Features **Model T buckets/RPU's/Roadster/Tourings official photo thread**

I ran into this guy down at the Michaels craft store.

 

You guys are checking out the lack of headlights, I am looking at the front spring perch set up Interesting. Spring ahead cut, turned backwards, then connected with a solid rod I presume?

 

I have no idea what may of been done to lock it in place,but if not;There can be a number of probs with that set up,with no bone to hold spring bracket in place that is now backword,it can twist some and that would be bigtime deathwabble from side to side of axle from frame. It dose look pretty though

 

These are the pictures I took of it at Billetproof in Antiock Ca. right after Franko finished it and sold it. I thought the headlights were on it then. Not sure why they were off in the previous pictures.
I hope to join in on the Reliability run Saturday if I get feeling better.
Gary

 

I'm pretty sure a spacer is welded in from the front of the spring perch and the axle so it can't move. You can see it on the left of the bottom picture.

 

This fine mo-cheen is currently for sale/trade in the classifieds. I have no connection to the seller, but damned if I don't love this car.

 

Some from my trip to the States. JW

 

Loved this one. JW

 

My uncles late 70's / early 80's bucket.
It's long gone now.

 

Nice!

 

They're '54 Buick, Gary... Look closely...don't think about a thing...you're getting VERY sleepy...watch the jewel...
I recall another magazine car with a 4 jugger, I looked at the article a few times, then snapped: 'HEY, it's a 3-jugger with a Swan necked oil filler tube, topped by a 4th Hellings bonnet! Looked good, could have been even better. But if it fooled ME...it would hafta be 'convincing'. I was an eagle eye. (unless under intense scrutiny)
I'd do it this way. (my Evans 4 jugger I bought at the Watsonville Swap Meet in 1977 was stolen, right out of my garage. Last one I saw, got it at the right time, $12.00.)

 

You went way back for this one Mike. Your probably right about the taillights. Same as Kookie Kar.

Hey we probably bumped into each other at Watsonville in '77 but didn't know it. Only a few forward or backward looking guys were still buying flathead stuff. You and my late older brother Bill. He never quit building flatheads. Twelve dollars and the guy was probably glad to get rid of it. I remember I paid $12.50 for the chopped filled grill and shell on my roadster in the early '80s. I dickered him down from $15.

Gary

 

The first way of putting the spring behind the front axle. Super common on lakes cars of the late forties and into the fifties, and also track roadsters of the era. Not mention prominent on the first batch of T-Buckets built, until the fabricated tube axle became a industry staple in '62 or '63 or so.

I'm doing one for my car right now, but instead of using a '37 tube, I'm going with a more common '37-'41 beam axle, drilled to the bejeebuz. ElPolacko is cutting the hairpin bat wings for me as we speak. I'll be setting my spring perches straight, dropping the perch bolt in and tightening the nuts, and welding the axle to the perch over the circumference top and bottom. I could just as easily handle it like Norm did, and weld a tab to the axle as Gary (Steel Rebel) noted, but I'm taking a bunch of time to clean up the perches, and want to keep things clean. Set up with an eye to correct shackle geometry, this set up is no more "troublesome" than the typical T-bucket tube front end.

 

And there we have it. You can always count on Conan to set the record straight.

 

A lot of ways to skin a cat but; I did my own in the late 1950s,did a lot research,learned engineering back then about cars,before coming up with a plan. Looking around even back then,I could see a lot of stupid stuff just copyed by some that saw it done wrong an with out doing anything but thinking"Oh thats how its done" repeted poor engineering. So we got to this day a hole lot of guys building cars with backword ackerman an shocks so fair away from the tires/ they may as well be in the center of the car ,springs so stiff the car rides like crap,plus bumpsteer like crazy. { is it "Ted" to be stupid,no I think not,its just a fail at doing your home work before doing the car].
In the late 50s I used a 1948 Ford front end that has both a drop from the start as made and spring forword= Spring in front rides smoother,you don't need as strong a spring to do the same right hight and its out of the way for dropping rad behind for a nice low rad. Takes very little mods to do it. I still drive same old hotrod today.

 

Just to be clear, the car above is a faithful recreation of one of the most (fuck it, THEE MOST) important T's ever and as such they built the front end just as Norm did. Remember, when Norm built that car he was literally inventing the T and setting the standard.

Dana, that's a low sinister rod you have there.

 

How about a few more pics of the car Dana?

 

Dean Lowe,
Here's a few,#1 homemade log intake and a few other shots,but last one looks the best last 4th of july.
I've restored this hotrod a few times,from when I first built it in 1959 for highschool,only real changes I've made that look def from first time,is chrome headers,two color seats an a new homemade steering column w/woodwheel,gen2alt. Rest is as it was in 50s an 60s. The added rear rack comes an goes with two wingnuts if wife wishs to come along for her wheelchair.

 

Was the body an "abbreviated" roadster when you first found it? You've had the car a long time!

 

28A roadster was badly crushed in the trunk an Qt.s,looked run over by tractor on the farm I found it on. As a teen I just cut off the bad part an used the good stuff; Back in the late 1950s a lot of racecars had what was called,CAM rearend on the bodys as aero,they were flat at the back of body=flat rear body looked racey at the time was my thinking. I never have had any though of fixing a trunk n Qt. backon it,love it as I did it.

 

That is a neat roadster Dana. And you are correct. The last photo is the best!

 

Hello,

This photo (from RD) looks like it could be the beginning of one of the nicest roadsters that I was able to film back in 1959 at Riverside Raceway during an East vs West drag racing event. The pits were crawling with cool stuff… The action was pretty outstanding, too. Is this candy apple red, roadster still around?

Jnaki