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

Or a for real early sixties aftermarket four barrel manifold that is usable! It's funny, stuff that I though was just "available" and common, I'm finding hasn't been for the better part of twenty years now... But yes, there is more latitude than fifties stuff, 'cause there were more companies making stuff by then.

 

a lot of the sixties stuff was pretty rare even when it was new. I want one of those "Cobra" scattershields BAD for my 289/T bucket parts pile, but with the prices they are pulling on the rare occasion that they DO change hands, I'd have more of a chance of getting a set of Hilborns for my desoto, and I could probably throw in a set of small-window halibrands in the bargain!!

Its not easy finding the dual AFB Cobra intake I "need" either, and I thought that would be a walk in the park. Ford sold a lot of those over the counter in the sixties, and I used to see them relatively often in the seventies and eighties, but man, they dont come up for sale any more. If one did come up right now, I couldn't afford it anyway...

 

That wheel is a score! Very nice addition!

 

FJ try buying one of these!!!

 

Hey, FG;

Ever think about trying SAAC? = Shelby American Automobile Club .

FWIW: years ago I was a member, until they priced me out(rather poor college student vs seriously jacked-up subscription price. Nice enough guys, but I can do(& still do) w/o the attitude). ~15 years down the drain, & 'cause of their elitist attitude, I won't be back(I get why, & understand the effects, but still don't care to this day). But, a couple of want ads (a Mr. Kopec probably can help) should be cheap enough, & might get you a (some) lead(s), if not a manifold or scattershield. Possibly may not even require you to take out a new mortgage... .

HTH.

Marcus...

 

I had a '66 Mustang coupe, back in the day. Ass end was jacked up to fit tires and I had the obligatory Cobra valve covers on my stock 289. Went to a show and without thinking, parked near the Shelby guys. In two shakes of a dogs leg, out came some cones and ribbon, fencing me out. I laughed about that for a month. Almost as bad as Vette Guy.

 

And to think I'm gonna put all that stuff on a T BUCKET!! The horror...the horror...
And Fuzzy, the Holley intake is easy, Blue Thunder re-pops it now.
One of the guys on one of the shelby boards paid $2600 for one of those scattershields a couple years ago. I think I'll need that mortgage...

 

In the '80s & '90s we started kloning '50s style. Now you are kloning '60s stuff. What's next! I hate to think. LOL. Well I guess it's already started with the Big Daddy Roth stuff being Kloned. Just kidding I love it all it's just not my style. Anyway I guess the '70s stuff never stopped.

Gary

 

...And I'm already seeing signs that the seventies stuff is next! To an extent I'm good with that, but it seems to hit real close to home because I was there! How can something that happened in my short memory span be recreated? I'm not old enough for that... Seriously though, as long as the good stuff from the seventies gets cloned, I'm good. If we start seeing outhouses and bathtubs again I might just loose my mind.

 

Damn I forgot about outhouses, bathtubs and coffins. I was just thinking of enormous rear tires, engines so high you couldn't see over them and Krazy paint jobs.

 

But FJ that is a real one. I also have real valve covers on my Falcon along with the extremely rare 3x2 set up.
Ya just never know what some thing will be worth after you hang on to it for 40 years.

 

I definitely know I'm aging when I have been talking to a young fella who tells me that Old School ride is a 1985 Make car and they are so proud of what they have done to it. I have never been into any of those so called Show cars like the bath tub etc. What was the story behind the two half moons in the top on whats his name ( yes, I'm suffering from brain fade ) T Roadster while we are talk about out houses ?

 

Ivo had a single half moon in the back window of the top on his 'Bucket back the late fifties because he thought the top made the car look like an "outhouse on wheels". Subsequent owner Bill Roland had the rear panel of the top remade when he redid the car in '59 or '60 to a more regular rear window.

 

I've got a pretty neat Hurst t handle with gold velvet fuzzy stuff on it. No shift pattern though.

 

Brad, that gold flocking is just like the "hair" on that one G.I. Joe when we were kids

Steve

 

OK guys back to the Bucket of Ugly now.

