The uncertain T is sitting in a friend of my Fathers garage. If it's not the REAL uncertain T it is a KILLER replication. When I was a kid a fellow in the "car club" had this body on the roof of his shop sitting beside a severly chopped 32 5 W. He gave it to a friend of mine (we where about 13yo) and him and his Father where supposed to build it. Well fast forward 17/18 years and it was still sitting around so my Father just recently went and picked from him and gave it to one of his friends whom tore all of the rusty sheet metal off and is in the middle repairing the rust. This thing has been sitting around outside forever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well fast forward another few months and sadly the uncertain T is once again sitting out in the rain after it's most recent owner suddenly passed away. He had collected up a bunch of parts, mill, frame, axles etc and sandblasted the body as it has been outside forever. The body was carefully and creatively constructed out of a thin wall box tube skeleton that was wrapped in sheet metal that was braised on. Since the car has been outside so long alot of the tube was junk. I grilled my Father about the car and he says it was built by the owner of the uncertain T after he relocated from Ca to the coast of Vancouver Island in efforts to avoid te draft as many young men did. He had missed his car and immediatly replicated it once settled in Canada making this one the uncertain T's sibling. When I first laid eyes on this shell in the mid 80's it was blue and under that was red and under that was you get the picture. I'm sure there has to be someone whom can shed some light on this mystery... When I went to visit it today it was dark and raining as hard as I've ever seen it rain and it was all I could do to get this shot... Now I have to track down that hammered 32 5 window that used to share space on teh roof of the shop with the T. I remember when we picked up the T body in the 80's I was all over the deuce but my Father assured me it was junk as it had no floor...
I had heard stories of the uncertain T being on Vancouver Island when I lived on the coast. That must be the one. No-one knew if it was a clone or not. Nutz
Maaaan if I could get it down here I'd make it live again. The clone is just as cool as the original especially knowing the history on it.
why would Scott build a second body out of steel??? He already built the first one outta fiberglass???? I'm not questioning your story at all, it's very interesting. The Uncertain T is what got me into Hot Rods... I am VERY insterested in contacting ANYONE who has ANY information on the Uncertain T. Be it real or a clone.
Hey Jason.....I have an idea..... Let's build an Uncertain T clone........I know where another 24 T bucket body is.....all steel.... Just think........Uncertain T HAMB SLAM.......I'll play HUH???
Gotta agree with you Jason, one of the baddest rods ever built, even if it was as aerodynamic as Starr Jones.
I agree w/Wideglide! Killer story and please do something with it. That car needs to be brought back and i'm sure you have enough kats here willing to help anyway they can...Def. keep us posted...This is almost to kool to be true!! Dirty
the top of th OG uncertain, kinda looks coffin shaped, whereas the other looks square. either way it would be cool to see it on the road. i wanna see more!!!
Thank you Wideglide!!!!!!! Great shot!!!! Sorry to hear that he passed away....what is to become of it now? So, if this is the second one, what actually happened to the original? Who bought it, where is it, and did it really get destroyed in a fire? When all this is solved, somebody should write a book or something....it's more elusive and spellbinding than the Mysterion.
[ QUOTE ] why would Scott build a second body out of steel??? He already built the first one outta fiberglass???? [/ QUOTE ] Is he pouring catalized resin on there and spreading it with his bare hand?
drj...i said the same thing.. "look at this guy spreading resin with his bare hands"...hahaha...crazy man...seriously wideglide,this topic is awsome its pretty much all i could think about today..i would love to see the uncertain t on the road..its one of my fav's..thanks for the info and pics
I'm wondering why he made the first one in fiberglass....looks like it could easily have been made with steel.......hhhmmm... But what beauty//////
I just spoke to the oldest owner of the car (the guy whom had it on his roof) He did not seem to remember anything about the car aside form the fact that it used to drive around. I mentioned the fiberglass part and he said maybe they pulled a mold off of this one (why I don't know). I also sent him a link to this page which may help in shedding some light. When I saw the photo with the autograph I KNOW this has got to be the uncertain T as the architecture of the windshield, door openings and top are IDENTICAL even the slot where the body was channeled over the rear diff are IDENTICAL. I will go drag the body out of that mess and re shoot these details maybe tommorow if anyone is interested.
I have to say the roof shapes look different atm....the steel looks straight sided..but as already mentioned the Pics of the 'T' seem to show a tapered shape and definate rounded corners....More pics will clear it up! Cheers MAIKI
The man was brilliant. The proportions he conceived, the parts he chose, and what appears to be some of the finest workmanship of the day combine to make the Uncertain T a milestone car that everybody loved. I remember when the car made its debut in Hot Rod, when I was a young kid. We were all completely stoked with it. Hell, even my sports-car-purist dad dug it. The Hilborn setup for a Buick wouldn't be cheap, but the rest of the parts shouldn't be too hard to round up. The aluminum rims on the front may be Borrani (as in Ferrari) and no longer available, but Kosman Racing may still have some NOS Akront 17" WM-1 rims that are very similar. The rear wheels look like they have rounded spokes, so they are most likely polished American Racing magnesium five-spokes, maybe 15 by 8 1/2s or 15 by 10s. Great thread. Good luck to you. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
Neat post, and interesting find. It would be neat to find out the story behind what you have found and see the connection to the Uncertain T. I respect the car from a historical point, and the dramatic impact it had when the show rod era was starting, but the weird design of the car never really grew on me.
This is one of my favorite cars. I heard Steve Scott built more than one body, all glass. There was one in the GOODGUYS Gazzette a few years back, in the Pleasanton coverage, (2 years ago?) The body was real close, but the frame was different. The 1/4 windows had a different shape to the bottom of them. No mention of it being the Uncertain T, just something about it being a neat T. Dean
[ QUOTE ] in the pouring of resin photo it appears that he is making a mold may be from this very car ??? [/ QUOTE ] I agree with that. In the pic he is making a mold. You would not like to make such a mess, and build up that much thickness of fiberglass when building a on-off body you actually are going to use.
I can see it now . someone buys that pattern and pops off a couple thousand of these things, LOL Gad! I love that car and have ever since the HR article.In the resin pic you can clearly see the mold joint as he is building the drivers side up.no question that it is a mold he is building. I have seen a number of near copy's over the years , but none even came close to the detail and originality of the gennie and I seem to remember that car in a later version w a gastly 70's multi color scallop/panel paint job.Might have been a copy tho...
From Car Craft November 1965: "With one inch diameter tubing he welded together and outline framework with the desired shape. To this he brazed very thin wire mesh used by plasterers, called lath. Plaster soaked strips of burlap were applied to the outside of the shape fashioned in lath. 600 pounds of plaster later, not to mention many, many hours of grinding, shaping, and sanding, and Steve had an exact size 'dummy' body, known as a plug in the moulding business. To construct the necessary 'female mould', fiberglass was applied over this plug in three sections. The sections were such that the mold could be removed from the plug easily. When the mold cured it was dissassembled, removed, and then re-assembled. Steve then laid-up systematic sections of fiberglass inside the mold, tielded a one pice glass body with the exact shape and smoothness of the original plug." Neal, I'm way ahead of you. I don't think I want to clone it exactly as it was... Need a body though. Of course I could make one but if this ends up being the plug used to build the original body? I think I'll wet myself... I can't really tell by the picture posted. Lotsa of people copied the Uncertain T look... The front wheels were 16in Harley BTW...
Been meaning to post these ever since this post got started. I'm not sure where I got these pics from, but someone was influenced by the uncertain T
The Jalopy Journal
