The most complete Hot Rod book ever written! 250+ pages comprehensively reveal every detail of how to build a T-Bucket roadster from everyday materials and junkyard parts. Build it yourself and save thousands of dollars compared to a T-Bucket kit car or searching all over for a T-Bucket “For Sale” — while customizing it to [...]

As noted in Part I, Buzz Pitzen’s T-Bucket was the world’s first using a fiberglass body. It paved the way for tens of thousands to follow and it can’t be emphasized enough that had Buzz not taken the time to correct the flaws in that fiberglass body built in the 50s that the ‘glass bucket [...]

In my earlier post about The Real History of the Fiberglass T-Bucket Body, it was noted that the first fiberglass T-Bucket roadster was built by hot rodder Buzz Pitzen. The story of how Buzz came to purchase that first fiberglass T-Bucket body is a fascinating look at why over 50 years ago someone would use [...]

The T-Bucket phenomenon was really building momentum by the mid-1960s when Ray Sisemore’s multi-part “How to Build a Hot Rod” series began chronicling a bucket build orchestrated by Ted McMullen of U.S. Speed Sport in Santa Fe Springs. Not long after that, a young San Francisco Bay hot rodder who mounted all the wheels at [...]

In the early 50s a young Don Garlits was frustrated that he couldn’t beat local Florida drag racer “King” Charles Hogan ‘s V-12 Lincoln with his ’50 Ford daily driver. A friend of Don’s had a used car lot and was planning to build a ’27 T, but instead sold it to Don who built [...]

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 [...]

Nine years ago (April 4, 2001), we lost Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. I felt fortunate that two months prior I had a chance to say hi to Ed and get him to autograph a couple of T-shirts at the Chicago World of Wheels car show. Growing up, Ed’s T-Bucket inspired fiberglass creation also had a [...]

Beyond Norm Grabowski’s “Kookie Kar”, one of my other significant influences was a short wheelbase T-bucket built by Californian Bob Johnston, which appeared on the cover of the December, 1959, issue of the “little mag”, Rodding and Restyling. At the time, it was flathead powered and had one of the coolest profile’s I had seen. [...]

Shortly after becoming aware of Norm’s Kookie Kar around 1959, I was also struck by another T-bucket that had the “look” and received Hot Rod magazine coverage: “TV Tommy” Ivo’s Buick nailhead powered T-bucket. On a recent visit to the NHRA Wally Parks Museum in Pomona, CA, I had a chance to snap a few [...]

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 [...]