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M & RAUTOBODY dreamed of being in the movie business, yet “for ten years, (he and son, Daren) have rolled out 10 to 12 (vintage) cars per week.” Sometimes these cars needed to look per- fect while driven in period television series; other times, they were nothing but hollowed out shells of muscle cars to be blown up, set on fire or dropped over cliffs in feature films. “They were heady days, when the car might arrive late and a film crew was waiting on set at a cost of $10,000,” Martin regales. “But we never kept them waiting!” Movie cars have been a large boon to M&R’s business, but Martin wisely kept it to no more than 30% of the work they did. “It was great while it lasted — nine months of the year with a lull during the coldest months when they weren't shooting.” Now, he says, they’re lucky to push out 10 to 12 cars each year. A downturn in the movie industry in the U.S. as well as the SARS outbreak, slashed Ontario Tax Credits and a higher than 87¢ Canadian dollar are to blame for the slide in business. Born in Ormswirk, a small town 15 miles from Liverpool, England, Martin began working at 14 years of age and paid his way through engineering studies by fixing cars. It was the classic story of making too much 10 Focus - may 2007 sands € than 30 yea artin Jones, owner of M&R Autobody in Manchester never money at his part-time job to give it up. He married ris wife Jill straight out of school and emigrated 18 months later to Canada where "ills sister, Joan had already put down roots eight years earlier. took three weeks to find an apartment in Oshawa and three days to get a job,” he says. Although he believes it’s just as easy to find employment nowadays (given a strong work ethic), Martin does point out that their trade is dying out due to the tight control that insurance companies have on costs. “] always had an apprentice until 15 years ago. Nowit’s almost impossible to find young people interested in this line of work. And those government programs barely cover the cost of filling out paperwork, let alone buying the tools!” Martin sites this as one of the reasons that he never expanded, although he had many opportunities to do so. His “word of mouth” advertising methods and “no-wait- list, first come” policy has kept business running at a steady clip all these years. “Not much has changed in Manchester since we located here 30 years ago,” says Martin, who celebrated on February 1st by putting his feet up a little more often. “Oh sure, they replaced the deep ditch with a median and the coffee shop at the cor- ner is new, but that first winter we watched the original Haugen’s restaurant building Martin Jones (right) and his son Darren of M & R Autobody | at Manchester. come down and the new Haugen’s (present building) being built.” With Daren taking on the day-to-day oper- ation and Martin now enjoying the backseat, the time has come to modernize. He plans to use his semi-retirement as “construction foreman and janitor.” w computers track colours and the building will be upgraded in Preparation for a state-ofthe-art spray booth. Both m« cars and customers’ vehicles will benefit A pit must be dug under the site of the new booth and the Jones’ are planning to work around modifications to the building (12 to 18 months). The manufacturer in Barrie will then de- liver the booth for one week of installation and one week of hook-up. “That's a 1.5 million BTU gas heating sys- tem to watch paint dry! Most home furnaces are about 150,000 BTUs.” Martin went with a Canadian manufacturer for delivery, sup- port and parts. “I could have bought from China for $10,000 less, but then what?” “Ok, so I ended up here and I don’t know quite how,” he jokes. “I guess I needed to steer my own ship, but there comes a time when family business means more than just words.” So with Daren and four-month old grand- son, Austin in Martin’s future, both family and business are looking bright. By Barbara Hunt focus@observerpub.ca