My OTHER Son's T Bucket

donsrods · December 17, 2006, 11:28:44 PM

Thanks George. Every day I am thankful that these two came into my life 36 years ago. Life wouldn't have been nearly as good if that hadn't happened.

As for the gift, I thought about it, and figured who am I kidding. I'm 61, and have 3 unfinished projects besides this one, how many can I realistically get done before I'm too old to do it any more. The timing was right, he was looking for a new project, and I had this thing just gathering dust, so it just made sense. He has kind of fallen into the " Husband and Father" role, and does very little for himself anymore, so this will give him some personal pleasure.

Thanks for the nice comments .

Don

PS: I'm a fan of purple too, my '27 was purple before I stripped it down for a redo, and never got back to it. Your truck looks terrific in the Avatar.

donsrods · December 22, 2006, 10:04:40 PM

Last night Dan and I gave Don the frame Dan made for him. He was pretty surprised, and had to admit it was tons better than the first frame. The 2 inch wide tubing just looks so much more solid, and the increased kickup will drop the rear down a couple of inches too.

While Dan was welding on the front perch and radius rod tabs, Don and I put the front axle assembly together. Probably the easiest one I have ever done, as every part went right together with no hassles.

Here is Dan welding up the mounting tabs. We turned the frame upside down to do the welding.

donsrods · December 22, 2006, 10:06:14 PM

Here is a shot of the mounted front axle assembly.

donsrods · December 22, 2006, 10:08:38 PM

This axle is set up for '49 to '54 Chevy spindles, and we are using a modified set that use Chevy disc brakes.

butch27 · December 22, 2006, 10:57:25 PM

Wasn't too impressed with "Total" frame Huh? Me either especially the self tapping bolts for engine and trans mounts.

donsrods · December 22, 2006, 11:37:12 PM

Yeah, aren't those amazing?

?? I like Mickey, and understand that he is trying to put out a kit that a guy without welding equipment can build, however, I wouldn't trust these at all.

He and I had a discussion about them when I picked up my kit at Daytona a couple years ago, and he is sold on them. How self tapping (or thread forming) bolts can hold in only 1/8 inch wall thickness is beyond me. And like you mentioned, they use them for critical areas, like motor mounts and rear coilover perches.

I threw mine away when I got home.

Don

petrolhead · December 26, 2006, 06:48:49 PM

Just gotta love T-Buckets I spent ages looking at www.tbucket.com and will have to do one of these. I dont know how the dollar is at the moment but there is a guy in Qld Australia that does some great buckets to any stage and the quality is spot on. Check out Ian Cameron's site at www.designedchassis.com
Regards
Petrolhead

donsrods · December 26, 2006, 11:46:19 PM

Wow, I spent a lot of time looking at both sites, and sent them to my Kid. Thanks for posting those. You are right, he builds a really nice looking T, but he did make one mistake. The steering wheels are all on the wrong side.

I agree about how easy these things are to build. Both Dan and I said if we had built one of these instead of our current projects, we would have been done and driving a long time ago.

Thanks again for the info, really appreciate it.

Don

butch27 · December 27, 2006, 10:04:48 AM

Petrolhead: Very good looking chassis and body. I doubt that our Dollar is worth very much at all anymore. Do they take credit cards LOL.

donsrods · December 31, 2006, 11:30:03 AM

Have a few more progress pictures to post. We went over the other night and the three of us sat around having a beer and trying to help Don figure out what direction the T should take. He was thinking Cragars, or chrome rims. But I removed the front wheels and wide whites off of my '39 Dodge and put them on his car, and then put the wide whites off of the rear of my '27 on it, and the car started to come together. Then we slipped my chopped '32 grille shell off of the '27 on the front, and the fate was sealed. He liked the look, and has decided this will be it, sort of a tribute to Grabowski's T.

Now my biggest problem is getting all my parts back.

. He told me he was ready to call Coker Tire Tuesday, so I think I should be able to repossess my stuff in the next week or so.

Here are some shots of how it ended up.

Don

donsrods · December 31, 2006, 11:31:36 AM

Front shot

donsrods · December 31, 2006, 11:33:09 AM

and one more

butch27 · December 31, 2006, 06:00:59 PM

I don't see anything. Could you hold the pics a little higher?

butch27 · December 31, 2006, 06:02:10 PM

Nevermind they finally came up.NICE.

donsrods · January 18, 2007, 09:22:53 PM

While I am updating our pictures, thought I would update Don's T bucket photos.

He has been busy ordering all the pieces he needs to finish it up, and we spent last night building the motor mount and mocking up a dummy 302 into the frame. We had to put some of his new goodies on it, like the headers and dual quad setup. His '32 grille shell still hasn't come from Total Performance, so we used my '32 shell again to get the effect.

This thing is coming together so fast he will have it running before Dan and I have our rods going, unless we get our butts into gear.

Here are some shots we took last night.

Don