will be a success.”

If it holds true, Lyons will be a success for a long time to come.