Ever here of a writer named Henry Gregor Felsen? He made a living writing books about hot rodders back in the fifties...
Louvers I will have to look him up. I love to read and I really love to write. I used to draw and was really good at it but after the stroke I'm lucky if I can draw a straight line. I would love to try and capture the time period of Gene's Bucket and about his life and about Vince too. I feel this is one of those cars everyone sees and is just blown away by it but not sure who built it. I would love to get out of fictional writing and try a Biography and this could be the one to inspire me to do that. I wonder who prints these books now? I think it used to be AutoWorks or something like that that would do a lot of these type of books. It sure would be fun and eye opening at the same time.
that pic was taken in front of their visalia store in 1955. the boy is victor who passed away less than a year ago. the pic is from the visalia newspaper back then.
It is awesome that pics like this can show up and the people of the HAMB can find out a lot of info, history and have pics to go with it. Post up some more if you have them.
Here are a couple of articles from the T-bucketeers web site that should give you some good ideas and help you visualise what you are getting into. They aren't the same as Gene's bucket but you should be able to change the wheelbase and frame kick-up to end up with similar proportions. http://netquickposse.org/tbucketeers/budgetbucket.pdf http://netquickposse.org/tbucketeers/Youngsters_T_Bucket_Frame_Plans_V1_0.pdf
Hey thanks, I think I have both of these but not 100% sure. I know I have the frame plans. I like the first link with the Budget Build nice looking T. Thanks.
Vince gave me 3 pics of gene and the bucket today. He is going to make copies of all of them he can find and I'll post them up as I get them. Tomorrow I'll scan the ones I have and post.
Very cool and also really awesome that Vince is doing that. What did he say about the thread? I would love to get him on the board and your dad too. It would be awesome to hear their stories. I really need to give Vince a call. That bucket is my dream car and one I hope to build one day. Thanks James and keep the info coming.
I can't wait to get home and see the pics on a larger screen! Very awesome! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Here is one in 69/70 when vince purchased it from gene for a whopping 500.00 the car started to make its transformation with a fuel injected corvette 327 and was getting a top made for it. vince wants me to post pics as he gives them to me a little at a time. hes very happy that people still are fascinated with this car and he has tons of pics of the bucket and the 68 vette. i'll get pics of the c cab tonight and post them too. i told him to register but he said that it would take him all night to post a sentence and he would most likely get frustrated. the car was red when gene first got it in that one pic. gene and my dad just put the carbs on and it had a hand throttle in that pic. my dad doesnt remember ever putting a foot throttle on it. the pic with gene next to the car was taken at the winternationals in bakersfield or l.a, vince doesnt remember where it was taken. sorry for my poor grammer but i'm not great at that kind of stuff.lol more to come
No argument intended, but I bet you would find that those are coil "helper springs" over regular shocks. Something that has been available since tube shocks really made the scene in the late forties, and still around today. Not even close to the same thing as a "coil over suspension unit" as is used for the last thirty five years or so. Now, if you want fuel for the traditional fire, the first set of "coil overs" that I am aware of were on George Montgomery's '33 Willys coupe in '63. They were something experimental that one of the shock manufacturers sent him before the NHRA nationals to try and he ended up have to get the manufacturer to send a note airmail that they were indeed a suspension unit and safe for racing use.Which ever Rodder's Journal has the feature on his coupe has the whole story on the coil over deal.... Still not common 'till the mid to late seventies.
Wow so cool to see this car in so many different forms! Tell Vince we thank him and I really thank him for sending you the pics and posting them. I love this Bucket! Hey didnt anyone else notice the steering wheel is in two different places? The first pic is on the passenger side and the next pic shows it in the normal place. What is the deal with that? I would love to hear the story. Can't wait to see more pics and to hear more about the cars, the brothers and friends. I'm so glad I asked about this Bucket. Oh one more thing the wheels in the pic dated 69/70 are different then any other pics. Are those side pipes? If so those look to be from a 67-70s Corvette.
The car has 35-36 rear bones with transverse spring, coil springs too. Were one or the other for looks??? Great pics of a super cool T.
Noticing how much arch is on that rear spring I would say that he "Z"d the frame a bit more than he intended to initially, and when he put the car together found it was a bit too low. He then had the rear spring arched a bit more to raise it, but when you do that with a '35-'41 type spring it only will take so much arch before it won't lift any higher. Sounds wacky, I know, but I've been that route. Next came the "helper coils" around the shocks to get the ride height he wanted... That's my guess having been in the same shoes.
Note the license plate numbers are "backwards"=comes from a flipped negative when picture for printing was made.
So does this mean there is more history to this car prior to Gene, now I want to know who may have originally built it and when? Ya....but they sure look pretty damn cool under there! I second the big thank yous as well....wow this car was constantly changing, funny how those guys did that back then, seemingly more than now. I agree about the mirrored images.
the image was flipped so its not an aussie car. the front wheels on the 69 pic are the same wheels thats on his c cab. as for the pipes im not sure, gene was a corvette guy
I didnt even notice the liscens plate. I thought wow this car sure did do some wild changes and back. The funny thing is think of the guys buying Muscle cars back in the 60s and 70s they didnt keep all the stock parts. The first thing to go was the wheels and then speed parts. The guys today pay big bucks to restore them back to the original state I wonder if anyone has ever restored a "Day Two Car" and if so that would be really cool. It would document it all the way back to the way the original owner wanted it. I really love Genes T and I really love the story that is coming together and can't wait to hear more. I also can't wait to see more pics of this T and other cars, trucks, bikes and whatever they did. I wonder if one of the magazines would be interested? I think this car is starting to get a lot of documentation on it and it really does have a rich history to it.