Hot Rods Weird Question....was installing a '37 nose on a '38 Chevy a hot thing to do?

So my Bell Auto Parts '38 Chevy coupe has had a '37 Chevy nose on it...id guess since the late 60s? I was told by Nick Arias Jr...that his grandpa's car is the same...a '38 body with a '37 nose....its been running that mod since the early 50s...and the iconic Don Nowell gasser was also a '38 body with a '37 nose. Anybody know why? Coincidence? People thought they looked cooler or the '37 was rarer? Just kind of an odd thing for the three cars to share.

 

I liked the 38 front end better than the 37. Just my opinion.

 

37 and 38 are essentially the same cars, except for the front grille, grille surround, hood and hood sides. So the interchange is easy. Probably just personal taste, many like the vertical bars on 37.

 

Changing the nose basically makes a 38 a 37 . 38 grill was stainless , 37 was plated

 

I prefer the 38 but would like the 37 hood side feature flipped upside down on it

 

I believe Don Nowell's '38 had a one piece fiberglass '37 frontend on it. So likely his reason was they may have only made a '37 or that's what he found?

 

Don Nowell made his front end. The question is why a '37 style. I'm not really looking for opinions on who likes what front ends. I like them both. The question is why were those old hot rodders doing that?

 

I had 2- 37 coupes at the same time, 1 stock and 1 with a 283. Always liked the 37 coupes, but the 38 sedans looked better to me. I wish I would have asked Don, more about his 37 during the many hours we talked, but he had such a broad history of accomplishments.

 

Back in the day, most 33 Fords were switched over to 34 grilles and hoods. Personal preference and peer pressure. Nowadays the 33 stuff is worth twice the 34 stuff.

 

37 looked cleaner to me and also lighter for drag racing; not sure if it mattered…

 

Of the folks that I've talked to, they seem to prefer the 37 grille over the 38 version, just seemed to like the look better. For what it's worth I had a 37 hood and nose and sold it back in the 80's, I guess I thought my 38 coupe should have a 38 grille

 

Votes are in.
Some like '38, but the '37.....
Looks and sounds like a Hot thing to do.

 

Front end collisions may have some influence.

 

You might be on to something. If you had either a '37 or a '38 during the war and you needed to do front body repairs, you likely took whichever you could get.

 

Racer/Cruiser/Street/Drags…?

Hello,


Who wouldn’t want a dual purpose street/drags hot rod that looked like this?

Doug Cook 1937 Tahitian Red 37 Chevy Coupe raced in C/Gas and B/Gas with weight changes and a few different mods.
The 1957-59 season at Lion's Dragstrip.
Doug Cook's custom Tahitian Red 37 Chevy Coupe holding court in the Gas Coupe and Sedan Classes. Look at the wide array of competition, 1952 Chevy/Olds sedan, lowered 50 Chevy sedan, Doug Cook C/Gas and behind Cook, Charlie Ettien’s “The Painter’s Truck” Supercharged Hemi Ford Truck in this screen shot.


Street legal and weekend hot rod/drag racing at the local dragstrip was a common thing to do from opening day in 1955.

In the pits, it drew the attention of a nosy teenager getting some ideas…


On the drag strip, it won everything in sight in the C/Gas and B/Gas classes on different days.
1959 From the street to the dragstrip to the trophy lane, was the norm on weekends at Lion's Dragstrip.


Jnaki

We were impressed seeing both models, but if we had followed the trend back then, a 37 was the coupe of choice.


from January 1957: Drag News weekly


from 1958 in So Cal:



Note:

There were other fast 1937 Chevy Gas Coupes. Perhaps not as fast as Doug Cook’s Tahitian Red version. But, they were out there.

But since having my old 16mm color movie films digitized, the names to go along with the competition cars has gone away, due to old age memories or just a blank wall. We are still looking all over at different publications, web searches and eye witness accounts of the old days of drag racing to see if any identification of cars and racers can he found.

Despite the result of the film that I took and of several others in the C/Gas class, the level of racing got closer as people started to figure out what it took to win or at least be competitive.

The Red/Orange 1937 Chevy is still unnamed and is a mystery. Several name have been brought up, but nothing definitely identifies the exact car in the films. Then this old newspaper photo appeared and the hunt was back on in earnest.

1957 Feb 17 Perhaps the Beginning?

Adding to the mystery, several racers that made a name for themselves in other classes of drag racing was brought up as possible builders/racers in their own 37 Chevy coupe. The competition was heating up during the 1957 to 60 time period of drag racing history. So, one of the early defeats pushed Doug Cook to an unheard of consecutive wins in the C/Gas and B/Gas class races.


This sea green 37 Chevy coupe was also a mystery. We thought it was the Bayer Freitas Coupe. it has been over 66 years, so we probably knew back then, but by the time everything was digitized and labeled, it was a mystery as to who the 37 green Chevy coup belonged to at Lion’s Dragstrip back then.
at :12
YRMV

 

37’s for me! (But) When I rescued my ‘37, I finally installed the custom grille from the original kit.

 

...I've had both 37'ss & 38's, like em both but prefer the 37 front,...but the "upside down" side louvers on the 37's really bother me......that was a goof from the factory, when the design was signed/ok'd upside down

 

Thanks for posting photos of the '38 grille, now I understand why they were replaced with '37's.

Bob

 

The vertical bars, and perimeter straight edges on the '37 have always been liked more by most people who are fans of the late 30's Chevy cars. But I've always been biased with liking the '39 grilles over the '37 or '38 grilles. But I like the roof lines below the back window on '37 and '38, but prefer the more angled B pillars on the '39.

 

The back fenders are wider on ‘38s and the trunk floor is different on sedans from ‘37. A friend is making a ‘37 from a ‘38 2 door and has been surprised at the differences.

 

Yeah I've heard there were differences like that..especially the rear fenders being wider on a '38. The '37 front end has a surprising number of different pieces too. The entire metal nose doghouse, grill, grill trim, headlights and hood are 1937 only. Basically just the fenders are the same as '38.

 

I like both the '37 and the '38 grills. But what the hell do I know? I'm a FORD man!

 

38 Chevy rear fenders are only wider on the back half

 

The ‘38 rear axle is about 1.5” wider. The rear fenders are shaped differently to allow for that and the rear part of the fender is wider and not as tapered as on ‘37s.

The parts book does list the ‘38 fender as the replacement for both years, but the books only listed parts that were still available at the time of publication and not necessarily what the original number was.