Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Ease of maintainance............NAILED IT!

 

I think with 2 people, body off can be done in about a half hour. More importantly, after this round of work, I believe it can go back together in about a half hour with a couple people as well.

 

Hey, Tim;
I didn't notice if you had the oem-style top-iron-pivot-points, but if you're careful, you should be able to mimic them, so's to be able to use them as balanced-lifting-points. I think I'd add one at the dash(middle, underneath), although the steering column could also work as the third point, if it's braced well enough. That then, would require a sorta-quick-disconnect at the steering box(don't think you're using a 'vair or under-body location, iirc?, so that wouldn't work here, anyways.), or steering shaft - which is what the dbl-D is for - right??? This way, a simple rafter-hoist, or engine hoist, makes it a 1-man on/off deal, w/no "awaiting on the buddies" thing, + you get to drink their portion of the "helpers'" beer. . Win/win? .
Marcus...

 

An A-frame gantry may be in my future, for a mul***ude of reasons

 

Been a heck of a week but I made it to the show:

 

How's it running?
How were the reactions?
Is the body holding up well to R&I? Doors still gapped, no new noises?

 

Looking good!

 

^^^^^^^
Yes it is
Dan

 

Runs as good as before- I like the in tank fuel pump with byp*** regulator- much easier to set fuel pressure and trust it is what it is. The pump has a confidence inspiring sound, and I had no issues other than cranking down some fittings when I was checking fuel pressure at home yesterday.

The tri power setup is really cold blooded, always has been. It runs fantastic after about a half hour, but initially it doesn’t seem to want to atomize fuel. I have an idea to improve it, will try when there’s time.

I got a lot of comments, mostly either from people who have a bucket and wanted to show me theirs on their phone (I think I was the only one at the show though), or from people who knew I was putting the car together but hadn’t seen it on the road. The most common questions were what’s going on with the battery setup and how it worked. As I was leaving, I got a few people come up and say nice things about the car, which was cool. I took only a few pictures, hands down the best display of talent there was over in Marty Strode’s corner.



The body seems really solid, we’ve had it on and off a couple times now and it doesn’t seem to care. The door gaps are the same as when I first cut them in, far from perfect and in need of improvement before paint, but stable. Driving the car, the door latches rattle a bit on the striker pins, I’ll have to figure something out there. The tonneau cover also rattles quite a bit, so I haven’t been driving with it on. It will probably be good after upholstery.

I was pretty beat, got home and took a nap. I’ll get some pictures of small updates shortly.

 

First couple pics - relocated the switch panel to final location, made a mounting bracket and left some spare wire to carry power over to future build-out.

This time, I made some considerations for the individual terminals, specifically for the headlight switch. They are so close together, more than once I popped a fuse switching from park to low etc. I used some large shrink wrap to give the tight clearance terminals individual boots to keep them separated. Seems to be good now.

Re-did reverse and brake switch harness , with a disconnect prior to going through the floor, so that small harness stays with the ch***is upon body removal. No pictures of this, but it’s 3-wires.

Re-did all wiring going into the board. I tied each switch wiring separately for troubleshooting and maintenance later on.

I also drilled some drain holes in the under seat areas. While the body was off on my back patio, we got some rain and it was obvious that was gonna be a problem!



Reconfigured fuel lines for byp*** regulator using braided nylon hose.

 

So Tim, if a container were to show up in your driveway, and it was from the east coast, and it was full of another T, would you accept the shipment? Asking for a friend…

 

Oh, and all the parts to finish it…

 

Man that looks like a heck of a gathering! Glad you were able to make it

 

It’s usually pretty good! I used to live within walking distance and it’s awesome to wake up and see SE Portland filled with hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and trucks. I only took a handful of photos, but there was quite the turnout. I’d guess 10-15 city blocks.

 

Outstanding.

