Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Yes; like this. I will admit that clear lenses are not my favorite thing, but I will take them in a trade off to get reverse lights without having some afterthought bulbs hanging off the car somewhere (or not having reverse lights at all).

I had considered possibly Frankensteining the lenses themselves and gluing up a red top/clear bottom, but the way the lenses are split with the gasket doesn’t line up with the way the housings are split with the divider of top/bottom bulbs. It could be done, but not without a lot of work. The way I have them now, the cast-off pieces will still make a complete taillight for someone to use.




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Hi Tim, job well done. Had you considered painting the inside of the top piece of the lens with a transparent red lens dye? We used to sell it in the speed shop where I used to work. It's a lot like nail polish.

Cheers,
Arnold.

 

I hadn’t considered that because I didn’t know it existed! Do you have a link? I think for now I will leave it be to see if it grows on me, but the paint/dye is something I could do at anytime even once the car is done. Thanks for sharing!


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https://www.vhtpaint.com/specialty/vht-nite-shades-red

 

Hey, Tim;
Is the lens glass or plastic? I suspect an old modeling technique would work in either case. What I learned, was when I wanted tinted windows for my model cars, to sand the *inside* of the "windshield/windows/backglass" w/a fairly fine wet-or-dry sandpaper, (like say, 400-600 grit, wet, evenly, side to side, no swirls) & then lightly fog on whatever color you want, using "candy" colors. Different shades depended on number of coats. The sanded portion held the candy paint so you didn't get runs, + it gave a smoother, more even coverage, while the sanding scratches disappeared. + w/the color on the inside of the model, the paint didn't get scratched away when handled. I'd guess that glass-beads would work on glass lenses. FWIW. Marcus...

 

Sorry Tim, I don't have a link. I'm going back 30 odd years now. The dye was used to repair faded lenses, we used to have it in amber and red colors.
BTW, love your T. Keep chipping away at it. I nearly have my '55 on the road after 32 short years!! Sometimes life gets in the way.

Cheers,
Arnold.

 

Never really been a fan of T-Buckets until now. Wow! What a great build. You've done an amazing job. I only looked through the pictures but I'm for sure going to go back and read it all. Can't wait to see the end result. Has a lot of similarities to my chassis. I'm sure I can get great info when I go back and read it. Looks great.

 

Yeah! What he said. lol. I actually found you explanation very interesting and enjoyed reading it and the rest of your Thread.

 

Never even thought I’d the lower half as a back up light. Very clever. I do feel like I’ve seen lenses that have the bottom clear and top red since your talking about that idea

if I find them before you I’ll share the info

 

Thanks fellas! I wish I had updates to share, but unfortunately nothing picture-worthy. I did do a really stupid thing, which I will share once I've solved the problem, and I did drop off some items at the machine shop awhile back. Other than that, I've just been focusing on my house. I still haven't started a thread on that, either, because everything takes way longer than I think it will, so I still don't have a solid starting point for a thread. I appreciate you guys hanging out in the lull, though!

 

Garage journal might be a helpful place to have the house thread? Get loads of interesting input I’d think

 

Tim
You should know we think you've done an outstanding job on both the car and coverage here, I especially applaud you on making changes when you find something that you aren't happy with or when input from us warrants it.
We aren't going anywhere, we got your back when you get back on the T.
Also, you don't need to wait to post untill you've amassed lots of new progress text and photos, we're happy to get little updates now and then.

 

I like them. I'd just put red bulbs in them.

 

I went back and read about 80% of the Thread. Very informative. Enjoyed it a lot. Going to finish reading it tonight. Some stuff I had to read a couple times. A little above my pay grade. Keep it coming even if it's only little things you've done.

 

I forgot how cool this little buggy is. I don't think anyone can accuse you of not being thorough.
Nice work

 

Nice detailed work! Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it!

 

Tim, you got your ears on?
You get your house finished, I know, never finished just like a car project.
Whats on the front burner, T bucket or deuce?

 

Tim... Great thread, love your new house. Good thinking to get garage car stuff organized before making another big mess finishing up the T.
I outgrew my 2.5 car garage quick, so wife Joey and I had a slab poured and built a metal shop out of 2.5" tubing and sheets of 12" X 20 foot steel sheets.
Now I need more room...(groan...)

