T-Bucket

Norm Grabowski's 1922 Ford Model T Bucket of Sunland, California. The Lightning Bug iteration of Norm's Model T was completed in 1955. It hit the scene like an atom bomb in the mid-1950s, and it started a T-Bucket craze that spread across the nation like wildfire.

Tommy Ivo's 1925 Ford Model T-Bucket of Burbank, California. Tommy began building the car after seeing Norm Grabowski's 1922 Ford Model T-Bucket. He asked Norm if he would let him take some measurements off his car. Norm told him to fuck off, so Ivo took action on his own, and snuck into Grabowski’s garage so he could take all the critical measurements necessary to build his own version. The build was completed in 1956.

Getting there! An under-construction photo of Dick Bailey's Model T of Ypsilanti, Michigan. According to Teddy Zgrzemski, Bailey's Model T was the first wild-looking T-Bucket in Detroit. "He was a trendsetter back then," Teddy told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama in 2020. Later shown as "The Wild One," Bailey's T-Bucket was the first car Teddy painted when he came back from California in 1962. Charging $ 175.00, Teddy painted it Candy Tangerine over Gold. Photo from The Dave Jenkins Photo Collection.

The T-Bucket craze started in Southern California in the mid-1950s where aspiring Hollywood actor Norm Grabowski’s Lightning Bug hit the scene like an atom bomb. Painted a neutral black color, the first version of Norm’s t-bucket caught the attention of Hot Rod Magazine, and it landed the cover of the October 1955 issue. One of the guys that were flabbergasted by Norm’s groundbreaking creation was Tommy “TV” Ivo, another young Hollywood actor. Ivo was also a racer and builder, and he asked Norm if he would let him take some measurements off his car. Norm told him to fuck off, so Ivo took action on his own, and snuck into Grabowski’s garage so he could take all the critical measurements necessary to build his own version. Once completed, Ivo’s take on Grabowski’s trendsetting t-bucket, became almost as popular as the original, and it gained national recognition when it was featured on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine August 1957.

The Lightning Bug iteration of Norm’s T-Bucket appeared briefly in The Ford Television Theatre. Around 1957, Norm repainted it blue metallic with hot flames licking down the cowl sides. This version of the bucket appeared regularly on the TV series “77 Sunset Strip” as The Kookie Kar. Grabowski’s hot rod was now showcased for teenagers all over the US, and it started a national T-bucket craze that spread across the continent as a wildfire.

T-Bucket Hot Rods

Norm Grabowski's 1922 Ford Model T Bucket - "The Lightning Bug"/"The Kookie T"
Tommy Ivo's 1925 Ford Model T-Bucket
Dick Bailey's Model T - The Wild One