how to build a T bucket for under $3000 book

Rob, I'm very flattered you will be noting the rerelease of my book in R&C. Even more so that you've likewise toiled in the world of T-Bucket building.
I'm really grateful for the support that you and others here on the HAMB have shown for my work. In turn, I will continue to contribute to the hot rod building body of knowledge. Thanks, Chester

 

Back in the 50s I loved the small magazines R&C had. You had 3 project cars, the R&C Dream truck, the thunderbird and the 32 roadster with a wrap-around windshield and custom front end. I never saw this roadster finished, was it ever finished? The thunderbird was beautiful, but I don't think there were many people willing to cut up one of these beautys. The R&C Dream truck however was the most complete series of how-tos that any magazine has ever produced to this day over 50 years later. The way you guys sectioned the cab, carrying the section through the hood, removed the ugly-duckling from this early chevy cab and produced one of the most beautiful trucks ever built. Is there any chance You could compile this series in an e-book? It would be well worth whatever you asked for it, as there are still millions of these trucks waiting to be fixed up. You guys covered the RIGHT way to section, chop the top, lower, c-frame, install a V-8,etc. If this is impossible to recreate from your archives, could you tell me what issues had the sectioning and top chop in them so I can look for them on E-bay? With todays $99 mig welders and 4 1/2" Die Grinders a lot of people might tackle these difficult but thanks to R&C well documented jobs.
Chester.

 

The HAMB is to hot rodding (in a good way, mind you) as Facebook is to old girlfriends and old classmates you hoped you'd never run into, ever again...

Chester, I'll see what I can come up with in our archives--or what remains after all the owner changes and editor/employee swaps Peterson endured, not to mention a less-than-stellar post-Peterson archival system. I've found that Google is better at keeping track than anyone else!

 

BTW, the couch was really nothing more than a set of cushions...albeit cushions done in a rather pricey deadstock fabric and some fancy-schmancy dyed leather for an even rarer (more rare?) factory dyed-green rataan pretzel thing! Unfortunately, neither of the fabrics took well to repeated spills of beer and baby formula (not concurrent with each other...in case CPS is listening!), so like the 'Bucket, it too has been sent down the road. I think I'd much rather have the T back...

 

"Did you see the post from 'Spooky' with a picture of his PINK garage? If that was in my neighborhood, I wouldn't walk past it unless I had a cork in my ass!”

“So was her mother, who could never seem to tear her eyes away from my crotch. The barracuda is a beautiful fish”.

"Everybody says they're an expert arc welder, but most of them look like they're stacking chickenshit with chopsticks when they try to do it."

Welcome ChestersAlive, While I don't forsee building a t bucket anytime soon, I hope you'll continue to post on the hamb. Your humor is priceless!

 

I like the comment cautioning against cutting 3/8" steel plate with a hacksaw, unless "your skin turns green and you pop out of your clothes when you get angry". Funny stuff. I also like the plans for building your own shifter.

 

Hey Chester, any tips on fitting other types of drum brakes to front spindles? Discs stop good(not looking to start a disc vs. drum debate), but I like drums on a traditional open-wheel car.

 

OK, I'm confused. I decided to buy it based on all the feed back. Clicked the buy now, sent my paypal, now how do I down load it? What did I do wrong?

 

It should be pretty simple. Have you checked your email for the download link?
Just click on the link and when the download box pops up, click on the button to save it to your computer.

