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

You know the routine, "downshift, right hand on stick, load left, stomp, turn left, counter right, upshift, turn left, counter right, ect." Normies dont know the routine...
I have a bad habit of using "tacoed" alot, as in "tacoed a driveshaft last night", that really gets some wierd looks as well. One of my ALL-TIME favorite photos appeared in Car Craft while Frieburger was there. It was one of the most reviled cars on the HAMB after a nitrous backfire. The right side headlight was out of the grill and dangling by the wiring harness. For weeks after that, I would be sitting at my desk at work, and suddenly start giggling uncontrollably. They figured I'd gone off my meds...
Years ago, I was with a car-guy of some local fame, went on to found what is now the ONLY real speed shop chain left in BC, we were discussing the body on this car, and I said "that thing looks like a sack of hockey pucks". He spewed coffee out of his nose...

 

Thank CHRIST we have this thread back to normal!! Its like coming home at the end of the day, taking your shoes off, plopping your ass on the couch and wiggling your toes. The last bastion of "real car guy" shit on the HAMB. Accidentally getting sideway in the rain, downshifting slowing down and punching it in traffic just because, and breaking parts. F*CK YEA! Crybaby dolls my ass!

 

The roll over with snaps affords some protection, I think my upholstery guy got this one about right for length.

 

Perfect!

 

Marty, I want to ask you more questions about the bucket above. I notice it has buckets in it. Is it a stick? How tall are you? Can I see some more interior pics, like the seat position relative to the back of the bucket, and the pedal layout? I 100% WANT low-back fiberglass race buckets in mine, I want to see how it all fits, and how much space there is. Hows the driving position for you? I'm about 5' 9" and 170.

 

Wow George thanks for all that Debinidctis stuff. Shirley looks there just as she did when she interviewed me for my for my Tel. Co. job in '62. Dennis said she hired all of his friends and I had gone to the same High School as him. I always thought that had something to do with my hire as I recognized her name but I never asked her.
Can somebody post that Frieburger article or did I miss it in a previous post.

 

I thought long and hard about doing a pair of fiberglass low back shells in the 'Ugly... I really like them a bunch and they are just about perfectly scaled to these cars.

 

I don't think is was posted Gary, and it'll take a day or two for me to find it around here. Maybe George has it handy and can post it up for us. It's a damn fine read as most of his stuff is, really.

 

I have a hunch they sat on that feature for a couple years before they ran it. The photo credit was Andy Southard, my guess is it was actually shot in late '67/early '68, shortly after he shot it at the '67 Oakland Roadster Show.

 

It will take me DAYS to dig that up! Anyone has it handy, please post it. Real life is shaping up to get in the way the next few days, I have to talk to my lawyer about some financial matters, and my kid just barfed her dinner all over the place, so it looks like she is going to home from school for a couple days. Poor little tike...

 

You know, I LOVED Frieburger at Car Craft, he was a good fit, and was sort of a cut-rate Tony Defoe. Then he went to Hot Rod, became "Mr Shock Rod" and managed to pretty much ruin a magazine I have read all my life. Its funny how a guy can be just what one magazine needed and then at another one, well uh, not so much....

 

You car is a slightly earlier era than the T-bucket I want to build, and there was a TON of change over that 5 year span from '63/'67. I consider the low back buckets to be absolutely integral to what I am planning, along with the SW green stripes, the white plastic t-handle and so on. Your car could go either way, for my deal, with the ram log, big cam, big gears and t-handle, I see the low-back race buckets as a key part of the attitude I'm shooting for.

 

George, There are 10 of these cars I built, 8 were stick shift and 9 had the aluminum bucket seats. The drivers are as tall as 6'2" and weigh 190-200. Using the buckets and a snap-in liner, it was quite easy to pull all of the interior and hose it out, after a night on the dirt track.

 

Thanks Marty! The glass buckets are a little thicker, but I wont be putting all that tubing in there, should balance out. Nice work by the way, thays cool as hell.

 

That is such a beautiful car! Epic almost!

Those seats, minimal interior and that simple steeringwheel. That really gets me every time.
No disrespect meant, but those horisontal dosen't do it for me. And wooden steering wheels with brass hub, make go all limb in the wrong places.
I know at lot of people do the horisontal steering to gain interior room. I get that, I just dont like.

 

We would have to confirm with Saltflatmatt, he worked for Rich at MAS. I think I remember him telling me they did offer them but they didn't hold up well or sell well? I forget. But, I did see with my own eyes a round tube T frame on the wall that they played with way back. That was a neat store, glad Matt took me there before it went away. FWIW, my lakester has a freshly made MAS axle under it. Matt sold a run of them recently.

 

Georage you shouldn't have any trouble fitting into a bucket. We are about the same size. Height and weight that is. Didn't mean to get personal. When I talked to Grabowski while ordering my skull shifter I told him I built a bucket with the same vintage body he used. He blurted out "how tall are you". When I told him 5' 9" he again blurted out "I knew it, much taller and you wouldn't fit." I think you'll be fine if you mount those seats as far back as possible. Maybe just some 1/2" foam glued to the inside of the bucket under the upholstery. You know their still a bunch of those fiberglass seats around. I still see them at with chair legs at garage sales and second hand stores.
I too George am glad this thread is back on track. Although I do like the Judy stories and some of the other distractions, I don't want to have it shut down. I enjoy too much telling you guys how to build your buckets weather you listen to me or not. I do think some of it gets through your thick skulls.
And Marty I have loved your oval track inspired buckets ever since I saw the first one at the Pleasington Goodguys show. I too run an Econoline top loader with a Jeep shifter in my T. Mine is a full syncro. three speed. Is the one in the photo a three or four speed? They are pretty bulletproof.

