Bill loved people and cars and had a special place in his heart for T-Buckets. He owned and operated Wellbaum's Brass Designs, which specialized in T-Buckets since 1971, originally located in Mentone, California. Bill wanted to do something special for T-Buckets, so in September 2001, he organized the Get Real 'T' Invitational, which was hosted by the Bucketeers in Yucaipa, California and held in Hemet, California.

     Bill started building his own 1923 T-Bucket in Hemet and finally finished it in time for the August 2004 Pleasanton, California Goodguys Show. He never entered his cars for competition because he felt it would be unfair to his fellow T-Bucketers who did not have a professional design and fabrication shop to work on their buckets.

     While at the L. A. Roadsters show in June of 2004, Blackie Gejeian approached Bill and invited him to display his Brass 23 T at Blackie's 46th Invitation Only Fresno Autorama in 2005. All participants were awarded trophies. Bill would get all choked up when someone who was highly regarded in the industry complimented his equipment product designs, and bucket builds - this was quite an honor for Bill.

     If someone truly needed help with their cars, Bill stopped working on his business production line, assisted friends, associates, and other bucket heads that impromptuly called or stopped by. His approach methodology to problems always started with a joke, lots of belly gut laughter involving and enjoyed by all present, and ending with problems resolved, and more laughter. We seldom saw him during his business day dressed in anything but dark blues or black: shirts, pants, shoes and socks - his dues for working with his metal of choice - polished brass.

     Bill's life was cars. From the time he got up in the morning until the wee hours of the morning, Bill talked, lived, breathed, built, and joked about cars. This was a time in his life when he was truly happy. Bill was one of the greatest artists of T-Buckets. He was loved by many, and is greatly missed by all those that loved his business products, artistic talents, and him.