The Body Shop Boys, Kam Motors Ltd., 1952

The Body Shop boys photo was taken at Kam Motors Limited circa 1952. My dad John, on the far left of the left photo was a working manager for Hubert Badanai, who was soon to become the mayor of the city of Fort William. Dad respected each and every guy that worked for him and got equal respect back. The work was hard in those days and as a body man you would have to deal with working with lead filler, a rare talent now, and a lot of oxygen/acetylene welding too. There were no tig or mig welders, there was no epoxy primer, acrylic paints, HVLP spray guns, and you had to manually mix your paints without computers. There was only enamel or laquer paints, red lead primer, gas welding, arc welding, and a lot of body hammering. You had to actually repair a panel from the worst kind of crash, not just replace it. Cars were repaired and painted using only dust masks. My dad says they were some of the best years of his life and the boys took pride in everything they accomplished. By 1955, as a manager, he drove a new company car each year, and if you took extra special care of it and returned it dent free and all polished up, you would be one of the first guys to get a new car the next year.
The left photo is as follows: John Cano far left, above and to the right of him is Mike Tront, top center is unknown, back center with goggles is Dan Ozero, and to to right of him is Peter Petrick, front center is Joe Canzi, and to the right of Joe my dad could not remember.
The right photo is John Cano left and Joe Canzi giving him the evil eye. The car appears to be about a '51 Chevrolet they are working on, and in the whole crew shot, they are all sitting on a wreck. The pictures aren't perfect but they show a time when teamwork really meant something. Click on pics to enlarge.