Does anybody have good pics or plans for a T bucket frame made out of round tubing instead of rectangular? The double layer type with top and bottom tubes. I thought one of the T bucket manufacturers made these for a few years but I can't seem to come up with any info. Thank you.
Here is a couple pictures I have saved for inspiration. The yellow one was on the cover of a Moon catolog from the ninties. If I heard correctly, it was built by dragmaster. Not sure if thats true. The other was a pic from e-bay.
Length, width, kickup and what not would be the same as a rectangular tube frame. There was a lengthy article-series on Cotton Werksman's T (the yellow one in post 7 I believe) that detailed how he built the tube frame. If I remember correctly it was all welded with a torch as he didn't have/use an electric welder at the time.
The Dragmaster T-bucket frame in slayer's post #3 is covered extensively in the February, 1964 issue of Hot Rod magazine. Lots of photos on several pages.
a boner's chassis is truly a thing of beauty! I'm curious as to how the weight of it compares with a standard rectangular Total Performance style frame.
Might not be all that much difference from a basic frame weightwise....unless you try to compare it to a rectangular tube style frame that can offer the SAME beam strength and torsional ridgidity. Then this tubular space frame will be WAY lighter. Space frames offer the best combo of strength/stiffness compared to weight of any tubular chassis.
a friend who now lives in San Diego has a Dragmaster T... that thing is neat. Torsion bars front and rear, nice little car. I will see if I can find my photos of it.
No, I didn't build it. It is either a Cotton Werksman frame or a Bob Knaack frame (they are friends). Cotton's son Matt is on the H.A.M.B., maybe he can give us some info. The Bob Knaack "T" with this frame is in Michigan, and owned by Greg Hall. It was at Cobo hall a year or two ago. The frames were built on a wood table with vertical plywood bulk heads that had holes drilled in them. The holes were laid out on a drafting table, and held the tubes in position for welding. When the frame was finished, the plywood was cut away! -Dennis
Cool stuff, guys, looks like on that Werksman frame they would have had to cut the body into pieces and re-glass it around the frame tubes. Or does the body come off? Looks like it sits loooooowwwwwwww. On one T I've seen pics of that I think was built by Cotton the top of the body was barely higher than the rear tire.
Here is a couple of shots of mine for a 27 T. I mostly reverse engineered all of it, ie layed everything out on the bench where I wanted them to go, then built the chassis around them all. The front end uses torsion bars and the rear is a buggy spring. The tube is mostly 1 1/4" OD seamless boiler tube, all cut with a whole saw to fit nice and tight. I have more pictures if anyone is interested.
woodbox.....lots of similarities between your frame and the one in my CAD drawing in post #5. I was going to use T-bars at all 4 corners but your front setup looks very much like what I designed.
My Touring has a tube frame. Twin parallel rails with vertical and angled pieces tying them together. The twin tubes are spaced apart the same amount as the height of a T frame. The rear T crossmember and about a foot and a half of the rear frame stub are sandwiched between the two rails and that is how the frame was set for length and for square. In the front the twin tubes come together for a square front crossmember. This car was built in 53 by an Indy car builder.
When I was 15 I saw a Dragmaster kit rod in front of their shop in Carlsbad, never thought I'd have one. I just bought one, it's purlpe and has a Pinto with straight pipes. There is a thread "early 60's dragmaster" that has a lot about them including a Car Craft article. The torsion bar is crosswise in the front crossmember and uses links like a friction shock. There is a single bar on top and the link on the bottom instead of a radius rod to locate the axle. Mine had been wrecked, the repaired frame tubes are really thin, the torsion bar arms are welded shut. I would post a picture but I have it in the 3rd car garage up on blocks to put disc brakes on the wire wheels. Maybe that's why it got in a wreck in the first place.
As per a PM request, here are some shots of the torsion bar set up on my car. The right side attachment point to the split bone uses one spherical joint and acts as a panhard for the front end, whilst the left side has two spherical joints in a dogbone arrangement, to allow for the torsion bar arm ends swinging in opposing arcs. The last picture shows the front corners of the chassis which are formed by the mounting point for the torsion bar end. The torsion bars are from a Morris Marina(British lite weight sedan) common here in the late 70's. The engine of choice for this project is the Aluminium 1963 Buick Skylark 215 cu inch V8 and Dynaflow 2 speed trans followed up by a 1946 Ford diff with quickchange centre.
Don't forget that Gene Scott's Antique Auto Parts also sold a parallel tube frame for T-Buckets in the 60s/70s.
Logghe Stamping, noted funny car and fueler manufacturers, also sold round tube street rod T frames. They were listed in their catalog in the 60s and 70s.
Here is the mostly tube chassis I built for my '27 Track T. It is made of 1 3/4" x .120" wall, 1 1/2" x .120" wall and 1 1/4" x .120" wall round tubing. All the bends were done on my JD Squared bender:
The Jalopy Journal
