Our story · The Eates familythree generations, one address.

Peter Eates came to this country from Italy as a child. He grew up, learned to fix cars, and opened his first auto repair shop in Brooklyn, New York.

Around 1940 he brought the business south to Portsmouth, Virginia, and opened a shop on Portsmouth Blvd. The family has worked on that same spot ever since.

Peter’s sons, Frank P. Eates Sr. and Louis J. Eates, grew up in the shop and worked side by side for many years, doing body work, mechanical repairs and restorations for Portsmouth families and local businesses.

Frank Sr. kept working with his sons until his last years, passing down what he knew one job at a time.

Peter’s grandsons, the brothers Frank and Pete Eates, run the shop today with Sandra and Deanna Eates. Frank has been at it for more than four decades and Pete for more than three.

The counter still works the way it always has. You look at the car with the people who’ll fix it, and they tell you what it needs.

Bobby Mathews gave GAC more than 37 years of dedication, knowledge and experience, and other employees have stayed for decades. Most of the crew has been here for years, not months.

The person who straightened your car last time will probably be the one looking at it next time.

GAC and the Eates family have always opened their doors to police and fire departments. When firefighters needed large vehicles to practice freeing people trapped in wrecks, crews from several cities trained in the yard for more than a week, on vehicles the shop supplied at no cost.