ONE BIG MAKEOVER

September 12, 2008 02:00 am

— ASHTABULA — A celebrity from Country Music Television’s “My Redneck Wedding” is in town for a complete star-studded makeover.
The “celebrity” is a 22-foot long Ford F-650 monster truck limousine with the front half made into a Ford Excursion and the back half was created on a Freightliner chassis.
The monster limo, which has six doors and 54-inch tires, is owned and was custom-built by Gary Bauer of Brookfield.
The makeover is being completed by Richmond’s Auto Body, 5005 Benefit Ave., owned by “Jazzy” Jeff Richmond.
“We have been working 12, 13 and 14-hour days to get it ready for this weekend,” Richmond said. He has owned his own auto-body business since 1989. “I have done his (Bauer) paint work on all his trucks since the early ’80s. We’ve been good friends for a long time.”
The monster truck limo is going to be on display at the U.S. Air Force Reserve Station in Vienna this weekend, and then at The Four-Wheel & Off Road Jamboree in Indianapolis, Ind., on Sept. 19, Richmond said.
“With CMT, the monster limo has already done two ‘My Redneck Weddings,’ with one yet to air in January 2009,” Bauer said. He is one of the co-owners of Yankee Lake in Brookfield, which features a truck night every Friday in the summer.
The formerly red limo is on the cover of the 2008-09 Yankee Lake Truck Night Calendar.
The limo’s makeover is in its final stages. The process has included stripping the body to the bare metal, and then doing all the necessary bodywork to make it straight. Next come complete primer coating and finish-sanding of the primer to get the limo ready for the custom paint, Richmond said.
The paint used was Ford Mustang Silver; the top was Ford Laser Red Metallic. Green pinstriping is around the flame licks, and the flames are highlighted with block shadowing.
“Wednesday we flat-sanded and buffed it so it has a mirror-like image, and today we are doing the final polish and beginning the reassembly,” Richmond said Thursday.
The biggest thrill for Richmond is the all the exposure his business and Ashtabula County will get as a result of the new makeover.
“If it’s a cool custom paint job, it came from here,” he said.

Photos

CHAD RUSSELL, an auto body technician at Richmond Auto Body, puts the finishing touches on a monster truck limousine. WARREN DILLAWAY