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

Saw that yesterday, while it looks well built and nicely finished, I think they got most of it wrong. Just my opinion of course.

 

Other than the body sitting on top of the frame instead of a channel, windshield too short and too much lean to it, and the front end being to high and the body should be red oxide with a hugger orange frame, there isn't a thing wrong with it. Aren't opinions great..

 

Rake....Rake....Rake.......

 

Don't know why it's the wrong kind of magazine, but that white frame doesn't seem user friendly for a car I'd own. I like to drive. A LOT. So, a white frame spells show car to me. Worthless on the street. Well, I guess I could spend Sunday cleaning up from driving Monday thru Saturday, but I like to drive Sundays too. Same with a white engine block. Doesn't make good street sense to me.

I'll wait till I get my copy, but things I'd change on that car are, rake, windshield angle (way too much) and that white frame. Those wheels have me thinking I should go that route, instead of the WWW's I was saving for. Hmmm......

 

That car can't really decide what it is or what era it's from. It's a pretty common problem, and honestly something that I'm trying to help stamp out with this very thread.

See, by running the body unchanneled, it's trying to be a modified. Yet, the frame and lots of it's bits and pieces say T-Bucket. Also, Modifieds were rendered obsolete in '46 by the SCTA, and turned into the streamliner class, but the detailing of this car (white frame, chrome reverse wheels, white interior,) and the choice of powerplant suggests late fifties to early sixties build. The rake of the winshield and the exhaust throws an unexpected modern curve ball into the deal too.

So, what if you took all these components and channeled the body, got rid of that damn '28-'29 grill shell in favor of a chrome "T" unit, chopped some '23-'25 windshield posts about 3 or 4" ad did something else with the exhaust? You'd end up with a neat little T-Bucket with some fairly heavy early sixties cues, that's what!

Now, let's for fun go the other way. Leave the profile as it sits, unchanneled and all. paint the body and frame a fairly demure color like black or dark blue, or heck, even red. Round up a set of Ford 16" steel wheels, paint them black and put the 7.00X16" firestones on the back and the 5.00X16" on the front. Put a hood on it, and build an exhaust system that would be a single 3" pipe down the length of each side ending at the back of the body. Again, ash can the '28-'29 grill shell (for anything BUT a '28-'29!) and throw a deuce on there this time, or a "T" if you will. Stand the windshield up, but keep it short. Change the interior to black or oxblood. Now what do you have? Well, as long as you don't open the hood and show off the small block, you have a pretty accurate immediate postwar modified!

See, it's really not the components you use, it's more the things you chose to go around them and the details you chose to compliment the whole thing that sets the tone for what a car IS! mixing them up and scattering them throughout the same car is seldom ever a winning deal.

Same

 

Hold off on the dirt tracks for a bit.... I just found a pretty major separation in my left rear slick and will have to run my Halibrands and Dirt tracks for a bit on this thing 'till I can afford replacement slicks. Not sure how dirts will look on it, I'm guessing slightly "fish out of water", but damn, I'll get to put some time on my Halis!

 

Well, not much to report right now. I went over to Elpolacko's and tried to use his living room sized blast cabinet yesterday, but it was out of order at the time. So, being of low dollar, a strong back and weak mind, I set off to merry olde Home Depot to fetch a bag of sand. 30 grit sand procured, I broke out my arsenal of blasting/derusting tools - I have a harbor freight medium cabinet (about three inches too small, boo hiss!) and another Harbor freight piece that I lovingly refer to as my "Playskool my First Sandblaster", that is a small hand held gravity feed kinda deal. Well, long story short, I have one side done to show for my efforts and a mild asthma attack. But, after a coat of VHT ceramic satin white header paint, I do have a bitchin lookin' left header! and for those that think of VHT as hokum schmokum that won't last but an hour or two, I present my Honda kinda drag bike who's pipes I painted about five years ago. It's a bit dirty from sitting over the summer, but I'll fix that soon!

The secret is PREP! Sand blast those puppies to clean, no rust, and no left over paint, clean well with acetone, and shoot exactly as recommended. Then, as quick as they dry cure them. Best to bake, but now I notice they give an on engine cure method too.

 

Here we are picking this guys car apart (needs a rake, a channel, ugly gap between engine and radiator which is mounted too high, windshield looks out of place on this style, mixed decades) but he gets the last laugh. His rod has a feature in a national magazine. Something all of us would love to have. Goes to show you magazine editors aren't always the best judge of what looks good or is right. Especially with T buckets. This looks to me like it is just a "Kit Kar". But I'm sure magazines do so many features on kit cars because of their advertisers. Their "bread and butter". It seems they just look for something new and well finished that jumps off the page. Sometimes I think it's who you know or just being in the right place at the right time. And I'm sure some guys promote their rods. I have to admit I'm not above some of that.

