Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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Originally Posted by DennyW

I know I sure have changed an awful lot of GM starters compared to just a few Ford's. Matter a fact, if it wasn't for GM, I wouldn't have much business in my shop I had.

I don’t know, I worked in an independent garage for a few years, and I remember Ford Escorts coming in on the wrecker nearly every day. 99% of the time they had either a broken timing belt or a bad ignition module. The worst part I remember about GM’s was constantly changing starters on Chevettes. What a miserable job. I haven’t touched a Chevette in about 20 years, and I hope I never see another one. lol

On the Ford solenoid thing, I “think” Mike P is on the right track. I think at least part of the problem was too much voltage drop along the ignition switch and the small starter wire. Chevy engineers did a lot of things right, but mounting the solenoid on the starter, and near the exhaust, was not one of their better ideas. Making valve covers with only four bolts in them was also not a brilliant idea.

I grew up die hard Chevy, then I tried Fords which have never disappointed me. Now I have 2 Dodges, a Chevy, a Ford and a Hyundai on the yard. For reliability, all brands have treated me pretty well. For non critical parts falling off around me, GM takes first prize in that category.

I finished the welding on the rear axle brackets. I changed the king pins and all 4 wheel cylinders, painted both axles, and installed them.

I placed an order with McMaster Car, and got grade 8 bolts and nuts (metal locknuts) for everything on the suspension and steering.

I fired up the engine and made a bunch of noise for a couple of minutes!

I fiberglassed the floor in from the top and bottom, and made a metal bracket to stiffen the ride side of the body behind the door.

Today I’m working on wooding the body. I’m using 2x4’s, and doing plenty of cutting and grinding to get them to match the curves of the body. I’m going to use bondo to stick them in, and then fiberglass them. I like my seat back tilted more than most, and I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of leg room to get it that way. I built some shelves behind the seat to store some tools and such.

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I like watching these glass builds, it's a learning thing for me.

Yesterday I finished all the itchy messy fiberglass work. Then I flipped it over and covered the fiberglass resin with truck bed liner.

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

I like watching these glass builds, it's a learning thing for me.

This is the first time I’ve done any significant amount of fiberglass work. If you do some reading up about it first, it’s really not rocket science to learn how to do it.

I get itchy just thinking about the glass work I've got to do sometime in the near future! Good to see some updates.

After changing my mind about a dozen times over the wheels and tires, I finally bought the fronts. I went with some US Wheels rat rod wheels, 15 x 5 inch. I got a pair of 165/80R15 Hankook tires from Wally Mart. These are made for 1960’s VW Beatles. Coker makes some great looking tires, but these things were only $52 each, and they’ll work just fine.

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One suggestion on tires. My T was very sensitive to front tire balance. If they got out of balance, the front would get a strange bounce at certain speeds. I also learned to jack the front up if it was not going to be used for a long period, like over the winter. Otherwise, the tires would flat spot and bounce like crazy. With almost no weight on the front, it was almost impossible to get enough heat in them to round them out again. I went through a couple of set of fronts before figuring that out.

Originally Posted by Driver50x

After changing my mind about a dozen times over the wheels and tires, I finally bought the fronts. I went with some US Wheels rat rod wheels, 15 x 5 inch. I got a pair of 165/80R15 Hankook tires from Wally Mart. These are made for 1960’s VW Beatles. Coker makes some great looking tires, but these things were only $52 each, and they’ll work just fine.

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Reminds me of 550/15's. I ran a few sets on the front of a 40 2dr sedan and a 36 5 window coupe.

Interesting. Did you have radials, or bias ply tires? The guy I bought the body from warned me about that also. He said that if I have any problems I should get the tires trued. He said that having round tires is every bit as important as having them in balance.

They were bias ply, that was in the 60's and the best set I had were Pirelli's that were on the 40 when I bought it. I drove both cars halfway across the country, the 40 from San Diego to Dayton, Ohio in 62 and the 36 from Dayton to Camp Pendleton in 64. One thing about driving a straight axle car or truck, you drive it, it doesn't drive you.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

One thing about driving a straight axle car or truck, you drive it, it doesn't drive you.

And if you found yourself on an asphalt roadway where the lanes were not packed exactly the same height, you had better be cold stone sober and up on your game. I wouldn't drive another straight axle car if you gave it to me. Take it from me, the "Good Old Days" weren't what they were cracked up to be in ALL areas of hot rodding and drag racing.
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Originally Posted by techinspector1

And if you found yourself on an asphalt roadway where the lanes were not packed exactly the same height, you had better be cold stone sober and up on your game. I wouldn't drive another straight axle car if you gave it to me. Take it from me, the "Good Old Days" weren't what they were cracked up to be in ALL areas of hot rodding and drag racing.
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Where's your sense of adventure? I f I had one I'd drive the hell out of it as long as the axle wasn't bent and the king pins worn out. If you put many of today's kids in a straight axle vehicle they'd probably put it in a ditch.

They were VW size radials on steel wheels. Brakes were very heavy 39 Lincoln drums. All this weight created two very powerful gyroscopes. The axle itself was a 39-40 Ford I-beam and was pretty light compare to the wheels, tires and brakes.

I think what I was experiencing is known as axle tramp, where one side of a straight axle affects the other side through gyroscopic precession. The tire imbalance caused a little instability in the tires and this was amplified by the heavy wheels and brakes. Essentially, the two gyroscopes started fighting each other to remain upright. At just the right speed, the axle would bounce from the left wheel to the right wheel(not a wobble or shimmy, but a bounce) and could become pretty violent if you stayed at the "trigger" speed. Once I learned what the speed was (about 50 MPH in my case), I just didn't drive there. I either stayed under it or drove through it. As long as the tires were round and well balanced, it really wasn't that noticeable and the car drove very good, even at speeds over triple digits (closed course, insane driver, don't try this at home kids).

At the T-Bucket Nationals, I got to talk to a lot of bucket drivers and found out that many T's experience this type of bounce from time to time.