Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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As a former bucket owner, I'm subscribing to this one. Good luck on the build.

My plan is to move the rear axle back far enough to put the tire in the center of the box. Right now I am out of the state for four days for my job. I'll get back at when I get home.

You might want to move the tire back and forth several inches, an inch at a time and take photos of each position. That's always the way I have done when I wanted to get everything lookin' good to the eye.

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Listen to Richard, forcing a fitment to an idea rather than to what is pleasing to the eye is an all too common error. The other suggestion is to move the hardware out into the driveway or where ever you have space to step back about 20 feet from all angles to gauge proportion. After years of playing with this stuff it's not hard to spot a car that was built in a garage and all the decisions were made from a 3 foot distance..................they're always just off somehow.

That sounds like sound advice. I'll do that before I cut any tubing.

Here is a list of the parts and pieces I have collected so far:

1979 Chevy Malibu with a running 350 CI engine, Turbo 200 transmission, and 10 bolt rear end. $600

23 T Body with separate door $550

Door latch and striker $30

Door/ piano hinge, nuts and bolts from Home Depot $17

28 feet of 2 x 3 x 3/16 rectangular tubing for the frame, plus a bunch of 1/4" and 3/8" plate and 1" and 1 1/2 angle iron for fabricating various brackets. $365

Complete front I-beam axle assembly with drum brakes from a 1965 Chevy van. $100

1931 Model A grill shell. $70

1965 Chevy Corvair steering box. $82


Investment so far - $1714

I got some work done today. I spent some more time mocking up and looking at the body, frame, and the box. I decided to go with a 40" box and to center the rear axle with the box.

I got the side frame rails cut out and welded up. I am following Chester Greenhalgh's plans for the most part. I had to lengthen the frame due to my body being 3 inches longer than stock, and apparently about 1 1/2 inches narrower than most, and I am extending the wheel base by 9 inches.

The first picture shows the rear frame kick up. I do not have a flat floor or surface plate to work off, so I clamped the pieces to another piece of tubing to hold them straight while I welded them. Once I got one side welded up, I used it as a jig to assemble the other side

Looks like a nice start, I have to improvise a lot of welding table stuff too

After reading dozens of comments over the years about FLAT-------an old flywheel is a very good item around that welding area----plus the recessed center is handy to have for things with projections ( anything not flat, weld bead, bolt boss, bracket)---------and also, a heavy truck or tractor flywheel makes a nice base for a vice or grinder stand---


Also the already threaded bolt holes for a pressure plate make vatiety of places to clamp down small parts with assortment of bolts and metal strips----

Before you get any further along, I would like to suggest that you buy and read this book cover to cover.....you will not believe how many little time and money saving tips are in here that you can apply to your project......I always suggest used books like this one from greener_books-london or BooKnackRH, that will cost you less than 6 bucks delivered to your front door.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...=used&qid=&sr=

I'm not too far from you, up in Zephyrhills, so if you would like the input from an old guy who has been there, done that, ring me up on the phone and I'll run down there one day and spend a little time with you. If interested, let me know and I'll give you my phone number on Private Message here at Clubhotrod....

One of my first suggestions would be to find an old door that you can re-skin and make into a drafting board. Applying pencil to paper at quarter scale or half scale will allow you to make changes on paper, where they are not quite as expensive as they are to make in steel.

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Nice work! When I made the rear frame rails for my Vette, I did it just like you did. It worked really well.

I got the cross members cut out, and the frame assembled and welded up.
I used 2x3 rectangular tubing for the front cross member, as recommended by Chester Greenhalgh. I think it makes the car look a little "different" than every other T Bucket on the road.


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I am back home for a few days, and I got some work done on the bucket.

The first mission of the day was to get my torches working. I hadn't used them in about twelve years. So I drove the twenty minutes to a welding supply shop in Clearwater, and bought an oxygen and an acetylene tank. I got home, went to connect everything, and found that the stupid rats in my shed had chewed a hole through one of the hoses! Back to the welding shop to get some new hoses. I got back home and tried to assemble then. The new hoses had the wrong size fittings. Back to the welding shop a third time. This time everything worked out.

I am going to use transverse mounted leaf springs for the front and rear suspension on this car.

I made a paper template for the front spring perch side brackets. I then transferred it to a piece of 1/4 inch steel plate using a magic marker. I cut the brackets out with the torch, and then clamped the two brackets together so I could grind them both to the same shape. I did most of the rough grinding and shaping with my bench grinder, then did the final sanding/smoothing with my handy dandy Harbor Freight belt sander. I also cut out the square center bracket, and drilled out the five mounting holes in it.

I then clamped both of the brackets to the front cross member, and measured them a bunch of times to make sure I had them centered and square. I tack welded them in place, and then measured them again to make sure everything was square and centered. I then flipped the frame upside down and tack welded the center bracket on. I am not going to finish welding this bracket on until I have the front axle all mocked up, and I am absolutely sure that everything fits correctly.

Meet Stevie. Nothing happens around here without him knowing about it.

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Very nice work, all that stuff takes so much time. Make sure you plan ahead, unlike me and then cut everything apart again. Meet Chip, unlike Stevie, Chip doesn't notice much going on.