Auburn Career Center students transform truck for Painesville Police
Feb. 1—A Painesville street division maintenance truck has been resurrected as a newly "tricked-out" utility vehicle for the city's police department thanks to the collaborative efforts of several Auburn Career Center students.
The Automotive Collision Repair program enrollees, led by Kole Fabiny, Brendan Ward, Zach Fish and Chris Lynn, picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Painesville officials to transform the 2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD pickup into a sleek and shiny black fleet vehicle.
"Painesville (Administrative Lt. Toby 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," said ACC instructor Justin Bruno. "The bed, the doors and the front end came off, but the frame was in good shape."
A 2006 GMC Sierra 2500HD pickup has been reborn for the Painesville PD thanks to Auburn Career Center's Automotive Collision Repair program (Chad Felton ??
Restoration included extensive metal fabrication, welded panels, sanding, stitching, graphics, lights and interior detailing. A modified bumper, with a wired-in winch, and a bigger battery, was also part of the effort.
The yearlong-plus project, which benefited from specialty aid of local businesses, including Diamond Autobody, Conrad Signs and Northeastern Communications, cost about $5,200.
Auburn Superintendent Brian Bontempo added, "The police department got a heck of a deal."
Bruno concurred.
"Not bad at all for a $50,000 vehicle," he said. "Yes, it was a lot of little things, but everyone worked hard on this, and this is the second (vehicle) we've done. I'm really proud of how it turned out."
The program also worked on a Harvey High School student resource SUV for the Painesville Police Department in 2018.
"They've knocked it out of the park both times and I think the students that performed the work did an amazing job — it blew our minds and we couldn't be happier," Burgett said, noting a new vehicle with similar operational features would run about $80,000.
The "cruiser," as Burgett described it, will be used to haul barricades, cones, evidence, bicycles and anything too large to place inside one of the department's other vehicles.
"We'll also use the GMC to transport our side-by-side UTV (utility terrain vehicle) to help out in bad weather with stuck vehicles and for water main breaks," he added. "It's really a vehicle we've need in the fleet but we just hadn't had the finances to work with our street department for a truck they were trading in, and Justin and the students were nice enough to put a lot of work into this."
