Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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Originally Posted by firebird77clone

A matching speedo. There's a joke in there but I'm leaving it be.

There's the voice of experience??? rofl

I had planned on mounting a Mustang II floor shifter in this thing. After I realized how much precious floor space that was going to use up, I switched gears on that plan.

I built myself a custom shifter assembly. All of the commercially available shifters that I saw place the shifter near the rear of the transmission. I wanted it towards the front of the trans for two reasons - 1) it frees up some foot room on the floor, and 2) it mimics the look of an old top loader transmission.

I made the main frame out of 1/2 inch square tubing, and the shift lever out of 1/2 inch round stock, and a few other metal scraps laying around the shop. I welded a 3/8th inch bolt to the top of the shifter, and screwed on an old cut glass door knob that was resting in one of my junk drawers. It might be a little hard to tell from the pictures, but the shift linkage goes from the drivers side of the shifter back to a bell crank, and then forward to the transmission.

On the passenger side of the shifter I built a reverse lock out mechanism. It consists of a “slider” assembly that has a hole in it for park, and a slot for drive and neutral. The spring loaded pin is actuated by a cable (a bicycle brake cable) which will run to a knob located on the seat riser. This will prevent the shifter from being accidentaly bumped into reverse. It will also act as a theft deterrent. It will be impossible to get the car out of park without knowing how and where the release knob is.

I spent a good amount of time fiddling around with this thing, getting it to clear everything and getting the geometry worked out. I went through a couple design changes. The final design is not real pretty, but it will be covered up anyway, and it works great. This is more fun to me than ordering a part from a catalog.

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Nice work! I can relate on how much time and how many times you have to revise something like this. I'e built a couple in 4x4 trucks when I put a dodge trans in a chevy. Nice work!

Thanks Ryan. I’m happy with the outcome of the shifter location. It was worth the time I spent on it.

Interesting design, and apparently an effective solution in the concept.
Good work.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It appears completely robust to include all synnonyms:

Solid, strong, rigid, firm; and shiny!

I took the battery out of my Camaro to get some measurements, and built my battery box out of 1 inch angle iron and flat stock.

Later this month, I have a week off work, so I should be able to get a bunch of work done on this thing.




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That looks a lot like my battery box, although I suppose there's only so many different ways you can make a square box. I put a hinge on mine to swing it down to access the battery.

I got my driveshaft shortened this week.

The first thing I did was some measuring. First I slid the driveshaft into the transmission all the way, and then pulled it back out 3/4”. I then took a measurement from the rear of the front u-joint to the rear of the rear u-joint mounting surface on the rear axle yoke. This gives me the required center to center length. 30 1/2” in this case. I then used the same technique to measure the current driveshaft length, 51 3/4” in this case. 51.75 - 30.5 = 21.25 (The amount I will need to shorten it).

I then used a file to mark the length of the shaft, and the rear yoke, so I know how to reindex the yoke during reassembly, and keep it close to balanced. The factory balance weight on this driveshaft is near the front, so I just left it alone.

I then ground flat the factory weld on the rear yoke. I used a 4 1/2” cutoff wheel to make about a 1/16” deep cut all the way around the weld. Using a hammer, I hit the yoke until it popped off.

I then stuck the shaft in my chop saw and cut off the 21 1/4 inches. Next, using the line I previously scribed to line things up, I tapped the yoke back into the driveshaft. It took a fair amount of hammering and fooling around to get it back together.

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I then bolted the driveshaft into the car. My rear yoke mounting bolt holes were pretty rusty, so first I ran a tap through those threads. I then clamped a piece of steel to one of my frame rails, so that the end of it nearly touched the rear of the drive shaft. I jacked up the rear end, and spun the tires so that I could see any runout in the shaft. I did a little fine tuning with the hammer, and moved the shaft and yoke around until the shaft had nearly zero runout. I used a piece of masking tape and a magic marker to help sort things out. I then tack welded the shaft to the yoke, and checked the runout again. It was good, so I took the shaft out and welded it up solid.


