1922 T Bucket

Hi everyone,

It is no new thing for me to be posting about T Buckets and I found a video on youtube...well I will let you watch it and just tell me what you think of the car, driver and whatever else is rolled up into this video. I had to laugh and I have not finished the video yet. I to like a lot of the videos this guy does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa02HYd7H0o&list=WLF90528C072D23515

 

sweet bucket, needs shorter steering column

 

It is not a 23, but 26 or 27.

 

6'4" and 245 pounds and T's generally don't go in the same sentence.

Don

 

I was going to say that!

First welcome to the world of early T buckets. Yes most of us were 5'10" or shorter. The narrator nailed it If you want any comfort at all use a bigger fiberglass body and go to a '60s style. That is what they did in the day I can think of two stories off the top of my head of guys doing that.

Wonderful this woman went all the work to find and restore this car and luckily it was still in it's original style and had all the parts.

Thanks for posting it.

Gary

 

Thanks for the link. We had a good laugh here at work over the right hand drive.

 

Hey thanks everyone and yeah I had to laugh at him sitting over on the right side driving. Then once I stopped laughing and heard the history I watched it over again and wow the leg work she had to go through just to find it and then gain its history.

I like it and I was also thinking it wasn't a 22 but later (27-30) due to the cowl but I'm still learning about T's so I couldn't say one way or the other.

I really like seeing it on the open road it really gave me an idea of what it would feel and look like driving one. He does great camera angles.

What about the interior, firewall covered and what is the box on the passenger side firewall?

 

Not sure what that chrome box is covering.......maybe the electrical system ?

Don

 

I was thinking that is what it is. I kind of don't mind it but I kind of still like the clean firewall look.

I wonder if the cover on the firewall was originally done to the car either in the 50s or 70s?

Also how short is the car? What would you guys guess?

 

Am I the only one that think it's had about 6" cut out of the middle? For a '27 (or at least the cowl) it looks skinny. Or is that guy THAT wide? Otherwise, that's a bad ass bucket. First, I'll probably never own a Flathead, but I love how they look and I could own that one, it would be like that one. The sound of that exhaust was intoxicating.

The padded firewall looks 50's - early 60's show rod, but I have no idea what that box could be, other than electrical stuff. Could I own a hot rod and not be able to go screaming fast all the time? Probably not, but I'd learn to love it in that T bucket.

 

I was wonder if it was shorter or if it was the guy then I got to thinking, how much padding is in the seats?

He is a tall guy and he said how tall and weight. It is a nice hot rod and I do dig it. The guy just cracked me up of how he was driving. I do like the other videos he does for his channel.

I need to write him and ask about the T maybe. You know I wonder if the box that is on the firewall would be off a transmission or something? It looks like something that I have seen but can't place it.

 

Amazing car. What may be more amazing, is she tracked it down, had it refurbished WITHOUT fucking it up with an alternator, disk brakes, etc. to make it "driveable"(message! The non car guy could even drive it from the passenger seat!), had it in several magazines, and yet NO ONE ever told her what year it is??? No one in her family even? If it wasn't for the pictures, I would call bullshit on the back story.

 

Don't think it was narrowed. Think it might be the front part of a touring car which would make it a little shorter than a roadster and some like me didn't think of leg room when building. I have moved my backrest back twice since my build. Some cars of that era were showed after being raced. That was all there was in the early '50s. I have seen it at a few local rod runs in the last few years. It is a really spot on restoration. Think that 22 is a mistake. Can't see how someone does that much history and restoration and not know the difference.
Back then I'm sure the average person was shorter than today. If you were taller you just didn't build a T.

 

Yeah, if it really was a '22, it would be even SHORTER. He'd have had to sit on the rear axle to drive!

 

Thanks, enjoyed the film. Cool car!

 

Nice vid. but 1922 , maybe that what is says on the title or reg but it looks alot like the 27 lakester I make

 

I still say it's narrowed. That guy may be 245lbs., but he can't be that wide.

 

Okay, I watched the beginning, when he's first driving. He's not wide, I'm just skinny! In fact, a normal sized person has never been in my T Bucket. They've all been skinny and medium height or skinny and short. I was comparing where I'd sit in it and I'd fit, but it would have to be an auto shift. Maybe. Was that car manual? I assumed it was.


