T Bucket Bodies Question "Who To Use"

During my first build, when I was looking, all I found was a TT truck cab and it was in VERY sad shape. I looked for a while and gave up. "Just save up a few thousand." A lot of guys are trying to step into this the best way they can. Asking someone to save up a few thousand dollars for a shell that needs work, is asking a lot. Especially when that money will get them a frame, body and running gear.

I'd love to find a steel body for my next one, but all I've found so far was over priced junk, cheap junk and usually, nothing at all. As for history.... fiberglass bodies being manufactured in the late 50's and early 60's gives them enough history for me... and a lot of other guys.

Plus, if I do find a decent steel body, I'll either have to learn how to do body work or source it out. Sorry, I'm not going to experiment on something I may not be able to replace.

Guys like you and Blue One, I admire. You had the resources and talent to bring back an original. Congrats. But don't make it sound like it's as easy as buying flour and baking a cake.

So, I'm looking for steel, but so far, at the money I'm working with, I'll probably end up with 'glass and build the best I can.

 

Hey Gary no you're not man. I value your opinion and the guidance you give. I learn a lot from you guys and this site.

My dad still has that drive to do something like this and when I first said "what do you think of a T bucket?" he lit up and told me that he had always wanted to do one from the ground up.

So we are going to do it and it will be the last car we build and we both will enjoy the ride!

He still says to me he thinks he could do welding but those are days his vision is good. My dad was and is an artist when it comes to body work. I'm a lot like him in being artistic but I just never went into the body field because he always guided me away from it.

I'm also thinking about painting this car myself. My dad trained me to prime and was getting ready to teach me to paint when I got sick. I was good at laying on primmer and knowing what to look for at keeping it wet but not to wet and keeping the runs out.

So Gary keep the info coming man!

 

I understand exactly what Steel Rebel is saying and I've tried to stay out of this but..... I have a '34 pickup cab in here now that has well over 200 hrs. in metalwork in it. I also have a couple of glass cars floating around. Typically, and I'm not talking a bucket, it takes about 40-50 hrs. to get a glass body decent. That's not talking Ridler winner, just decent. Anybody who follows my threads know that I am a more than decent metalworker and I'm building a glass car. I can easily build a new body from scratch in house. In my experience, the glass cars I've built have gone for as much or more than the steel ones. This includes several Brookville cars I've built over the years.

As a note of experience, if you're building a car to the premise that you want to get your money out of it, you're probably building it the wrong spec and for the wrong reason. Build what makes you happy and you'll drive it for years and not regret what you spent. I wish I would have kept my old bucket instead of chasing the deuce carrot. The money you save will be better spent on road trips with friends and family. Far more important than bragging rights to some asshole at a car show who doesn't care anyway!

As usual... go ahead and rip my ass up!

 

Great advice. "Build the car you want" and enjoy the shit out of it.
Truth be told one in a thousand people that see my roadster know or care it is steel. Most I have to tell before I get any satisfaction.

 

Rebel, if that was my car, I'd have a shirt that said, "Stick a magnet to it... I dare ya!"

Then, I'd smash their fingers for getting too close.

 

Thanks but no I'm afraid the magnet wouldn't stick through the Bondo.

Really I let them sit in it if they ask just as Von Franko let me sit in his first Kookie Kar Klone when I first saw it in the early '90s. Although this guy just opened the door without asking and sat down after I asked him to sign the dash.

 

Nice.

 

No I'm going to build it the way I want to and with my flavor to it I just want to build something if I would ever have to sell it would appeal to anyone (maybe) and I wouldn't take a beating. This is where my mind is stuck in the frame of mind of bone stock muscle car restoration...I know hot rodding is different.

The fun part of this has already started for me and for my dad. Being on here has showed me what I have missed the last few years and that is cars and car people. It has always gotten my dad and I back to talking about cars. He loved doing body work and I mean really loved it. I loved in the past chasing parts, cars and talking to people about their rides. I also really loved the time in the shop with my dad (arguing over the car lol and agreeing too) doing whatever I could do with my skill and amazed at what he could do with his skills.

I have seen my dad take cars cut them (wrecked cars) in half and put a car back together. If someone told him it couldn't be done he showed them it could be. My first new car was a totaled car that he fixed.

The only thing my dad has said about getting a fiberglass body is "make sure you get one from a good company so you don't have to reinforce it and do a lot of glass work on."

Shows that you have great skill to make a metal car look perfect. Metal has a lot imperfections in it and to get one to show none of that takes a lot of time.

