Projects Not Your Average Coupe Build: ‘37 Chevy Unearthed

I was so close to being able to steer I had to sneak out and finish it. Made a quick floor pan to accommodate the steering column and repositioned brake pedal. And got the Borgeson joints setup

 

Looking good, keep at it. Might be a long cold winter so you should get lots done!

 

Well it’s been a while since I’ve worked on the coupe and it’s because we moved again hopefully for the last time lol.

So the last 6 months has been filled with fixing the house to sell, moving, then of course updating the house we just bought . The last couple weekends I’ve finally been able to start setting up the garage so I can begin working on the coupe again! Part of that was making a platform and adding a second doorway to connect the work shop to the main garage.

soon enough I plan to finally finish my doors I tacked together what seems like a lifetime ago

 

Been there done that only in my case it took about 2 years to get the new place renovated and a new garage built. won't do that again!

 

Looks like a nice shop upgrade!

 

Ashamed to say it’s been a few years but I’m back to work on the 37. House projects and work took some energy out of me, but this summer I focused on getting my 57 on the road, sell off some excess inventory and get back to the 37.

Just rebuilt the TH350 (my first automatic trans rebuild) and made some progressive linkage for the tripower setup I pieced together last year.

Made the linkage arms out of some scrap 0.25” aluminum, and welded spacers on them to make them 1/2” thick at the shaft mounting location. They came out alright after polishing, a lot cheaper than buying them anyways!

 

I've got some old projects coming back to life too.
One of them is 52 years old!

 

Amazing build and perseverance! I just read this whole thread start to finish. Very inspiring!

 

Rolled the body out to sand blast it but my compressor regulator just bleeds air (been dealing with this $5 regulator for 10 years…) and the compressor just wouldn’t keep up.

so instead I used my Eastwood Contour SCT drum tool which worked pretty slick! I’ll tell you what, the paint they used in 1937 sticks a lot better than anything these days .

I’m going to leave the body off the frame to finish up the sheet metal work, as well as drop the fresh 283 and Th350 into the chassis while it’s all open.

Once I drop those in everything on the chassis is fresh rebuilt and ready to go!

Although I do have to remake the drivers side of the exhaust. The last time I moved, my buddy was winching the car on while I wasn’t looking and the exhaust got stuck on the trailer .

 

Thanks Devin, one piece at a time!

 

So I decided to try and straighten the bent exhaust I mentioned in the previous post, and I’m glad I did. Some patience going back and forth clamping to straightening is all it really took. I didn’t take a good “before” picture, but in the first image you can see it pinched right up against the axle tube.


I also dug around the shop a bit and found some u shaped tubes that I cut, flipped 180 degrees and made some quick tailpipes

 

Almost forgot!

I also decided to remove the kickdown cable from the TH350 I rebuilt. I can thank the plethora of threads on the HAMB to finally convince me to do it. With as light as the car is with bias ply’s and a hot little 283 I didn’t really need to be surprised by downshifts. Some of you guys with lighter cars will probably say I’m overthinking it but to be honest I sold the factory cable off the TH350 and really didn’t want to buy another one. Not to mention having to deal with hooking it up to the tri power linkage

So I had to take the pan back off, remove the linkage and luckily I had a spare SBC freeze plug kit in the tool box and it had the right size.

When I measured the kickdown cable hole it came out to be 15/32 with the vernier caliper but I’m guessing it was an even 1/2.” Didn’t think to measure the freeze plug before I tapped it in, but whatever it was, it fits snug!

 

Hurst engine cradle had interference with the belly of the timing cover. The 1/2” spacers I made was only enough to get it off the timing cover flange. So I plasma cut, smoothed, and painted the mount.

At this point I noticed how far off the drivers side chassis mount was that I made back when I first started this project. All I had back then was an angle grinder to cut and a flash light to see, and it showed! I was almost a 1/2” off but you live and learn.

Tomorrow I’ll drill the bolt hole in the new chassis mount and hopefully drop the engine and transmission in.







Before: Notice the 0.5- 0.75” gap between level and motor mount and see the level is, well… level

After: no gap on RH motor mount, and now level

 

Dropped in the motor and trans today.









found some alternator brackets kicking around too!

 

So I test fit the grille shell and that alternator placement wasn’t even close to being able to work! ( I had a sneaking suspicion…)

Due to my choice to run headers, short water pump, power pack heads, hurst cradle engine mount, oil fill tube, and straight facing thermostat for factory style 37 radiator, all inside of narrow grille shell my options were limited. I literally could only place the alternator over the engine biased to the driver’s side. And only using header bolt, intake bolt, or water pump bolt to mount it.

I almost gave up and made a setup myself but I ended up finding RPC’s short water pump upper mount kit. Pretty reasonable considering the time it would take to make myself. It takes away from the tripower a bit, but since it’s a closed hood car, I guess that’s not a big deal.

 

Those are some big sexy fenders I like 'em

 

Made some progress outside of this thread.

