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

When the lake style headers and the exhaust are done on my RPU I'm going to move on to the windshield and top.
I have the Mr. Roadster 4" chopped windshield frame and I believe it will be good.
I just have to cut down the very nice set of original posts I have for it.
I'll post eventually, I too will be shooting for a nice top.
After all, us guys like nice tops don't we ?

 

Starting to notice just how many mid-sixties era T buckets have verticle windshield posts. Dig the Man-A-Fre, with four, count 'em, FOUR Cal-Custom scoops! Sixties coolness in abundance...

 

And, clear plug wires! Neat car, although it's starting to bump up against 70's garishness, particularly the stay puff marshmallow interior.

 

Built my lakes headers today, next comes figuring out the undercar exhaust system.

 

Sweet!

 

VERY...VERY......NICELY done! I hope you don't mind, but have saved the pics in my reference file for future use.

 

Blue One

Why under car mufflers? Just stick a baffle in the collector. Or not. Looks good.

 

I much prefer the vertical windshield myself.

Steve

 

I really don't want to have the exhaust noise right in front of where I sit, nor do I want to breath all the CO.

I'd rather have the exhaust run under the car through a pair of porters and out the back.

The dbs. and the exhaust won't be in my face .

 

Strait up on some rods works great. Windsheild angle is for sure a key part of look,I like some angle,but not as much as the angled T brackets that are being made now. So when my son picked them for his T,we played with them a bit by not mounting them as designed,had to mod the 23T body outerdash corners to mount them at a point about 1/2 way between strait up an the layback they were designed with. }OK go get your MMC ears hat,,,,Not a 23 in pic/its a 26/7,The photo is a good one off the net{I like it a lot] but it also shows a very nice windsheild angle,not too much.

 

Blue One,

There's a guy in town here that has an awesome set up on his '32 roadster, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it came with a matching awesome price tag since they were originally made for the marine industry! It uses a 3" or so thick stainless steel block shaped exhaust manifold that bolts on between the head and the header. It has a dual set of passages (I tried to find a pic of it on the net, but no luck.) and in silent mode the exhaust exists out the bottom of the manifold through an under car exhaust. In open mode, there is an electric motor that slides a gate (on the outer edge of the cutout block) that opens (or blocks off) the passages for all four ports (one per side) leading out to the headers. I realize you probably don't want to sped $1500.00 to $2000.00 on a set of cutouts (I'm sure most of us (especially me!) can't afford that! But my thought is, would a set of stock Ram's Horn manifolds (or something similar that has the exhaust outlet where you need it) have enough meat to just mill the outer surface flat large enough to match your header flanges? You could then just grind out the area of the ports to match your headers, and since (I'm assuming here, and we all know what that means) since you'll be running caps on the headers to force the exhaust through the under car system anyways, you won't need any kind of cutout mechanism.

 

Blownfuel; you just described either a repop casting w/outer flanges added, or a good mod to make.
AS to Mr Barlow's above, I keep looking at the pic, all I can see is a gorgeous Mouseketeer!

 

Wow! I haven't seen that one before! Neat! And, I'm diggin' on a bronze/ gold kinda paint scheme lately too. I think I like the white pained frame a bunch as well. I'm not a huge fan of the vertical windshield thing, though. I have always much preferred the slightly laid back '23-'35 tall post version myself.

Just for those that didn't know, the vertical short post type was OEM stuff from '17-'22, and the later laid back tall post stuff '23-'25. Thought I might drop that in here...

 

Total Performance used to offer a system that was very similar to this back in the seventies as they were coming up to full steam. Used to be that many of the small New England and east coast states in general wouldn't allow functional side exit exhaust, and disallowed stuff like hoodless engine compartments, not to mention fenderless. There was an article in an early seventies Rod Action magazine road testing a "legalized" east coast T-bucket and featured one of T.P.s earlier cars. Had all this on it plus a plexiglass hood and fenders...

 

She was, wasn't she! Her or Pamala Tiffin could easily had their way with me had I been around in those day!

 

I'd love to see pictures of that setup. I have a mission for you, find the guy and get details and pictures.
Sounds like something pretty unique.
Larry.

 

Pictures, I want pictures

 

Hey, Chip;
I'm rather partial to the gold/bronze T myself. I like a lot of the styling cues, & near perfect.
I'm noticing how the exhaust pipes running parallel w/the lower edge of the body, vertical windshield (love the look), white diamond-tufted upholstery (it seems to allow you to sit 'down' in the bucket, instead of almost on top of the bucket - like the red one behind it), & the rake all work together. I'm thinking that the rake is what lets it work. The only item that looks sorta-not-right, is the angle of the bed top rail. It seems to be at a different plane than the Ts' lower body line. Ts like Multys' that had the windscreen laid back - & I also love that look - were fairly level compared to the ground. The latest Total Perf version that had a lot of rake to the body, + the w/s leaned back, just don't seem to quite "right". By the same token, there was in the late 60's-early 70's, a bright pink (early) T built (using a stude v8 & white interior I think), w/a vertical w/s, & a lot of rake; that looked like it was 'broken'. Imho, Norms' kookieT fits this category as well. I'm suspecting that too many different angles compete for the eyes' attention, & the brain gets scrambled messages. Or, at least mine does. Guess it's easier to armchair the look of the build. I kinda like the looks of the earlier ~'15 bodies. Not necessarily the Dan Woods style - although those are neat in their own way. John at TBucketPlans has a nice write-up about the " '15 Tbucket bodies" :http://www.tbucketplans.com/1915-t-bucket-body/
& that T is also really nice.
Marcus...

