“How to Build a T-Bucket Hot Rod Roadster for Under $3000: kickin’ it old skool”

• The Revised, 25th Anniversary Edition has been “digitally remastered”. Those dull old typewritten pages are gone!
• Every page is clean and sharp and prints easily.
• Dimensions have been added to drawings and templates.
• Text and drawings now feature color highlights.
• Incredibly clear photos: compiled from original photographs (rather than scans of printed photos).
• Plus, many beneficial edits and updates.
• You’ll love it!

See for yourself! Take a look at what’s in this extensive, 250+ pages of solid information and you’ll immediately know why T-bucket and hot rod builders around the world have been happy to pay $200 or more for this unique, valuable information.

Here’s exactly what you’ll learn to save you money, save you time, and scratch build your own truly custom T-Bucket hot rod! You are no longer limited by T-Bucket “kits” and T-Buckets for sale — and now this legendary, money-saving tool can be yours for not much more than you’d pay for a decent case of beer! After all, it shows you how to build a cool hot rod on a beer budget.

Table of Contents

• Frame: Complete detailed T-bucket frame plans with dimensions and templates, including front and rear spring perches, steering bracket, radius rod brackets, shock and body mounts. Best and easiest ways to cut, weld and triangulate the frame, prepare, prime and paint finish. Includes complete Bill of Materials and suggested bargain sources. By the way, this is where 90% of other T-bucket plan sets END!

• Body: What is really cool is that the first fiberglass T-Bucket bodies were introduced in 1957 for $149. If they had kept pace with inflation, today you would have to pay $1127 for one. Fortunately, most T-Bucket bodies today cost about half that amount! How to get the best deal on your body. Wood reinforcement for the fiberglass body. The cheap and simple technique that will make people think you have a STEEL T-bucket body. Installing the floor and transmission cover. Cutting the body for bellhousing clearance and to channel body over frame. Working with fiberglass. Seat riser construction, windshield bracket reinforcement, and hidden tool compartment.

• Pickup Box: Instead of buying a fiberglass T-bucket pickup box, how to build your own from junkyard parts and make it strong enough to sit on, actually haul stuff, or maybe even use as a rumble seat for the kids!?

• Bodywork: Removing mold release from your fiberglass T-bucket body, sanding and “On the eighth day, God created Bondo.” How to set up your Bondo table, how to use a body file and finish sand. Working with Feather Fill.

• Painting: A professional’s tips for garage painting your T-bucket. Lacquer, enamel, acrylic, urethane, or water-based paints? Tips on how to incorporate different color panels over a base color, fading in colors, striping, etc. for a truly professional custom paint job. How toothpaste fits into the picture and why you should avoid drugstore striping tape.

• Springs: Front and rear transverse Ford-type springs. Don’t have to be Ford, though. How to rebuild and refinish old springs. Spring lubrication methods. Templates for spring alignment strap and spring perch bottom plates. Build a low-buck, shiny spring perch cover from roof flashing. Alternative cheap or free spring sources for your T-bucket hot rod; where to look and what to look for.

• Front Axle: Low cost T-bucket front axle options: early Ford, old pickup trucks, Econoline. How to make that dual semi-elliptic truck axle look good with a transverse spring (including how to Bondo a front axle). Low cost disc brakes. How to build the poor man’s four bar and make your own low-cost friction shocks. Eliminate the rare, costly Corvair steering box, with other GM and Ford choices, including the school bus box that will feel like power steering! Templates for batwings (radius rod brackets), spring hangers, shackles, steering arms, and shock mounts. Drag link construction. Front end alignment.

• Rear Axle: How to prepare inexpensive GM 10 and 12 bolt rear ends, and give them some flash. Rear batwing templates. Junkyard tie rod ends as an alternative to expensive heim joints in your T-bucket construction (important when you’re using 15 of them in the overall build). Building and attaching rear spring hangers. Adjusting pinion angle. Rear shackle alignment.

• Rear Radius Rods: The T-bucket hot rodder’s truly low cost radius rod solution. It’s been used for years. With gussets template and info on radius rod adjustment.

• Steering Column: Build your own using a chrome exhaust pipe extension, a cheap bearing and old radiator hose scraps. Steering column floor support template. How to find and refurbish the lowest of low-buck T-bucket custom steering wheels.

• Firewall: Easiest way to make your T-bucket firewall template. Variety of materials, what to avoid using. How to attach the firewall and how to shorten transmission dipstick for clearance, if necessary.

