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I first saw the "T for Two in 1958 when I was 11 years old and fell in love with it. The guy that built it is now a friend of mine. His car was sold in the early 60's to a guy I went to high school with. The school principle banned it from the parking lot because it was a "bad Influence" on the rest of us boys so the owner quit school. He's now very well off, owning several businesses and a horse ranch so it didn't hurt him much. Here's a couple of pics of the original car:




It burned a few years later after having a 427 Tunnel Port Ford installed and a brief drag racing carreer. It was rebuilt into a typical 70s street rod and was sold agin. It never looked as good as it did at first. I've built a bunch of Hot Rods over the years and always wanted to do a tribute to the little coupe that inspired me so I recently picked up a '26 coupe in Saskatchewan Canada and here's how it's going:

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Started building the rame using 2x3" recatangular tubing and some "vertical bends from "Welder Series"






I zee'd the frame at the front, much like the original car was done except back then they used 3" channel. The body is channlled the depth of the frame and I liked the look of the frame rails coming ouyt flush with the bottom of the cowl rather than up inside a few inches too.

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Here's the body mocked up on the frame. It'll use a '57 Ford 9" rear end, a 350 TH trans and a 406 inch small block Chevy that was my Dad's. He bought the engine new in a '72 caprice with a trailer package so it's a 4 bolt main motor. I'm using a set of Dart iron heads and an Edlebrock tripower intake with three Rochesters that were original carbs on a 348 Chevy. It'll have a fairly mild cam in it but should make some good horsepower and these 400s are little torque monsters. I'm chopping a deuce grill shell instead of the T shell like the original car had.

Sorry, Here's the mocked up body.

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It'll be chopped about 7" once the frame is complete and the body is welded to the frame. I'm planning on drag racing it at nostalgia events - there's quite a few around here,, and on most weekends unless there's a really interesting car show to attend.

Looks fantastic Mate. As a little kid in the 1960's I dug T's and now as a grown up (54) I still dig 'em. So many ways to built them each one different to the next. Not many people post on here but this forum seems to have a bit of a leaning toward T's so if you could keep going with some up dates as you go that would be great. Thanks Ragtop.
Cheers
Tony

Been under the weather a bit for the last few weeks and haven't been able to accomplish much. I did notice a potential interference between the frame and the drag link if I were to hit a good sized bump so I cut the front off the frame and extended it 2 more inches. I'm also thinking about raising the kick up in the rear a couple of inches to be sure the back of the car doesn't bottom out. Should be putting the frame back together today and then fabbing up some motor mounts - I'm planning to use the "Welder Series" mounts from Paul Horton. I've had good luck with them in the past on other Hot Rods. The steering box will need to go ahead a couple of inches due to the frame extension but it's only clamped in place for mock up do no big deal there. I'll post some more pics when I've got some of this work done. Thanx

Hey Ragtop
That body looks to be in real nice condition. Just how common are those T coupe bodies ? My wife wants us to have a car with a roof but I'm building a modified without a windscreen!
Cheers
Tony

Well I'm pretty sure Henry made millions of them. As far as how many are left - good question, but they are out there. I'd check the classified section at websites like the HAMB and Canadian Rodder etc. That's how I found mine - had to drive 5 days with my brother and I taking turns sleeping and driving to get one as good as this but they are out there. Restored T's are not pulling in much money - I think it would be better to buy a restored one and sell all the squeaker stuff off.

I've been able to get a little more work done on the coupe so here's a few updates. I have the motor and transmission mocked up in place but I'm thinking about a few changes to the trans mounts because I'd like to drop the floor down a couple of inches and there's a little interferance if I leave it as is. The hanging brake pedal and master cylinder mounts are made up although the pedal will need to be offset for gas pedal clearance once the steering is installed. Today I'm getting the rear (transverse) spring main leaf narrowoed to suit so I can finally get it sitting on it's rear end and tires. I used 1 1/2" square tube to make a hoop behind the firweall and a piece of flat bar that I pie cut and bent to eventually weld into the A post area to support the pedal assy and sometime soon, the steering column. I'm using a narrowed '38 Ford deluxe dash board and hope to use the origianl gauges but it looks like I'll need to move the speedo and gauges to the opposite holes for clearance for the speedo cable.

Here's a picture of how I'm planning to do the headers. It's a cut and paste thing - the old fashioned way with real cutting and a little scotch tape replacing the paste but you get the idea. I also chopped the deuce grile shell (6") - now I need to start repairing the grille itself, which, by the way came from a real Ute that a friend of mine owns - it must have served some time in the outback because it's pretty badly beat up.

Got a little more work done lately - working on rear suspension, narrowing a '38 Deluxe dash, reskinning the trunk lid and the panel below it.

Looking good, home hammered hot rod.