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

Can we both be correct,
I have a shortened 1919 Dodge touring, cause I loved both the Himsel painted cars at ORS, Sure looks like a DODGE windshield to me,, but the body does look like a 23 T.. thanks for the retrack on the DUMBASS part.. I am hardly a dumb ass.

 

Just for the hell of it , I google Art Himsel..guess what I found: Art then built his seminal custom job, a truncated touring car, from a '16 Dodge cowl, a T touring rear, and a fuel-injected Chevy-the latter culled from Ned's wadded-up Corvette. The touring featured an all-aluminum frame and fuel tank courtesy of Aerojet. The car's wildest feature: Art's outlandish candy job with fadeaway flames. The tub took the Oakland Sweepstakes in '67.

Read more: http://www.customrodder.com/features/0603cr_art_himsl/viewall.html#ixzz2hYhxHEqe
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Ya, but that is the other Himsle tub Bob. This one is a "T" with a Dodge windshield. The other was a couple of different orange colors.

 

Ok Chip, sorry old men can't always be correct..

now back to out regular program.. HEY I am on medication!! (been waitin'66 years to use that one,,)

 

Yup, orange it is. Please, no picking it apart. Well, maybe those HUGE lamps. I just thought the wheelie was cool.

 

BIG BAD ORANGE,,from AMC My favorite color, who'd thought.... that and GOLDEN ROD YELLOW, a

1955 Ford PU color

 

Since Louvers has said we can stray sometimes, I have a question. What happened that caused T Buckets to become the bastard child of hot rodding? Yea, they got REALLY faddish for a while, but that can't be the reason for all the displeasure. I mean, there are guys who actually HATE seeing one roll up. I know this from experience.

Was it because, when hot rods got REALLY chromed out and expensive, a T Bucket could still be done cheaply? Any one have a clue or comment?

Me, I always dug 'em. Even when I didn't know what the hell they were, I knew I wanted one.

 

Darn excellent question and one I have wondered too as we have that same situation here in NZ to a lesser degree. I was a wee bit guilty of not being to interested in the T until I purchased mine and although it has been totally rebuild from what it was ( mid 80's style ) I absolutely love it and certainly wouldn't sell it now.
I noticed in the last photo of the wheel standing T that it has a shiny black frame which I'm pleased to see as I have mine in shiny black and the body and pick up bed will be Tangerine flake.

 

Mine is rattle can black because it's driven every day I can drive it. Which is almost every day. When it chips, I touch it up.

So, I'd think T Buckets would be welcome down under. Considering how hard it is to get good tin.

 

No, but going in all guns blazing when you haven't really read my post was kinda askin' for it. I DO screw up sometimes, but I'll tell you what, if you are reading something I've posted, and it seems like I've blown something really obvious, Like calling a dodge a T for instance, you should probably go back and re-read the post, because you have probably missed something. No hard feelings, and I was laughing to myself when I posted the response. Heres a recent pic of Himsl's Dodge.

 

Another one of those bitchin' late sixties T-buckets, Wayne Ewings Texas T.

 

Honestly, that looks like the same body with a different color scheme. Not disagreeing, just saying.

 

I think they get little respect because so many are ugly.

Chip is fighting it with this thread, but at a random show a random t-bucket will be an over-chromed, out of proportion, mixed up mess. The chrome vertical steering wheel. The bicycle thin front wheels, with 2-foot rear wheels. Radiator poorly fitting the plastic or chrome grill shell. I even saw one with air conditioning, this in a car with no side windows.

Those are the ones I don't give a second glance at a show, except in some cases to marvel at the hideousness. They all have a 350/350 with chrome valve covers and most have a tunnel ram or oversized velocity stacks. They say "look at my car parts" not "look at my car" - they have a collection of parts, not a coherent whole.

Also without the driver positioning fixes Chip champions, people driving them often look dumb (knees above steering wheel) or at least uncomfortable

This seems to be the majority, not the exception - am I right? I think that's the core of the respect issue, the poor design skills / taste of the average owner.

 

Yea, some are over done and I actually like a couple. But there are guys that hate ALL T Buckets. Those are the guys I was referring to. It goes deeper than a dislike for Fad T's.

 

For my money, a lot of that is posturing. "Oh, look at me, I'm SO hard-core traditional, t buckets arent real hot rods".

 

What is the old saw - it's the 90% of lawyers that give the other 10% a bad name? I think for some people it's like that for T-buckets too.

I'm actually somewhat in that camp myself, I like a lakester or early roadster or track-t, but most buckets leave me cold. But I love the passion and knowledge on this thread and learning about this niche is fun.

 

Take a look at the two cowls, the Dodge cowls are quite a bit different. The Dodge cowl is longer, and kinda more curved inwards.

 

Got it. I had to put the pics side by side. Learning is fun!

 

that's it,, I AM NOT WORTHY, I AM NOT WORTHY, I am sooorrreee...when I saw the blue car w/ Dodge w/s I fired my rocket... ! !wrong!! as Waylon said...

 

Ah, NOW yer talkin' Verde! One of my favorites as well, and a hugely popular color on hot rods in the fifties.I just dont get all these HAMB history revisionists that want to question anyones sexual orientation whenever they suggest painting their hot rod yellow. Methinks they doth protest too much...

 

That's probably true with pink. Yellow's a cool color for a hot rod.

 

awwwm shucks piece on the waters, ...now back to regular programing...

 

Fred

Everybody and his dog started building a T bucket because they were so cheap and easy. You could then and can still buy a KIT. A lot weren't very good. Even you said you didn't do your homework on your first T and just started putting parts on with no thought to tradition. Many were built that way and still are. In the '70s they started looking like clown cars. Look in the background of the picture of the orange "A" I posted a few pages back and you will see a T bucket with wild tail fins. It won the AMBR award that year. Yet some people still like the tall tops, mega wide tires in back and tall engines. No other style rod took on the god awful proportions of most of the T buckets of the late '60s and into the '70s. Just outlandish. Anybody that has an eye for tradition just hates any T that takes on that look.

Gary

 

Oooooo k.

 

Sorry you asked?

 

My thoughts also but in NZ we had Australian and British parts being fitted also and sh!t oh my there were some rough looking creations, still are !! JW

 

So, some of the outlandish cars ruined it for the well thought out cars. That's a good explanation. True, mine didn't get better, until I could afford the "good" stuff. It still seems, with a few exceptions, that traditionalist don't like T Buckets period. Which is funny because a few guys are starting to dislike the small fence the traditionalist are camped in. Me, I just like anything that's done well.

 

Gary, that wasn't in response to what you posted. That was towards Verde because I didn't understand what he meant.

 

Just kidding Fred. Not about the clown cars though.

 

Clowns scare me too. Stephen King took care of that.