The man behind it all…
“Converting the world one EV at the time.”
~Reverend Gadget
Reverend Gadget
CEO
Gregory Abbott, known as Reverend Gadget, is a steel fabrication artist, industrial designer, prop builder, and media personality. He is best known as a pioneer in converting vintage cars to electric, featured in Reverend Gadget’s Garage and alongside Elon Musk in the documentary Revenge of the Electric Car. Television audiences recognize Reverend Gadget as part of the build teams on the Discovery Channel series BIG!, Monster House, and Smash Lab. As well as working off screen on The Colony and The Big Brain Theory. Gadget and his workshop are in Los Angeles, California.
The Nickname
Abbott took the name “Reverend Gadget”, His Burningman monicker, so as not to be confused with all the other Abbotts with the same name and to reflect his craftsmanship and the fact that he has been an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church since 1986.
World Records
Dealing with many unique, dynamic, and outside-the-box creations, Reverend Gadget has acquired 10 Guinness World Records. Such record-holding projects include the world’s largest Playable Guitar, Blender, toaster, Barbeque, espresso maker and upright vacuum cleaner which was made with the BIG! build team on the Discovery Channel.
History
Gadget was born in Torrance, California and raised by the ocean in Seal Beach, El Porto, and Pacific Palisades. At 15 he began designing and fabricating his own car, starting with the front suspension, engine, and transmission of a 1957 Volkswagen, ordering everything else from the JC Whitney catalog. This was his first welding project, so the car was blocky and crude in the front, becoming more curvy and elegant towards the back, because he was learning new tools and techniques as he went. He went on to get it registered at the age of 16 and then drive around the country covering 26 states and over 10,000 miles.
Education
Education for Gadget began at Pacific Palisades High School and graduated in 1977. He went to one year at Menlo College and dropped out. His father supported this move, saying Gadget was “never gonna have a regular job anyway” and that having “done all your prerequisites, you can learn the rest of the engineering from books”. After nearly a decade of work and life experience, Gadget eventually returned to formal education, studying Industrial Arts, Art History, Economics, and Business at Santa Monica College As well as computer programming at UCLA. Continuing his eclectic path, he worked as a live in butler/cook to pay for his schooling.
Work Background
After his stint in Menlo College he began working as a handyman learning the building trades then on to becoming building contractor. This was before his time at Santa Monica College, from 1978 to 1986, Where he dove into the industrial arts program. He was involved in off road desert racing at the same time, and worked on the cars to redesign their suspension. Eventually, Gadget established his own shop focused on woodworking and cabinetry. In the late 1980s, he shifted his focus to professional metal fabrication, doing structural steel fabrication and working with artists duing monumental public artworks. The three and a half story hand sculpture on El Segundo station is actually modeled on Gadget’s hand. He moved on to crafting postmodern fenestration, stairs, rails, and other structural architecture. He and his partner Lisa Krohn built a business designing and selling furniture that they recieved numerous awards for. Gadget also spent some time teaching industrial design at SCI-ARC.