I don’t have much $$$ so I started looking around to find a low buck body. There where several body manufacturers that I could have chosen like California Custom Roadsters, Total Performance and Spirit Industries. They all seemed to want over $500 for a chunk of fiberglass. I found a few cheaper places but I decided to find a used piece locally, then if I messed it up customizing it I wouldn’t be out a lot of cash. I found a guy in the local ‘Buy & Sell’ advertising T-Bucket parts and called him. Found out that he had an original Dodge Brothers 1921 touring car body that was shortened to be used as a T-bucket for $100! This sounded great to me, I didn’t want to work with fiberglass anyways and the Dodge Brothers body would have been more unique than a run of the mill ’23 Ford Model T body. I made the purchase and brought it home. Here is a picture of the body.
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It’s really rusty and needs lots of work. It has 2 door openings but only has the passenger door. I have been looking around to see if I can locate another door but I can't find one. I might build my own if I get all the sheet metal tools I want. I would need a brake, a stretcher/shrinker set and maybe an English Wheel to build a door. If I did build a new door I would build 2 so they match. I don’t think that I could make the drivers side door to match the original passengers door perfectly. That’s later down the road though.
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I have decided to use CCR (California Custom Roadsters) plans to build the frame for my ‘D-Bucket’. I will also need to shorten the body a little bit. Right now I could almost put in a bench seat and 2 bucket seats and have a 4 seater. This would be cool, but I don’t have anyone to cart around and I wanted to put some 12” subs in the back. So I will have 2 bucket seats only. The CCR plans call for 2” X 3” X .188” rectangular structural steel tubing but I opted for the .25” thick stuff to have a stronger frame. They ask for 24’ of the tubing but I got 40 feet. I’m going to make a 40” bed in the back so I need to adjust the plans accordingly. Here is the steel I have to this car:
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I have these really cool rear wheels with 15" X 16" Centerline rims for the car. The tires are not rated for the freeway, they are rated only for racing so they will have to be replaced. They are very very light and have a vinyl core cord.

And here is the front wheels, they are Hallcraft rims with a motor cycle tire on them. They have disks for a disk brake system mounted on them.

Now for a while I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the body. Some people thought I should leave the body the way it is in length and not have a bed at all. Then I could make use of the factory fender wells.
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But I want to do a pickup truck roadster so I cut the rear kick long.
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Here is a mockup of what I will be shooting for.
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I also have front disk brakes now too! Check em out!