Hot Rods What makes a t roadster a t bucket

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ..there's no description or definition for that , your steaming pile of crap can be someone else's ultimate dream .

 

I'm wondering where the boundary between T-bucket and Fad-T lies.

Is Fad-T a subcategory of T-bucket? Or is it possible for something to be a Fad-T but not a T-bucket? e.g. a C-cab? I can say "I'll know it when I see it," with @dana barlow but, as @Rickybop says, this stuff is interesting in itself. How is the eidetic reduction going to pan out? Where exactly does a Fad-T stop being a Fad-T?

 

I tryed to be simple about the wording "Bucket" being slang for small open cockpit as seen used in rods, T-roadsters an even others,with only short bed or trunk/ bobtailed rear or none!!!

Lot of extra ,I didn't think needed.
But "Fad-T" is just one of many word labels ,made up by a guy ,who was in mag print;did or didn't like some thing. Then some others read it and repeated it,ether as it was meant to be used or in a distorted way.
HOTRODDING is not a hard rule,distorted too often=Part of why HAMB has rules.
Keep learning,happy hot rodding !

 

Where I came from, a "bucket" was a glass car, where the doors did not open.

Otherwise it was just a T roadster.

 

And vicey vercey.

 

I just stumbled onto this thread and I basically read some and skimmed some and didn't read every reply........
But I have to agree with 'Gimpy'. I sort'a knew what a "hot rod" was and the same for a "roadster", but when I first read or heard the term "T-bucket", it seemed like it was usually in the context of a fiberglass, kit-car, hot rod. You ordered the pieces from a catalog and the 'body part' was basically a big bucket handed to you as one piece. It was your choice to make a car or a hot tub out of it.
Do you think it was a coincidence that the makers of the dune buggy kits were also making the T-bucket kits?? Yea, I don't think so either.
This was my independent conclusion. Nobody, in particular, influenced me to think that way.

 

The main thing that defines a “T Bucket” are these proportions.
What I call a fad T has all the same components such as suspension, that were available in a catalog in the seventies or sold as a kit by companies such as Total Performance. You can look them up.

 

This is a Roadster Pickup. Note the full length bed.
of course this is obvious. I just like the photo. “T Bucket would never have fenders.

 

found this;
History
Model Ts were hot-rodded and customized from the 1920s on, but the T-bucket was specifically created and named by Norm Grabowski in the 1950s.[citation needed] This car was named Lightning Bug,[citation needed] better known as the Kookie Kar, after being redesigned by Grabowski and appearing in the TV show 77 Sunset Strip, driven by character Gerald "Kookie" Kookson. The exposure it gained led to numerous copies being built.

A genuine T-bucket has the two-seater body of a Model T roadster (with or without the turtle deck or small pickup box), this "bucket"-shaped body shell giving the cars their name. A Model T-style radiator is usually fitted, and even these can sometimes be barely up to the task of cooling the large engines fitted. Windshields, when fitted, are vertical glass like the original Model T.

Today, T-buckets remain common. They generally feature an enormous engine for the size and weight of the car, generally a V8, along with tough drivetrains to handle the power and large rear tires to apply that power to the road. The front wheels are often much narrower than the rear wheels, and are often motorcycle wheels.

 

Struck me as kinda funny.
We usually learn from Jim.
(the OP)
But he said that he honestly learned some things from what we posted. And I'm thinking this may be the first and last time that ever happens.

 

Small minimalist, usually T body...early steel...later lots of fiberglass...showpiece V8 engine...no hood, the engine is the focus...big rear tires...small front tires, rubber rake, and California raked suspension too...usually a quite tall windshield.
The most common feature most have are the fugly sprint car style mail order side pipes...JMHO!

 

My car is glass, but the passenger door opens.

 

Half-bucket?

