Found this Gasser project in an estate sale in Stone Mountain Georgia about 4 months ago. The daughter selling it said it was her dads but he put it in storage sometime in the 70's where it sat till I bought it. No engine or trans came with it just a roller. It appears to have been painted in lacquer but never buffed out. I started to sand and buff it and it is actually coming out pretty decent. Im going to build it kind of as a survivor car, but adding safety items like disc front brakes and new master cylinder. Not going to be a 100% restored Gasser by any means, but will still be cool and fun to drive. Im going with a SBC 383 stroker motor and automatic trans. Here's a few pics from the day I got it to current condition.
great job on your coupe, I really like those 37 & 8 Chevs,...that'sa good lookin glass nose,... here's my old 37 that I sold a few years ago.
Really nice looking Chevy! And a lot of good work already done when you got it too! Hopefully you can find a decent '37 grille so it gets plenty of air to the radiator for street driving. Or maybe be able to fabricate a nice looking grille to resemble the stock grille. Grilles are one of the biggest ticket items for these old late 30's Chevy coupes! I made mine from 3 grille halves spliced and tig welded together, as I wasn't going to pay the $1200-$2000 most were going for!
Yes it is...that is why my thread is titled 37/38. The car is titled as a 38 but the glass front is '37 obviously. I was at first trying to find an original grill to no avail. I then bit the bullet and spent $799 plus $140 shipping from Chevy's of the 40's for one of their "gangster grills". But I hated it so I ate the shipping both ways and sent it back. I have since decided NOT to do any kind of original grill and will create my own design in the front for air passage. I have several ideas, but have not chosen a path yet.
I know it’s not the real thing, but something I put together probably 40 yrs. ago! Have loved these coupes since seeing them make laps on the local dirt tracks in Vt. and N.Y. ( one of the reasons they’re hard to find up there).
Totally agree. A one piece fiberglass front end requires a custom insert/opening of some kind. Despite what this restoration site says. Next they'll have you second guessing that fiberglass front end in favor of the stock steel.
That is pretty cool! Kinda resembles my build. No way I would change out my glass flip front end for steel. My Gasser came with the complete steel front end including a really nice 38 grill. Sold it all to a guy who just had a fender bender in his 38. I still have the original bench seat too, but no longer fits with the roll bar inside.
Ok....that is not a bad looking grill for a gasser. Great price too. But that item is for the "legend" race cars and are not full size vehicles. I will have to see what the actual measurements are.
Looking good! I remember seeing this car listed. I really wanted to go check it out but I was working out of town. By the time I got done and returned home it was gone. Really glad someone on here got it and progress is being made! Keep us posted and more pictures please!!
I made them an offer the second I saw it for sale. They took my offer almost immediately. Thank goodness the daughter selling her dads estate had a great "handyman" on site. I never could have got it otherwise. Brakes were frozen and the rollers would not fit on the front hubs and had to be grinded out quite a bit to fit. Not to mention I was on a very tight time line. I almost had to leave it and head back home. He busted his butt to get it trailerable. Oh, and the HILL it was on...holly crap...they had to call in a flat bed just to get it out of the garage and down to the street the driveway was so steep!! But it was all well worth it.
Very cool car! Mine was a trip to go get too, it had been in the garage for maybe 40 years! Good to see more of these 37/38 Chevy Gassers being unearthed! On your front end, seems like most of those one piece glass grilles got round or oval holes cut in them as needed. I’m sure the HAMB has pictures somewhere, cuz I know it happened!
That’s awesome you got the help you needed to get it out! With such a challenge to get it out, it just adds to your story and it will be a day you won’t forget!
Im leaning towards holes....but I want to cut the holes out and then have a thin piece of aluminum or SS and have the holes pressed in to match with the dimpling process and then cement or rivet it over the front in the shape of the original grill, if that makes any sense. Another way I was thinking was copying this one that I saved to my photo bank. Kinda like the sideways slot cut on this.
Yeah....no...that wont work...need some kind of opening to get air to the radiator. This is going to see street use.
I like those horizontal slots in the picture! They look better than a bunch of round holes, and give more support than vertical slots would. Unless a guy did multiple vertical slots like those, with solid areas between to support it. You could cover the grille area with shelf paper and practice drawing openings of different types to see what you like before starting any cutting. My '39 came with a one piece fiberglass frontend, but it had sat so many decades with stuff stored on it, and not on the car that it was badly warped. It was an Old Chicago brand, and had never been fitted to a car either, and the whole clip was a mess. I worked for a month trying to cut and rework it to make it fit my coupe, and finally gave up and tossed it. I cut the hood off it and used that, and sold the fenders to guy building a old Chevy who didn't care how bad it fit.
Yeah, I was lucky that the front cap was already hinged and stayed on the car all those years in storage. It actually fits pretty nice. I agree about the sideways slots may help keep the rigidity of the front end. I plan on tracing some ideas out first and then start cutting and pray for the best!
just cut the whole grille area out surgically( for poss. later)-and have any types you want made to fit there..
When I bought the aftermarket grill, I really could not figure out how to remove such a large area of the glass and then install the steel grill in such a way as to keep it all rigid. That plus I just didnt like the look of the grill once I actually had one in my grubby little hands. Just gonna be easier to just cut holes, either vertical or horizontal. But as I said in a previous post, I am going to make some kind of a facade out of sheet metal to put over (and cut out) the existing glass and holes. If that makes any sense. Here are pics of the aftermarket grill that I sent back to Chevy's of the 40's.....
I like the idea of cutting vertical slots, then having one of those talented air brush guys bring it to life with their chrome, shadowing, and highlighting painting techniques..oh, wait that may not be traditional..never mind.
I used 1/4" round stainless for my '37 truck grill. The frame is stainless with holes drilled so the rods slide through and are welded on the underside so as to not show when looking at the truck. I used the same number of rods and placed the cross bars at the same height as Chevy did. I polished the rods before inserting and welding.
37/38 Chevy coupe, one of my favorites for a gasser. Me I vote stock grill or reasonable facsimile. On my Willys I did .063 aluminum, 40 style grill [two pieces] because the compound curve of the nose did not lend itself well to a 41 [one piece] style grill. Saved a few $ by me drawing a pattern, friendly computer nerd doing a CNC program from my pattern and taking my own bit of material to a guy with a laser table, water jet would most likely work too. You can see in the photo a narrow strap of fiberglass behind the grill for support. The late Don Nowell built one of the best-looking cars ever. He was a hell of a craftsman. Good luck on your car, looks to me you have a great start!
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