Oh, as for the year. The guy didn't correct her and I'm sure he knew what year it really was. Mine is titled as a 1920 because that's the title I had.

 

Oh man do tell more about this body you make? PM me some info like to hear more.

 

Did anyone notice the front of the frame is almost peaked after the radiator, where the spring mounts? Very interesting.

 

There's no way you'd fit in your car Fred if you weren't skinny!

I really like the car in the video, wish we could get some detail photos.

 

He probably didn't know either, he mentioned 1922 while driving it, even said it looked like it was hot rodded in 1922. Weren't no Ford V-8 in '22!

 

The guy has a passion for cars but he really likes things "Not Original and Not Traditional" type of cars. In one of his videos he said he left the stock exchange to do this channel. The 1968 Charger R/T he has has modern mods to it and I shake my head on that one lol.

He does get a lot of different cars and some great looking ones and some that make you think "I would have never thought of doing that" so its a good channel.

I really love Gene Chan's T Bucket but I do like this one.

 

I was thinking the same thing. This car has to have been photographed in detail somewhere. Anyone?

 

Despite what many say, this could well be a '22.

I don't think there's much doubt that there has been a fair bit of bodywork done to the car. I've had a '17 touring body and a '22 bucket. Lots of room in the '17 - because of all that extra space in the back - but little in the '22.

That upholstery looks to be pretty well padded, and therefore quite thick, which takes up space. I have to suggest that the original builder was likely quite short, otherwise he couldn't have driven it properly.

It's a beautiful car and there should be enough different angles shot in the video that you can figure out most of what is there. One thing I think is really well executed is that headlight bar setup.

Back in the '60's a chum of mine had a T roadster with a V860. I think it was a '27, but the old memory might be playing tricks on me. Tony (the owner/builder) was a short assed little Italian guy, and the car fitted him to a "T" if you'll pardon the pun.

 

That's a 26-27 T Roadster or touring tub. I agree with Fred, it's been narrowed at least the width of the fuel tank door (on the cowl top) - common modification on modifieds in the 40's. I think the 'fit' has a lot to do with the length of the column and how far down it's dropped. I'm 6'3 (170 lbs) but fit quite comfortably in my 26-27 roadster tub (with bottom seat spring removed in favor of a thin pad and a mild drop in the column.

 

Just heard about this thread and figured I should chime in.
Anji is a close friend of mine and a fellow Swanx member.
In 2005/2006 I was fortunate enough (with the help of her father and a couple of our club members) to restore this car back to the way her grandfather had it in the 1950's.
The car was originally built in Vallejo in around 1945/46 by Paul Werdig and was powered by a 21 stud flathead.
When Anjis grandfather got the car in 1948/49 it had a Hispano Suiza aircraft engine in it. The story from family members was that no one could get it to run, so out it came. In went a 297" flathead with a S.C.o.T blower.
In 1959 the flathead was swapped for a blown 331 Caddy (bored to 365). The Cad and a B&M Hydro were still in the car (less blower) when she found it in 1997.
To answer a few of the concerns...
The body was not narrowed. After stripping the paint and upholstery it appears that they shortened a T touring body.
A '25 T truck frame was used, stepped front and rear. The rumor was that they used 1/2" armor plate to box the rear of the frame. When drilling mounting holes for brake lines I found this to be true.
The car is a '27, but somewhere along the line it was registered as a '22 to be able to run CA Horseless Carriage license plates.
The chrome (actually polished stainless) box on the firewall is the front portion of the battery box and was installed in 1949/50.
First pic is from around 1973, after the T was sold out of the family.
Second pic is how the car looked right before we tore into it for the rebuild.
Fortunately, with all the upgrades (or downgrades), the cars structure wasn't changed much over the years.

 

Here is the earliest pic they have of the car, taken in 1946/47.

 

Very cool car indeed. I was going to say it was an ex tourer and not narrowed as the dash has the 5 screws along the top as does mine, I just checked. JW

 

Cool story, nice job on the resto. Got any current detail shots?