Ben Leonard's '23 T Roadster - Dream Catcher

High school can be a trying time, and it is certainly one of the most influential segments of one's life. Things you learn then are supposed to stick with you for the rest of your life (or so your math teacher kept telling you!).

When you first enter high school as a freshman, you are pretty much guaranteed to see things you've never seen before. Typically, freshmen are the low men on the totem pole, and they look to the seniors to see how things are done. For Ben Leonard, one of the most indelible images he remembers from high school (he graduated in 1960) is the T-bucket one senior drove to class.

Seniors were like gods to underclassmen, and everything looked right to young Ben when he saw this guy driving his T. That image, coupled with Edd Brynes staring in "77 Sunset Strip" while driving his Kookie T, only added fuel to the fire. It also began a lifelong desire to own one-something Ben was finally able to do, more than 40 years later.

Even though the engine is a stock 350 crate engine, it pushes this tiny T around just fine. Ben added the Edelbrock tunnel ram intake along with a pair of Edelbrock 500-cfm carbs (topped with twin K&N air filters).

Not taking the "normal" route of owning different hot rods through the years, Ben instead got married and got involved in his job, which enabled him to work in more than 43 countries in the past 20 years. Now done with world travel, Ben, along with his wife, Sandy, decided they'd like to have a car project to work on and looked into some of the clubs that cater to specific vehicles (Porsche, Corvette, early Ford, etc.).

The idea was to be able to get it to a point and drive it, and then update a portion of the project in the wintertime to make it that much better. For them, building upon a base was much more important than buying a finished, turnkey ride. In 2001, when Ben noticed a T-bucket project for sale in a local newspaper, he thought it couldn't hurt to go check it out.

The T was located just 25 miles away from Ben and Sandy's home in Clovis, California. The man who owned it was in need of some money to finance a patent and needed to sell what he could to raise the necessary funds. The T wasn't finished, but Ben figured it wouldn't take much to wrap up what was already there and make a driver out of it. The frame and body were in place, and it was a roller (which helps when deciding to cart something home!). The top bows were there, but no upholstery had been done. The body had been painted, but needed some touch-up, and the Leonards thought it was something they could handle, so Ben became a hot rod owner for the first time in his life.

T-buckets come in many wheelbase lengths, but the shorter ones, like Ben's 98-inch version, are more like the way they ran them in the '70s (the same can be said for the lack of front brakes), which is the way Ben likes it.

Ben did what he could on the car over the next six months, installing a Chevy 350 crate engine as well as the two-speed Powerglide transmission. Once the car became a driver, the Leonards used the winter months to redo one aspect of the T to improve it (add the tunnel ram and twin fours one winter, chrome the axle and rebuild the front end during another).

About three years ago, Ben became a member of the Camtwisters, a hot rod club based in Fresno, California. One of the functions of the club is a yearly car show, which benefits FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) and draws nearly 250 cars. Ben and Sandy have traveled more than 25,000 miles in their T since making it a driver, but have a 100-mile limit before they consider putting the bucket in a trailer (long drives in a car with a 98-inch wheelbase is tough on your backside!). Even so, Ben regularly attends the NSRA's Bakersfield, California, show and was able to make the National T-Bucket Alliance's national event in Sierra Vista, Arizona, in 2007 (he's looking into attending the 10th anniversary NTBA event in June '08 in Springfield, Illinois).

Nowadays, the Leonards' garage contains a few hot rods (including a '57 Ford Ranchero and a '46 Willys Overland), as well as a bone-stock '29 Ford roadster pickup (Ben is a member of an early Ford club too). Even though it has taken him 40 years to get to this point in his life, Ben couldn't be happier about where he is and the friends he's met along the way. See? Childhood dreams do come true!

Ricki's did the upholstery work (the dual-lined top and the interior) on Ben's T in a black and purple vinyl-and-cloth combo. Ben made his own steering column and attached a vintage T steering wheel (only flipped upside down for better clearance) from Obsolete Ford Parts.

Facts & Figures
Ben Leonard
Clovis, California
1923 Ford roadster