 

Hey, Blue One;
I remember reading about that, may even have the article, but no idea where it could be. As I remember, the clear plexi fan cover, clear plexi mini front& rear fenders, & flat wire basket anti-touch cover for the headers, was really rather tacky looking. Don't remember a full clear plexi hood . Somewhat like a kid in school might come up with. I realize it was to give the illusion of no fenders + meet PA (?) laws, but still... Did see a T w/most of the plexi stuff on it that had the plexi tinted candy red to match or compliment the paint. Looked good. Wish I could find the article to post.
Marcus...

 

I'll dig it up and scan it as soon as I can.

 

I haven't seen a setup that bolts to the head, but there are many different electric exhaust cutouts available. Quick Time Performance is the first one that comes to mind.

http://www.quicktimeperformance.com/QTEC/

 

I am ok with the slanted ones on some cars, but I am really starting to notice how many T buckets from the '64-68ish time frame had the verticle windshields. It really seems to almost be a hallmark of T-buckest from that era.

 

I was just looking at the red one behind it, it has so much body rake the slanted posts actually end up verticle with the horizon line...Not that I'm saying I like the look, mind you...

 

I have always felt the earlier round-top windshields were simpler and cleaner looking than the later ones with the separate posts and frames.

 

Hey, Chip;
How'd you fare in the last round of rain? I was in WI on Fri/Sat, & w/the weather news (CNN?) on Sat am, I was wondering if you needed flotation tires for the T... Hope you didn't get wacked too bad.

Hey, FG;
My point... .

Marcus...

 

Ok, time for a little Trivial Pursuit for hot rod guys. Recently, I picked up Jack Stewarts book on the LA Roadsters, there are a shitload of mid-sixties T-buckets with verticle windshield posts in there. This car is famous in a way, but I have never seen a photo of it until I picked up this book. Lets say its "often discussed but rarely seen". It plays a key role in the story of what is arguably the most famous 3 window of all time. Theres also a tie-in with the central theme for my T-bucket project that I am gathering parts for.
Ok, so three major hints, enough so that a guy who really knows his hot rod history, and really puts his thinking cap on, should be able to figure out whos car this is without ever having even seen it. youall got 24 hours, and its open book, so lets see who can suss this out. I should probably disqualify anyone who just looks it up in Jack Stewarts book, but any other resources are fair game, and this bucket has been mentioned in one of the mainstream publications that I'd bet pretty much all of you read within the last 10 years, but there was NO PHOTO published. Ok, so now you have FOUR major clues... Let the games begin!!
Oh and what do you win?? Why the awe and respect of your fellow T-bucket fanatics, of course! Man, you cant buy THAT shit at ANY price!!

 

That's Doyle Gammel's T, His dad was a machinist/mechanic at Moon's. I would sometimes go with them when they ran the Mooneyes dragster in 61-62.

For Chip, Doyle's T was Orange.

Mick

 

Took me all damned afternoon to remember the name attached to that Pink "T" you were talking about, but Don Audel out of Portland was the guy. It was actually from the late fifties, and was updated a bit in the late sixties, and that's how it appeared in American Rodder about twenty years ago. The deal on that one was the body was raked on the frame, or wedge channeled. That's one of those things I could just never warm up to on a T-Bucket. Some how the non 90 degree angle between the firewall and frame rails just doesn't do it for me, and for the reasons you state. Too many angles compete and you lose the entire deal, in my humble opinion.

Thanks for makin' me think this afternoon!

 

Yup, Doyle's. Now for the hard part, what else was traded WITH the Deuce to get the "T"? Can you image a deuce three window being traded for a T-Bucket in today's world?

 

Woh! Right outta the box! Yes, it was Pearl orange, Doyle Gammel traded Dick Bergren for the brown chopped 3 window that became known as the "Doyle Gammel coupe", and Bergren threw in a 650 Triumph and a Triumph TR-3 as well! Guess he wanted that t-bucket pretty bad. Believe it was also in "Bikini Beach Party" while Bergren owned it. The tie-in with my Shelby themed T-bucket was Gammels presence at Moon when Carroll Shelby was building the first Cobra there.This car was also discussed in the article on the Gammel coupe (really should probably be known as the "Bergren Coupe, considering the builders name is the one that is supposed to "stick") in TRJ #29. Lurker Mick, you are are now officially "the man", for the next few days or so, anyway...