Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

Whip, I believe its Ed. JW

 

Here's what it looked like after I rebuilt it. Thanks for the comments.

 

That neat. Are you running the same fenders front and back?
Is you exhaust connected to you running boards?
Are the running boards upholstered?

 

Looks like Ed Iskendarian, but I could be wrong. We all look different in our latter years...

 

Your right Dad it's Ed. Nice guy. I saw him at LARS a couple of years ago sitting with a bunch of guys and asked him if he would sign my dash. I was looking for him as I had just put one of his decals on the roadsters dash and had one of his early roller cams in the Cad. engine. He jumped right up and walked with me maybe a hundred yards (about the length of any football field) and when I pointed to where I wanted the signature he reached in opened the door and sat down.
This is Norm signing and just as nice.
You know guys looking back on the 35 years since I bought the rusty body and the 25 years since I first drove it I have met so many good people and had so many great adventures in it and still going.I hope your rides do the same for you.

 

Hey Kiwi,

My tank is an old 10 gallon (10X30) no name spun aluminum kinda deal that I bought at a swap like 20 years ago for about 10.00. someone had already welded a sender pad into it, and I moved the filler neck when Halibrand Steve sent me the cool cap. Yup, the battery on mine is right next to the tank, but my cap is vented to the top, so I'm not too worried about fumes and explosions and such.

 

Fenders are made from conduit & fiberglass
No
Yes

 

Oh Boy! I'm not going up till Sunday due to family commitments (am I'm not going to steal someone else's pictures) but if you haven't seen the Grasshopper Drag T A.M.B.R. contender yet, Google it NOW! Not many cars I'd sell a nut for, but that on just made the list!

 

I was googling to see the T that Blownfuel was talking about.
Then i found pics of the kookie after the rebuilt i have not see before.

 

Now that makes me cry...!

 

You know Swede I have mixed emotions about pictures like these. And I don't think I've seen these particular shots before. They show some modifications to Norm's T that I hadn't seen before. Quad headlights, Ivo style dash, wooden steering wheel. It is probably the best example I've seen of the UG-LIFYING of the T roadster hot rod in the '60s. To think this all started with light weight T roadster race cars that WWII veterans started building and racing. Maybe even before WWII but few had V8s. Then some wanted to drive them on the street so added lights. Grabowski then added a modern OHV V8 to his and started to show it at Hot Rod shows and found out he had to change it regularly to keep up interest and win more trophies. The photos above are what came of all that.
Sorry just thinking out loud.
Thanks for posting Anders

Gary

Swede Ugly American slang, nickname,handle for anybody born anywhere in or around Sweden.

 

The Grasshopper. Not sure if I like it. Kinda starting to look like what happened to the Kookie car.

 

I'm in agreement with you Gary on how to take a nice car and create a piece of ugliness. Even the twin blowers which as a kid I would of absolutely adored, looks all wrong and I won't mention the exhaust either. Make you wonder what Norm would of thought about his old car dressed like that.
Isn't it cool to see so many T's competing for the Tall Trophy, I hope it is a T that takes away the award but to be totally honest, have perused the contenders for the A.M.B.R. nothing really jumped out and said " Pick Me " but then I like older style cars now so again, proves one can mature with age.

 

You have to remember, it was the time when a lot of nonsensical thinking was going on. Now I have to say that I don't feel like my thinking is stuck in any particular time period, but my sense of style was formed during the 50s and early 60s so I guess I tend to like things more that fit in that time period.

 

Is there anyone at the GNRS that would take pics of all the T `s there and post them here? I see the Lightning Bug is there, and another Flathead powered bobtail T that looks really familiar. I know it isn`t Tweedie Pie, but......also some pics of the Blown Flathead powered one that Jim Sibley had something to do with. I`m with you on the Grasshopper recreation, Gary. Somehow it misses the flavour of the Original car. Not sure why , either. it`s neat, though, but in a new Showrod kind of way.....Are there any others?

 

You know Paul I think the repop Grasshopper is guilty of too much engine and too much chrome. That can win a lot of gold but I'm afraid not 9 feet of it. I remember the original Grasshopper to be more light and uncluttered looking. I hate to find fault with such a beautiful bucket but that is what this thread is about. I'll try to dig out the magazine that the original was featured later today. I'm pretty sure I have it and it's on the cover. If anybody has some pictures of it before then please post them.

I see now why the new owners of Franko's Lightnin Bug klone upgraded it's finish. Franko builds his klones to pretty much the same quality as the originals but that won't hold up to the scrutiny of the show judging of today.

