37 years later - she's back in his garage

[Dignlif]

This car may not be your cup of tea, coffee, or beer even, but I’m willing to bet that after you read the history of it, you’ll agree at a minimum the story is cool. And so we begin…

Some of you may have met my friend Al during DW ’09 as he was my ever helpful and cheery copilot. Well, I have a cool story coming out of his garage.

Back in 1975 when he was 23, Al started building a ’23 T-bucket. He hand built the frame in his driveway. Not having the tools he has now, he built it using a vise, hacksaw and a file. He prefit the pieces and then had someone close to work weld them together for him. If he misjudged something, it had to be cut, adjusted, and taken back to the shop to be rewelded. So went the slow progress until he finished the car, minus paint and upholstery, in ‘78. It was a driver though and fun to scoot around in. He had to sell it due to pressure from then spousal unit (long since ex). Here’s a picture of a picture of when the car was painted and being enjoyed by the new owner in the 70’s or 80’s.

[SpiderGearsMan]

Fad T
I Love It

[Dignlif]

Fast forward to present day, a few months ago actually, he ran into the guy he sold it to back in 1978 and the old bucket came up in conversation. It turns out the guy still had it 37 years later and it had been sitting in his garage since ’87. It seems a spark plug hole got stripped in the aluminum head. He took the head off for repair, but never put it back together after the fix. The car was virtually untouched from how Al had built it other than having been painted and upholstery applied. The gentleman (and I mean this in the grandest form of the word) asked Al if he wanted it back. Shocked, Al said yes and then asked how much. Remembering the original purchase price he paid Al at the ripe age of 18, and what he paid for interior and paint, the guy offered it back to him for what he had in it…$2200. He could have taken all kinds of advantage of Al’s obvious emotional attachment to the car and jacked him on price but didn’t so for that I toast the man!

Now begins the journey of refreshing this original treasure of his. His goal is to refresh it with some modern equipment but keep some of the vibe of the original build from the 70’s. We took some pix of it on the day it was brought home and I will continue to get pix of it as he progresses. I did wait a little while so there has been a good amount of progress already. This way I can show you he’s on his way to cruising it around this summer.

Starting plans were to rechrome everything that needed it, repolish all the brass, and repaint it the same color. He had the spoke wheels rebuilt with new rims and wants something with the look of Halibrands for the back.

Here’s some pix unloading the time capsule.

[BOOOGHAR]

not my cup of T ... sorry had to LOL but im diggin it since its from the old school, what kind of 4 cylinder is that ?

[Dignlif]

not my cup of T ... sorry had to LOL but im diggin it since its from the old school, what kind of 4 cylinder is that ?

haha, glad you caught that! I was originally planning on teasing this thing out but I honestly still have too many little things to do to my Mustang for DW prep so I'll spill all the specs I have now.

’75 Toyota 2TC hemi head engine and matching 4 speed

Twin 40mm Weber side drafts

Rear end out of a 70's Volvo with disc brakes

Front wheels 18” Hallcraft spindle mount spoke wheels with motorcycle tires

Rear wheels 15 x 10 Cragars 5 spoke with bias-ply Inglewood Posi-traction L60-15’s – Can you believe it still has his original tires on the car and they look great…he is updating those though for obvious safety concerns

Stewart Warner gauges

Sanderson made the original header and he took it back there to use it as a pattern to build a new one

[hauen]

Way cool!

[mlcraven]

I've been hot and cold on T-buckets in the past, but this one has a great story...nice that your friend got it back and tell him good luck with the refresh.

[SuperBuickGuy]

cool, can't wait for updates

[Dignlif]

Teardown and Chassis mods

After spending the last 7 years customizing, fabricating on, and in general building his 47 Ford, which still has a ways to go, Al was super excited to do a 'quick' refresh on the T and start cruising it! You'll see as these posts go on that as has happened to many of us, things go beyond the original quickie build but he is winding up with a way cool little cruiser.

He wasted no time in pulling the body off to see what he needed/ wanted to fix or change.



Once the body was off, it didn’t take long to get the frame down to bare bones.



Al decided to redo the brake and clutch pedal attachment along with the mounting of the steering box.



Out back he redid the pan hard bar and the shock mounts.

[Dignlif]

Once he was happy with the work he'd done, he prepped and painted the rear end and chassis.

[milner351]

Great story! Sure doesn't look like it "needs paint" to me - should be a fun and super light cruiser that's easy on gas.

[Deaf Bob]

Cool as hell to see this back to the orig. owner!

A few threads ago (months?) I asked if anybody remembered these rods... I just could not remember the name given... FAD T
Didn't Gray Baskerfield have a pinto 4 in his for awhile?

[fast Ed]

What an awesome story ... :D


cheers
Ed

[Whelk]

So how often did Al come to a component and wonder, what in the heck was the kid who put it together thinking?

[JOES66FURY]

great story, love stuff like this!