“The Uncertain-T”

Steve Scott’s Radical Hot Rod Creation

“The Uncertain-T”

Everything on this page is copyrighted by me, Steve Scott, 2012 - 2014


On about March 15, 1960, a classmate drew a cartoon in class of a wild, tipped over Model T hot rod. When he showed it to a few of us, one of the guys said something like, "Wow! What a wild hot rod! It's too bad you can't build something like that." I then said something like, "If you can think of something, you can create it." As I was saying that, I knew that I HAD to build something like it to prove my point!


I went directly home after school with my vision of the hot rod that the cartoon had inspired me to visualize, and started measuring and drawing it to scale on the wall of our small, narrow, detached garage, trying to figure out what it would take to actually build something like it.


I didn't try to make it exactly like the cartoon because some things were just too cartoonish, but the inspiration was there, and I visualized what it should look like right then. My mom kept coming out and telling me how late it was getting. She gave up at about Midnight.


At about 4 or 5 a.m., I KNEW that I could build it! I was so excited... and also so scared at the same time... because I knew that I would have to invent and create things to make it work! Even so, I was determined... no... I felt “destined” to build my vision!


MUCH MORE went into the design of “The Uncertain-T” than most people realize. I absolutely didn’t want to just “put parts together”... you know... like “cut and paste” on a computer. That’s one thing that really bothered me about most hot rods. Even though so many looked so great, they all had some or many things about them that just didn’t seem right to me... they just didn’t seem to fit together. So, I spent A LOT of time measuring real parts and drawing them to exact size on the drywall in our little garage.  One of my TOP priorities when designing and building the "T" was to keep everything as "clean" and "minimal" as possible. I had to have all the major parts before I could start building the body. It wasn’t just a radical looking hot rod... to me... it was a work of art! EVERYTHING had to “work together”... it all had to be “balanced” in size, shape, position, color, etc. I needed to mock up the chassis in order to decide all the measurements and angles of the body.


I REALLY didn't like bulky steering boxes and thick steering columns... even chromed and shiny... they still looked “wrong” to me. Even if it was chromed, I didn't want a long, thick steering shaft going from the dash to a big ugly steering gear box in front and obscure some of the left side of the engine! I was going to have to make or invent something simple and clean to do the job.

Being a true hot rodder in The San Fernando Valley in those days, I was no stranger to all the many "junk yards" stacked high with carcases of every imaginable make and year of car. It took me a while... and many, many hours... looking in and under every type of car in the junk yards... until one day when I discovered rack and pinion steering! I hadn’t been looking at foreign cars at all, because of course... in those days... hot rods were mostly Fords. I was very excited when I saw my first rack and pinion steering mechanism! They were so simple and straight forward, and I knew that when I found the right one, that I could modify it to do just what I needed. The day that I found the right solution, I couldn’t stop grinning. Even so, it was just a start. I still needed to modify it by cutting off one end and capping it so that only one side would go forward to the left front wheel.


I knew that I wanted to have a “nailhead” Buick engine so that it would be distinctive, and wouldn’t be big and bulky and overpower the design of the body. The motor came from a low mileage Buick... a '55... I think. For many design reasons I absolutely wanted the engine to be as level to the ground as possible, so that meant finding a transmission and rear end that had their drive at the bottom, instead of the middle or top. The perfect solution for the transmission was a “stick Hydro”... an excellent solution because it would also eliminate the need for a clutch pedal and linking parts! A friend built "stick" Hydros. He recommended using a Pontiac Hydramatic. He went through it for me when it was time to get it actually running.


It was a “no brainer” for me for what to use for the rear end. A magnesium Halibrand Quick Change had the drive coming in at the bottom, allowing me the lowest possible drive line. All I needed to do was to earn a lot of money to buy one!


I used the widest Ford axle housings and axles that I could find. I thought about disc brakes, but I didn’t like how they looked. To me, the best look to compliment the simplicity of everything else was Buick finned aluminum brake drums... something readily available at the local junk yards.


I was almost ready to begin sizing and constructing the body. The only main elements left were wheels and a cowl from a Model T. Finding a cowl by itself, and being able to afford magnesium wheels and the tires that I wanted to use meant working hard to earn the money to buy them! I could... and did... mock up everything else.

Steve Scotts Uncertain-T started like as a cartoon drawn by a school chum of his. The cartoon was a wild characterization. of a Model T. When considering this cartoon as a basis for a real machine it was deemed impossible by all of Steve's friends. So Steve started on it as a challenge to show his friends it could be built. It turned out to be more of a challenge than Steve imagined, not only to his friends, but to his experience as a college Physics major and his imagination as well.

The car made its show circuit debut at the '65 Winternationals N.H.R.A. Custom Auto Fair, and won Special Sweepstakes Award and prove itself worth the effort. Since that time it has won at every show entered, including the '65 Oakland Roadster Show, the Seattle Custom Auto Show, and many others. The big one came however at Indianapolis at the N.H.R.A. National Custom Auto Fair where it was the Grand Sweepstakes winner in the rod class.