 

I got it, thanks. The email came after I went to bed, apparently I'm still impatient. Thanks, Jack

 

Richard D: Thats simple! Just use the originals. Its probably a ford axle. Dennis Carpenter carries all the rebuild parts for antique Ford brakes. Thats if he's still in business, I've been out of it for a while. If its pre- 39 with mecanical brakes, throw them away, get the complete brake system (drum) from a 60's Chevy and make one of the sleeve adapters as described in the book to adapt the chevy hub to whatever spindle you have. Make sure the flexible hose will clear the radius rods when the wheels are turned. Hope this helps. .............. Chester

 

RF: I'll try for the third and final time to post this. Back to the R&C Dream truck. You guys built that truck from the ground up, from field to finish, using raw materials and documenting the build in clear terms for anyone who wasn't afraid to f--k up a few times and try again. And in so doing you created the most beatiful truck to ever turn a wheel. It has never been equalled to this day, 50 years later. There are still millions of these trucks (48 - 55 Chevy & GMC) out there crying to be saved from the scrap iron people and plenty of people like me who aren't afraid to dive into a project like this with our $99 mig welders and 4 1/2" die grinders. My point is this Rob, you have the knowledge, the computor savvy, and the authority to reproduce this build My question is this: Is R&C up to the challenge of digging up this information and making it available to us?
PS I hope you castrated the SOB responsible for wrecking it! Chester

 

Thanks Chester. I actually have several sets of juice brakes, but I have more early Ford axles than I have brakes; I was wanting to get options out there for guys who have Ford axles with no brakes, and may have some other drum setup laying around.

 

I'd love to see a return of the Dream Truck, maybe "Son of Dream Truck", or "Dream Truck 2: Lead VS. Bondo"...

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I've been working with Chester Greenhalgh the past few months to make the eBook version of "How to Build a T-Bucket Roadster for Under $3000" available. For the past decade, I've been planning, collecting parts for, and building an unconventional (non-Fad) T-Bucket. In the course of my research, I kept hearing about Chester's book, had no luck finding a copy, and finally plunked down $125 (which I thought was quite a deal) to purchase a copy on eBay. I've found it invaluable in the depth of detail it contains and, like many of you, I've had many a chuckle as a result of Chester's offbeat sense of humor.

I was fortunate to cross paths with the elusive Chester and when I asked him about why it was so damn hard to get a copy of his book coincidentally he indicated he was interested in re-introducing his original self-published effort in a digital format. Being an admirer of his work, and having a marketing background, I was glad to help in whatever way I could. We set things up so that it could be economically purchased by anybody and, unique to publishing, Chester gets the majority of the proceeds to help fund his hot rod building in his retirement.

We really want to thank all the HAMBers who have not only given Chester a warm welcome here but also supported his efforts by purchasing the eBook.

This forum's a two way street and, in that regard, I wanted to share something you may find of interest. Earlier in this thread, I posted a pic of Chester's traditional flathead-powered T-Bucket.

That build was inspired by a Dodge bucket Chester's older brother built in 1957 for $50. Chester loved the car, but when his brother got in a financial bind he sold it for $100 without telling Chester. The loss of that bucket inspired Chester's own red flathead T-Bucket, which began his T-Bucket career.

Well, Chester's gotten so jazzed by the excellent HAMB response to his earlier hot rod building book that he's working on another and we wanted to share a little snippet from it that's pertinent to what the HAMB is all about: the story of his brother's hot rod!

In Chester's words:

ROOTS -- This is Where it All Started

I’m the little guy in this 1957 photo. The roadster was my brother’s. (That’s him with the dog). It was a 1922 Dodge bucket on a Model A frame with a 1940 Ford power train and running gear



I had my first car when I was 13, a Model -A roadster channeled 12” over the frame. It never did have a motor, but me and my buddies would sit in it until the wee hours of the morning talking and dreaming of the incredible cars we were going to build. I don’t know about them, but I’ve certainly had my share, and the chapter on ‘ Oddities’ reveals only a few.

Not ‘ California’, definitely not magazine -quality, just a hell of a lot of fun to drive. It wasn’t fast enough to take to the drags, but it could leave twenty feet of rubber anywhere, anytime! This was Hot-Rodding in the other 49 states for us poor boys that didn’t have access to California’s gold mine of used parts. We used a $20 1940 Ford sedan for a donor car and picked the Dodge body from the ‘T’ bodies on the ranch because it had a windshield with glass. We completed the car for under $50. No chrome, no fancy paint. Anyone out there wants to tell me that this wasn’t a real hot rod -- you need to wake up and smell what you’re shoveling! I guess today you might even call it a ‘Rat Rod’!


