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Gambling Adams takes his Bronco-busting act to Vegas
By ERIC BERNSEE
Editor
BAINBRIDGE -- Rolling the dice on a burned-out farm truck and a farm-fresh 1979 Ford Bronco, Greg Adams hit the jackpot in Las Vegas.
His 1979 Ford Bronco, converted into a four-door customized version, is center stage at the 50th anniversary Specialty Equipment Market Association or SEMA show that ends Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“Basically,” Adams explained, ”it’s a truck show for anybody to everybody in the auto market, from air fresheners to complete vehicles to every part in between.”
About a million people will have visited the show by the time it ends tonight. And many of them will have stopped and stared at the custom creation put together by Adams and his Putnam County friends and family.
Before departing for Vegas, Adams said he intended for his custom build to be “big and eye-catching.” And it certainly is that.
Orange isn’t only the new black, it’s also the appealing color Adams chose for his customized vehicle for which he took the crew cab from an old farm truck -- a 2004 Ford F-150 with 240,000 on it -- and transplanted it into the Bronco’s body.
The metamorphosis was nearly five months in the making at Adams’ Truck Works shop along U.S. 36 west of Bainbridge.
“It should have taken a year,” he said, noting that he was able to accumulate all the parts in April and May and jump-started the project in June.
“We found the Bronco in California,” he said, “so it was rust-free, but it was pretty butchered up.”
That meant some real improvising.
Adams cut two feet of fender metal off a Ford F-600 of the same year, cut it in half and molded it together. For the rear portion of the cab, he cut up hoods and used the rolled portion of the metal.
Scott Agnew of Reelsville did all the body work, Adams said, accomplishing in two weeks what easily might have taken more than two months. Frank Skiles of Cloverdale did the painting, while Joey Jones, with his Rock Star shop in Limedale, did the window tinting.
And while son Zach Adams and buddies like Michael Rumley, Isaac Hilburn and Nolan Ensor enjoy hanging out at the shop, they also literally did some of the heavy lifting.
Adams, who also operates Hot Pursuit Towing in Bainbridge, said he’s built show trucks since the early 1980s, but nothing quite as elaborate as the Bronco.
“I’ve kind of been wanting to do this for a long time,” he said. “I’ve never built a specific vehicle just for SEMA.”
This year certainly seemed like the right time, what with SEMA marking 50 years and it also being the 50th anniversary of the Bronco, a sports utility vehicle manufactured by Ford from 1966-96.
For the interior, Adams had the original Bronco dash but decided the dash from the old truck