• Engine: What to do before you pull the engine from your donor car, how to clean it up, how to paint it, and how to get the most from your chrome dress up bucks. How to build your T-bucket motor mounts, including templates. Fan spacers for most efficient cooling. How to build your transmission mount, with templates.

• Brakes: How to adapt intermediate GM disc brakes to early Ford and Econoline axles, including templates for building your own adapters and saving even more money. Building an integral brake pedal/master cylinder assembly that removes from the frame of your T-bucket in one piece for easier servicing. Diagram and instructions for laying out your brake lines, including proportioning valve, and how to plumb them. The poor boy’s Coke bottle method for brake bleeding. Installing a junkyard find emergency brake. And, for the really bucks-down builder: how to turn your own rotors, the cheap way.

• Radiator, Mounts and Shell: Page and a half of $50 or less junkyard or low-cost parts store alternatives to the high dollar ($350+) T-bucket radiator dilemma. Templates for brackets to mount radiator to chassis. A unique alternative to the model T radiator shell. Mounting the shell to the radiator. Low cost, hardware store grille filler. How to build your own decorative radiator cap from a 2″ chrome exhaust extension and a busted, swap-meet moto-meter. Hazards to avoid like lightweight racing fans (72 stitches and a hand that will never hold a Coke again — true story about a friend).

• Battery Box: Using bedrail to build an out-of-the-way, underframe battery box for your T-bucket so you don’t use up all your pickup bed space; plus a low-buck hardware store louvered soffet to cover up that “el-cheapo” battery.

• Driveshaft: Dune buggy proven, do-it-yourself driveshaft shortening method that’ll save big bucks for any T-bucket builder. Super special bonus: bathtub balancing your driveshaft!

• Fuel System: How to plumb your T-bucket fuel system, gas tank alternatives and how to build your fuel tank mounting brackets.

• Headlights and Taillights: Best sources for cheap T-bucket hot rod headlights. Save by building your own headlight brackets. Super-cheap, off-the-shelf, buy-’em-anywhere taillights and how to build simple mounting brackets for them.

• Dashboard: Easy technique for building your own custom wood dash, with deep wood grain finish. How to cut holes for instruments, turn signal indicators and bright headlight indicator. Best of all, wire this custom dash outside of your T-bucket to avoid standing on your head and take it out for servicing by loosening two screws.

• Electrical System: This chapter alone will save you 90% off the purchase price of a specialty T-bucket wiring harness and you can avoid ten times the headaches. If you’re using a small block Chevy, you don’t even need to look at the schematics because complete simple, step-by-step wiring instructions are given. Ford wiring diagram included just in case you’re a rugged individual. No need to spend big bucks for a wiring harness. Simple wiring components readily available at Radio Shack or your local auto parts store. Where to locate cheap gauges and suggestions for cool junkyard speedometers.

• Gas Pedal: You gotta have something to stomp on to go fast. So, how to adapt a junkyard gas pedal to your T-bucket, along with routing the throttle cable.

• Gear Shifter: Again, save big bucks by building your own nostalgic, long-arm T-bucket floor shifter for your Turbo-Hydro 350 or 400. Where to locate cheap, long shift arms and unique, cheap shift knobs. Plus, if you’re lazy, how to hook up a Ford Mustang shifter instead (p.s., doesn’t even have to be a Mustang — Pinto will do).

• Upholstery: Poor man’s quick and easy T-bucket upholstery for the interior side panels, seat bottom and back, seat riser panel, floor and firewall. And, if you decide to turn the upholstery over to a pro, the techniques and prep covered will save you a couple hundred dollars. Chester’s unique pickup bed cover construction, which can double as a “rumble seat” if you’re just cruising the fairgrounds at 5 mph.

• Windshield: Again, save big bucks by constructing your own custom T-bucket windshield frame that can be polished to a chrome-like finish. Make your own windshield support rods and give them a low-buck chrome effect. Rear view mirror and windshield wiper considerations included.

• Suppliers: A few sources for some of the T-bucket build components you either can’t find in a junkyard, make yourself, or purchase locally.

• Epilogue, Titling your T-Bucket: Not legal advice, but some words of experience on how to most quickly and economically figure out this vital step to getting your T-bucket on the road.

EVERY detail of T-Bucket construction is covered: absolutely your best hot rod investment!

You can use the valuable information in your eBook to build any kind of T-Bucket you want: a 60’s era T-Bucket, a “Fad-T”, a “Kookie” T or a traditional T-bucket just like Chester’s flathead powered T shown above which, aside from the fiberglass body, used no parts newer than 1952!