Words: John “Gunner” Gunnell
Steve and Vicky Tuesburg of Mackville, Wis., own a bright yellow 1923 Ford Model T bucket that was a true “project car” for a group of men in Idaho and continues to be a project for the couple today. The Idaho enthusiasts originally put the T-bucket together with help from a local speed shop. Steve Tuesburg bought the Ford in 2017, but it was actually built back in about 2000 or 2001.
The Ford was a group project conceived by the group members who wanted to form a car club, build a hot rod and get into the cruise scene. They pooled their money and figured they could put a car together by themselves. The theme of the build was to create a 1960s style hot rod. They started putting a lot of parts together to meet the goal. When the car was about halfway built, the club broke up and members went their own ways. Some moved and others gave up.
A gentleman from Indiana bought and finished it. Then a man from Alaska saw the car when he went to the Hoosier State. He bought the car, brought it home and worked on it for a couple of years, but then ran into health problems. It sat in his garage until 2014, when Steve Tuesburg went to see it and fell in love with the combination of good looks and unusual drive train features.
The car has a California Roadster Co., fiberglass Model T Roadster body that has been stretched nine inches. Power comes from a 1964 Buick 401-cid “nailhead” V-8 attached to a 5-speed New Process transmission out of a Dodge. “You don’t see that (combination) all that often,” said Tuesburg, “and it’s got a few vintage speed parts in it. The flywheel is a heavy-duty cast-aluminum unit from the ‘50s. The conversion kit that bolts all this together is also from the ‘50s. Without it you can’t find anything else that will mate that stuff together.”
Another thing that makes this hot rod unusual is the use of a Nissan independent front suspension setup. It has Chevy LUV truck disc brakes with a Bendix vacuum booster. Up front is a Ford Model A radiator that’s been chopped six inches. The car’s other technical oddities include Fiero tilt steering, a Fiero emergency brake, rack-and-pinion steering from a Geo Metro, a 1956 Ford clutch with an Apex-Bell housing and 1959 Ford Galaxie wheels. It also has a Ford 9-inch rear end and 3000C coil over shock absorbers.
The car also came with a small teardrop trailer with Road Runner graphics on it. The man who owned the trailer got three sides painted and couldn’t decide what he wanted on the front. “He had paid $850 to get that much done,” Steve said. “About a year went by and he wanted graphics on the front, but the painter wanted $2,500, so the trailer owner thought ‘It’s fine the way it is.’”
Steve bought the car the way it is today, but since it had been sitting for a long time, he had transmission problems and had to drop the transmission four times and eventually get it rebuilt. He basically took everything except for the engine out and redid it all. He also worked on the suspension and clutch. “So now it’s getting there,” he says. “It’s got a few more things I want to work on. You never get done working on a car, but this one has been kind of a neat project, because you just don’t see many hot rods done the way this one was.”
