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

Kiwi Paul,
I'm very sorry to hear of your mother's passing. I know she meant the world to you; even though I've only met up with you a couple times, I remember you were talking on the phone with your "mum" as I pulled up each time. I'm very glad you were able to see her before she passed. Let me know if you need any help over at your place or anything like that while you're gone. Hope to see you at the swap meet.

 

Thanks Joe for finding and posting that photo above.

This car is so nice and so right in my Kookie Kar Loving mind that I hate to find fault BUT do you think he welded that bar across the V8-60 tube axle just to hang the license plate?
It would be nice to find out what happened to it but again when I was trying to find the DeBenictis roadster and tracked it down to Santa Rosa. I started talking to the old car guys there and one of them said "we all had one of them back then". Their were so many T Buckets built in the '60s and '70 it's hard to track down one.
I wonder why it didn't get any magazine coverage. Maybe because it didn't have much chrome and was built in Tenn.

Gary

 

Wow! Great job on finding the new photo. I would have never thought of looking there. The car looks better ever time I see a new pic of it.

 

I'd gone to the Tennessean site just to see if I could find a picture of the old Fairgrounds coliseum to confirm the location of the first pic posted here. I had no idea that I might actually find a picture of the car in question there.

I may have a lead on some more information: Every now and then I pick up a copy of "The Nashville Retrospect" which reprints newspaper stories for a given month spanning about 200 years. I clipped out and saved an article from 1962 about a hot rod that was purchased (already finished) by a local family with 2 teen boys. The car had won a trophy at a local show but I can't remember exactly what the car was (it was either a roadster or a T bucket). I'll dig around and see if I can find the clipping tonight. If I can't locate it, it looks like the November 2013 issue of the Retrospect is where it can be found and a copy is available for $3:

http://www.nashvilleretrospect.com/NR_purchase.html

"Hot Rod 'Has Everything,' Even Trophy, For Boys" (1962); "

 

I did some picture shifting around this morning to find something for my Facebook page, and found this. Ya, it's a model. It's a pretty rare model too. Monogram's Big Tub kit. I have never seen on in the flesh until I shot this a couple of years ago at L.A.R.S.

I think I mentioned early on that my dad, when I was about 5 or so found and brought home an unbuilt BIG "T" kit, and I'm pretty damn sure that's what made my mind go bad over these things. Just always wondered why that looked different than our 'buckets!

I just flat dig the detailing on this kit, and it really is of the era it was conceived in, which is the era I have been rambling about throughout this whole thread. For someone that is space limited in a traditional 'bucket, something like this might be a great alternative. Jim Gordon at what used to be Gene Scott's PSI over in L.A. still sells 'glass touring bodies every year at L.A.R.S.

 

Hmmmm....

 

stringbean, I just looked to see where you were from and have never heard of your town(sorry) so I looked it up. Da! You certainly have a good shot of finding more info on the hot rod.
Good luck, It will be interesting to see what you find.

 

Also, Monday was title and license day for Roy's touring that I built the chassis for. He is short on detail, but long on enthusiasm, and it was fun to see him finally drive this thing around a bit.

By the way, Arizona has changed the nomenclature of titles in the last 9 months. It used to be that calling a vehicle "special Construction" was a kiss of death, requiring emissions testing, catalytic converters, air bags and any other late model stuff. Plus it was always made the current model year. Now, our "special construction" title is a foot note, so Roy's car is a "1923 Ford Roadster" on the actual title, and "special construction" is on the lower line. Now it no longer needs any current emissions controls or safety checks anymore... Kinda cool!

Hmmnnn. Not letting me upload pictures right now.... I'll add it in later.

 

Dude, I never thought of you in this deal on a Touring.... That would be awesome with your big inch engine....

 

Double Hmmmm.............

(A '34 is still in the future, but...hmmmm....)

 

sounds like a plan a hatchin

 

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars...ng/1057664642?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

Hey, I just did a T-Bucket touring frame.... Just saying...

 

There was a twin to that '27 Touring on wire wheels that sold on eBay for $5,500. a few weeks ago. Heck of a deal but on the wrong coast for me. Bob

 

Dammit, Chip.....

 

Cool, well found!

I tried to find pics of the Coliseum but could only find a couple of the fire and apart from confirming it was made of bricks they weren't good enough to identify the entrance.

But I learnt one new thing about the US - there a lots and lots of Coliseums there!

 

Paul May's touring from '61:

 

That's a very cool model Chip, I made this 41 years ago out of left overs.
Jeremy

 

I found the 1962 clipping I was looking for. Unfortunately the car featured is not the TN Fairgrounds bucket but a cut down T coupe instead. It says in the article that it has been "featured in several auto magazines"; Anybody seen it before?
I was looking at the license plates in the 2 pictures of the other car from the fairgrounds, it looks like the 1962 plate has the county code "1" for Davidson (Nashville), the 1964 pic shows an antique tag. If I get a chance, I'll see if I can turn up anything at the Nashville Public Library or the Metro Archives.

 

The car does look familiar, but I remember it without the "My Mother The Car" top and too-tall grille and shell which may have been "updates" as was a popular method of remaking an older show car to be competitive for another year of show competition. Backdating the car with a chopped windshield, no top and a shorter grille shell would make it look pretty darn good...imho...for a coupester, that is.

 

Love the Big Tub! Any idea what the wheelbase scales out to? The Paul May tub is bitchin' too!

 

Hey gang.

I just talked to Jim Gordon at Antique Auto Parts/PSI over in California, and he is going to check the warehouse to see if there are any of the tub bodies left. I'll know in the next week or so!

 

I haven't measured the tub I just finished, but my guess would be somewhere in the 105-108" range.

 

Wintec fab. has a touring body similar to that..
dave

 

Dang it, Chip...

 

Right number of carbs, just the wrong engine!

 

My daughter bought me this a while back. I think from ebay. I guess I should put it together. It had been put together before probably by a kid about the age as the one on the box. It wasn't too hard to get it apart again. It's not perfect but I think it's all there. It's looks a lot like my roadster about the color and there is a 32 grill in there. I guess that's why she bought it.
Maybe some day.
Gary

 

It even has a quickchange Gary

 

I actually saw "The Big T" once. It was in Winnamucca Nevada. Some rich Guy was buying up a bunch of old rods for a museum there. I think when the bottom fell out of the economy some years ago he lost his ass and had to close it down.

And yes it has a chrome quickchange.