Corley
New Member
In the mid 1950's, when I was a teenager, my cousin Bub (really Vernon, but I called him Bub 'cause his dad called him Bub) was sort of an outlaw. His family lived on the farm next door to my family's farm, so we knew everything that was going on over there, and Bub seemed to get in a lot of trouble due to his hotrod tendencies. Bub walked a fine line between staying in high school and expulsion, jail and sunday school, and legal and slightly illegal activities. Anyway, Bub had come across this '49 Olds Rocket V8, which was pretty hot stuff at the time, and after a long succession of flat head Fords seemed pretty modern. With some fine tuning by himself, it made considerable power, which he liked to show at the drags. He ran that engine in several cars, all period hotrods of some sort or other, a model A coupe, a '34 Ford sedan, a '49 Chevy, and finally a '23 'T' tub (a tub being what we called an open 4 door car, because the basic body looked like a bath tub.). At one point he had bored the Olds 1/4" over, and was running it at the drags when one of the cylinder walls fell through, about half way down the bore. It was a small hole, about 1/4" in diameter, so he just brazed it up, sanded it down to where the rings didn't touch the brass, buttoned it back up, and continued racing that very same day. He put over 50k on that engine after that and never had any trouble at all with it. Just last year, I learned that that engine was actually from a stolen car, that one of his friends had stripped out, and then was too afraid to use the engine, so sold it to Bub for cheap.
Anyway, I digress... Getting back to the 'T' tub ride... When I was about 14 or so, Bub was in the process of building this '23 tub, and had the chassis from the '34 Ford, with the 'T' tub body sitting on it, held in place with about a half dozen bolts. It was just the bare shell, very rusted out here and there, no floor yet, and no seats, wiring, or anything, just the chassis with that Olds engine, a LaSalle transmisson, and enough stuff to make it run. I had ridden my bicycle up to their place on a Sunday afternoon, and Bub was hot to try out the tub. He had put a board across the frame rails to sit on, and had a 2 gallon gas can tied to the windshield frame (no glass yet). The battery box was securely installed, or so I thought, and it had the '34 brake and clutch pedals. No throttle as yet, so he ran a piece of hay wire from the throttle to the drivers side windshield post that he could pull on to feed the throttle. Just as I arrived, he was preparing to go for a test run.
Now mind you, I had been strictly banned by my mother from riding with Bub or his brother Gordy (on his Triumph Scout bike), as my mother was strictly against anything that was not safe, and she was sure that Bub and Gordy were the most unsafe of all in the human race, if in fact they were actually part of the human race. Which of course they were, their mother was my mother's sister, after all, but suffice it to say, mom was having none of their shananigans. So, of course when Bub said "jump in, let's take a test drive", I couldn't jump in quick enough, and off we went down the road. It was difficult to stay on the board seat, but Bub had decided that success was ours in the first 100 feet or so, and proposed we go about 15 miles to visit some of his friends. I quickly agreed, all the while imagining what jail and juvinal hall would be like, should we get stopped by the cops, for no lights, no license plates, no seats, etc. And, just to make it worse, Bubs driver's license had been taken away after his last brush with the law, but that fact never really slowed him down at all...
So, off we headed, down the country roads, hitting speeds that seemed like 100mph or more, but who could tell with no gauges or instruments of any kind? No windshield or goggles, and I'm sure we had bugs in our teeth when we arrived. We got there without any real incidents, had a nice visit, a few beers (don't tell mom!) and then decided to return, at which time we learned the battery was dead, having no charging circuit to keep it alive. OK, so we hand pushed it and it started without much trouble, I jumped in, and onto the board seat, and off we went. Did I mention there was no floor, so one had to keep their feet on top of the frame rail and transmission, or they might drag the ground. Also, the hot exhaust pipe was a couple of inches below my butt! Gravel flew all over the place as we tested some cornering ability on the way back, and of course the "secure" battery fell out of it's box, and drug by the cables until we got stopped and re-secured it.
Now mind you, we had a 2 gallon gas can for a fuel tank, and it was about a 30 mile trip. Gas was only about .25 cents a gallon then, but of course there were not any gas stations out there in the country, so we knew we would be tight on gas. Good mileage was never one of Bubs goals. Bubs idea was to get going as fast as we could, at the end of the trip, then coast on in if we ran out of fuel. The last couple miles were arrow straight, so when he hit the straight section, he pulled on the wire throttle and accelerated. Sure enough, about the time we had reached terminal speed for the Olds, it quit running, and we started to coast. We almost made it, in fact we stopped just short of the turn into his driveway, and pushed it the rest of the way. Mother never found out about the joy ride, and I never ever forgot it.
Turns out, that was my first 'T' bucket ride, and also my last 'T' bucket ride. I've ridden in, owned, and driven many different hot rods, customs, sports cars, etc., but never again set foot in a 'T' bucket. That's why I'm building this one, and I don't care if it has even one piece that is chromed, or even if it is all painted the same color. I just want it to be running and this time "safe", before I'm too old to get into it and once again take that joy ride. At 70 y.o., I need to get on it...
Corley
PS It turned out that later in life I realized that Bub was probably the most intelligent person I've ever met, and had many revolutionary ideas in his lifetime. He never finished high school, but he set several world records with a Pontiac tempest engined dragster he built at home in that same little garage, after convincing GM to source him with 5 free 4 cylinder engines. He went on to build and operate his own airport, and run several successful businesses. He got his A&P license, built and ran several successful dragsters over the years, and told the most wonderful stories of anyone I ever knew.
Anyway, I digress... Getting back to the 'T' tub ride... When I was about 14 or so, Bub was in the process of building this '23 tub, and had the chassis from the '34 Ford, with the 'T' tub body sitting on it, held in place with about a half dozen bolts. It was just the bare shell, very rusted out here and there, no floor yet, and no seats, wiring, or anything, just the chassis with that Olds engine, a LaSalle transmisson, and enough stuff to make it run. I had ridden my bicycle up to their place on a Sunday afternoon, and Bub was hot to try out the tub. He had put a board across the frame rails to sit on, and had a 2 gallon gas can tied to the windshield frame (no glass yet). The battery box was securely installed, or so I thought, and it had the '34 brake and clutch pedals. No throttle as yet, so he ran a piece of hay wire from the throttle to the drivers side windshield post that he could pull on to feed the throttle. Just as I arrived, he was preparing to go for a test run.
Now mind you, I had been strictly banned by my mother from riding with Bub or his brother Gordy (on his Triumph Scout bike), as my mother was strictly against anything that was not safe, and she was sure that Bub and Gordy were the most unsafe of all in the human race, if in fact they were actually part of the human race. Which of course they were, their mother was my mother's sister, after all, but suffice it to say, mom was having none of their shananigans. So, of course when Bub said "jump in, let's take a test drive", I couldn't jump in quick enough, and off we went down the road. It was difficult to stay on the board seat, but Bub had decided that success was ours in the first 100 feet or so, and proposed we go about 15 miles to visit some of his friends. I quickly agreed, all the while imagining what jail and juvinal hall would be like, should we get stopped by the cops, for no lights, no license plates, no seats, etc. And, just to make it worse, Bubs driver's license had been taken away after his last brush with the law, but that fact never really slowed him down at all...
So, off we headed, down the country roads, hitting speeds that seemed like 100mph or more, but who could tell with no gauges or instruments of any kind? No windshield or goggles, and I'm sure we had bugs in our teeth when we arrived. We got there without any real incidents, had a nice visit, a few beers (don't tell mom!) and then decided to return, at which time we learned the battery was dead, having no charging circuit to keep it alive. OK, so we hand pushed it and it started without much trouble, I jumped in, and onto the board seat, and off we went. Did I mention there was no floor, so one had to keep their feet on top of the frame rail and transmission, or they might drag the ground. Also, the hot exhaust pipe was a couple of inches below my butt! Gravel flew all over the place as we tested some cornering ability on the way back, and of course the "secure" battery fell out of it's box, and drug by the cables until we got stopped and re-secured it.
Now mind you, we had a 2 gallon gas can for a fuel tank, and it was about a 30 mile trip. Gas was only about .25 cents a gallon then, but of course there were not any gas stations out there in the country, so we knew we would be tight on gas. Good mileage was never one of Bubs goals. Bubs idea was to get going as fast as we could, at the end of the trip, then coast on in if we ran out of fuel. The last couple miles were arrow straight, so when he hit the straight section, he pulled on the wire throttle and accelerated. Sure enough, about the time we had reached terminal speed for the Olds, it quit running, and we started to coast. We almost made it, in fact we stopped just short of the turn into his driveway, and pushed it the rest of the way. Mother never found out about the joy ride, and I never ever forgot it.
Turns out, that was my first 'T' bucket ride, and also my last 'T' bucket ride. I've ridden in, owned, and driven many different hot rods, customs, sports cars, etc., but never again set foot in a 'T' bucket. That's why I'm building this one, and I don't care if it has even one piece that is chromed, or even if it is all painted the same color. I just want it to be running and this time "safe", before I'm too old to get into it and once again take that joy ride. At 70 y.o., I need to get on it...
Corley
PS It turned out that later in life I realized that Bub was probably the most intelligent person I've ever met, and had many revolutionary ideas in his lifetime. He never finished high school, but he set several world records with a Pontiac tempest engined dragster he built at home in that same little garage, after convincing GM to source him with 5 free 4 cylinder engines. He went on to build and operate his own airport, and run several successful businesses. He got his A&P license, built and ran several successful dragsters over the years, and told the most wonderful stories of anyone I ever knew.
