Auto Body Technician students complete restoration of car that carried Princess Elizabeth II

“When they told us about this car, I was excited to work on it”

For all the work that went into it, one might think that the restoration of a 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan by NAIT Auto Body Technician students was by royal decree.

But owner Ron Lyons, who handed over management and timelines of the project to instructors, was simply happy to see the impact that restoration had. For students, he sees it as a learning experience that will serve them throughout their careers. And, for Canada, it puts a shine on an aspect of history that has dimmed with the passage of time.

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In 1951, Princess Elizabeth – future Queen Elizabeth II – made her inaugural visit to Canada. It was five weeks long and took her and husband Prince Phillip to every province. Much of their travel was by car, and the federal government purchased 60 vehicles and stationed them across the country to support the visit.

This included multiple 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan convertibles, just like the one that rolled into NAIT auto body shops last September.

“I got it off a friend in Calgary right who had it in his garage for 17 years,” says Lyons, who also owns the Legends Golf and Country Club, just east of Edmonton. The facility hosts his collection of vintage golf cars, several of which NAIT students restored. They’ll soon be joined by the Cosmopolitan.

The car wasn’t in terrible shape when he got it, says Lyons – some bubbling in the paint, the odd dent, chrome going dull, and so on. But he felt that the experience of returning it to factory condition may “inspire some kids to get in the biz and stay in the biz” at a time when many veteran skilled technicians are retiring.

Among the students Lyons has in mind is second-year apprentice Andrew Balaneski, a recent competitor in auto body repair at Skills Canada, held this spring in Regina. The Cosmopolitan pleasantly surprised him.

“When I [enrolled], I was assuming we would just work on a scrapped car that was written off, and we’d prime it and that's all,” says Balaneski. “But when they told us about this car and how cool it was and the memories, I was excited to work on it.”

He admits that he was also a little nervous. Balaneski knew that the black finish would reveal every mistake. The initial sanding – the foundation for the efforts of the several cohorts of students that would later work on the antique vehicle – was a painstaking exercise for the aspiring technician.

“It was definitely a lot of pressure because they said they wanted it perfect,” Balaneski says of his instructors.

Other than to pay for materials needed for the work, Lyons made a point of not monitoring progress. Instead, he intends to be as surprised as the other attendees at the program’s upcoming Show and Shine, an annual display of classic cars and hot rods, where the finished Cosmopolitan will be revealled to the public.

“That's part of the fun of it,” says Lyons.

He intends to bring the car back to the show every year. “It’s a piece of Canadian history,” Lyons adds.

Balaneski doesn’t expect to work on such a car ever again. One reason is its rarity. The other is that he likes his job at the Kenworth Body Shop, a specialist in heavy duty trucks in east Edmonton, and already sees himself staying on until retirement. Every day brings a new learning experience.

“No truck gets hit the same, right?” says Balaneski. “It's always going to be different.”

Even if he never sees the likes of another Cosmopolitan, Balaneski knows the skills it gave him – attention to detail, steadiness of hand, unwavering patience – will remain central to his work. So, too, will the sense of pride he took in his role in the project, and in his trade.

And he knows his efforts will always be reflected in the Lincoln’s gleaming, jet-black finish.

“If I see it in a museum in the near future, I'll say, ‘I worked on that,’” Balaneski says. “And that's pretty cool.”