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

Absatively!!!!

 

It would be intersting to see his reaction on the seat change alone.

 

I really dig that all black with white. I was kind of thinking of black with red. I really love your bucket.

Fred what about if he gets rid of the turn signal on the column and puts switches on the dash either up and down or side to side type of switch? Maybe even a push button type of deal would look interesting.

I was just thinking out loud.

 

I am subscribing on this build. If you need any parts let me know I have extra to donate for your build.

Frenchy

 

I wish I wasn't 6'3 sometimes, I want a bucket

 

What about if he just takes the ugly damned thing off the car an hands it back to the previous owner as he said he would in the first place?! IN MY OPINION, (And we know that I am full of them, among other things!) turn signals on a vintage open car are as worthless as a pair 36 DDs on a warthog. Hand signals here in the congestion of a big city are something nobody sees these days, therefor they stop to wonder what the hell that person is doing. It doesn't mean they understand, just that they are not looking at their phone, "navi system", playing a video game with their feet, eating a cheese burger, but paying attention to you in the old car. As I said, just MY opinion.

Thanks Frenchy! It's flat awesome when the power of the H.A.M.B. allows you friendly contact with your heroes from an earlier age!!!

You really can fit in a bucket! I promise you, you can. You can't however ride or drive in the typical seventies laid out Fad 'T" with a giant seat riser. Just isn't going to happen comfortably.

 

With all the ridiculous serape trim and 5" of foam out, he has already sat in it and had regrets about selling... It'll get even better when I start to cut the seat riser down.

 

That would work too lol. I think in my State I have to have all of that but again not 100% sure on the law.

I have almost been hit so many times from people texting while driving it is really crazy.

 

MOST states that I have been involved with have a batch of rules that apply only to cars built before a certain date. If titled as a '23 "T", you'd definitely meet that criteria.

 

I'm only 5', the T is fun for me to drive...one of the few things I've owned that I hadn't wished I was a couple inches taller.


Louvers, is it already titled?

 

Subscribed! One of these days I'll get some of the current projects in the shop completed so I can get my T in there. Like where your going with this!

 

I came up with it on the fly the other night, but I'm kinda liking "Bucket of Ugly", 'cause this was certainly astatically challenged. It might even end up with a little Roth monster cartoon somewhere on it of a creature holding a bucket of severed body stuff (asses and armpits, as in the old wheeze, Ugly as a bucket of asses and armpits)... Real small though, so it isn't a main focus.

 

I am just now following this thread. I like where it is going. Drop the radiator down in the frame rails. Motor needs webers or Hilborn injection. White interior and lots of smoke coming off the tires!!!!!

 

Ya, that brass radiator is on E-bay gettin' bid up as we speak! It will pay for new aluminum radiator that will get painted black, and either a "T" shell from off the shop wall will fill the space at the correct height, or a deuce shell upper half with a dimple died batch O' holes on a polished aluminum insert. A Hilborn with short straight stacks would be awesome, but not going to happen on this budget. Hell, even cooler would be an old AlGON cross stack unit! But no. It might get a dual quad Edlebrock as I have another AFB in the garage with out a home. Worse comes to worse it will get a cool scoop of some sort that fits the scale of the car... Maybe a repro Tony Nancy type scoop.

 

Thanks for sorting out the different "Bucket Eras" you nailed to the "T" (Pardon the Pun)
I am attempting a build based on parts that I could have bought between the years 1962-67. So far so Good !!! I graduated HS in 1965 and did my 1st build in 1967.
(39 Chevy 2-door) Current is a 33 Chevy 1/2 Ton.
I am 6'6" tall and can't get in a bucket.
Your dedication to the Era will produce an awesome looking ride. The wheels that you chose convinced me that mid-60's Indy Drag Mags will be OK on my build.
I will be tuned in on your progress....................... Jeff

 

Absolutely they will! and they will look awesome too! As long as they fit with the snapshot of time your aiming for.

A lot of different wheels will work on these cars depending on what point in time your thinking. The easy way is to pick up a stack of magazines from the year you wish to work towards and look to see what was "in". I happen to be hopelessly addicted to Halibrand and American wheels, always have, always will. But damn if a couple of cars from the July '65 Car Craft don't look cool as hell with tire and wheel combos that are available new today, and cheap!

The first is a Dragmaster kit chassis they featured a build on, decked with fairly narrow whites on a set M/T wheels. (super similar to the Radir wheels you can buy through Speedway on your telephone right now!) The bias cheaters on the back could easily be replaced by Hurst recap cheaters like mine, and Cody will even do a white wall for ya if ya gotta. Looks like 5.60s on the front, and it looks like all four are 6" wide.

Or how about Ray Sisemore's car? Then brand new Cragar S/Ss, I'd say 15X7 and 15X6s with about an L78x15 and a 6.00X15 on the front, all topped off with narrow whites. Yumdillyiciuos! Although I think I would have gone 5.60 or even a BF. Goodrich 5.00 on the front.

Oh, gotta show the cover on that one too... Check out the little blue bucket in the background and tell me the tires and wheels on that one don't look familiar!

Hell, lets go back further... Been looking for an excuse to show the cover shot of the October '62 Car Craft for days now. The Monogam Big "T" kit with a shrunk down couple standing by it. Reversed early Ford wheels up front, Early Ford centers with reversed Buick outers on the back. The kit's tires were marked at 8.20X15 cheaters on the back, and Firestone 5.60s on the front. A little scrounging, a bit of drilling and pounding to reverse, (it's really that simple) and a call to Coker and you can do the same thing.