 

Thanks guys for checking in. I don’t have much to update on the T, or the 32. Lame, I know! I’m getting pretty antsy purposely ignoring both projects - trust me. I know how my brain works, and I can really only focus on one thing at a time, and right now that needs to be the house.
Long story longer on the house- I want to start a thread in the antiquated section, but I don’t have enough meat to begin a thread yet. Basically I have been re-shaping the lot since I moved in. The front yard was sloped towards the house, so the rains brought me a crawl space swimming pool there for awhile. I don’t like to do things twice, so I took the time to get the front yard how I wanted it, and it looks pretty good! Next was the side yard(s), and onto the back yard. Guess what? All of them sloped towards the house. The one side yard had a 4’ tall failing retaining wall due to no drainage.... blah blah blah. I haven’t made any car progress, but I have been the furthest thing from idle! I did unload a bunch of the extra parts and pieces laying around to a local H.A.M.B.er, and that felt good to not be tripping over all that anymore. The house project has spiraled completely out of control, and there is as much or more house stuff in staging as there was car stuff! So anyway, my priorities are the house until it becomes comfortably live able, which is gonna be awhile unfortunately - I’m swimming in the deep end on this one!

 

Here’s a little glimpse of my living nightmare LOL. Every single project has turned out like this. I kid you not.

The driveway leading to the detached garage became a pinch point behind the house because there was a rotting deck protruding into the driveway. I thought it would be nice to turn into pavers, with the idea I can push a car out of the garage and out of sight from the street. Well, like every single other project on the house, about 3 or 4 other “people” (use preferred expletive in place of people) have had their way with it first. So I tear off the deck, dig the area down (with a pick axe and spade shovel) about 18” to give the pavers plenty of foundation.... lo and behold I find 3 or 4 instances of power being run to the garage.... direct burial.... about 6” below grade..... no immediate indication if these are still live or not. Then I uncover a water line run with about 15 sections of hose clamped 5/8” heater hose.... also about 6” below grade.... Then I uncover some completely rigged drain line from when there was laundry in the garage out back..... let me tell you, cutting into that was a treat..... and lastly, there is an unknown metal pipe running under my driveway out into the back yard at a diagonal. I chose to leave that alone, and have since uncovered it in the back yard continuing its journey to God knows where doing God knows what. This was all orchards and farm land prior to WW2, so I am assuming this is some kind of well water pipe or something.... Up against the house, and later found under the house as well, was a large pile of bones from an unknown species. I had the police out to investigate, who escalated to a detective, who escalated to a medical examiner, who said these are animal bones, you can keep digging.... so it seems at one point a wild animal was living under my deck and under the house.... crawling through the shit and piss and bones and dead rats under there to run power and water to the garage the proper way was a real joy, let me tell you. But it’s done, and it’s done to code, and the pavers turned out decent. Ignore the surface mount vinyl windows with moron installed trim, the crooked siding, the haggard screen door..... The rest of the house lies in wait as I work my way around with a shovel in the dirt......

 

Like the job you did on the pavers. Frank

 

My 86 yr. old neighbor laughed when I said I was finished up on remodeling 40 yrs ago , he grinned & said " Son , you're a homeowner now , you're never gonna be done!" , boy , was he right !!

 

If your going to own it you going to maintain it and make improvements to your likening. 45 years in a house I bought new and still work on something almost all the time.

 

OK, I get all this, but what have you been doing in your spare time???!!!LOL Nice job,big job

 

Spare time is a nonexistent commodity that only appears in a different Dimensions

 

I’m learning that time is the most valuable thing we have on this planet - I’m doing my best not to waste it!

 

It either comes down to you doing the projects every year or you become one of those guys that hires it done so you can work on other things of your choosing! Make your pick, oh or you spend part of your time working on the property projects and part of the time on those special projects, like your T or 32.

 

Great job with the pavers. I’ve had similar experiences and intentionally left a few for the next guy so he’ll have his own story to tell.

 

When I tiled my kitchen and dinning room and walkways I bought 3 xtra boxes and stored them under the draws in the kitchen cabinets and wrote the color # for the grout on the box that was close to 30 years ago. This spring the foundation moved and cracked and broke loose some tiles. I only need about 25 new tiles I bought the same grout at home destroyer and it matched. It’s best to have extra. Frank