Larry Ryan’s T-Bucket

The October, 1961 issue of Rod & Custom magazine had a special feature on “Midwest Rods” and the one I found most memorable was a very cool, very stubby T-bucket built on a budget by a Kansas City teen named Larry Ryan.

I understand that mechanical genius George Barnes contributed significantly to this bucket’s build around 1959-61.
Larry Ryan was only 18 when the R&C article appeared, so he must have started construction on this rod before his sixteenth birthday. The budget was said to be $2000 and it resulted in a hot rod capable of being street driven and also very show-worthy.

You could theorize that Larry may have been influenced to some extent by the groundbreaking Ed “Big Daddy” Roth Excaliber/Excalibur/Outlaw that was unleashed on the hot rodding world about the same time Larry’s build began. Like Roth’s Outlaw, Larry’s T-bucket was a rakish, short wheelbase concoction with no turtle deck, pickup bed, or fuel tank hanging out back as was typical with other T-buckets of the time. More directly, Larry’s striking home-brewed windshield frame is very similar to that used by Roth. However, since Larry was working on a limited budget it may also have been the most cost-efficient windshield frame available.

Larry’s interior may have also reflected a couple of other Roth influences: a near vertical steering column with a contemporary dished wheel as in the Outlaw and a super-long shifter as in virtually all of Roth’s monster shirts.

An interesting side-story is that Larry started with the front and back of a steel T touring body and the late legendary customizer Ray Farhner was to join the two pieces for him. Ray kept getting delayed doing the job and when Larry learned that a boat shop in the area was building fiberglass T-bucket bodies he bought one for this build.

The car was subsequently sold to a man named Tom Sebbun who then sold it to Ray Farhner, who was a car show promoter as well as customizer. The pic below is from Farhner’s February, 1962, Rod & Custom Show in Memphis, with airbrushed t-shirt prodigy Tom Davison hunched over the wheel of the bucket loaded down with Tom’s monster shirts. I understand Farhner used the car as a door prize at his shows and gave it away multiple times, buying it back from each winner to start the process all over again. It was known as the X-Tee Bumble Bee. In the Kansas City, MO area when Larry had it, it was known as “The Tee” in large part because it was the only one around.

The car was then sold to a friend of Farhner’s named Red Hersey and was subsequently purchased by “Speedy” Bill Smith of Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska. Ironically, it was widely used by Speedy Bill to promote the Speedway T-bucket bodies and frames, although it had no Speedway content. Any aftermarket parts it contained came from the former Arrow Speed Shop in Kansas City. Take a look at the pic below of Bill sitting in the T-bucket with the unmistakable profile of the first picture in this post.

Sometime around 2003, original co-builder George Barnes encountered the then current owner of the car, which had been painted green and according to the latest owner was to be redone to its original state since parts had been preserved for what had been changed.

I love this car for numerous reasons:

• The short 88″ wheelbase.
• The just-a-bucket look (no turtle deck, pickup box, or fuel tank).
• The individual exhaust headers (exiting under rear axle).

Overall, in my mind, it’s one of the coolest hot rods ever built.

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