BRANDON BURRELL October 29, 2024 Feature Stories Dale Martin
When Ford announced it was bringing back the Bronco, enthusiasts went crazy in hopes the retro favorite would be what they all hoped it could be. As soon as it was produced, the aftermarket industry jumped on it and immediately started making parts to push these vehicles to the next level.
Ever since the first batch of Broncos hit the lots, they had a huge presence at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Parts companies seek Bronco SEMA builds, so John Lindsay from Blackfoot, Idaho, jumped on the chance and picked up a 2022 Bronco Raptor. He immediately began sourcing the parts needed to make his stand out in the sea of custom vehicles at the show.
John owns Nuvision LLC, which does auto glass and tint, so working with vehicles is just another day at the office. After picking the truck up in late 2022, most of the year was spent waiting on companies to release parts to get this thing done in time. Only having a couple months to get his rig ready for the 2023 show debut meant it was a hardcore time crunch. But what would a SEMA build be without the “SEMA crunch”? The Bronco made its debut in the Advantage Lift’s booth in the upper south hall and kept a crowd around it all week.
John made sure to make his Bronco stand out. First thing to do was give the suspension a little more travel than stock, so John added a 3-inch RPG lift. This gave him room to stuff massive 40×13.50-17 Mickey Thompson Baja Legend MTZ tires wrapped around 17×9 Dirty Life Enigma Race 9313 wheels. With the larger Raptor factory fender flares, these huge tires look right at home on John’s Bronco.
Now that the stance was established, getting the exterior to stand out was the next planned modification. To do this, John swapped the stock bumpers for new front and rear ADD Bomber bumpers and a slew of Rigid Lighting LED lights. The front bumper holds three 6-inch round Rigid lights and a couple cube lights. The rear bumper houses a couple cube Rigid lights as well. There are also several 6-inch round Rigid lights on a Rigid light bar across the top of the windshield and some 4-inch round Rigid lights on the cowl. The light bezels were powdercoated blue to give the Bronco a pop of color. To give it a “showier” look, John opted to color match the bumpers, grille, door handles, mirrors, cowl, top, and the fender flares. These parts were painted factory BASF Oxford White by Bowers Collision in Blackfoot, Idaho.
Being this is a higher trim level vehicle, there was no need to tear into the interior to change it. Sometimes less is more when it comes to builds like this. This was one of John’s two builds for the 2023 SEMA Show and we hear he has a couple more planned for the 2024 show. Keep an eye out to see what he comes up with next.
Owner: John Lindsay
Location: Blackfoot, ID
Vehicle: 2022 Bronco Raptor
ENGINE: 3.0L V-6
SUSPENSION: RPG 3-inch lift
WHEELS & TIRES: 17×9 Dirty Lift Enigma Race 9313, 40×13.50-17 Mickey Thompson Baja Legend MTZ
EXTERIOR: ADD Bomber bumpers (front and rear), AMP Research Power Step XL, Rigid Industries LED lighting throughout, color-matched bumpers, grille, door handles, mirrors, cowl, top and the fender flares