UNDER RESTORATION
1954 Chevrolet Pickup
This cosmetic makeover snowballed into a nice restoration
BY DAVID TRAVER ADOLPHUS
PHOTOGRAPH Y BY BOB SEKELSKY
“What should I do about the
truck?” Jerry asked Bob.
“I told him he should get a
brush,” replied Bob.
Jerry Levine had been around since
Bob Sekelsky was a kid, and always had
a bunch of cars—too many, Bob thought.
“He had too many projects, he was spread
out,” said Bob. “He’d come up to me and
ask what to do, and I’d tell him to sell
some of his cars and spend his money on
the ones he really liked.”
Among those projects is a 1938 Buick.
“He has visions of grandeur with that
car,” said Bob. “I told him he wasn’t going
to get the result he wanted without spending years of time and lots of money. But
the pickup…I told him we can disguise
some of that, it’s not a basket case, it has a
good engine, it won’t have to be a ground-up restoration.” With a good, recent base
of paint on it, Bob thought he could sand
it down, fix any structural rust and with
a new coat of good urethane, it’d be very
presentable.
When he looked closely at it, Bob
found the front end to require more than
some sanding and filler. “I didn’t originally intend to take the nose apart, but I
couldn’t live with it,” he said. He dismantled the doors, fenders and engine bay
sheetmetal. In addition to a lot of surface
rust, he found the cowl where the fenders attach was badly rotted, and he fabricated new pieces to fit. In keeping with
the presentable-but-affordable theme,
interior sheetmetal, such as in the doors
and fender panels, was sanded or scuffed
down, and sprayed with POR 15 satin finish paint. For all the visible black paint,
he used PPG Concept One single-stage
urethane, in the same color as the factory
Juniper Green exterior.
By the time the truck got to Bob, the
original wood bed was badly decayed,
and covered with steel. Rather than the
expense of new wood, Bob stuck with the
metal bed, and refinished it in flat black.
“It was a fine solution, close to what the
trucks were originally,” he said. “You
often see them finished in clearcoat, but
the wood beds were originally black.”
Jerry planned to drive the truck to the
Rhinebeck, New York, swap meet in
May 2009, so Bob also updated the truck
with turn signals. “That needed about 40
feet of wiring and new double-filament
bulbs,” said Bob.
“I call it refurbished, but it’s really
more than that, it’s kind of in the restoration category,” said Bob. Either way,
his work shows the care and attention to
detail that makes for a beautiful truck.
72 HEMMINGS MOTOR NEWS • JULY 2009
