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

What's the story on the RPU you were parked next to ? I like it a lot.

 

Here's a handy tip on speedometer calibration. The speedo is a mathematical function of the odometer. Map out a route of ten miles with a known good odometer, probably the wife's late model. Drive the hot rod the same route and note the mileage. If you come up with 9.0 miles, your speedometer is 90% correct. I was able to come up with a combination of speedo cable drive and driven gears in my TH350 which got my speedometer to 99%, close enough for me.

http://www.tciauto.com/tc/speedometer-gear-calculator/

 

We had one of those mile marker speedometer check areas on I-8 on the way to my house. I'm not sure why, but the great state of California decided to remove them ( it might have been after the 2003 wildfires, but I thought it was later than that). That error percentage was what I was after by checking it on the dyno. 40 mph indicated was actually 44.5 mph, which divided out is .898, and 20 mph was 22.3x mph that divides out to .896, so I assume it's safe to say I'm basically .90, just like your example. Now I just gotta get it up and find out what drive gear it's got, so I cab match it up to the chart you linked. Thanks!

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Blue One,

This John Evans post from #2277, and it explains the car better than I could. as it rolled in on Saturday, I kept looking at it and trying to remember where I knew it from. Turns out I had been staring at it in a 1964 Car Craft magazine for years wondering if it still existed.

 

Blownfuel, best of luck getting the car sorted out! Nothing like a deadline to motivate a person.

 

Thanks T rod, started tearing down the carbs tonight, hope to have them both rebuilt by this weekend, so I can tune it then. Of course, it starting raining here today, but it's supposed to be done tomorrow afternoon (fingers crossed). The rear end is a 9", so the brakes shouldn't be too big of a deal. Unfortunately, I have to pick up one of those mini lifts I bought from a buddy who is moving this weekend, fortunately it's one that's designed to break down and it will help with the brakes.

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Well, I finished chasing leaks in my new/old fuel lines this afternoon right before it was time to jump in and head for dinner. Kind of an ordeal the last week or two with this thing, but I'll talk about that tomorrow and post some pictures in the morning.

 

I dont remember if it was in this thread or one of the other model-T threads.
Im to lazy to look it up to do a quote. But it seem to be the same people in all of them.
But someone asked when the term T-bucket first where used.
Last night when i went to bed i grab an old Rod&Custom to read.
Its may not be the first time but the earlyest i have seen.








Anders

 

So the "first" known T-bucket was pink?!?!?! No wonder these cars got a stigma attached them! Just kidding, Guys! I love it when someone comes up with the "not a real hot rod" or "Kit Car" or "Those aren't traditional" attitude! That's when I remind them that something like 20 of the 25 AMBR winners were T based (I forget the exact numbers) but I know for a fact it was the mid 80's before as many '28 and later cars had won as '14 to '27 T based cars!

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Oh yeah, I also want to "THANK" you guys for rekindling my old car magazine addiction again! I find myself trolling eBay and craigslist for them again! Anders, gonna have to add that one to my list as well! The cover engine looks kinda familiar......



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I'm quite taken with the 'A' rpu in that R&C. I've seen it in an overhead shot of the same show. Pretty close to the plan for mine.

 

Just a quick update...

I didn't share with you guys that my trip home from last weekends South West Nostalgia Drags was damn near shear hell that almost didn't land me home! Fortunately I was being followed home by Tucson H.A.M.B.er and buddy ENFO in his Anglia at the time. I'd pull out of a light soft or hard, and randomly it would just start shutting down cylinders, then magically righting them. Damned frustrating! Especially when I'm being followed by a relatively new friend that has been told I'm a "great tuner"... We got it home, but the pressures of the last ten details of Grant's stuff prevented me from spending too much time sorting stuff out.

Monday I figured out the new cheapie metal 3/8"-3/8" fuel filter reveled itself as the culprit. Bad news right out of the box! Could no longer stand the floppy rubber hose blowing around in the breeze anyways. It was time for better!

So, I dusted off a G.M. '50s, '60s glass bowl filter given to me by my Buddy John Chambers, and bent the last couple of lines to mate up to what I had already had bent upa couple months ago. The net result is----

 

Glad you got it fixed, Chip. My dually did the exact same thing to me the weekend before the Big 3.

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Love those glass filters.

 

Chip, I'm sure you covered it somewhere before but what is your wheelbase on the T? It's got a great stance. This is a prime example that a car doesn't have to have the rarest of rare parts, or a $5000 paint job, it's just gotta have the right stance, wheel base , and a decent wheel tire set up helps to lol have you done a before and after comparison pic yet! I'd like to see that since you have been tweaking it for a while now!


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It's been a month or two, but a friend asked and helped me measure it and I think we came up with 102". Part of the deal on this car that makes it work visually, and also part of what makes a "sixties" car look different than say a seventies "fad T" is where the body is positioned on the chassis. Look at my car in profile, then look at the rear wheel's centerline. Then look at the bed. The bed is center lined on the axle centerline. That seems to be a common thing on the fifties and early sixties cars, and when I put this one together I did it with that idea.