 

Forgot another small detail- I’ve seen gl*** T buckets at shows and online with the dash sagging due to the weight of the gauges. Mine is one of those that does that, or will do that I should say. I had thought about ways to solve this until one day it dawned on me that I could just drill/tap the bottom of the windshield frame to help hold everything together. Just doing that alone eliminated some rattling while driving. I was really hoping to get the dash back in, but that wasn’t in the cards this time around. Anyway, if anyone out there has a full diaper dash, try this out:

 

Adds a few more fasteners to the frame for those extracurricular speed runs, too!
Not that they will hold at Texas Mile speeds.
example of the mounts for a standard windshield post.
https://tbucketeer.com/threads/molding-windshield-posts.20061/

I have a feeling that more than a few came out of the mold or set up sitting in stock that way too, not just gauge weight.

Another way to make yours more weather resistant.

 

You know @Moriarity is going to ask you if it’s weird driving without a dash. Ha ha
Dan

 

Weird? Yes. Is it still fun? Also yes.



Trust me, I am at the top of the list for people who want to see the dash back in the car. It’s something I plan to sort out soon-ish.

 

Some slight foreshadowing here, but I am shooting for a longer trip in the T, and that’s coming up quick! Many of the nice-to-have items on the punch list have been deprioritized for the next big push, but one that I wanted to take care of was the fuel tank vent. Initially I had a vented cap, and that was it, which worked ok-ish. The inside of the bed (and whatever was in there) with the tonneau on would smell like gas, though. The Tanks drop-in fuel pump ***embly has provisions for a tank vent, but this ended up being a source of leaks capped off (not capped well keep in mind), and with the battery right underneath the vent, I wanted to address this.

Tonneau cover issues: when driving, the tonneau cover was rattling at every bump. Another thing that bothered me with the tonneau cover was filling the tank. It made filling a little annoying. For these reasons, I removed the tonneau cover shortly after getting the car on the road.

Awhile back, I devised a way to extend my filler neck through the tonneau, which would allow fill-ups to happen without getting into the bed. This also allows me to strap some luggage to the tonneau and store other small items in the bed. I don’t remember if I shared some of this like a year or two ago or not.

Yet another issue is unknown fuel range. I have a 7.5gal tank FULL. That’s not confidence inspiring for a long trip. I would ***ume I could pull off high teens mpg around town and low twenties on the highway at steady cruise, but I don’t know this for sure (yet). The other day I was scheming things out and it just so happens one of the 2-gal tanks laying around fits perfectly under the tonneau in the bed.

So anyway, this is a little ****tered because it’s late and I’m supposed to be sleeping, but I wanted to capture this before I forgot. Objectives were comfortable fuel range, and fuel tank vent. With the range out of the way, fuel tank vent comes next. I made a cap adapter that routes the vent lines up to the cap (high point, and it’s likely the vent line going across the tank is not needed, but I needed a way to route potentially sloshing fuel from leaking near the battery, so I figured - connect to filler neck and not have to worry). Vent line routes down from cap through a 2psi purge valve, down under the bed to a charcoal canister from Tanks Inc. with a K&N filtered breather. I got the canister with the heat shield in case I want to try running exhaust out the back someday. So this system will keep the fumes out of the bed and the hydrocarbons out of the environment. I read that 20% of evaporative emissions comes from a vented to atmosphere fuel tank. So this is me attempting to make that better. Anyway, pictures:

Edit: I also glued some rubber welting to the tonneau cover to help rattling, which worked very well!

 

Good stuff, Tim. You did cover the filler and tonneau.
I will mention early evap systems had a high point between the tank and the canister. An anti-slosh so liquid had a very tough time getting in. Tough in your case, hope the valve helps. Early systems would also fail sometimes, causing the canister to fill up with fuel. Just like a coolant overflow, plan for dripping even when it should not do so.
Mine has a 5 gallon cell, no gauge and feeds from the back at the high end. I filled up yesterday and could get 4.7 in. It started stumbling about 100 feet from the station. With the old setup, I was getting empty at around 25-40 miles! Hoping the new setup gets a lot more MPG! Still need to work on that.

