3D flames, a first on a T bucket.

[Johnny Sweet]

I Thought I would post a few pictures of how I filled out the year by sculpturing 3D flames on the side of one of my T Bucket bodies.
Back in 1999, and 2000 I was sculpturing Kayaks for Water Mark, at that time the largest Kayak manufacturer in the World. We where working on the new designs for the U S Olympic team and also a project for the Discovery Channel. They where getting ready to head over to the Himalayan Mountains to run one of the wildest rivers in the world. At the same time we designed a Dagger boat called the Blaze. It had 3D flames protruding off the deck. It was one wild looking Kayak. At any given time there where almost twenty new designs being worked on, and the Blaze really didn't get the attention that it should have. In the end the marketing group chose not to offer the Blaze to the general public. I only designed and sculptured Kayaks for one year, but it was an interesting time.
I've been modeling for almost fifty years and projects come and go. Molders/sculptures never get the credit for a project when working for a company, but when a guy gets into the trade he soon learns that it comes with the territory. One instance was in 2008 when I designed the Victory Crossbow Trike for Lehman Trikes out of Spearfish South Dakota. The gentleman that did the original artist renderings got the credit as it being his design. Not that it matters, and I'm good with that. I'm just explaining this as a point of interest.
I digress!
Back to my T Bucket: The flames are made from auto body filler, and will be a permanent part of one of my bodies. I'm planning on making a mold of the flames and part of the body around them. If a customer wants flames it will be just a matter of making a piece and glassing it in place once the section is cut out of the original body. I've been into fiberglass and composites for over forty years and surgery like this to a fiberglass body easy for those with experience.
I thought it was a fitting end to the year. I'm planning on doing the left side sometime in February, When I can get back on the car.
I thought this would be of interest to a few of you. Flames are not for everyone, never mind 3D flames, and I understand that.
Thanks for reading, Johnny Sweet

 

[jimbo01]

That's slick. That will get some looks and buyers I'm sure.

 

[madmike8]

That's a cool idea...

 

[fordsbyjay]

That will win you some car shows that's for sure.

 

[sstock]

That is down right cool looking
I'd love to put a set of those on my bucket.

 

[Northstar T]

interesting idea. how would it be if you kept the flames as a separate (and optional) piece? it seems like that would also allow you to have "true" 3D flames, as you could then have openings and licks extending out from the body itself. just a thought.

interesting that you designed and built kayaks. I was involved with some design and fabricating back in the very early 70s. we did the Outrage and what may have been the first "squirt boat", which was essentially just a cut down Outrage with somewhat of a pinched down shovel nose. The Outrage was a local favorite for big water until the "tuperware" boats came along 6-8 years later.

Cheers,
Russ

 

[blownt]

Those flames are cooler than heck. But I'm not too sure about your radius rod front mount. Gonna be alot of torque and stress on that bent piece of tubing and frame weld.

 

[Johnny Sweet]

