BURTON It means cars that have been in hibernation for the winter are ready to enjoy
the summer sun.
Karen Gatlin has been following a 1931 Buick that was supposed to be part of the
caravan out of town, but will have to wait just a little longer.
On a bitter cold February day, this 1931 Buick was in a somewhat heated Tuscola
County garage, ready for new upholstery.
"This is the first seat I got done, and I thought if they all turn out like
this, we're good to go," said upholsterer Carol Shellhas.
Fast forward to June and the '31 is back in the owner's garage in Burton with
upholstery complete, but body work yet to finish.
"Takes a long time because you got your sand-blasting, you got your welding,
then you got your dinging and then plastic work," said the Buick's owner Chuck
SeKrenes.
The idea was for this 1931 Buick to make its debut in the Michigan Mitten Promo
tour. Instead it will make its first appearance at Back to the Bricks in August.
There's been a lot of progress since we watched Shellhas unroll a bolt of fabric
in November 2010 in a former chicken coop she converted to an upholstery shop.
By February, she was ready to install the seats and door panels she expertly
recovered.
"We're going to use this as a fun car, a play car to drive around in. The
grandkids are all waiting to get a ride in it," SeKrenes said.
Max is one of those grandkids and when the Buick returned to Burton, he was
ready to help grandpa prepare the fenders for paint.
"There was very little rust for the year it was 'cause we're talking 80 years
old. I thought they were in pretty decent shape and that's one reason I decided
to restore the car back to original," SeKrenes said.
Another reason is the original wooden wheels. "They didn't look this good. Were
a little rough. Did a lot of hand sanding on this," SeKrenes said.
Another nice touch is the reproduction hubcaps with a B for Buick, a Buick built
in Flint on a Fisher body.
Chuck tried his hand for the first time at wood graining on the garnish moldings
around the windows, and with further research determined this is an Opera Coupe,
not a Doctor's Coupe.
"The seat will fold forward and go into the floor, allows her to get in with
ease," SeKrenes said.
There are fenders to finish, some wires to attach and a little bit of brake work
to be done.
"It's a matter of adjusting brakes and linkage and all of that," SeKrenes said.
While Max is waiting for Grandpa to finish the Buick, he's deciding what color
to paint the go-kart. That will be the next project for the Sekrenes clan.
Since the '31 won't be ready by Friday when the Michigan Mitten Tour begins,
Chuck will take his 1932 Ford instead. It's one of 25 cars that traveled the
Lincoln Highway last summer for the first tour to promote Back to the Bricks.
This year, more than 100 cars are registered to make the trip around the lower
peninsula.