Gary

 

It has been my experience that you can cure the paint on the engine but it is a slow process. What works for me is you fire up the motor, when the paint just starts to smoke turn off the motor. Repeat as often as it takes for the paint not to smoke. Paint on my headers have been on there about 4500 miles and is still the paint that came on the headers from the factory.
Good luck
Fuzzy

 

DeBenitictus inspiration again.

 

dropped axle....dropped axle....dropped axle

 

Pretty much exactly what the can describes. I've used it before many times and followed the directions to the "T" and had excellent results.

 

Love what your doing with your "T"
I've liked T-buckets even before building my first hot rod in the late 50's,and enjoy the vast amount of info on this thread,most seems right,some not what I saw but I'm in and been in Florida ,Ga.. I had a dayly driver that morefid in to a full custom over a short time back then aswell, when I was working on my 28 roadster that ended up more like a "A"bucket.
Funny how there are things I've done over the years on rods that are not always what I would of,if not for those parts just being handy or having nothing other then those parts at time.

Photos below;My son asked if I could give him a hand building a T-bucket with him, SUPER,so we did a few years ago with a mid 60's to 70 vib,but bigger tires we had on rear,he's been having great fun with it and won most show he drove too as well,its never seen a trailer. Thing is in the parts we got , buying up two failed projects ,the rims he and I liked already had rear tires that were way too wide to new ,but used them anyway tell they wareout and buy some smaller rear older style later,the car is styled earlyer then those fat tires,yet most seem to love them things. I'm still trying to too but I'm old,yet they do feel great when the gas goes open. This one was in deed built my old way,not a kit of any kind and every thing done at home,built motor,frame,bone's,headlight stands,paint and upholstery and so on!

 

Sorry Chip if this is unrelated or out of the scope o this thread but when I saw this photo of the "Uncertain T" with the body off It just blew me away. Sorry about the quality of the photo but I couldn't figure out how to move it from facebook to here without taking a picture of the screen.

There is just so much right about this car without the body. But even wild body had a T cowl. It is probably one of the best examples of a '60s show T out there.

The engine and frame sit so nice, dragster type torsion bar suspension and wheels in front, Reverse (upside down) parallel leaf springs in back, A couple of key pieces on the dark red frame painted a cream yellow, Not too much chrome. In some ways it is understated. I just think the guy had an artists eye.

You know if you lean the steering column back a little and put a full T body on this chassis you have the almost perfect middle to late '60s T bucket.

Thanks for the indulgence, Gary

 

What?

 

I might be wrong but I think if you look again and think about it all the weight is on the frame and when it bounces it is down making the room between the frame and spring wider.

 

Man, the piranha's got let loose on that poor guys T Bucket. Maybe he didn't have a theme or build period. Maybe he just wanted a nice, well put together car. Yea, there's things I said I'd change, if it were mine. But it's not. My car doesn't have a theme or build period. I just decided to build what I could with the resources I had. Maybe that's what this guy did. He succeeded.

There were things I had seen done by other builders and some I liked and some I didn't. I picked what I liked and went with it. Over time and after the accident, some things were changed and improved, but my T has always been what I like and that's it.

Until I decided to go to a stroker motor, I was going to buy a set of wide whites. Not to look "traditional or old school', but because I think my car needs something to even out the white body. Now, thanks to that picture, I think a set of chrome reverse might do the same thing. I'll see what my budget looks like for Christmas, then decide. No tradition or era involved. Just what I think looks right.

I love traditional cars or cars built to a certain era. It takes, time, money and LOTS of dedication, but I can't do it right now. So, I build what I think looks good according to what I learned in school about perspective, function and form.

My build era would be, a guy who loved T Buckets and had an opportunity to build one. Maybe that guy did the same thing. I'm sure he'd love to have us send him a check to have it rebuilt the way we think it should be. But if I were him, I'd shred the check and walk away, while using a few choice words to describe our opinions.

 

I agree. Remember, the guys in the 60's didn't try to replicate a car from 40 years prior and they didn't obsess about copying. They were being original.

I'm not a big fan of the orange one in the magazine but it is original.


In 10 years everybody will be copying the Fad T's.

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10 yrs. hell, there's a bunch doing that now !!
dave

 

Ha! Yeah I suppose, it's been 40 years. Being original is pretty tough thing to pull off. I do like the Fad T's.

Wonder what's gonna happen in 2053? A copy of a copy?

