Dave Adams

Dave Adams of Youngstown, Ohio.

First Custom

Dave's first custom was a 1951 Chevrolet Hardtop. He restyled it in 1958 when he was 16 years old, and modifications included rolled pans, custom taillights, and a 3/4 race 270 GMC engine.

Second Custom

Dave's second custom was a 1955 Chevrolet hardtop. That car was dressed up with quad headlights and Buick taillights. It was lowered, shaved, and decked. In 2022, Dave was working on a clone of the car.

A&M Automotive

In 1963 Dave had a custom body shop in Youngstown called A&M Automotive. At the shop, he built cars that were shown in the ISCA Championship Auto Shows. The cars he built was a Full Custom Candy Apple Red 56 Ford, a Full Custom Gold Metalflake 62 Chevy, a mild custom 1952 Chevy, a Chartreuse Gold Metalflake 1955 Ford Thunderbird, and a mild custom 1952 Chevrolet sedan.

The Alexander Brothers

On November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated, Dave was working with Mike and Larry Alexander at the Alexander Bros shop in Detroit, Michigan. "My time at A Bros was short," Dave told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2022. "A trial period for a few weeks, but was able to put a lot of my work, panel shaping and lead work, on the Ford Motor Co 64 Ford Custom Caravan car the "Alexis." We had built the front end rolled pan sheet metal, actually rough pounding out the corners outside on their gravel driveway, then finishing on the pneumatic planishing hammer. Then after grinding welds to prep for leading, Larry had two 50# boxes of lead, dropped one on the left side, the other on the right side, and said, "the guy that gets to the middle of the front end first gets the free beer!" It was close, but he won. Mike would make the comment that guys would say, boy, that's a lot of lead. His reply was, "that’s better than a lot of bondo." There was no bondo in the shop." Dave recalled that Mike told him that they would not lower any custom until all the lead work was done!! On his last days at the shop, Dave would work on Bobby Massaron's 1956 Chevrolet custom.

Dave Adams' Cars

Dave Adams' 1951 Chevrolet Hardtop
Dave Adams' 1955 Chevrolet Hardtop