 

Well thought out and packaged. Just as I would have expected.

 

Welp, this weekend was a learning experience. To spill the beans, I was hoping to take the car to Boise over Memorial Day weekend (where I grew up), which is 425mi (one way) of interstate at 65-70mph. I was working on the list to make that happen, and planned a trip to Eugene and back (120mi one way) as a test run this weekend. I have a close friend from college down there who’s really into hot rods and Corvettes, and I wanted to show him the T and see what he’s been up to. I found a spot for a scissor jack, some spare parts, a tool roll with everything needed to strip the car down to a bare ch***is lol, a pair of coveralls, a 2gal gas can… really pretty impressive I must say. I then mounted a new camera to shoot a time lapse, mainly to see how it works. I also wired/mounted a phone charger, which worked out nicely… no more looking between my legs at the phone on the floor to see how fast I’m going. Lastly, I bought a helmet in an attempt to keep from being beat up by the wind. Anyway, pictures (suitcase was test fit for Boise trip, didn’t make the trip to Eugene):



Drove the T to Eugene today. On the way down it shut off 5 separate times on i5… was able to get it going again before needing to pull over… best I can figure is the intake and carbs are iced up and they don’t like cold air like that. Coming home at 60*F this afternoon it had no issues. The helmet has a ton of wind noise. I can’t even hear the exhaust over the wind. I feel like I got punched in the ears for the entire trip. Also developed a sizable oil leak out of the back of the intake. But good news is the car drove great, and got 24mpg with the air fuel meter telling me it’s still pretty rich. So that makes me really happy. Theoretically 26-27mpg is conservatively possible at 65mph based on the mixture being 12% rich at cruise.

But for the reasons above, I’m gonna leave the T at home and ride with my brother to Boise. I’d want a heater, a top, side curtains ideally, and to have the engine a little more sorted out before taking a trip like that. It could be done now, but it would be pretty hectic.

I’m glad I did the trip, I learned a lot about the car. It drives with two fingers on the wheel and basically idles at 65 lol. I wouldn’t hesitate to hop in and drive to the coast right now, but that’s an hour and a half at 55mph, not 7hrs at 70mph.

Once I have time and figure out how to get footage off the camera and uploaded, I’ll post here.

 

Sounds like a fun trip even if it means you figured out the long trip isn’t in the cards yet.

 

Gives you a better appreciation for @BigJoeArt and his antics!
A pair of goggles and a hooded top were my armament over the weekend, but yeah, it's a lot of wind.
Great MPG, I hope to get there. I should pull the plugs today and check. Stoic is 14.7, it should cruise fine there or even a bit leaner. Not like you can hear pinging, though.
Bet you got your fair share of thumbs up.

 

Indeed. I was happy to be home, but I woke up this morning wanting to do it again. Some more tweaking and longer trips will be within reach!

I thought about Joey several times over the trip, as well as Derek from Vice Grip. Both huge inspirations to just get out there and see what happens, then deal with whatever comes along as you go.

@BigJoeArt - what’s your recipe for wind noise mitigation, and what about temperature? When I left yesterday morning it was in the high 40s, and by the time I got an hour into that, I was pretty much frozen solid, despite wool socks, thermals, a hoodie, a thick coat, and some gloves.

 

Well, this is what he's shown.

I've tried ear muffs over a hooded top, it does help but still isn't quiet.
My beard got whipped pretty good on my short jaunts, I'd suggest looking into motorcycle stuff for gear ideas, even though the helmet wasn't optimal.
https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=Motorcycle mask

 

Well to start Joey is a sadist who loves cramming himself into the smallest car possible lol.

he wears over the ear hearing protection, added those black wing windows you don’t even notice anymore and has, for the size of the car, a very robust heater.

on his first nearly cross country trip he said the wind noise was almost Unbearable with out the wing windows/ wind deflectors

 

Nice route.

 

I believe it is the Masochist side, not Sadist! Kind of like enjoying Lucas Electrics.