 

Hello,

For us, the Tommy Ivo T-Bucket Roadster was the start of that style of hot rod. Magazines and drags, what more was there back then? Too little to cruise around in our own hot rods, but not young enough to see the value in a cool open roadster. On the street, racing at the drags and certainly at different car shows they stood out wherever they were seen.

As the years rolled on, people as usual, have coined their own terms and definitions. As I can recall, those open roadsters that looked like Tommy Ivo and Norm Grabowski are defined as T buckets. Fad T? Only in time and place with a new nickname, when all else fails, or trying to start something new.
Modified Roadster or Hot Roadster class...
1959

Earlier version


The turtle deck version of the Scotty's Muffler Roadster and the show/drag Grasshopper/Green Hornet are considered T-Roadsters.

There is definitely a difference between T-Roadster and a T-Bucket as the terms are defined for us. They are both roadsters, but with the short pick up bed, better known as a T-Bucket. The turtle deck is usually accepted as a T-Roadsters.

What gave us those ideas of a cool hot rod? Weekly prime time TV shows, such as 77 Sunset Strip was popular among families. It ran for 6 years, but the series started to lose viewers as we got older. When my brother and I were building a modified plastic model version of the “Kookie” T-Bucket, our mom said that was the nicest build we did, out of all of our models. We knew where she was getting the idea, while watching the TV show, she liked Edd “Kookie” Byrnes.

We liked the roadster and while my brother built one from a kit, we still needed the swoopy header pipes. We had some wax rods that were used by jewelers to custom make rings, bracelets and broaches. They were called the lost wax casting rods. Blue flexible wax rods in all sizes and with a little heat, could bend in different shapes.

We made almost the exact 4 down pipes, out the back headers and painted them silver. As long as the house was cold, the headers stood up to the long bends and length going out of the back. As our mom turned up the house heater, then the warm environment played havoc with the rods and the nice looking even headers started to droop. A T-Bucket with custom headers was the action for the finished project.

Jnaki

There was a restaurant called Dino’s on the Sunset Blvd location where the show was supposed to be filmed and took place. It was part of the Hollywood cruising scene for the people we took up there on our long road trips.

Over the years, the T-Bucket was not the center of attention for a lot of hot rodders. But a few of them were built with great parts, quality build techniques and had a cool lowered stance that was intimidating as they whizzed by on the road.

Our real life introduction was talking to San Diego Prowler’s Fred Castro about his cool T Bucket roadster. He was/is one of the lifetime members of the Prowlers. Then with enough information, a nice story was presented to showcase in a popular magazine.

What is not to like? A low stance, sturdy, wind in your face, hair swirling around, noise from the wind and exhaust pipes, and the feeling that one gets from racing at the drag strip when all else is blasting by you having fun...

While this T-Bucket was around, actively in the hot rod world, it saw plenty of those road trip miles all over So Cal. So, it was definitely road worthy and a fun way to get to the destinations. YRMV

 

You say "Fred" was a nice ,somewhat atypical tbucket of the day & was driven quite a lot?
Horror upon horrors , with no front brakes ??

 

I have Not read ALL the posts but enough to see that people are over complicating this question. Many Depression era touring cars and roadsters lost their Tops, because there was no money to buy new ones, or buy materials to repair them. The "topless" touring and Phaeton bodies resembled Bath Tubs, and were referred to as "Tubs". T's Obviously were Ford, or, T Tubs. Other brands were simply Tubs or Brand 'X' Tubs. The roadsters, whether passenger or pickups, with 2 seater capacity, resembled a bucket, compared to the "tub". Therefore, T Bucket, whether Pickup(RPU), Roadster(turtle) deck, or open rear frame cars, they were T Buckets. A Dodge or Chevy or Other brand Bucket might sound strange to out ears, but would be Buckets. And Now you Know.

 

I owned one just like this in the 90's , it was a bucket (a bucket of bolts) rode and drove horrible with the 1/4 eliptic springs, after about a year I got rid of it in a trade. There was a guy building these and selling them as a business, I forgot his name.