Students Restore Truck for Ohio Police Department

Feb. 2, 2023 – Students at the Auburn Career Center in Concord, Ohio, recently revamped a maintenance truck from the Painesville, Ohio, police department to be used now as a utility vehicle, the News-Herald reports.

Painesville Administrative Lieutenant Toby Burgett said though the department needed the upgrade, they didn’t have the budget to find a replacement for it.

The program previously restored a student resource SUV for the police department back in 2018, and students with the Automotive Collision Repair program received a request from city officials to help restore the 2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD pickup. 

“Painesville (Admin. Lt. Burgett) initially contacted us to see if we could pull off a facelift and it was a massive undertaking, with two classes working on it,” instructor Justin Bruno said. “The bed, the doors and the front end came off, but the frame was in good shape.”

The restoration, which took more than a year, included repairs such as “extensive metal fabrication, welded panels, sanding, stitching, graphics, lights and interior detailing,” as well as “a modified bumper, with a wired-in winch, and a bigger battery.”

With repairs costing about $5,200, students were able to add improvements to the $50,000 vehicle that Burgett said would be found in a new vehicle for $80,000.