Head's up: Towering statue at Greensburg auto repair shop gets full face-lift

Jul. 26—It was literally a tall order, but a local artist, a forklift company and staff of an auto repair shop combined efforts to make sure an iconic lumberjack stands head and shoulders once again above motorists driving along Route 119 in Greensburg.

Standing more than 20 feet tall, the fiberglass statue guarding Lug Nutz auto shop had been headless for about a decade, after it was decapitated by stormy winds.

"People are glad to see it's finally getting done," shop owner Brian Baughman as final preparations were underway for restoring the hulking figure's head.

Toyota Material Handling PennWest, based in East Huntingdon, loaned a scissor-type lift so the Lug Nutz crew could ascend with the head and secure it back in place on Wednesday.

When the effort to restore the statue garnered publicity several months ago, Baughman said, PennWest "reached out to us and offered to help any way they could."

Mural artist Raphael Pantalone of Crabtree garnered plenty of attention early this week from passersby as he worked outside the garage, putting finishing touches on the head's flesh-tone face and its brown beard and eyebrows.

"People stopped to ask me about it," he said.

Pantalone also stepped in Wednesday to help Baughman fasten the fiberglass head in place with a series of screws. The two men worked together, from the lift and the roof of the shop, maneuvering the head into place.

Baughman "had the technical expertise and was guiding me," Pantalone said.

"I've always painted murals in the summer," said the retired Greensburg Salem School District art teacher.

The lumberjack head "has been one of the more interesting projects to work on," Pantalone said. "It doesn't weigh a lot, maybe 25 to 30 pounds, but it's awkward to handle."

Pantalone's works have ranged from a mural accompanying the Thunderbolt roller coaster at Kennywood to a portrait of Pope Francis blessing a young child — presented when his brother, Nat, met the pontiff.

The statue's head suffered some damage when it was blown to the ground, so Baughman patched it with materials, including resin.

Over the decades, the statue had taken on various personas, including a Pittsburgh Steelers football player. Baughman and his wife, Lori, repainted the body with blue pants and a red shirt, to evoke its original appearance as a lumberjack.

Their children pitched in to help with an initial paint job on the refurbished head.

Then, to give the noggin a professional look, Baughman turned to one of his regular customers, Pantalone.

"I'm a loyal customer," said Pantalone. He turns to Lug Nutz to help maintain one of his movable art projects: a 2004 Chevy Tracker that has seen various paint schemes. The car currently sports a black-and-white cow motif covered with Sharpie signatures from friends and former students.

With his long experience painting outdoor murals, including several in nearby Jeannette, Pantalone knew the best materials to use for the Lug Nutz job.

He gave the lumberjack a makeover with acrylic paints that have a high pigment content, less susceptible to fading with exposure to the elements.

"It's like house paint but more flexible," said Pantalone.

He finished by applying a clear coat meant to protect the paint job from the sun's damaging ultraviolet rays.

While the lift remained available, Pantalone planned to touch up the paint on the statue's body, including matching the arms with the flesh tone he'd used on the face.

In the past, the statue held a tire in its outstretched hands. The Baughmans have yet to decide what object to substitute, noting it shouldn't be a heavy burden for the aging statue. A U.S. flag is one of the options they're considering.

The Lug Nutz lumberjack is one of the remaining survivors from among hundreds of similar statues in the early 1960s that were variously styled as giant calling cards for businesses across the country.

Many of them held giant mufflers, but the original version was created to promote a restaurant, the Paul Bunyan Cafe in Flagstaff, Ariz., according to Ken Smith, a senior editor with Roadside America. Other examples still can be found regionally in Kittanning and Uniontown.

After he completes work on the Greensburg lumberjack, Pantalone will be primed for his next potential project: sprucing up a statue that holds an oversized wrench at the Big Mechanic auto repair shop in Dade City, Fla.

That's the community where he and his wife now spend part of the year.

"Ironically, it's just 2 miles away from where we are," he said.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .