wsdad2
Member
Hello,
I've been lurking here for a while and even joined a couple of times, but forgot both my password and email that I logged on with. I finally remembered this one, so I'll do late interduction.
I'm in Fort Worth, Texas.
I'm hoping to stick a T-bucket body on the back of a front engine dragster and drive it on the street. I know that's not very practical and kind of weird, and I may not be sucessful, but I'd like to try it.
I hope to build it like TV Tommy Ivo's single Buick FED or a Chassis Research 440TE, complete with headers that point toward the sky at the same angle as the roll bar, only with a T-bucket body. I've mocked everything up in the garage a couple of times and I think I can get it to fit but I won't know for sure until I build it. I may try building a wood and PVC pipe frame first.
Right now, I just have the donor car - a 1976 Ford LTD with a 400M with a C6 transmission. I know a lot of people don't think much of the 400M, but it's basically a stroked 351C, so I think it has potential. I hope to wake it up after getting the car built. I may switch to a Caddillac 500 or a Ford 4.9L instead. It will depend on gas money vs. speed vs. traction.
I also have a model T frame with the front and rear axles and suspension. I'm debating wether to use the front axle and steel spoked wheels or not. I kind of like the antique look of it, but practical and saftey concerns may win out. It will be sitting several feet in front of the engine so most of the weight will be on the back wheels. I'll have to measure the weight of my car's front end to see if it's comperable to what it was originally designed for. Some of these old FED's used angla axles, so I'm hoping the rugged T will be adiquate. It will help that the roads are a little better now than when the T's were first born. There are also methods for putting brakes on it.
So, anyway, I have some ideas that I'm sure others have thought of or tried. Since I don't see very many doing what I'm contemplating, and I'm a newbie, I have to conclude that there's a good possibility I'm full of crap. I'd like to get some advice from those who have built and/or owned T-buckets so I don't go too far off the deep end.
If the whole FEDT-Bucket idea turns out to not be a very good one, I think it would be fun to have a T-bucket to run autocross in.
I've been lurking here for a while and even joined a couple of times, but forgot both my password and email that I logged on with. I finally remembered this one, so I'll do late interduction.
I'm in Fort Worth, Texas.
I'm hoping to stick a T-bucket body on the back of a front engine dragster and drive it on the street. I know that's not very practical and kind of weird, and I may not be sucessful, but I'd like to try it.
I hope to build it like TV Tommy Ivo's single Buick FED or a Chassis Research 440TE, complete with headers that point toward the sky at the same angle as the roll bar, only with a T-bucket body. I've mocked everything up in the garage a couple of times and I think I can get it to fit but I won't know for sure until I build it. I may try building a wood and PVC pipe frame first.
Right now, I just have the donor car - a 1976 Ford LTD with a 400M with a C6 transmission. I know a lot of people don't think much of the 400M, but it's basically a stroked 351C, so I think it has potential. I hope to wake it up after getting the car built. I may switch to a Caddillac 500 or a Ford 4.9L instead. It will depend on gas money vs. speed vs. traction.
I also have a model T frame with the front and rear axles and suspension. I'm debating wether to use the front axle and steel spoked wheels or not. I kind of like the antique look of it, but practical and saftey concerns may win out. It will be sitting several feet in front of the engine so most of the weight will be on the back wheels. I'll have to measure the weight of my car's front end to see if it's comperable to what it was originally designed for. Some of these old FED's used angla axles, so I'm hoping the rugged T will be adiquate. It will help that the roads are a little better now than when the T's were first born. There are also methods for putting brakes on it.
So, anyway, I have some ideas that I'm sure others have thought of or tried. Since I don't see very many doing what I'm contemplating, and I'm a newbie, I have to conclude that there's a good possibility I'm full of crap. I'd like to get some advice from those who have built and/or owned T-buckets so I don't go too far off the deep end.
If the whole FEDT-Bucket idea turns out to not be a very good one, I think it would be fun to have a T-bucket to run autocross in.
