Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

This is not helping my decision to keep my 48 Dodge stock lol

Where is your sense of adventure?

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.

I had a ‘78 and a ‘79 Ford twin I Beam. One day one on the way to work one of the front shocks started leaking badly. I hit a dip in the road and nearly bounced it into the ditch on a clean, dry, paved road. I put a small block Chevy in my ‘79 Ford pick up.

Originally Posted by Driver50x

I put a small block Chevy in my ‘79 Ford pick up.

You are the spawn of the devil!!!!!! What a terrible thing to do to a nice Chevy engine!

I was a at an event in my 46 and a guy came up admiring it. He was really into it until I told him it had a Chevy engine. I told him he could buy it and put any engine in it he wanted. It didn't bother him that much apparently!

LOL!
The best part was I had “Powered by Chevrolet “ lettered on the tailgate. Plenty of people told me that was the best Ford ever, or a terrible thing to do to a Ford.

Throw caution into the wind, a rebel without a cause! lol

It’s not practical to put the tie rod behind the axle on this car due to the frame and radiator location. So I’m leaving the steering arms pointed forward. I heated the arms up and bent them out about 2 1/2 inches to get the Ackerman in the ballpark.

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I shot some primer on the body and sat it on the frame. The paint will come later.


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In my T-Bucket I really couldn’t find the space to mount a neutral safety switch near the transmission. So I mounted it behind the seat instead, and ran a cable to it. I used a 1960’s Chevy pickup switch, $16 from Amazon. I also used a Schwinn bicycle brake cable from Walmart. The beauty of using an OEM style switch is that the car will start in both park and neutral, when you wire it through the two terminals I am pointing to. You could also use the other two terminals, and wire in backup lights if so desired. I drilled multiple holes in the switch “lever” to adjust the amount of travel. After about 10 minutes of cable adjustments and trying different holes, I got it to work perfectly.


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That thinking outside the box!

It’s starting to look like a Hot Rod!


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Great work and craftiness! It is looking real nice. Are you still under your target goal on the budget? (I can never accomplish that)

Thanks Ryan!

Nah, I’m a little over budget, but not too bad. I’ve splurged a little here and there. I’ll do a budget update soon.

It’s taking a little longer than I’d planned. I’m 2 1/2 years into it now. But I’m happy with how it’s coming out so far, and I’m having fun along the way.

Today I was working on building the pick up box. Maybe I’ll get some pictures of that up tomorrow.

That's what really matters! You'll get to cruise it soon enough down there.

I got the brake lines all installed and bled out. To me the Speedway Motors T-Bucket brake pedal looks and feels too tall. I’m thinking about cutting it down shorter, but I’ll wait until after I test drive this thing to make that decision.

Today I’m working on installing the Speedway wiring harness. It seems pretty darn good for the price, $150. I’m mounting the fuse block under the dash. I’m thinking that should keep it pretty safe from water. A lot of guys put them under the seat, but I’m trying to keep a little free space there for carrying stuff.


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