Again, thanks to the many HAMBers whose support of his work has helped inspire Chester to sit down at the PC (instead of the old typewriter) to share some more of his rod-building experience and insights!

 

Thank you Goober for giving me the opportunity to own the book myself.

Chester, when you're next book is done, I'll buy it too, if only to help support the guy who got me interested in T's in the first place.

 

hey chester...
i read the brake section in the ebook and i don't see anything about a drum brake adapter.

i see the adapter for the disc brakes...

same animal?

 

I never tried to adapt drum brakes to an axle that already had drum brakes. Kinda like pissin in the wind actually. I worried about adapting disc brakes to the early axles. Its so easy to have your hubs redrilled to accept a different bolt pattern, also cheaper than machining an adapter.
Chester.

 

you were the one who said drum...
not me.

 

I'm stoked this is available for $10. Thanks guys!

 

Hi Chester - I think I owned your red T-Bucket back in 2004. I'm trying to locate some pictures. By the time I got it, the exhaust was more stock, the dash was replaced (with Corian countertop!) and it had a Model T steering wheel. I'm trying to find some pictures, unfortunately they are stuck on a dead computer. The flathead was consuming a lot of oil and the '39 Ford 3 speed needed to be rebuilt. I decided to sell because I had too much going on in my life to redo the engine/trans.

It was a great little car, fun to lock up the brakes. The molded frame was a work of art. It had a fake quick change on the rear end. The bed had a spun aluminum tank and expanded metal on the bottom.

I bought it from a guy in Ft. Wayne, IN and sold it to a guy down south. I wish I had known the history back then, I never would have sold it!

Jeff

 

alteredpilot: post 67 you wanted drums, post 17 "same animal?' It could be. the diagram of the sleeve adapters has all the inside and outside diameters. You need to check these with whatever setup you want to use and adjust as needed. Its easier to check the spindle of the donor car with calapers and a tape than mess with a greasy drum. When I recieve a question concerning a swap I haven't done yet, the best I can answer is the way I would tackle it if I was to do it. Adapting drum brakes to a pre-39 axle should be easier than adapting discs.Simply redrill the backing plate to match the spindle and adapt the drum to the spindle. Chester

 

I agree - great book, and a great testament to American capitalism...
.

 

You noticed it too!??! I thought I was hallucinating! That is cool as shit!

 

Thanx for doing that.
.

 

x2 good stuff!
also bought the ebook just too cool!

 

cool book, plunked down my digital $9.99, and combing through it now.

 

Thanks guys, for the nice comments. After all these years, it's really rewarding for Chester to learn there's a whole new generation of hot rod scratch builders who are interested in building something cool looking they can get on the road on a beer budget!

P.S. This week, we started experiencing delays in the autogenerated emails with download links sent to purchasers and those requesting the free chapter. We set up a "Thank You" page that purchasers are directed to after their PayPal transaction so they can download the eBook immediately from their uniquely encrypted download link. We also started manually responding with email download links while we isolated the problem (we're car, not computer, guys). We've found that the problem is an overloaded server, which is what happens on a low-buck shared server. So, we're in the process of upgrading to eliminate this temporary problem at TBucketPlans.com. We believe everybody has been able to receive their eBook download -- but if not let us know at info@tbucketplans.com. We really want to thank the Hambers again for their overwhelming support of the reintroduction of Chester's book.

 

Chester wanted me to post a special HAMB holiday greeting from him ...


Yes, slightly deranged but who isn't?

 

Ha! That book just sounds like a challange to me!
I'll bet Dollars-to-doughnuts I could build a T for under $1,500 easily enough.
After all, I did my entire lincoln for under $1,300.
Anybody who spends more than that just to get a jalopy running is doing something wrong.
-Now seeing to it that it's easy on the eyes; that's a different story all together.

'corse, I live in Idaho, where rust buckets are literally lying 'round in fields