ARVADA | “Booger Red,” the City of Lakewood’s antique fire truck needed a make-over before going on public view as part of the permanent exhibit at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park’s 20th century museum. The wording on the side of the truck’s red doors had faded and needed to be restored according to the time period and font style of the 1930s, when it was first commissioned.
From their home garage in the suburbs, the Polzin family–father Larry and daughters Jess and Sarah– who produce and restore iconic, vintage signs from around Colorado, stepped in. Their business, Stargazer Creations, is one of the few to use hand-drawn painting methods that were most recently put to use restoring the truck’s antique fire doors.
“When we first talked with the City of Lakewood about their firetruck I envisioned a turn of the century beauty with pinstripes and gold leaf and ‘fadoozles’ all over its shiny red paint job,” said Larry Polzin.
“When we actually saw the truck, we were brought back to reality, as this wasn’t a ‘classic showboat’ but a work horse that had been driven hard and probably had some amazing tales attached to it,” he said.
Restoring the truck meant removing the doors and taking them to the garage workshop, matching the specific hue of the antique red and imitating the original font’s drop-shadow lettering.
“This font was not in our vast library, so we had to rely on the tiniest hints of its existence still left on the door and replicate it based on what remained,” said Jess Polzin of restoring the truck.
The family focuses on antique sign restoration, pictorial murals — such as the animals on the Denver Purina factories — as well as fiber art and commercial commissions. They hand paint all their pieces, and utilize other skills that are becoming more rare such as embellishments using real gold leaf.
A longtime sign maker and artist, Polzin launched the business with his two daughters in 2007 in honor of his son, John, who passed away that year.
“He was enigmatic, and had an incredible passion for life,” Jess Polzin said of her brother.
Through their work focusing on the handcrafting of signs, rather than through mass-production, the Polzins hope to bring art into the every day.
“It’s got the imperfections of the artist in it. Art doesn’t have to be perfect,” said Jess Polzin.
“I think people really like to see things that remind them of a human connection. That’s the most important thing,” she said.
As for Booger–so called because it was “a ‘booger’ to drive,” according to Betsy Bowers, who commissioned the truck’s restoration for Lakewood–it will make special appearances at Heritage Lakewood Belmar, and will next be on display at the Annual Rockin’ Block party in June.
Visitors can also request to see the truck be viewed as requested at the museum’s private tours.