Great score! That's so cool you can now bring it to life and do with it what it was built for ....driving!
Here is a pic taken of the Chev bucket at a local car show yesterday. Standing beside the bucket is Oly, a previous owner and the fellow shown in a pic in post #74 of this thread. In that pic, Oly is posing with the trophy girl at another local show - circa 1973 or so. Decades later, Oly sees his old hot rod again.
Here is current owner John with previous owner Oly - both guys have taken very good care of the old hot rod.
John is working on replacing the front friction shocks with tubular units, so look for a picture update soon.
Here are the pics of the front shock change that John has made - switching from friction to tubular shocks. He made the shock mounts from the bottom half of some old Dodge windshield posts - looks like they were made for this car. John says the ride is really no different than with the friction shocks, but he likes the look better and I agree. What do you guys think?
The Chev bucket wins the "ladies choice" award at a local car show this past weekend. It has been a long time since the last award won by the old hot rod in the early 70's.
If you go back to post #235 you will see a 1959 video of John driving a T bucket hot rod on the street he lived on at that time. Now 56 years later, John has recreated the same video - driving the Chev bucket on the same street. He turns into the same driveways, and says there is only one house remaining on this street - most has been turned into a commercial area. His old house is long gone. Enjoy the videos!
Here is John getting out of the Chev bucket in front of the area where his old house used to be. Fun to recreate old memories - how many guys do you know that drove a hot rod in 1959 and are still driving them in 2015?
Here is a photo John took recently of two car guys enjoying the Chev bucket at a local meet - the young one knows his cars, and can id just about any old one out there. Good to get them started young!
The Chev bucket and the Bloody Mary - a chopped coupe featured in another thread - at a car show last weekend. Time to put the hot rods away for the winter.
Very Interesting! Thanks for posting! I plan on keeping an eye out for the Chev bucket at any car event next spring.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Acadian carguy you will see the Chev bucket out and about in the spring - John likes to hit all the car shows in town.
If you go back to posts #229 and 230 of this thread, you will see a 1/8 scale model of the early 70's version of the Chev bucket. This model was built by Dennis, a local car memorabilia collector with many pieces from the early car club scene. Included in his collection is the trophy the Chev bucket won in the early 70's, as shown in posts #74 and 244.
When John bought the Chev bucket, it came with a spare flathead motor - at least the block, heads and crank. John hunted down the missing parts, put it together and got it running today. Here are Mike, Murray and Keith helping to fire the old flathead.
Just found this thread today. I read it from page 1 to 9 this is why I enjoy the HAMB. KOOL story,and the people too. Have fun with this very cool little HOT ROD Thanks...
The chopped 39 Ford coupe shown in post #254 of this thread has changed hands - here is Murray passing over ownership to Keith. This coupe was first built in the late 50's and is known as the "Bloody Mary" - if you do a search using that name you will come across a thread that details the history of the car. Keith will be doing a complete rebuild, and we are trying to convince him to go back to that 331 Cadillac motor that appeared in the coupe when it was first built as a hot rod. The car needs a lot of work but he is the guy who can get it done.
I saw the Bloody Mary for sale lately and wondered who would end up with it. Would be nice to see it as it was originally, and without the wire wheel hub caps....
The first thing Keith did when he got the car home was get rid of those wire wheel hubcaps. He is talking about going back to a Cadillac 331 motor and returning the coupe to its original candy red color. Keith will build this old hot rod right.
Good to hear. It would be nice to see it returned to what it was. Still a neat car due the fact it is so different looking.