My personal feeling is that this idea that t-bucket frames have to be made out of 3/16" and ¼" wall tubing is not entirely true and may be misleading some into trouble. I wonder if a lot of guys aren't cutting up this nice heavy wall tube, getting out the brand new wire gun they just bought and laying down a fairly nice looking bead (just point it and pull the trigger and instantly you are a welder if you have a halfway steady hand) and then slicking it up with the grinder. Result - not much penetration because they don't realize that they haven't "wet-in" the weld. In other words, that nice looking bead was just kind of laying on the top with little penetration due to the heavy wall thickness soaking up so much heat. I've actually heard several stories about people laying down the most beautiful, even weld and it peeling up right behind it due to no penetration. That's scary! I'm not suggesting that using the heavy wall is not an acceptable idea, just questioning the idea that it is necessary. I think it comes with the responsibility of learning good fabrication practices or else the builder might be better off with a smaller wall thickness.

Back in the early days of the t-bucket world, all of the manufacturers used .120" wall rectangular tubing. Mostly 1-1/2" x 3", some 2" x 3". I wonder where that changed? My guess would be that some Johhny-come-lately manufacturer hatched it up as a marketing scheme rather than an engineering determination.

Why are T-Buckets in need of so much more in the way of a frame material than A's, '32-'34's and even the fat fendered models? Most of the aftermarket manufacturers of these use 10 Ga. (.134") steel in sheet form and use a multi-piece welded construction to form the box section of the rails. I would think that the rectangular tube would have some pluses in that it begins life as a steel strip that is cold formed into the shape with a single machine made weld. It seems that the rodders that are building the later models are not shorting them on horsepower or torque. Even late model pickup and vans use open channel frames that are not much, if any, heavier material than 10 Ga. It has always seemed kind of funny to me that the idea of such heavy material is so prevalent in this particular segment of the hobby. Danged if I know why!

These ladder type frames just plain don't have much torsional rigidity regardless of the wall thickness. Freeing up the suspension helps them quite a bit. A 4 bar car does not induce the twisting force into the frame that a hairpin setup does. An independent rear does not tweak the frame like a ladder bar does.

Just something to think about.

by George Barnes