Muscle Car
Passing Around A Classic T Bucket
By Mark Weisseg
I could never wrap my arms around a T bucket for some reason. When I was a bit younger a guy had one locally with a long stick and a skeleton head on the top for a shifter. He always sat straight as an arrow in it and quite frankly he looked uncomfortable.
The guy was a big guy at the time and I remember the engine was loud. He had big tires on the back and skinny ones on the front. It looked odd but I could see how easy it was to build one. Driving it looked a bit tighter however.
Fast forward thirty plus years and I am at a car show. A friend walks up and tells me he is selling his late father’s car and wanted me to have first crack at it. My brain bounced all over the place hoping he would say it’s a Superbird or rare Mustang. It’s a T Bucket and he wants five grand. It has not started in years and is very dusty but he wanted to get rid of it. Of course I tell him I will go look at it the next day but why didn’t he want to keep it?
I asked him that very question and his answer told me everything. He said he and his son took it out once and it was hard to steer, not comfortable at all to drive, and just not his cup of tea.
So, I went over the next day and looked it over and it was everything he described. The problem was I found no value in it even though it had a built up Chevy 350 engine with dual carbs and all chromed out. Custom paint from the late 70’s I guess but I could not see myself in it. But, I knew a guy locally that would.
Sure enough I called him and he raced up there to meet me and fell in love. He had plans on what he would change and what he would do to it. You see he owned one once before so I thought it was a good fit. Sure as the sun comes up he makes a deal with my friend. That very night he pours a bit of gas down the throats of each carb and the car fires right up. He literally put air in the tires with his portable compressor and drove it around our town before taking it home.
My friend thanked me for helping him get rid of it and I thanked him for giving me first crack at it. Turns out it was in a garage I passed nearly every day for years and I had no idea. He and I became friends two years ago at a car show so it was not like a deep dark secret he kept from me. Now, the garage that once housed that Ford T bucket is empty and could house two cars easily. I will approach him when he returns from his residency in Florida. You see, that is what real friends do. One friend tips me off about a car, I tip off another and he buys it. A three way friendship turned out the very best for everyone. All over a T bucket I did not desire. How small is this world after all?
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