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1923 T-Bucket |
This T-Bucket was being totally rebuilt from 1998-2002, while Russ was on Chemotherapy. As you can see from the timeline photos, it was a frame off restoration so everything could be worked on easily. The Chevy 350cu V-8 powerplant was gone thru, rebuilding the dual Holley quad carburators that sat on the high rise tunnel ram, the T-350 Automatic Transmission was rebuilt, and the Halibrand Quick-Change differential was readied. New headers, lots of billet, and lots of chrome was added. Just when it was ready for the body, the decision was made to purchase a new fiberglass body having a passenger door. Well Murphy's law kicked in and the new body didn't fit! No problem, a new frame, a safer stable frame was all we needed, one that the body would fit on. So it was... a new frame was purchased and everything had to move over onto the new frame, engine, trand, rear, front axle... oops, the front axle didn't fit. One cool chrome new axle later, the dry fitting was all in order. Next step was to build it all and make it work. With black primer as the exterior paint, the car started winning awards. It needed paint! Bob Kovacs, of Clovis, nationally renown artist having many cars and bikes under his belt that appear in many Hot Rod magazines, accepted the challenge. He was asked to do something extrordinary. Well, that was an understatement. One year, and lots of $$$ later, when the body and frame were picked up, it was Unbelievably Awesome! He used silver base, then Metallic Tangerine... followed by painting Metallic Green flames down the entire length of the frame rails, and ending at the tail of the body. He accented the flames with 24K Gold leaf... and
his airbrushing is a "T" on the firewall, and an absolutely gorgeous painting of an Indian Chief on one side, a Wolf howling at a full moon on the other, and a southwest scene like the grand canyon on the back of the deck lid. He signed it in 2002, and the car was put together by 2003. It has been winning awards ever since then and Russ couldn't be happier with all the work that went into it.
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