Local entrepreneur entrusts students with historic vintage vehicle
Early this September, Auto Body Technician students received a rare opportunity to earn their credentials while restoring a piece of royal and Canadian history.
In 1951, Princess Elizabeth – future Queen Elizabeth II – made her inaugural visit to Canada. It was five weeks long, taking her and her husband Prince Phillip to every province. A big part of their travel was by car, and the federal government purchased an astounding 60 vehicles that were stationed across the country to support the visit. This included multiple 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan convertibles.
Seventy-three years later, one of those Cosmopolitans came into the possession of Ron Lyons, Edmonton-based owner of the Legends Golf Course and a car collector (the passions converge, incidentally, in his golf car museum, which includes 85 examples dating from 1949 to 1969).
But time has taken its toll. Before Lyons acquired it from a friend, the Cosmopolitan had sat in a garage for 17 years. That is, it was in perfect condition to help NAIT students hone their skills.
Over the years, Lyons has brought some of his golf cars to NAIT so students can learn how to do bodywork on fibreglass vehicles. He felt that restoring the Cosmopolitan would prove equally attractive, if not more so for first-, second- and third-year apprentices.
“The young people in the auto body program find a great degree of excitement when they work on a project with a cool factor,” says Lyons.
While the program doesn’t accept just any vehicle from the public for repairs, instructor Ryan Pomedli (Auto Body Technician ’99) embraced the collector’s offer. “It’s not very often that people get to work on a car Princess Elizabeth rode in,” he says.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
The Cosmopolitan was a luxury vehicle, recognized at the time as being among the finest in its class. In fact, in 1950, U.S. president Harry S. Truman chose it to be the presidential state car – the White House leased ten of them that year. Likely, that set the precedent for transporting the future Queen of the Commonwealth, including Canada.
To return Lyon’s specimen to its former glory, students began by completely stripping back the body, removing and disassembling and all trim, bumpers and lights. They’ve chemically stripped paints and undercoats. And they’ve removed all dents and rust (not to mention surprises like an ancient newspaper under the carpet and a classic Coke bottle behind a seat).
After extensive priming, painting and polishing, the car will be returned to Lyons like new.
Students won’t likely see a lot of vehicles such as the Cosmopolitan on the job in the average shop, points out instructor and program chair, Cecile Bukmeier (Auto Body Technician ’15).
Nevertheless, she says, “it’s all relevant to the trade. What they’re doing at this stage, working with metal and underneath all the paint, no matter what car it is, it’s still metal. They’re still learning the fundamental skills.”
But there’s no telling where the experience may lead them. “It could spark an interest where they now want to do older cars,” says Bukmeier. “Or maybe they have an older car sitting in their grandpa’s field somewhere and they’re like, ‘OK, I’ve seen what goes into this, let’s do it.’”
First-year student Hannah Dachuk expects to eventually find work in a conventional shop. But the chance to work on the Cosmopolitan may prove unique preparation for future challenges.
“I thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she says. “[The car] dates back to the year my grandmother was born, and I really connected with that.
“So, to get the chance to do this was pretty amazing.”
A piece of NAIT history
There is no rush for the students to complete the work on the Cosmopolitan. Lyons was keen just to provide a project that “gives them motivation.” Pomedli appreciates that.
“He’s a very big supporter [of the program],” says the instructor. “He understands that students are working on it and if things take longer than anticipated, then they take longer than anticipated.”
And even once the restoration is complete, the car won’t simply drive away from the Auto Body Technician program, never to return. Just as the Cosmopolitan has place in Canadian history, it now has one in NAIT history.
Lyons plans to keep the car and show it off as part of his golf car museum. But he’ll return with it to campus for a special event in June. “I will definitely bring it to the annual car show,” he promises.
The day Princess Elizabeth likely drove by (future) NAIT
Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, spent only 10 hours in Edmonton during their 1951 tour of Canada. It is likely, however, that their route took them past the site where NAIT would officially open in 1963.
The royals arrived via train in downtown Edmonton, at a depot where MacEwan University and Rogers Place now stand. They were then driven north on 101 St. as part of a 32-kilometre tour, reported the Edmonton Journal, past thousands of people lined up to greet them.
In 1939, Kingsway Avenue was named to honour King George VI’s visit to Edmonton. Similarly, then-mayor Sidney Parsons announced the renaming of a road intersecting with the avenue to Princess Elizabeth Avenue in 1951 – a stretch the city had paved in anticipation of her visit. Today, that road skirts the southern edge of Main Campus.