Later T-Buckets, as they crossed into "fad car" territory seemed to get the bodies and then drivetrains slid back a good 4-6". I can't really put my finger on when that happened, but even today when you look at a Speedway catalog (for instance), you'll see that is how their cars are built leaving about 3-6" out in front of the grill shell... That to me always looked a bit odd.

Truth be told, if I had this car to do over again, it would be at least three inches shorter. That would be out from in front of the grill shell and move the radiator back an inch or so. It would "tighten up" the proportions a bunch on this car, but I have resisted doing it this far into things 'cause I know me... It would be domino city!

 

I totally agree with ya on that! 96-98 seems to be the golden ticket for the golden era of what I call " CORREC-T's" . But even with yours being around 102" it does not have the exaggerated Pinocchio look that totally kills it! Plus I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who suffers from "DOMINO-itis" . Thanks for keeping up on this thread I hope to get pics of my current project up soon for some proper input! Lol


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Chip

Be careful of that inline fuel pressure regulator. I had one swell and cut off the fuel on my roadster. They are not accurate. Install a fuel pressure gauge after it.

Gary

 

Howdy Gary!

That little pressure regulator has been part of the car since day one. 'Matter of fact, it's one of the tricks to get an Edelbrock carb running happy. (or a Weber, for that matter) I have been told by lots of people that these don't work well, yet I have run them on many cars over the years. This one did a ton of miles in a short time in the Falcon wagon before it's demise. I wish I could figure out how to package the Holley type regulator to make it less conspicuous, but then I have been told the same of those as well. I do keep an eye it, though, and knowing me, the time and place that it will go KERSPLOOIE is half way to LARS in the middle of nowhere!

I did have a gauge after this one in the Falcon, and it does seem to run pretty true to it's numbers. I guess I'll call this one "well tested", at least until it does something else that tells me that it isn't.

That does bring up another question though... What was out there as far as pressure regulators in the late fifties and early sixties? I did find listings for some that were very similar to this, but what else was available?

 

I think those were available way back. I had never used one though.

After installing the gauge on my roadster I found that when the regulator was set at four lbs. I only had one at the carbs.. I set it up to seven and a few weeks later the gauge was back down to one. I took it off and installed a Holley pump and regulator and set it four lbs. A little lower than Holley recommends and a little higher than is recommended for 97s but it all works well.

 

I have had one on my roadster for 20K miles no problem. But to answer your question Chip as to what they had before???? Gravity feed or weak fuel pumps!! Typical factory pump was 3-4 lbs.

 

Here's how I set up my Holley regulator, I like how it turned out. I bent a piece of stainless sheet and drilled holes in the appropriate places to mount it.

 

This is how I set up my Holley pump and Aeromotive (I think) regulator. I searched for a long time for a "Holley style" regulator with one inlet and one outlet with no luck. According to Summit, this Aeromotive regulator has only one inlet and one outlet, so I ordered it (despite the price...ouch!). It shows up and what do you know? Two outlets! Anyway, it ended up on the car. I've since added a pressure gauge on the side of the regulator for easy adjustments. It's not "hidden" by any means, but I don't think it stands out:

 

...Which makes all sorts of sense when you hear all the old stories as to how hard it was to keep 6 97s or some such in "tune"! I just figured by the small block Chevy era that they would have had it figured out and I was jus missing it in my studies.

 

Sounds much like my wife, who is French. She kept referring to a "dough-nut" car. Had me baffled. Then she explained, "you know, it's when you buy a wrecked car for parts to use on another car." It' all in the (charming) accent.

 

As far as fuel pressure regulators with filters go, a good one that has been around for a long time is the Malpassi Filter King:

The Filter King from Malpassi is a very popular unit for carburettor equipped cars as it both regulates fuel pressure and filters fuel without restriction. Pressure is adjusted via a screw on top of the unit and the range is 1.5 - 5 Psi.
The filter bowl is easily removed to enable the filter element to be replaced.
The Filter King is available with filter bowl sizes of 67mm or 85mm and in glass or alloy construction. The inlet and outlets are to suit fuel pipe with an 8mm bore, however the version with a 67mm glass bowl is able to accept 6mm bore pipe also.

I have one I am going to use on my RPU with the 3- 94s.

 

This is mostly just to subscribe to the thread, but in the late '60s to '70s T builders were emulating AA/FA's so that's why the front axle went out in front of the grill and everything else wound up tucked close to the rear tires.

---
Sent from the pits of dispair app. Wirelessly, of course.

 

Totally didn't think about that! But it does make sense....

 

Blue One,
Does that assembly come with treaded inlet/outlet, or just with nipples as shown? That's a pretty cool looking piece!

 

It comes with nipples as shown but fittings to convert it to hard line are available so it isn't a problem.