Gary

 

I hade some mixed fellings about to show the pix.
I guess the Kookie needed a resto after a lot of use and this redo was
a try to keep it as a cuttin edge rod. Not an easy task whith Ed Roth
and others making all kind of whacky cars at the time.
I guess the last photo show the end of a era and the end of HAMB friendly.

 

Thanks Anders for posting the above pictures. Even the ones I don't like to look at. They show the progression of Grabowski's T from right after Norm installed the Cad. engine from his parents car until just before it was stored away by it's new and I guess present owner.
I of course like the Kookie Kar version best. I guess some like the way the black early version sits better. I had never noticed the rear fenders in any early pictures before. It also still has the dropped I beam front axle in the top photo. It would have been great if Norm would have written a book and told the whole story of that car. So many unanswered questions of why and how he did what he did on the car. For instance why he upholstered the bed cover in white when the rest of the upholstery is red. Other than his artistic eye and he just knew it would have looked UGLY red. I actually had to argue with my upholstery guy to do mine white but I was just copping what Norm did. Mine too would have looked UGLY upholstered in black and I like many others would just have done it.
I would also like to know who's idea it was to attach the severely shortened A bed to the front part of a T touring body. I wish I could have sat Norm down and asked him all those question. I really never got that close to him. I think maybe Von Franko did and maybe he will someday write a book about his adventures building his first klone of the Kookie Kar and answer some of these questions.

Gary

 

Anders...Nice procession of pics. Gary--I`m with you on the rear fenders, too. That is a shot I have never seen, as is the shot with the chromies. We`ll never know much of the story on it, though. I looked briefly through my wife`s Instagram stuff last night but I didn`t see any Buckets on there except the `Bug.....Maybe Tom Davidson or the other photogs will post something...

 

Ya know, I kinda hate to say it, but I always dug this car in the second to the last shot with the pearl white paint and candy flames with chrome reverse wheels... If he had left it like that and redid the interior in a normal fashion with the white, that would have been a palatable re-do of a famous car. Kinda like Roland's re-do of Tommy Ivo's car... Again, sacrilege, but I actually like that better!

Now, on thing that gets me in the REALLY gooked up pictures of Grabowski's car, is the interior that was fitted is damn near the same as the one that the Rosen's had done by Barris in the their re-do of Ivo's car... Taste of the times though, when you take it in the context of other stuff that was being done at the time. Kinda like the nineties when everybody was trying so hard to slick things out...

Hopefully guys, I'll be able to post some stuff up tonight. this week I changed my headlight stands out for my smoother, lower Offenhauser stuff, and finished the last bit of sewing on the tonneau last night. If I have time to mount all the snaps and such this afternoon after working, I'll get some stuff up for you.

 

SACRILEGE!!!!!! I am making the sign of a cross in front of my face with the index fingers on my hands while reading your words above. The Kookie Kar was PERFECT.
Okay everybody has a right to their opinion. It hadn't been totally ruined at that point. It still looked like the Kookie Kar painted red and white.
Just trying to keep the thread going while your away. It's all I feel like doing while fighting the flu bug you gave me with one of your last posts. Just kidding but I've been fighting something all last week.
Having early '50s Cadillac starter problems for a couple of weeks. The one on the '48 Ford gave up and took it to my guy and he rebuilt it. It works on the bench but will just barely move the engine. I'll spend some time with it when I start feeling better.
Looking forward to your future posts.
Gary

 

How wonderful different we are.

I prefers them from top and down. Top one being fantastic, lower one being fugly.

 

I think Norm had I right. Many a good car has been ruined by a new owner. JW

 

I kinda have to agree with Chip Rolands changes didn't harm Ivo's car. I liked it about the same both ways. The changes after that really made it late '60s ugly though. Although if I had seen it in the '60s or '70s I probably would have liked it. We all were going crazy for bucket seats and "earth tone" paint jobs.

 

Gary, I have to say, I was into the bucket seats then, but never got into earth tone paint jobs. And on the photos, the top 2 except for the exhaust look good to me, but the bottom is so fugly, I can't find much there to like. JMO

 

Well, sneak previews if nothing else...

Lowered the headlight a couple of inches, got rid of those f*%#ing sheet metal cups from the top of the stands, too! Also got the stands out of the radius rods as well. Win - win!

The final fitting of the tonneau cover. Hopefully tomorrow will bring enough time to get the snaps snapp-i-fied and the front edge and tank combing rolled under and stapled.


...And had to make a run out to a friends field of dreams today... Got stomped on a bit, but that's an entirely different story...

 

All good Chip. I love that orange too. I'm going to be proud to be parked next to you Fathersday.

 

That looks like fun...holler at me the next time you're getting stomped on...

 

Did I miss the GNRS T bucket meet and greet today?

 

Check out Tom Davison's GNRS thread; lots of photos!