Features **Model T buckets/RPU's/Roadster/Tourings official photo thread**

Hey Brad, If your syill watching this thread, one of the things that makes a T bucket feel small is that most guys put a real tall seat riser in them, and then "over stuff" the seats. by dropping the riser down a bit, and thinking a little harder on seat foams and placement, you can get these to be quite comfy. It takes some work though.

 

Some guys use a wood frame work that drops into the car. That eats up alot of interior space.

There's a lot of good info here:

http://www.tbucketeers.com/

 

Ideally, I'd like to channel the floor to the bottom of the frame rails, so the seat can be dropped that much further down just for the reason you mentioned.

That'd be REAL easy with an A body on '32 rails.
Okay, not REAL easy, but you'd have a lot more latitude to play with.

In my mind, what I've thought about doing is channeling the back half of the floor at least, so the seat is almost flush with the floor. This would allow for a cross member ahead of the seat, which would allow for a brake master and clutch pedal mount.

-Brad

 

Looking at this tread reminds me of how much I was "running against the wind" with this build in 1971.

 

Not a bad way to handle it, but on a T bucket, your frame rails are pretty narrow, and would quickly negate most of the gains that you made by dropping the floor to the bottom of the rails. You could step the rails out ward at the cowl, and take advantage of all of the bodies width. The last T bucket I did for myself, instead of channeling it the full width of the rails (3"), I channeled it just 1 1/2". Lots of room just with that little bit of difference. i braced the body with hard wood as most do, but I took special care to make sure that it fit within the body and not protrude inward. Instead of building a 6 or 7" tall riser for the seat, I used the simple sixties style fiberglass shells that most fiberglass companies sell, and pushed them back as far as I could. I also got rid of the underfloor master cylinder, built a cowl hoop, and mounted my brake pedal and cylinder up on the firewall using a cool old Hurst/Airheart cylinder. The steering was a Corviar unit reversed and the sector shaft extended for use as a cowl mount piece, mounted to the same hoop. The net result was that at 6'1" and 190 pounds, I could sit in my car down below the lower half of the windshield with my legs in a manageable fashion comfortably.
Now I do have to admit that I sold the car before I completed it, so I never got to log the massive road miles that I normally put on my cars, but I spent allot of time just sitting it to see if it was comfortable - it was. I'll post pictures as soon as I can get past my computer virus hell that I'm dealing with is past.

 

In my present 26 RPU build, I have an original body, the front half of a touring body that I have stretched 4" behind the doors.

I'm building my own chassis which I have shaped to fit the contour curve of the outside edge of the T body.

I am mounting the body on top of the rails hiboy style.

I built the rails from 2X6 rectangular tubing.

I have also been considering dropping the floor down into the frame and may do so yet, I'll see what develops when I get to that stage of the build.

I think I will have more room with the 4" stretch, and by keeping the seat low I should be able to sit more "in" the car.

The problems I can see from dropping the floor will be less room for the frame center sections as well as exhaust etc.

Could also lead to needing a driveshaft tunnel.

There really isn't a lot of room under these cars for things as it is.

Heres a link to my build and you can see where I am so far.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=460009&highlight=26&showall=1

 

Started with a touring cowl & doors,doors were gone so made my own. The rear is made from fenders and tubing.rear pic

 

Mine. And Brad - I'm 6' curled up in there...

 

HEy Jerry that tub is lookin great. How long is that hood?

 

I'll stick mine in here. I'm getting to the phase where I'm going back through the car and replacing certain parts with vintage.

 

Wicked,that thing looks better all the time!

 

In Progress:

 

Sure miss my old Beater....

 

The Bill Strickland roadster Hot Rod Mag. Dec. '59. My friends in Conn. tell me Bill is gone. Died maybe ten years ago. The roadster just has "The Look" I don't think you could find a better example of a late '50 early '60s "T" bucket.

 

I dig the pinstriped slicks!

 

I dig this one.... And TV Tommy's old ride..

 

Wow! That car nails it! I don't know why I never seen that one before.

 

Can I join the party? I just traded my 50 Chevy Sedan for this. I love it to death!!! I've always wanted one and I don't think I could have done much better. Todd

 

turkeyjerk loose on the streets...

 

Pretty nice, here is where mine currently sits:

 

The Peckerheads 27 roadster the former HopUp Bonneville car at the salt this year.

 

My T roadster project.......getting closer

 

Any other pics of this gem? Very cool!

 

post number 150... that bucket-rail blew me away when i first seen it in r-c around 1972-1974, i think it was a michigan build and allways wondered where it went. had to be a blast to drive... cool, never seen or heard of it till now. thanks, i tell guys it is real and was in a mag, now i got pics to prove it did exist. dermott.

 

Brad; take a look at the Zipper body. I'm about 5'-10" and it works for me.
Ron

 

x2.

 

Here is my 27:







Dve

 

Thanks for noticing. You're the first reply. I didn't think anyone was looking. Maybe I made the pictures too small. That was probably the most radical street legal T ever. What a thrill ride!

 

There is a thread with a bunch of info on that car someplace here in the HAMB.

Here....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238241&highlight=dragster+street+legal

and here....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=269670&highlight=dragster+street+legal