PLATTSBURGH -- This old truck was a real workhorse.

Winters, it plowed snow on the Meseck Road in Mooers Forks; in the spring it hauled gravel to fill potholes.

"Twenty-five cents an hour," laughed Rudolph Mesec. "Shoveled all by hand."

He was just a boy when his father, Henry, bought the two-ton 1937 F5 Ford pickup truck from White Ford in Ellenburg. A demonstration model, it cost $1,000.

Looking at it today, parked in the driveway by Rudolph Mesec Auto Body Shop on George Street in Plattsburgh, is like going back in time. Over five years or so, Rudy has completely reconditioned the vehicle, even slapped on the original license plates: NY 139-770.

He made a lot of the parts himself, for they just weren't available anymore.

The hood, floorboards.

"This here was all rusted out," he swept a gnarled hand along the dash.

Rudy hauled the 100-horsepower engine right out of the truck as he worked on the rest of the vehicle.

"The motor ran good," he said, "but the clutch was bad."

His nephew Stanley "Pepper" Meseck remembers that; as a boy he drew hay with that pickup.

"We used to have to tow it to start it, 'cause the clutch was froze."

ALMOST LOST IT

Rudy knows his stuff.