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Makes me wonder about Norms Kookie car. I've heard it said that when questioned about the car he didn't seem to know much about the details. Maybe that's because he was just having fun and pushing the boundaries of what existed. I doubt he looked back it time and looked at it as a standard. It was just a car in the right moment and people liked the originality of it. Then he moved on. And I suppose the people who are most knowledgeable are the people copying it.

Wonder what Ed Roth would be doing in 2013? Bet it would be original as hell and bet he would be using the modern technology. Orbitron was a forward looking experiment.

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On one level, I'm with you on the "T" in Street Rodder. Anybody has the right to make what they want out of what they want. Furthermore, when it's done, call it what ever they want. On the other hand, when stuff is done that is awkward or trying to be one era or another, it messes a bit with the world in general because it always seems to be held up as an example of "how it was". This is how our history gets rewritten and diluted. That does make me nuts!


I would NEVER walk around a guys car at a show and say "well, this is wrong, that is wrong, this sucks", etc. If someone asks my opinion about something, I'll be as gentle as I can if it's negative. If he built it, he drove it, and he loves it, man all the merrier! I'm not dumb enough to think that everybody is or should be as obsessed with the past as I am, it just takes a minute or two to sink in every now and then that they actually aren't. I always have to take a minute and say that the stuff I say and write about ARE MY OPINIONS, although they are fairly educated opinions. Ever meet that dork that can't enjoy a special effect in a movie 'cause it goes against physics, and he just HAS to explain that it does? That's me, kinda...


Now, do I think you should go with chrome reverse wheels on your car? Can you see my head bobbing up and down from there?! Hell yes! Speedway has the O.E.M. style in their catalog for about 150.00 a copy, although I'd probably call wheelkid at Rally America first to see if I could buy American made in the same price range first. I think you can. I really prefer that over wide whites myself, although I have kinda warmed to say a medium white on a chrome reverse in the last couple of years too.

Ya, it's looking like my car might be sporting a different tire and wheel combo for a short time that will not exactly be "time kosher", but damned cool. See, through a very good buddy/mentor of mine, I own a complete set of super early Halibrand "no Hole" 16" wheels from about '48 or so shod with a pair of 8.90X16" dirts on the rear, and 5.00X16 ribbed "implements on the front. These are not even close to correct for a T-Bucket in my humble opinion, but damn they are cool!!! I was given the opportunity of a life time to own them by payment plan/indentured servitude/soul sales by my buddy Ron Olmstead, and can never thank him enough.

 

Chip I can't say that no T bucket in the '60s ever had the wheels and tires you mention above. I think it will look kool as hell with them.

Yes Fred anybody can build whatever they want but they shouldn't read this thread because they might see their car and if it isn't pleasing to the eye it will picked apart. That is what this thread is all about. It started with Chip picking his own car apart. I really think WWW on chrome rims won't stand out against a white car. They will just blend in. But then again it is your car. Build what you want.

Well here you are. I could be wrong.

 

steel rebel,, ya know you are correct, i will delete my post, and thank you for making me think..(blame the drugs, cancer drugs, )

 

More eye candy.





From Jul. '65 Hot Rod.

 

Well one for me.

I know what you mean about drugs I'm just getting off of Vicodin after my heart surgery.

Hope your kidding about cancer. If not I hope the drugs are working.

 

multiple myeloma, bone and blood, not kidding, wish I was..


Now back to our regular program...!!!

 

Chip
If you are thinking of going with Chromies I have a deal for you!!
15x10 rears Zero offset, Standard. 15x6 fronts max offset, reversed.
Polished both sides!!!!!
255x70x15 rears
135x15 fronts
Fuzzy

 

All I was saying, is that maybe the guy wasn't trying to fit an era. Maybe he just picked parts that would look good together, which he did. I like it, but with a couple tweaks to please me.

I hate it when people tell or ask, if I'm going for a traditional style. My response is usually, "That HEI and those radials shot that down." I'd NEVER try to fake it. An era is too deep for me, right now. I'm like Louvers. If Iwas to get into something like that, I'd go ALL the way. I can't afford it, nor do I have the skills for it, but I know I will one day.

So, I just try to go as eye appealing as I can. Not a lot of flash. Low key. Minimal chrome. Nice T Bucket rake. Home grown interior. Just like a 50's kid would do it, with todays stuff to use.

Now, my dream traditional build? Isky's style, but without the turtle deck. Plus a couple other "tweaks". THAT'S what I'd LOVE to do.

And Rebel, I don't want the WWW's or chrome reverse to stand out. I want them to blend in.

 

That's bad ass. Damn near everything I'd do, except I'd have a short windshield and no bed. Really nice.