In the coming weeks, as it cools a bit around here, I'm going to bug my neighbor Dave Sexton to borrow two of his Supreme wheels from his gasser, and mount them on one side of the car and shoot some pictures so you can see the differences a set of wheels will make. he too has Cheaters on the back, and he has BF. Goodrich 5.00 on the front with narrow whites.

I'll save my rant about rear tire and wheels width on 'buckets for another time, but until the mid sixties, most cars ran as big as a 8.20 slick on the rear, and as wide as 8 1/2" on the wheel, unless they went up to a 16X10 Top Fueler wheel.

 

I forgot to mention that I have done my fair share of Custom and Hot Rod Interiors over the years. I think that White or Pearl White would be the way to go considering the climate there. You may consider doing an alternate color welt (or piping as some say) to add a little color. Maybe something in the same tones as you final paint choice.
Good Luck, Jeff

 

I'm loving the research you're doing. The old magazines do have a tendency to validate the different styles and means of building these cars.

 

Yup, I'm pretty set on some orange piping around the seat on this one. I've done a couple over the years too, and far more sewing than I should own up too, having been involved in the household and commercial sewing machine business almost all of my life to some degree or another. Would I totally blow my credentials as a bad assed hot rodder if I were to mention that I have authored quite a few manuals and and lesson plans on subjects like working with household serger machines, and quilting? Ya, probably better not put that in print....

 

Hey, NL;

"I'll save my rant about rear tire and wheels width on 'buckets for another time, but until the mid sixties, most cars ran as big as a 8.20 slick on the rear, and as wide as 8 1/2" on the wheel, unless they went up to a 16X10 Top Fueler wheel."

I was looking for a chart to get a height comparison of the old tire vs new metric sizes.
Would you happen to know heights on the 8.20, & 16x10? & maybe the 9.x0? I'm guessing the 8.x , 9.x, etc is the width. It seems the OD varies w/the rim dia? The one chart I found only went up to ~ 7.something. I'm interested in approximations, since I absolutely hate bias-plys. The early slick look (after pie-crust) is good, but I want something I can drive on. Not trying to get into a bias-ply hate thing here. Do want a decent big 'n' littles for an upcoming project, w/o having to use "steamrollers", & would prefer using a car tire - instead of a LT, or 4x4.

TIA.

Marcus...

 

I already have the end product pictured in my mind. Subscribed!

 

What a great project! Just wondering, do T buckets HAVE to have outside exhaust headers? How about FULL hoods, with a lots of louvers? Bob

 

The older bias ply tires were a 78 series tire, versus the radial, which in it's common full sized car sizes was a 75 series. So basically, that makes the earlier tires a bit taller. The best way to get a feel for sizes is to grab a Coker catalog and just cruise through it. Every tire they sell is listed with widths and heights.

Edit: I just reread your post, and I think if you look around a bit you still might find a 235/80-15 that isn't a heavy truck tire. That would be your best bet for sticking to a narrow, tall proportionate radial for the back of one of these. If you dig the cheater slick look, but live where it rains, Hurst can cut a double diamond type spring car tread pattern in their tires that is allot more rain friendly than my cheater grooves. The other cool thing is that the Hurst slicks are capped on radial tires. If they weren't available, I'd put up with bias plys for this car for the look, but damn it, I too, WAY prefer radials. Hell, if bucks get better later in this build, I'll call Cody up at Hurst and have him cap some little radials for the front that look just like 5.60 bias plys, too.

 

Damn George, I threw the Party "ON" switch about three days ago thinking you were gonna' show up right away... Where the hell ya been?

 

You just hit a sort of unwritten demarcation point in my mind and I believe several others. I see a T-bucket with a full hood and my brain immediately goes to "Track Roadster" as defined by the CRA after WW II. Now that assumes a turtle deck in the back, too. Pull that turtle deck, leave the hood and now you have a "Modified" as defined by the SCTA back in the late thirties. Just an opinion, but I have never liked the look of a pickup bedded T-bucket like mine with a full hood. The proportions for some reason are just a bit off.

It is tempting to do a hood and punch the living hell out of it, especially in light of main business, but I think I'm sticking to about '63-4 on this deal!

 

......or......consider a Brusseau treatment.......
I just loved that car..

 

Ya, the low cut side only kinda deal. I have the Rod&Custom article on the re,redo of that car sitting on the stand next to my reading podium in the smallest room of the house as we speak. I did like the earlier redo of the car that was featured in '61 or so a bit better, myself. Ironically, if you trace the history of that car back to it's beginnings in the late forties, it was build originally to run the CRA circuit as a track roadster, then converted to T-bucketdom just as I was saying to 37kid earlier.

 

Photos from your issue would save me two hours of searching for mine. This T history lesson is great! Cleaning the garage today and I found my 1912 in the corner. Bob

 

Just watching from the side...your plans for this sound great!

 

Hey Peach, I miss answered last night! No it is not quite yet. I am working with an out of state title source to make things a bit easier, but they are moving pretty slow. Fortunately, here in AZ the titling process isn't nearly as strict as it is in other parts of the country, so I don't see much in the way of hardships if I DO have to do it the HARD way... Just more expense.

Bob, I have one foot out the door right now running to a clients house. I'll scan and post that cover and article a bit later today when I get back in.

Thanks man! Let me know when the hood sides get there, please!