 

I know they didn't sell well for M.A.S. I don't know for sure, but I don't believe that they ever made anymore than they got when they bought out my dad's stuff. I do know that as late as '81, the one they offered me at Hennepen was one of my dad's. That was almost ten years after they acquired our stuff. What they DIDN'T acquire though was our name, Racing Unlimited, yet they were putting out catalogs and such under that name. A bit of gentle suggestion stemmed that for a bit...

I think the deal with the aluminum frames was the fact that lots of guys just flat aren't equipped to weld on them. I was offered one about a year ago, but didn't take it because I'm trying to sell MY stuff, and figured it would have been kinda difficult to explain.

 

Martys cars are cool as hell, but they are a TOTALLY different deal than a "Sixties style" T-bucket, which is what Chip and I are targeting. Martys cars are EXCELLENT knock-offs of fifties CRA track roadsters, Chip and I are riffing on the Tommy Ivo, Chuck Penry, Dick Thompson buckets of the late fifties /mid sixties. To start mixing the elements from either of the two would lose the flavour of the original recipe. You wouldn't have a fifties track roadster OR a sixties T-bucket. Martys bucket would look totally stupid with Americans, pie-crusts and a ram log small block with white headers. Its like if you are making a chocolate cake and said "You know, I REALLY like BBQ ribs, if I add some, this should be REALLY good. Uhhh, not so much.

 

Yes, I see what you mean, but I fail too see why this interior shouldt be a good match for a sixtys style roadster. Mayby with som sounddamper and/or carpet trown in with the same dash and steering wheel.
Was it youasking how to do interior, for a bucket? This is one way to do it, almost regartless of target year(s). For my point of view.
Mayby tha fabric/and colour would change.
Also region is a factor on looks. Like black nappa/vinyl in Arizona, dont sound plesant at all.
But the steering wheel won't fit every Era.

 

I posted the first picture, only to show the roll on the upholstery, not to compare my cars to the "T" Buckets, they are far different. I also wanted to share my photo of Al Sharp and Joe Graffio with my car. Back to regular programming.

 

I really dig it, is there a build tread on it?
And it flows so well, all together.
I like the feilling of being tucket in a bucket seat, thats why I comment on your seats.
I want something like them in my next build, al though it aint gonna be a bucket.
The bench looks good, but for hard cornering, nothing beat bucket seats!

Did you do the seatcovers your self, or buy them.

 

Marty, my T Bucket isn't aimed at any era and I love what the guys are doing that strive for that flag. I just like fast, clean and Spartan. The interior in your cars are what I like. As George says, it's hard to mix and match without looking "hockey". I should know, my first rendition was the text book photo of "Hockey". But for my taste, your interior is right on the point of Hot Rod perfect.

 

Fred, I liked your first build...

 

Several of the track roadsters Marty built were featured in an article in R&C, I'll try to dig it up and post it later. I really liked the black one with the red ram...

 

George, You shouldn't post those here, Chip's thread is about "T" Buckets and let's keep it that way.

 

No problem Marty, we do tend to wander a bit on here, I was just trying to explain to volvobrynk why styling elements that fit on a track roadster may not work on a sixties t-bucket and visa-versa.

 

No, I think it might be a good idea to print the article here. I was just flipping through it the other day in the "reading room" at a friends shop, and it's about 2004 or so.

My reasoning behind posting this is that first and foremost, Marty's craftsmanship is off the freakin' charts, and second that track roadsters are another step in the evolutionary scale to get to the cars we are talking about. I know Volvobrynk is out of Denmark, and I hope he doesn't take offence at this, but I watched him on a couple other threads wondering why certain cars are built the way they are. It occurred to me then that we throw terms like "track roadster" and "T-Bucket" and "lakester" and "highboy" around, and lots of the world has no idea WHY a track roadster isn't a T-Bucket, and vice versa.

'Sides, I dig track roadsters as much as T-Buckets...

 

Hey, I grew up here, and I didn't have a clue either... That's why I'm enjoying this thread...

BTW Marty, after seeing the pics you posted... Your name was thourghly searched here and google for more information... Awesome builds...

 

I learned a lot about the way you name a model.
I learned alot about era specific parts from this threat!! And I learned alot more from this threat.

I was just talking about the interior of martys car!!

But when it comes to interior, the bucket vs. bench would'nt put it in one or the other?
It's the body that sets a track roadster apart from a bucket.
What really de rails a bucket build to me, is when you mix kobber, brass stainless and funky painted sheetmetal, and on top of the confusement they add stuff untill it's out of proportion. And then some more

The sixty bucket and track cars are more streamline in the use of materials, and have a Naked/minimalistic use of parts. Because lighter is fast and simpe is beautiful!