LOL That would be funny to have a shirt like, even the glass guys would want one lol.

I remember one of the first Muscle cars I went to look at I took a magnet with me and the car looked nice but my dad said I bet it has bondo in it and I was like no not at that price it looks to straight. He handed me a magnet and said "Just walk up there and if the guy gets mad that you even have it in your hand it is full of it." I did as he told me I just held in my hand and the guy went freaking crazy on me. My dad laughed his butt off and then pulled me to the side and said "look down the panels tell me what you see." I could see places that looked wavy and stuck out more so in others. The lines just didn't look right. The small things he taught me to see first saved me a lot in the end.

Man I'm really missing some time in the garage with him.

I do regret one car that I didn't buy and it is my dads favorite car a 1955 T Bird. We both looked at it at Carlisle spring show. The guy wanted 10K for it and it was a basket case but it could be saved. My dad wanted it and it was the last day of the show. I got him down to 5K on it and started to hand over the cash. My dad said no. We walked away from it. A few years later I had a 70 Torino Cobra 429 SCJ 4spd car. A guy in town had a 55 T Bird and wanted to trade me the Bird for my Torino plus some cash to him. The car needed some work but not that much. My dad wouldn't let me do it and I wish I had done it because two years later he lost his eye site enough that they pulled his drivers license. I could have given him his dream car and he would have enjoyed it.

 

Okay enough of this B.S. Lets find this guy and his dad a good T body and frame that they can build and drive shit out of.
Gary

 

Ridgecrest calif craigslist

decent roller for $4500, bet $4000 cash in the sellers face would let you have it and still a deal when you include the cost of shipping it

 

Link?

 

Haha Gary very well said.

Do you have a link to it? Have you looked at it or know anything more about it?

 

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/3845087043.html

Have not seen it personaly, just looked at the pix, but comes with a lot of stuff and should fit within your budget

 

Ill keep an eye out

 

Thanks for the link but right now the price is out of my range. I'm going to have to piece it together as I can. I think before I did that one I would rather buy the kit from Speedway Motors with body or this one

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/cto/3822629318.html

And build it.

If you or anyone sees anything post it up.

 

Your going for the Gene Chan car look?

 

I would love to have the stance of that car and that feel of it. I'm not going to make a clone of it but would love to add some of that into my build.

That reminds me I need to call Genes brother and talk to him about the car and others they build over the years.

That is the Bucket that when I saw it, it won me over with the turtle deck and just the over all look of it just wow man! I dream about that car lol.

 

Koz,
scrap the metal 34 cab, I now want fiberglass!

 

Some more inspiration. Silat on stance to the Chan car

 

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! How do I save the picture and make it larger to read?

 

I have this article, I'll try to dig it out and get a good pic

 

Thanks S1B! I have so many favorite T buckets that have inspired me in some way shape or form but this one is one I love. I don't know what all it is that I love about it but it's just a nice ride.

 

I have so many also. This is in my top 5

 

I think I have that one saved some where too! That is an awesome one as well. I love the stance, windshield and wheels.

 

Ok well I'll admit it, to me the metal work comes second nature as I've been a welder-fabricator-teacher my whole life. Since I was 17 and now approaching my 60th year.

If you look through my build thread you will see I have a pile of hours in my steel body up to this point including building the small bed from scratch.

So yes, if you don't have the time $ or talent then glass would be the way to go.

As far as cost goes since I started I have come across the start of at least 3 more bodies like mine, cowls and doors, basically touring bodies in pieces for less than $1000.

Maybe I should start buying them and turning them into bucket bodies for sale.

On second thought I would not end up paying myself a very good hourly rate at the end of it all

A good glass body will still cost $ and many hours of work, usually both.

Now I should go bake a cake

 

I think that one belonged to Marty Holman. I could be wrong on the name, but that is what sticks in my mind.

Don

 

I believe your right on the name

 

If you are baking a cake will you make me one as well? Oh wait I'm good at baking lol.

There is one thing I have said a lot and that is metal working and fabing is a lost art form that we need not let it be a lost art.

I have been thinking and would love to open a school to teach metal working and fabing. I would even take the classes myself. I think and I know there will be a time in our world that when needed it wont be there. The generation coming up uses machines for everything. We need to get back to the basics.

Ok I love that one too. Man if these Buckets were a girlfriend I would be cheating on each of them.

Go any more info on this one?

 

Here you go. I have more, but I can't get then to download at the moment.