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

The angle and were a standard shock is mounted has even more to do with how it works. Than ordering some custom thing when it comes to "T"s. I'll leve it at that for those that wish info.
In any case I still like what your doing on your T.

 

Just catching up on my reading of your thread. The seat sits high on an original T because your sitting on top of the gas tank. Gravity feed, no fuel pump. Sitting high shouldn't bother you in a bucket. At least you have sides. My '11 T touring wasn't built with front doors! That's also why they moved the gas tank on a Model A to the cowl so they could lower the seat position among other things.

 

Give some thought to rear shocks on English cars, Triumph, MG, etc. they look good to me, on front of T's

 

My dad works downtown. We were talking the other night and he said "you should see this old bucket running around near work. Looks like it came out of the 60's." He starts telling me about it and I pull up a pic "Yeah, thats the one. That car just gets it"

Bob

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Thank your dad for me!!!

It was soooooo nice last night and I was bored, and Judy is out of town, so I rolled by Bodi's place and the two of us took a ride to find locations for an event he wants to do before it gets too hot. We hit the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, He had never seen the Wrigley mansion or the Biltmore. Cruising the Bucket of Ugly under the main, grand, check in drive at the Biltmore was priceless.... Half the Valet staff turned the other way, the other half tried to get to us first... Denied! Just cruisin' through guys.

 

Very familiar! Matter of fact, a pair of MG Midget rears are going on the front of the full fendered touring project we were talking about this morning.

On a T-Bucket though, and again, MY OPINION, they are just a bit incongruous and kinda clunky looking. I'm sure they would work well though.

 

I wonder that looking at motorcycle rear shocks might not turn up something that would work. Remove the coil-over springs, and you'll have a compact shock with light valving, in some cases even adjustable. Nearly all will have built-in suspension stops and some will have chrome bodies.

 

On tube shocks. I run Pete and Jakes tube shocks. They work great. My car weighs 2308 lbs full of fuel. 18 Gallons. I run the long ones in front and the short ones in back

 

It's funny Fuzzy, In my experience the tube shocks work absolutely spantacularily at the weight of the typical Hiboy "A" or Deuce. That 2200-2700 lbs range they all seem to end up in. When you go down the scale and into the 1500-1900 weight range, (and my car tips at 1720) they seem to me to get a bit over powering. I have for many years run a top quality VW link pin type shock in that situation which is valved just a hair lighter than the Pete and Jakes stuff that I have also used in similar situations.

But truth be told, I really don't like the look of tube shocks on a T-Bucket front end. They just always seem to stick out being so vertical and usually chrome. I really like the low profile of the frictions tucked close to the end of the frame rails and down out of sight. Maybe this comes from my obsession with early sixties dragsters when Scotty Fenn was putting some damned sexy levers on his stuff, or maybe my minor obsession with vintage circle track cars has done the deed. Not sure. But if you flip through the old magazines of the time period I'm shooting for, you do see them fairly frequently.

Hey, by the way, if you still need that info on paint here locally, give me a yell at 602 881 0175.

 

Given the weight distribution of a T-bucket there may not be enough weight on the front suspension to "work" a normal passenger car shock absorber, thus causing it to ride like a log wagon. Unless, of course, as some have mentioned, the shock was worn out - but this would lessen the amount of jounce and rebound control it could provide.

Most passenger car shocks provide more damping on rebound than on compression, and this may or may not be best for a lightweight rod. My guess is that this characteristic might cause some really spooky handling on rough surfaces in a T-bucket.

I admit that I do not know the jounce/rebound ratio of the various hot rod application front shocks by manufacturer, but that would be my first question to ask before I stepped up and bought them for any application. There's a lot more to shock absorber technology than compressed length, extended length and end style.

One must also consider the angle at which shocks are installed, as was mentioned here earlier. The angle has a huge effect on the amount of damping provided in both directions. A shock loses 50% of its ability to dampen suspension movement when it is installed at a 45-degree angle as opposed to being installed straight up and down. The greater the angle, the less able the shock to do its job.

Friction shocks such as those Chip is making are by nature 50/50 - providing equal damping on both compression and rebound. It wasn't until the mid-'50s that NASCAR and road race builder/drivers discovered the benefits of 50/50 shocks in some competition circumstances where roads were neither straight nor smooth but where suspension control at high speed was crucial to both performance and safety.

The beauty of friction shocks is that they infinitely adjustable to suit both the car and the driving conditions. Not only is the amount of friction adjustable by virtue of the materials used and the clamping pressure applied at the center pivot, but also by the length of the arm in terms of applied leverage.

