Ron Pope Motorsports                California Custom Roadsters               

Upgrade list on my "new to me" bucket

BilWilVegas

Member
Good morning all,

In another post I had mentioned the lights all being shorted out in my new-to-me bucket. I have a friend with a bucket here in Vegas and he introduced me to his buddy that had redone the electrical on his bucket when he acquired his. I called this gentlemen, Jason, and he came by the house to inspect the car. We put it up on the lift and found a LOT of things that needed to be fixed.

  1. Rewire entire car from scratch
  2. Install a power port in the face under the seat for phone charging
  3. Trim 2" off the bottom of the dash and repolish the entire dash (new dash and all new guages to be installed this summer)
  4. Remove extra lights on rear of car and have original lights work (by product of bad original wiring harness, they couldn't get the lights to work so they just bolted extras on the back of the car)
  5. Install box under chassis between frame and driveline to hold MSD box and fuse panel, Install hinged lid to access this from the storage space under the seat.
  6. Replace old battery with Odyssey PC680 in the battery mount under the passenger side seat, add hinged access panel in storage space under passenger seat.
  7. Replace missing zerk fittings and grease whole chassis
  8. Replace ALL brake lines. When the original builder assembled the car he / she used all 18" long pre-flared pieces of brake lines. So every 18" there is a junction. I can only speculate why this was done, but it is not safe so I am having him run all new brake lines. (Pads and shoes are in great shape front and rear).
  9. Electric fuel pump was bolted directly to the frame so there is a loud buzzing sound constantly coming from the pump. He is going to isolate it with small rubber pads between the pump and the frame.
  10. New chrome 1 wire alternator
  11. Electric fan and shroud on radiator (cooling is a massive concern out here in Vegas)
  12. Re-mount fuel cell back 1/2" because it was rubbing on the back of the bucket
  13. Reinforce side step on passenger side as it was pretty wobbly.
  14. Examine chassis to ascertain feasibility of replacing steering box with a new one that will allow for a tilted steering column to open up a bit more floor space (this project will be completed during the hot summer months as right now the weather is perfect and I want to enjoy the new car)
  15. Replace wood floor as it has a ton of oversized holes under the carpeting
  16. Change oil in engine.
He has had the car for 3 weeks now and I am supposed to pick it up today. I am excited to have it back.

146816203_3903025276382616_8126427516622435336_o.jpg


My plans are to drive it during the nice weather of the spring season and then during July / August, when it is too hot out to enjoy the car, I will have the upholstery and carpet redone and swap out the steering (if we decide to redo this part) I may also look into swapping the engine for a mildly built but stronger bottom end with a 6-71 on top. I am not really in need of more power in this car as it is a cruiser for us, but I have always liked the look of a bucket with a blower.

I also plan to add some short wheelie bars, just for the look. These will be clamp on ones as I do not want to have to weld mount pads on the rearend since it is already painted in the same paint as the body and frame. I just need to figure out which ones are the best solution. I found a gentlemen on Facebook selling short T-bucket wheelie bars but he has not posted in awhile and has not responded to my messages. Competition Engineering makes a kit but they are 44" long and I would prefer shorter to at least minimize the liability of people tripping on them . . . they are just for looks on this car.

I am excited to have the bucket and looking forward to some adventures in it! I appreciate all of the advice and feedback I have gotten so far on this forum and am glad to be here. Thank you!
 
We're proud to have you with us, Bill, and your approach to personalizing your T-bucket is admirable. Safety first!
 
I am having my steering column upgraded to one with Turn Signals, horn and tilt. When the hot rod shop saw my wiring, they urged me to upgrade to a new harness installed!
 
We're proud to have you with us, Bill, and your approach to personalizing your T-bucket is admirable. Safety first!

Thank you sir! Safety first, reliability second, and then it is all about fun after that. I am looking forward to doing the NTBA Toughest T 1,000 mile challenge with my fiance and I need to make sure the car is safe and will get us all the way through the trip.
 
I am having my steering column upgraded to one with Turn Signals, horn and tilt. When the hot rod shop saw my wiring, they urged me to upgrade to a new harness installed!

Did you need to put in a new steering box or was it just a column swap?

My wiring harness was a complete mess so my guy started with a brand new fuse box and then rewired the whole car himself rather than purchasing one of the premade wiring harnesses. It will be nice knowing I do not have to worry about wiring harness issues. Being broken down on the side of the road is something I try really hard to avoid LOL
 
I am moving to Rack & Pinion steering using a half rack. Here is a pic of my wiring:
upload_2021-2-28_16-31-19.jpeg
 
I can only think of one word about the wiring, ewwwwwwww. My wiring always starts out very neat, but by the time I am finished, it closely resembles yours. It is a bit neater, and I made diagrams that are easy to follow in case of problems.
 
I am moving to Rack & Pinion steering using a half rack. Here is a pic of my wiring:
View attachment 20510

That is about how mine looked before we started the rewire. I should have pics by tomorrow of the new wiring. I am hoping it is neat and organized. I do not have the patience to do wiring and have it all organized, but I love how it looks. I have learned to leave wiring jobs to someone else and my cars are more reliable because of it. LOL
 
My wiring harness was a complete mess so my guy started with a brand new fuse box and then rewired the whole car himself rather than purchasing one of the premade wiring harnesses.
Hopefully you will you be getting a wiring diagram so you can troubleshoot any
problems that occur years down the road ?
 
I can only think of one word about the wiring, ewwwwwwww. My wiring always starts out very neat, but by the time I am finished, it closely resembles yours. It is a bit neater, and I made diagrams that are easy to follow in case of problems.

I was planning yo draw up diagrams of mine too.

I was also thinking of color coding wires. Something like:

Red = Constant Hot 12v
Orange = Switched Ignition
Yellow = Parking Lights
Blue = Headlights
Green = Brake Light

Etc. Figured that should be really simple to later diagnose.
 

     Ron Pope Motorsports                Advertise with Us!     
Back
Top