The Uncertain T took three years of Steve's time and effort and 15,000 dollars to build. The paint job alone, which has more than a dozen hand-rubbed coats, cost over 600 dollars. The hardest part according to Steve was the making of a one-piece fiberglas body. The chassis was constructed from 2"x3" rectangular aluminum tubing. The engine is built around a 57 Buick block with '63 Buick heads. The finished engine with all the goodies shows good cross breeding between show and go options. The transmission is a much reworked '55 Pontiac hydro. When the finishing touches were completed and professional paint and upholstery jobs were finished, only the radiator shell, headlights, and steering wheel were original Model T parts. The windup key at the rear doubles as a functional push bar and bumper.

http://perrykustompaint.blogspot.fr/2011/10/showrod-sunday-uncertain-t.html

Copyright Steve Scott.


The Uncertain T is a show rod built by Steve Scott of Reseda, California. The idea came alive in 1960, as 17 years old Steve saw a cartoon a classmate at high school had scribbled down. Steve liked the concept, and decided to build a similar car in his parents one-car garage. The body was made out of fiberglass, and Steve was spreading the resin around the body bare handed as he didn't like the lack of sensitivity from real gloves. The thin throw away gloves were useless, as they kept sticking to the resin and pulling off. When he was done for the day, a lot of paper towels and a pan of acetone were waiting. He knew this wasn't good, but he didn't plan to do it as a living, and didn't care much. A huge wind up-key was made and installed as a back bumper. The short frame was made out of aluminum. Steve made his own custom torsion bar for the car, that went through the frame just behind the front crossbar and the radiator. Power came from a fuel-injected Buick Nailhead engine. The rear end was a Halibrand magnesium Quick Change. Steve built a custom coupler that joined the quick change rear end directly to the rear of the hydro, with only a U-joint between. The front motor mounts that Steve fabricated bolted solidly to the front of the engine with hard rubber pads below and above. The first version of the car featured wire wheels up front, and mags and slicks in the rear, and it was painted in an orange-gold Metalflake.


The radical build made its debut at the 1965 Winternationals N.H.R.A. Custom Auto Fair, where Steve won the Special Sweepstakes Award. At the end of the show George Barris slapped Steve, and Steve and George went to court. When Steve filed the complaint against George, Ed Roth drew a cartoon of Steve in the Uncertain T. According to Steve, the reason for the confrontation was that George had built a show car for a family, promising them that they would win the show. George asserted that Steve had "kiss-assed" the judges to win, and decided to give him a slap. At least seven LA Policemen and eight car show officials and workers witnessed the situation. Later on, someone put the car up for sale in the "Hot Rod Mart" classified section for $7,000. Steve never found out who placed that ad.[1]


Steve won trophies everywhere he went with the car. After the Winternationals, the car was entered at the 1965 Oakland Roadster Show and the N.H.R.A National Custom AUto Fair in Indianapolis, where it won the Grand Sweepstakes award in the rod class. The car was also driven on the street, and according to Steve it rode fine. Even with the big top being a super-sized wind catcher. Steve remembers that there wasn't any turbulence in the cab at all, aven up to around 70 mph. The front of the car pushed the air around it so it didn't catch the cab at all, and the slant of the top helped push it down. Even so, and considering the weight of the engine, Steve was always concerned that when someone passed him, the change in wind direction might catch it wrong and flip it over, so he only drove it on a highway a couple of times. After a while, Steve replaced the mag wheels and slicks in the rear with a set of wide Indy tires. He initially wanted the Indy tires in the first place, but he wasn't able to get them, and he really had to do some talking to get them for a non-Indy car.[1]


Steve also dragged his show car, and in 1965 he raced it at the Bakersfield Fuel & Gas Championships at the Famoso Raceway. He started out slowly in front of the stands after passing the starting line before he kicked it and really moved out. Steve remembers seing the looks on people's faces, and the wild cheers as he speeded down to the finish line. After the race, Steve gave Don Garlits a ride. Don enjoyed the ride, and wanted to keep driving around.


In 1965 Steve was also hired as an Associate Editor at Car Craft Magazine. He had been selling photos and stories to various automotive magazines for a few years. One day when he showed his latest stories to Dick Day, the publisher of Car Craft, Dick said that he was not going to buy any more stories from Steve. It would be wrong for him to buy outside material from an employee, and he asked Steve how much they would have to pay him in order to get him as their new Associate Editor. Steve had always been a freelancer, so he thought about it for a minute, before he said what he thought would be a good salary. Dick told him "Not a chance. Nobody is going to work for me for that little", and he then doubled Steve's salary. Steve worked for Car Craft for about a year, until he was drafted. He was on a waiting list for going into the Coast Guard reserve. After 6 months active duty there weren't any positions available with Car Craft, so he began to work for the Petersen distribution department, learning a lot about the magazine industry.[1]


Steve toured the car at the show circuit for several years. By 1970 it had been painted in a goldish light green Metalflake. Sometime in the 1970s the Uncertain T disappeared from the scene. Steve held onto the car until the early 1980s. In the early 1980s he sold it to a close friend. In 2012 it was still owned by Steve's friend.

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Steve_Scott%27s_Uncertain-T

Tu seras sûrement ravi d'apprendre que Steve Scott travaille actuellement d'arrache-pied (toujours trouvé bizarre cette expression   ) pour recréer la maquette de l'Uncertain-T. A l'époque elle avait été produite par Monogram, et même si le contrat stipulait que Steve devait récupérer les moules lorsque la production de la maquette s'arrêterait... et bein chez Monogram ils les ont malencontreusement détruits !!!!!!

Je ne savais pas

Quelques "zinfos zici" : http://www.uncertaintmodelkits.com/