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Your driveshaft shortening method is exactly the same as mine. I've been doing it this way for over 40 years and never had a problem (documented in my track-T and '32 Ford threads). I've also built a couple of shifters; the pic below is the one in my coupe. Like you, I enjoy building my own components when and where I can - it's the true old school hot rod way in my opinion.

Congrats on your continued progress - it won't be long before that first test-drive.

Thanks Jim.

Yep, I copied the driveshaft shortening procedure straight out of your track T thread. This was my first time doing it.

One of my next steps will be copying your ‘32 shock/headlight stanchions. I hope you don’t have a patent on those.

Do you have any more pictures of that shifter? That looks like a nice simple design. I’m very happy with mine, but it was a lot of work.

Glad to see someone else benefitting from my postings. They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so thank you.

No, I don't have a patent on anything. LOL You can make those headlight stanchions any height you need for your application. Also, you can tilt them in or out as you need. I suggest making a cardboard mockup of one and have someone hold it in place with a headlight so you can stand back and determine if you need more/less height and more/less outward tilt. Just be sure you have enough space to get the headlight stud and the shock stud both in without hitting each other.


I only have a couple of pics of the shifter I made for my '31 Coupe (attached below). This is the second one I made (made one very for my C-Cab delivery years ago) and it works nicely. I discovered when I made the first one that the Turbo 350 trans has a little round recess on either side. A 3/8-16 or 3/8-24 nut can be tapped in there with a hammer with just a little interference and it stays! I bent a piece of 1/8" x 1 1/4" flat stock to fit closely to the trans case and drilled the ends to bolt to the aforementioned nuts. Another piece of 1/8" flat stock is welded to the cross piece so it bolts to the hole in the tab near the tailshaft. This is the bracket/support for the shifter.

Using a couple of 1/2" diameter shoulder bolts and some nuts with the threads drilled out, I made a little piece that pivots forward and back and also side to side. To this I welded the arm that moves the linkage back and forth and I welded the shifter lever to the piece that allows it to move sideways. On the side of the lever I welded a tab made from 3/16" flat stock and I also bent a piece of 3/16" flat stock to form the "gate". I tacked the gate piece to the support temporarily, hooked up the linkage, and then moved the shifter through its pattern so I could mark where the gears were. I cut the tack welds and took the gate off so I could grind the notches for the tab to fall into. Park and Drive are the deepest notches. When I was done grinding and filing I tacked the gate back in place, checked to make sure it was correct, and then welded it solidly to the bracket/support. The last thing was to drill a small hole in the tab on the lever and another small hole in the retainer washer and I used a stiff spring from an old headlight bucket to put spring tension on the lever. To select a gear, pull the lever to the left and move it back or forward as necessary. I think I spent about $12 for shoulder bolts and a couple of 3/8" Heim joints. Everything else was stuff I had lying around.

I am using '65 VW Beatle rear shocks. I'm thinking these should have soft enough valving to give a decent ride on this car, plus they have about 6" of travel.



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Budget update,


Previous balance = $2498


Additional purchases;
angle iron for steering arm $20
2 rear shocks $43
rear suspension links $80
rear suspension tie rod ends $80
used steering rack $135
steering rack rebuild kit $46
4 front wheel studs $11
king pin set $60
swap meet air cleaner $30
'63 Nova steering wheel $10
steering column tubing $10
steering shaft $13
steering column bearing $5
steering universal joint $50
Speedway brake pedal and master cylinder $170
2 rod ends $36
rod end safety washers $8
6 jam nuts $4
head lights $80
brake line kit $62
brake hose clips $5
Adel clamps $12
neutral safety switch $7
bike brake cables $10
2 front shocks $38
distributor $131
ignition coil $38
2 rear parking brake cables $42
parking brake handle $51
spun aluminum gas tank $179


$1466+$2498 previous total = $3964


Maybe I can get this thing on the road for $6000 or so. Time will tell.