1975 Ford Bronco Restoration

Aug. 1, 2015

Caleb Luce, whose family works in the automotive business, did an overhaul on his 1975 Ford Bronco completely on his own

Tess Owings

A love of automotives runs in Caleb Luce’s family. His father, Randy Luce, owns Jay Walton Automotive in Albuquerque, N.M., and his mother, along with a brother and a sister, work there as well. Although bonding over shared interests is great, for Luce, it was time to have something to call his own. He found that in his 1975 Ford Bronco.

When Luce was 17, he purchased a 1975 Ford Bronco from a family friend. The vehicle had been kept in storage, languishing in a shed.

“I’ve always just thought that type of car was really neat looking,” Luce explains when asked about purchasing it.

From all the years being stored that way, the Bronco was a definite fixer-upper, but having worked on cars since he was 11, Luce felt he was up to the challenge.

What he did was an overhaul of the vehicle, tearing it completely apart. Although he could have gotten help from his father or the people at the shop, it was important to Luce to finish this on his own.

“I was very adamant about that, nobody was allowed to touch it,” he laughs. “I did the mechanical work, the body work, the paintwork.”

He worked on the car during free time and breaks from school, and because of his schedule, the entire project took a couple of years to complete.

He performed a full rotisserie restoration on the Bronco and then sandblasted and refinished everything, including the bottom of the car. The bumper was custom built using a 1/8-inch steel plate and integrating LED lights into both the front and back. The roll cage was hand-built, requiring him to use a hydraulic tubing bender and then TIG weld the entire thing together. He even shaved the door handles and added remote entry.

His hard work caught the eye of Martin Senour Automotive Finishes, which works with Jay Walton Automotive. Last year they sponsored the vehicle at the NAPA Expo.

Just recently finished, there are still things that Caleb would like to work on. He ran out of time and money before he could put a new transmission in the Bronco, but he would still like to one day. His fully restored 1975 Ford Bronco is now a part of his budding collection that includes a Harley and an ’02 GMC Sierra.

Luckily, Caleb isn’t hiding his hard work. He’s been driving it around town and taking friends and family for joy rides. He’s willing to share in the fun, but the credit for the hard work is his alone.