T-Bucket Barn find

[Buzz65]

Not really sure what I'm going to do with this but deal was too good.

[Dan the workingstiff]

Wow, that's pretty sweet!
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'69 Beetle
'66 FG buggy
My other air-cooled's
'76 IH 1200
'75 IH 1200

[EVfun]

That is interesting. I don't think that is the kit version that I've seen before because I don't recall seeing that interesting reversed front suspension. A cool find and very worth preserving.
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[Buzz65]

Custom built by Bob Hourigan, RIP Bob

[Q-Dog]

I'd run it!
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[oprn]

[vanderjw]

If you want to flip it, contact me! Thats a cool car,

[VolksRodT]

My favorite type of vw.

More detail pics, Please.

Guessing it was built off of the ~'67/'68 R&C mag VolksRod plans. If you have some frame shots, I might be able to tell you if it was that(or the same commercially available chassis from Dode Martin) or a Kent Fuller chassis.

Don't remember ever seeing this one in any mag articles &/or side-pics. Still, appears nicely done.

I like it. Looks like a good attempt was made to create close-to proper Ackerman for the reversed trailing arms. Have you driven it yet? I'm quite curious how it drives & handles.

Marcus...

[jspbtown]

I would have opened the checkbook....

[aquavette]

That's killer!
I'd clean and freshen it up, and drive it just as is.
Would love to find one of these myself.

[vwracerdave]

It's a very cool looking street rod and I hope you. enjoy driving it.

I would like to caution you the way the entire engine is covered and the style of fan shroud and oil cooler the engine will run hot and overheat. It can be corrected but you will need to make a few changes.
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2017 Street Comp Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble, OK
2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK

[MrGoodtunes]

Don't worry too much about the angled fan shroud; as long as you use the wide blade fan (the one for dog house shroud), and make certain that only cool air can get to the fan inlet (i.e. no spent cooling air suck'd in from underneath, and no exhaust circling back via rolling eddy currents - might require using an inlet duct or directing cool air in there with a deflector). Mine works great.

What help'd most was a 6~7" inlet duct from an outside scoop:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8739263&highlight=#8739263

[Dale M.]

I get the impression its a steel body and on a custom hand built frame.... Cool Ride....
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“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Buzz65]

It seems to be a mix of metal, fiberglass & wood. Cleaned up pretty nice

[stevemariott]

Very, very cool!
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1963 Manx copy
1968 Bus

[EVfun]

You might look into getting some brakes up front. If it is registered as a 1920's car I guess they aren't required. If it has a newer year on the title that's likely a very visible equipment violation, and possible ticket. Even beach buggies with little weight up front stop quite a bit better with some front brakes.
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[Buzz65]

It's registered as a 65 on non op so I think the brake issue is ok. Low speed cruiser?

[VolksRodT]

Hey, Buzz65;

From what I can see, it's not a Kent Fuller frame or kit. I'd bet it's not a Dode Martin chassis/kit either, although someone could've asked for that mod, but the frame is wrong. Hard to tell w/the body pan covering it. I'm betting it was home-constructed from the R&C plans(which were purposely designed to encourage innovation & use what you can. IIRC, the reversed spindles were suggested, & a pic shown in a sidebar of a sand buggy), or possibly from the plans Dode sold - which were more comprehensive. The front & rear crossmembers are very different from any plans.

The Dode chassis, developed by LeRoi "Tex" Smith & Tom "Stroker" Medley(at Dodes' request to commercialize it), after eyeballing/talking to Kent, was a chromemoly round tube trapezoidal shape w/straight sides. Kents' chassis rails followed the lower body curves(more foot room). AFAIK, neither Dode nor Kent sold very many chassis or kits. Everybody, esp women & kids, loved the wee-little beasties, but very few hotrodders would cough up the coin for a kit. Although it was primarily designed to be built at home, Dodes' chassis n kit were a builders' aide. From what I've been told - hotrodders hated them cause they used an acvw mill, & volksie guys hated them cause they used a non-vw roadster body/chassis/etc. As far as I'm concerned - anyone that can piss off 2 groups simultaneously & have enormous fun doing it, + looking good on top of it, is perfect in my book... . BTW; Kent sold the rights/jigs to Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Neb, who called the kit: VX-23. Didn't sell well at all, & as a result, they pulled it from the market as it had no front brakes & Speedy didn't want to "engineer" a set.

Still like it. Dave is right on the cooling air - w/o a proper pan like vw used, the mill will cook, eventually. Personal experience here. Was involved in a number of acvw-based "thingee" builds at Mankato State Collage(eons ago), & at least one of the latest projects cooked a mill on a (cross-country) trip to Bellingham, WA. I got to rebuild the mill in a motel pkg lot overnite. Made it to Wash. DC, & back home, but the reason was no cooling air vs intake air separation. They had a vertical shroud around the engine for splash protection, but no-one did the horizontal panel. It was a large student group effort, but was overlooked by the prof, & everyone else at the time. Ooops...

If you get some more shots of the rear & front corners of the frame, & under where the cowl transitions from the firewall->the door edge, it'd be a bit more info. There was at least 1 built w/~1.5"x3"x1/8" rectangular tubing following typical streetrod T-bucket format.

Too bad more folks don't build these. It's on my short list of wanted/(needed?) fun to build & use. Age n health is arguing, but interest is still high, even since ~'67. Not a practical car, at least here, but it's gotta be 'bout = in fun to a ZX-11D.
Clean it, use it, enjoy it. You'll probably need some spl permanent-grin-removing solution - start searching... .

Even though some of the build aspects are crude, I'd guess build is ~ mid-80's->mid 90's. Any info on the builder, & car, from the folks you got this from?

Marcus...

These should be capable of highway speeds. But are really light in the front, so that can be hairy at times. In the 60's n 70's, front brakes on T-buckets weren't used much. & a lot of other streetrods didn't have them either. Didn't say I like(d) that or that it is/was smart. Tom did a couple of articles on designing & installing brakes on his VWT, he used some small Airheart calipers n large gokart disks, IIRC. Sounds stupid/horrible, but remember, most of these VWTs only had~300 lbs on the front end & also used rather smallish tires in width. So stopping ability(ies) are limited. &, some of these cars could weigh in the neighborhood of ~800(if very careful)->1200lbs. There is a sorta famous pic of one of Kents' customers holding up the frontend of his VWT for the CHP - which he did often. . Most of the ones I know/knew about were used on 2-lane roads, as it was about getting there to the event + seeing the sights on the way to the destination. Not about racking up fast times/mileage aka cannonballrun.

Marcus...

[vwracerdave]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer because this is a cool project.

I seriously question the stability of the entire front end with the trailing arms reversed and pointed forwards. I would do some research on this. Owning a Fiberglass Dunebuggy I would install front brakes. Even just sone stock drum brakes will make it a lot safer to drive on the streets.
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2017 Street Comp Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble, OK
2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK

[VolksRodT]

Forgot to add this:
I wouldn't drive it far, much less fast, w/the current front end. I'd put a lightweight dropped tube axle, using one set of torsion bars - like the orig plans, & Kent did. Might have to redo the steering box n draglink.
Reversed trailing links ok(?) for sand, but I don't think they'd work well on the street.
Dave is also correct about this.
Marcus...