ELLSWORTH -- Joe Sebbio has taken his love of cars, combined it with his strong background in

ELLSWORTH -- Joe Sebbio has taken his love of cars, combined it with his strong background in electricity, and found a niche in the automotive-repair business.
His Mobile Automotive Repair Service, which he also calls MARS, specializes in the repair and maintenance of ambulances, firetrucks, police cars and wheelchair transport vehicles.
Sebbio has been fascinated with cars for as long as he can remember.
"When I was 7 years old, I built model cars, and by the time I was 15, I had my first real car. Things just escalated from there," he said.
A self-taught mechanic, he began working in area dealerships.
"It's pretty much standard operating procedure for mechanics to bounce from dealership to dealership. I always took advantage of the classes offered through the dealerships," Sebbio said.
He learned about electricity from his father.
"I just had a knack for it, so when a car would come into the dealership needing electrical work, the manager would always send the work my way," he said.
Ambulance work
In 1979, a local ambulance company hired Sebbio to do the electrical work on its ambulances. He did that part-time while continuing to work at a car dealership.
Eventually, the ambulance company hired him full time. A little while later, he decided to strike out on his own and started J & amp;S Automotive on Youngstown's South Side.
"Unfortunately, I had a steady stream of ambulance companies that did not pay their bills. By 1981 I went out of business, and as far as I know, most of them did, too," he said.
He went back to the dealership, but by 1985 he was ready to give entrepreneurship another try. He bought a used ambulance and transferred it into a mobile repair service.
"I did it as a gimmick. I would drive to the vehicle and repair it on-site," he said.
Sebbio stayed with the dealership and ran the mobile service part-time until 1987, when he devoted himself full-time to his business. He worked out of the ambulance until 1991, when he moved into a shop in Canfield.
Police cars
In 1993, the Canfield Police Department asked him to submit a bid to equip a cruiser with emergency items such as lights, radio, sirens and camera equipment.
"That's when I started to specialize in emergency vehicles. I would love to have more police-cruiser work, but I know my prices are a little high for some of these little police departments on a tight budget.
"I have to charge more because I am extremely particular. I like to show people my 'board of shame.' The board shows samples of wiring that I have taken out of police cruisers and ambulances that do not meet my standards," Sebbio said.
He has other boards that demonstrate how he wires the equipment into the vehicles on display in his current 5,000-square-foot shop, which he moved into in 1998.