Derek Adams was building a '96 Dodge Ram extended cab that he could take to the big shows with his buddies all over the Gulf Coast. It was to be a Dodge that would turn heads and make people sit up and take notice. He was building the truck in the small town of Thibodaux, Louisiana, known more for their annual festival and being a great place to stay for Mardi Gras than a home for hot custom trucks. Everything was going great with Derek's Dodge until the morning of August 29, 2005, when hurricane Katrina made a landfill out of Southeast Louisiana, less than an hour from the sleepy country town of Thibodaux.
Like some of the other residents of Louisiana, Derek and some of his friends rode out the storm at his house, even though they had been warned otherwise. Unlike so many others, they made it out safely, and after the storm was over, they went out to survey the damage to the town. There were damaged trees, power lines, and buildings all over the small town of 50,000 residents. It even destroyed Derek's Dodge that was already body-dropped and just waiting for him to finish the back half of the chassis.
Like any true diehard custom truck enthusiast, Derek wasn't defeated, even though there was a lack of electricity and water in the small town. In fact, two days after the storm, Derek and his buddy, Duck, from DIB Customs, figured they could use a shower, so they hopped in a truck heading to Southern Tennessee for the Relaxed Atmosphere All Star Event. There is nothing better than a long road trip with a lot of time sitting in traffic to get the creative juices flowing. The ideas that were born on this trip made the guidelines for the project you see here.
In 2002, Derek bought this F-150 SuperCrew as his bone-stock daily driver. He figured he already had a perfectly good truck that was still different enough to stand out like the Dodge, while not getting lost in the sea of fullsize Chevys that he saw at all of the shows on the Gulf Coast. When Derek and Duck got back from Tennessee, it took them no time at all to start tearing into the F-150. They gutted the interior and stripped the suspension to prepare for the earth-bound stance that would set the truck apart from the other guys around the Gulf. While Duck and the crew from DIB were busy making brackets and readying the truck for the 'bag setup, Jacob Authement from Houma, Louisiana, installed some killer tunes in the SuperCrew.
When ask Derek what the best part of the build was, he will tell you it was the first day the SuperCrew was laid out in the shop that made it all worth while. Derek was so excited about the truck that he actually drove around with no dash and door panels for about a month, just because he liked the truck that much and was proud to be rolling around in such a clean, unique custom.
Originally, he had plans to repaint the SuperCrew, ditching the original factory charcoal, as well as shaving a lot of things, but Derek learned that they were planning Scrapin' the Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi, less than a year after Biloxi was torn apart by the hurricane. So, Derek and the guys from DIB rushed back into the shop to get the interior back together. Since the exterior wasn't going to be flashy, Derek decided he needed to do something flashy to make people come over to look at his truck. With the help of Duck, Travis Chauvin, and Chris Odle, all of the interior pieces were smoothed and sprayed a very bright, shocking hue of red that's usually found on high-end sports cars. With the Biloxi show looming closer every day, there was a mad thrash at the shop to get the interior back together in time for the show. Luckily, they made the deadline for the show, so we could capture it on these pages.
Even though the truck looks extremely trick, like we wish every Ford truck would when it leaves the assembly plant, Derek still has big plans for the truck, including a body drop and even more custom interior tricks. We can't wait to see what the truck will look like the next time we see it. Unlike so many others, Derek survived the storm and was able to turn the tragedy into a truck he could be proud of after the loss of his other project.