T-Bucket John
My grandparents subscribed to Life Magazine and I would look through each new weekly issue when I visited them. In the Spring of 1957, my 8 year old eyes were transfixed on a full page photo of Southern California rod builder Norm Grabowski chowing down on a car hop-delivered cheeseburger while seated with a buddy in the coolest car I had ever seen! The flames were awesome and the Cadillac engine hanging out there for all to see was mind-boggling.
Contrary to popular misconception, the photo of Norm in what would shortly become known as the “Kookie Kar” was not on the cover. Rather, it was part of a Photographic Essay titled, “The drag racing rage: hot rodders grow in numbers but the road to respectability is a rough one.” Wow! A radically cool looking car that’s also part of an outlaw movement — I was hooked.
About a year later, I was able to feed my appetite for more of this fascinating rod that started what would later become known as the T-bucket movement. Warner Brothers introduced the detective TV drama, 77 Sunset Strip, which ran for six seasons and featured car valet Edd “Kookie” Byrnes whose personal car in the show was Norm’s hot rod that had been rented out to the producers for $50 per day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in every episode, but I became an avid fan always hoping to catch a glimpse.
The T-Bucket fire still burns strong.
1927 T-Bucket Roadster Project: Part 14
Follow along this week as Bob welds the bungs to the wishbones and shows how to built a neat fixture to construct your urethane bushing assembly.
1927 T-Bucket Roadster Project: Part 13
In this installment, Bob Hamilton shows how to accurately make your own bungs for mounting wishbone radius rods …
1927 T-Bucket Roadster Project: Part 12
Follow along this week as Bob begins a multi-part session that will show you how to mount and build wishbone radius rods on your front axle
One Crazy T-Bucket
Unlike most T-Buckets this one features a long custom round tube frame and, of course, a very unusual body that has been radically cut down as well as stretched. The cut down body was probably inspired by …
T-Bucket Trike Strikes Again
Back in May of 2010 I did a post about a pretty sharp looking cross between a hot rod and a chopper just for the fun of it. I was blown away with how much interest …
1927 T-Bucket Roadster Project: Part 11
Want to know how to properly position and mount “batwings” or spring perch brackets on your front axle? This week, Bob Hamilton shows you an easy …
Branch Richardson’s Out-of-the-Box T-Bucket
Not wanting to build from scratch, but also wanting to get his hands dirty and really personalize his T-Bucket in a number of areas, Branch Richardson chose a “Hot Rod in a Box” …
1927 T-Bucket Roadster Project: Part 10
“After I played around with putting side mounts on the engine, I decided that the mounts looked too big and out of proportion. So as sometimes happens, I went to plan B …
Chester’s Traditional Flathead T-Bucket Found! — kind of
“Hi Chester – I think I owned your red T-Bucket back in 2004,” was the message that produced a very pleasing discovery.
Our Top 10 T-Bucket Blog Posts of 2011
As we welcome in the New Year and thank you for your support and encouragement, let’s take a look at what we believe were Our Top 10 T-Bucket Blog Posts of 2011 …
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