Looked for some HAMBer wisdom and guidance on PCV Valve and vacuum line location.

Leaning towards road draft tube instead of PCV Valve and then drilled another hole between the two front carburetors for brake booster. Don’t be surprised if I post a picture of a PCV valve installed this weekend though lol



https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/another-sbc-pcv-valve-question.1324334/#post-15379631

 

Painted exhaust and wrapped headers today then got it all bolted down.

Also switched over to band clamps instead of u bolt clamps

In hindsight I wish I chose exhaust manifolds back when I made the exhaust, but I guess it gives me a reason to take it apart in the future

 

I didn’t want to leave the garage until the intake and alternator were buttoned up, so I could say the engine was “done-ish”

Intake went together without a hitch, but once I got to the alternator brackets that I just bought, I hit a snag. I’d like to think it’s because the Offy intake flange is thicker than most, and not a quality defect, but the water pump bolt was about 3/4” off!

I was hoping to cut a diagonal line like you can see in the first picture, flip the tab and re weld it. So I got fancy with the protractor, made some scribe lines and made the cut. But in addition 3/4” to the left, it was also about 1/4” too high leaving a pretty wide gap to fill. So I traced out a new tab and welded it on. Looks like I’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the paint to dry to call my engine “done-ish”






My shop is in disarray with the body off the frame, so I didn’t have easy access to my weld table. When life gives you lemons, make your own weld table.

 

Before I dropped the engine in, I also drilled and tapped the front of the crank for a harmonic balancer bolt. The balancer was going on a little snug for my liking, so I drilled and tapped it to use an installer tool.

Not as scary as it sounds, but I’m glad I drank my morning coffee for a little extra focus before I tried it

 

Love your tap wrench!

 

Thanks! A guy was giving away a Kennedy tool box stuffed with drill bits and taps etc (his dad had recently passed away after 40+ years as a machinist) and just wanted the stuff to stay together and get used. Boy has that stuff bailed me out of a couple of times.

 

Guys, who else struggles figuring out belt lengths?

I don’t know how many times I’ve tried using rope or electrical cord to figure out effective length of the belt and just failed. Outside circumference with a tape measure seems to be the only tried and true method, or at least gets me within a size or two.

I bought three belts this time, third time was a charm! (I may have cheated and put a smaller pulley on though, I refused defeat!)

 

Well I messed up! When I built the motor a few years ago, I had forgotten I just bolted a oil filter adapter I had kicking around so I wouldn’t lose it, at his point not knowing if I was going to keep the canister filter or buy the actual canister to spin on adapter conversion kit.

Well without thinking about it I just spun on the oil filter and started priming the oil pump. Needless to say I dropped some expletives cleaning up the mess I made on the shop floor.

Unfortunately I wanted to go the factory canister route, but due to the way I ran my exhaust I would have to remove the down pipe every time I change the oil filter. Not too bad when there isn’t a body or fender on the car, but far less exciting in the long term.

So I dropped $40 on the Trans-Dapt adapter kit. I’ve read mixed reviews so I hope I simplify and not amplify my oil leak concerns.

 

Holy smokes was I struggling today. Must be this head cold I’m getting over

After I primed the oil pump, I decided to drop the HUNT magneto (look alike) distributor in. I thought I was getting bound up on the oil pump input shaft so I was jacking the frame up in all sorts of directions to get it to flop one way or another. It wasn’t until I decided to convince it with a mallet that I realized it was getting bound up in the block on the circled land. Once I got it unstuck I measured it was about 0.006” oversized in comparison to a factory distributor I had kicking around.

I didn’t take in-process pictures but I put i took some 240 grit emery cloth to it. Little by little I got it to fit.

I was going to set the wires to go out the back, but I’m not sure how close the firewall is going to run and the instructions suggest to have the plug wires point forward. Will likely flip it later to clean it up.

 

Not much going on today. Cleaning the shop, ordering some parts and put body on Jack stands to prep for when I start doing sheet metal work again in the upcoming weeks

 

That’s a nice amount of chop for this body style. Lookin good overall!

 

Thanks Dan! It’s really the only reason the body was worth saving.

Although it would have been easier to start with a solid car that need a chop, rather than a solid chop that needed a car lol

 

CC37CH Champion radiator drops right in. Only complaint is the filler neck doesn’t utilize the original hole in the dog house, but it’s probably easier to get the cap off this way

 

Got the upper radiator hose length and size right. I know my frame setup is different than factory, but the hose is probably right for a typical v8 conversion for anybody looking in the future.

Gates Vulco-Flex II Coolant Hose PN 25478 (1.5” inlet/outlet, 17” long)

But I think the bend is too aggressive on the lower for a flex hose. Going to try again tomorrow with the 12” flex hose I got, or I’ll have to start taking a stab at molded hoses

If anyone has suggestions from experience let me know! Wouldn’t mind saving a few trips to the part store