Thanks about the flames.
I've been waiting for someone to mention about the " radios rods ". Over the last forty years I manufactured 453 motorcycle sidecars along with hundreds of different products. Not forgetting my Sweet 55 T Bird reproduction cars. Early on when designing the the first sidecars we did a stress analysis study of different tubing and solid rod arrangements. Something every interesting happened when it came to the 1" Hot Rolled solid steel rods. They where almost indestructible especially when placed in a torque, or an axial twist scenario. So over the last thirty five years we have used similar arrangements when designing different race cars and manufacturing equipment. So when I looked at doing something totally different when it came to my T Bucket. I looked way out of the box and designed the radios rod attachments using the 1" Hot Rolled solid steel rod arrangement. It may look like it would twist, but this arrangement has never failed me in forty years. Something that most will not even think about when looking at the rod arrangement is that there is 7" of weld around each rod. Before I'm finished with my T Bucket there will be much more that the general builders of T Buckets will be shaking there heads about .Notice that I always mention Hot Rolled steel rods.. Under this arrangement Cold Rolled solid 1" steel rods WILL NOT WORK. They will brake. This come from first hand experience.
I'm not into sculls, but I'm looking at designing an engine cover that will start just behind my grill shell and protruding back over the fire wall, and will be wide enough to cover the valve covers. In the front there will be a 3D scull and coming out of the back side 3D flames will start and make there way all the way back past the fire wall. At the back end they will be flying above the cowling. Ill most likely line them up with the flames on the cowling area.
Another note of interest. My rear suspension has what's called Rees Bars, We ran them on sprint cars back in the late 60's to early 70's. There very smooth, and at that time in history where used on hundreds of sprint, and early Super Modifieds. Around 1972 we went to Torsion bars, but the Rees Bars will work great on a Little T Bucket. Shocks are the important ingredient when running this arangment.
I'm also considering power windows with one of my fiberglass tops covered in fabric. " Power window" are you nuts? I'm in South Carolina and want to run my car year round. It's 90, and 100 in the Summer, and 50's in the Winter. With windows I can run a heater.
One other item I'm going to make is a skid plate around the front, and bottom of my oil pan. I'm going to run my T low. We have great roads but I feel I may need a little insurance if I come upon a speed bump that doesn't want to agree with me.
I'm in the process of converting Mustang II disk brakes to the rear end. A 1970 Charger. I had a set left over from some of the last AC Cobra reproductions that I built. Mustang II disk brakes must have been done before on a 70 Charger rear end, , but I have never seen it. I machined .035 off the flanges of the axles and the Mustang drums fit like a glove. I still have to fabricate the brackets. Front brakes are AMC disk converted to a set of 39-48 Ford spindles. I machined the AMC spindles to fit the Ford. Ill post pictures, and how I did it in the future.
Thanks for reading:
Johnny Sweet

 

[SCCustomRides]

Great job, Are you going to highlight them when you paint?

 

[Johnny Sweet]

Thanks, and yes I will highlight the flames the same way that Norm Grabowski did over fifty years ago. I'm not attempting to build a Kookie car clone, but I have always like the Kookie car, and would like to stay with the theme.
I've finished the left side flames and have registered with the US Copyright office. I own the flames, and there registered in my Johnny Sweet Designs name. 2011, and 2012. I'm in the process of making a new mold, and all body's coming out of the new mold will have the copyright on them. Will I sell very many of them? Who the hell knows, but I own the design, and at this point that's all that's important. This is my 97 copyright over the last forty plus years. Most of my copyrights are not auto related. I have so much going on in the shop at the moment that I haven't been able to work on my T Bucket for almost a month. So much for retirement !
I'm going to build the front end with sprint car torsion bars like I used on many of my sprint, and Super Modified race cars. I set the rear end up using Rees bars like the sprint cars of the 60's. Just something different for a change. My radios rods/Torque arms are set up like my Super Modified race cars. We only ran one on a Super, but the set up had over 700HP run run threw the cars without ever any breakage. The beating that a Super gets in one heat race is more than a little T Bucket would get in a lifetime of driving.

 

[SCCustomRides]

A little off topic but I just filed for a copyright and trademark last week and wow was it expensive and so much paperwork to register for a trademark. If I get denied they keep the money anyways. How was it doing yours

 

[Johnny Sweet]

Years ago I applied for a Trademark, and your correct, "it was expensive". In my case I had to pay an artist to do the basic art work for the proof, and by the time I had a law firm do all the leg work I went out of buisness. I didn't really go out of buisness, I just shut the operation down, and moved in another direction. I can't tell you how many thousands of dollars where spent, all for nothing. On the flip side it could have taken off and been a very successful enterprise.
With Copyrights after 1977 the procedure is quite simple. Once the work of art is completed, you as the artist own the Copyright. Registration is only $35 by internet, and $50 by snail mail. It takes up to ten months to get notification. The thing is the only time that you would need the registration is if you where taking someone to court for infringement on your Copyright. In my case it a sculpture that's fixed onto a solid surface. The surface being the T Bucket body. Good documentation always helps. Pictures of the art work that are stamped at the post office can show date of completion. I have friends in the music industry and that venue get really crazy at times over copyrights. I was also involved at one time with cartoon characters. 3 D sculptors and also the work on paper. I'm not an artist in the since that I can draw cartoons, so I hires a professional artist to do my work. It was important that I got all the releases showing that I owned the work and paid the artist for it.
I don't know if it's allowed to show some of the other work, not auto related, but here goes.