 

Thanks Chip, that is the car I was think of and the name I couldn't think of. I kinder like the look of the half moon and it does sort of age a car into the correct area or should I say helps age a car. Another shape for the rear window over here was the iron cross. I intend to have the plain regular shaped rear window using glass and not the clear plastic stuff that discolours .

 

Kinda funny, I was rooting around on the internet today, and saw an original dual holley intake, with an asking price over a grand. The last time I saw one of the cobra 2x4 afb intakes like I want for sale it was $450, which isnt bad at all, but that was about two yrs ago, and I haven't seen one come up for sale since. They arent real pricey compared to some stuff, but they just dont seem to surface very often.
I've had a "thing" for the dual AFB intake since the early eighties, but never really had anything suitable to use one for till now.

 

Those came out in the late seventies, think they came on Autostick 3's. The white plastic ones are a whole 'nother ballgame, circa '67-'69 sixties stuff, and rare as hell now in good shape, when I do see one, its usually checked all to hell.

 

^^^^ I have a NOS aluminum T-handle in my shift knob collection, I don't think I've ever seen a white one.

 

Damn, that Edelbrock dual that you gave me the heads up on on KIJI, if I wasn't terminally broke right now would be on it's way here. That town is about a mile from Judy's sister's place up there. Oh well...

 

Yea, thats a pretty decent price. There'd be a long list of stuff that would be on its way here right now, if I wasn't terminally broke...

 

That sums it up nicely...

 

Be careful when you put the aluminum pan on. I cracked a Cal Custom one- I must have had it cocked or something. All I know is I was gently turning a 1/4" drive ratchet and heard that horrible noise. It wasn't too bad; just the a light crack on one of the edges, but still....Be careful!

 

Will do!

 

I'm beginning to have a new respect for you guys building '60s correct rods. I now see you have parts as difficult to find as a Horne 4 pot. or a Ross steering box. I'm still tuned in and now realize that buckets didn't start getting ugly until the late '60s and into the '70s. But then everything started getting really ugly then.

 

There ya go! That's why I am so careful to say "EARLY SIXTIES" T-Bucket!

I was thinking about it the other day, we as hot rodders have always seemed to lump our history into ten year periods. Forties, fifties, sixties... The truth is though, a car that was built in the early fifties is equipped vastly differently that a car built in '59. Like NOTICABLY! Even more prevalent with early sixties versus late. We went from cars that still have some of the late fifties cues in their build as far and stance, updated with equipment that was hot in drag racing at the time creating a very purposeful, trim, cool car. By the late sixties it started a trend of, in my opinion, more show oriented cars that were more slathered with ginger bread than performance. More for show points than driving hard.

It's almost analogues to customs. In the late forties and early fifties, they were clean, smooth and really kinda pretty. By the late fifities they were over laden with tons of strange modifications and extra stuff simply to draw show points. Same sort of deal in my mind...

 

Probably better to break up styles in five year increments. I consider my roadster middle to late fifties style. Yours will probably be early to middle sixties. Really Grabowski's "Lightnin Bug" was early '50s or even maybe late '40s style And the "Kookie Kar" and Ivo's were middle "50s.

 

Do you know the year Grabowski finished the Kookie Kar? How about Ivo? I was wondering that the other day....I always heare people refer to their builds as "mid '50's".

 

Good ol' Pat Ganahl had a column that mentioned all this. It's true with this decade more than any other in modern history. Mainly because, not only hot rod culture but just life in general. Early 60's is wrapped up in the remains of the soft, sentimental 50's, while the later 60's ushered in the hard beginnings of modern life.

The strangest part of the 60's would seem to be '65-6 and 7. The mid 60's represents the juxtaposition (how's that?!) of the two extremes. We've all seen some downright hilarious rock concert photos of hairy, freaky outfits entertaining clean cut, upright/uptight teenagers.

Even though I long for more conservative times, I love the later 60's and on as far as hot rods go. Mags, candy, 1" pleats, chrome, rake, polished aluminum, cobwebs....man.