I'm glad to see someone working with friction shocks as an alternative to tube shocks in lightly loaded applications. Seems to me like Chip is on the right track.

 

Got to admit, your response made walk out back to the "island of misfit Hondas" and pick up a front shock unit from a sixties Honda C90... You would know it if ya saw it 'cause it's the one they always show in videos of Asian countries with an entire family and ten pigs aboard, and the kid with a scooped out water mellon for a helmet on the handle bars. I got one for Judy.... She was "thrilled".

Any way, this is a nice little coil over type deal that the coil can be removed from. It would probably work pretty dam well if I wasn't so whacked on getting my friction shocks together.

 

Maybe the roadster pickup, or the other roadster, or...

"What the hell wrong wit you?"

 

"What the hell is wrong" with me has never quite been discovered. Gotta have lots of stuff to keep me occupied... Trust me, it's best that I'm occupied at all times! I could tell a story about the one time I was told to "amuse myself for a few minutes" and found the keys dangling in a nearby fork lift... Maybe not.

 

I did that on the rear of my old touring with some finned aluminum Yamaha shocks, looked killer. had remote resevoirs as well.

 

Way to dead around here! ;-( Worked hard Friday, so I figure I'll post a pic to wake everyone up!

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Sorry it's a little fuzzy, I accidentally did a burn out over my cell phone the Friday morning of Goodguys, and it's just barely hanging in there while I shop for a new phone!

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Y'know, I can state with a certainty I've never accidentally done a burnout over my cell phone.

Come to think of it, not on purpose either

I guess I'm reaching old fuddy age…

 

I'm really not sure how I managed it either. I know there was a burn out, someone yelled, and when I looked back, the phone, the cover, and the battery were all headed the other direction on different trajectories! I think I may have set it on the luggage rack when I was talking to the guys from the shop next door.....:banghead: The fact that it still works at all says a lot for LG phones.

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I ran over a Nokia phone about ten years ago in Gunnison Colorado with the Plymouth. A couple of guys had pulled into the same gas station with a Model "A" that wasn't running right, and I got involved in helping them get it going. Forgot the phone on the fender, and drove off. I found it squished in the middle of the street. All of my contacts gone 500 miles from home and headed to Washington state for three months.... The only good in the situation came in the form a delightfully nerdy, cute young brunette at the local cell phone place that actually found a way to salvage my contacts from the shattered mess. Then said "yes" to dinner and other activities....

 

WTF Chip, over 190,000 views and 120 pages about a stinkin T-Bucket. You should get an award of some kind!

 

I do actually promise that I will again turn out some documentable work! I am almost caught up with the stuff that got delayed while Grants truck was occupying my every waking minute. I haven't loaded them yet, but spent Saturday over at Roy's revising the rear radius rod mounts on the touring bucket with the chassis sitting on it's right wheels supported by an engine hoist, and took lots of pictures in the process.

I did shoot some pictures of the nearly finished shocks the other day, but they aren't loaded yet, and I just haven't had time to get them mounted on the car. I have two more hoods to go before I'm caught up, and I'll be back to my old self again.

 

I really do appreciate you guys sticking with me and keeping me at the keyboard if nothing else through this. I have had a great time showing the stuff I have done, and even just telling the stupid stories for filler until I have something significant to show. I sometimes feel like I'm letting you guys down when I have to do something like put back the painting I intended to do this month. I promise I'll get back to stuff soon, and we'll make some history if I can get Judy to actually ride across with me to L.A.R.S. in it!

Hang in there gang, this going to fun, and maybe a bit weird!

 

like was said many posts back its just like Friday night at the shop, not always on topic but always entertaining!

 

There you go Chip. that is two of us fella's from deep down in the southern hemisphere that get a kick out of following along on the awesome ride of life in your fair city.

 

You better make that three and we have T's. JW

 

Chip

Tell Judy she might get the chance to meet the RICH, FAMOUS AND HANDSOME GARY (okay I can feel my nose growing as I type) If she comes with you to LARS. Anyway she might want to follow you in her air conditioned car. It would let you leave your roadster on the fairgrounds all weekend. Think that is what we might do.
Anyway got my roadster back together after adding an extra leaf to the front spring after the extra weight of the Cad. (over the old Ford 289) engine flattened it. Everything seems right with it. Just need to not fuck with it and screw something up.

Gary

 

Then my advice would be "Stop screwing with it"! Call it a flair for the obvious...

 

Sounds like some extra fun time ahead

 

Nice pic Gary. JW

 

Easy to say, and it's not like I haven't any other old cars to work on. I did notice some play in the steering last time I had it on the highway. Think I might take a half turn in on the Ross before I drive it again. That shouldn't hurt anything. "Famous last words."