New project: '37 Ford Pickup

I made the head pipes from 2.5" mandrel U bends. I made the driver side to swing as far from the steering box as I had room for, and still flow well.



So the column wouldn't flex the bottom of the dash, I made this bar that goes from the drop bolts to the firewall.



Bracket for the cable drive wiper system.



Owner specified a new Glide seat. These are nice, they tilt forward and the bottom opens forward to access the seat riser well.



New repro bumpers, brackets, and hardware. All of this, plus most of the weatherstrip, emblems, etc came from Dick Spadaro. Turn signals are Harley Davidson.





Windshield hardware reconditioned:







Original gauges (two on left) were restored by United Speedometer, converted to 12 volt with new VDO movements. I got them from Chris, a guy who is building another old blue '37 pickup, called Old Bleu, which may be his name here too. Really nice work, but I hear that this company may be out of business. That would be a shame, their work was awesome. The amp was converted to volts, the tube style thermometer was converted to a temp gauge, and a new face was made.





I wanted to install all electrical items before the wiring, figuring it would be easier that way to know where to cut and splice. So all lights were installed and wiring began. The wiring kit itself is the new rear mount fuse box 9+1 circuit setup from Rebel Wire, a HAMB vendor. These guys couldn't have been nicer to deal with on the phone with ordering and tech support. I'll never go anywhere else! The fuse block is mounted under the seat.









Owner wanted backup lights, but Lokar doesn't make a switch for their C4 shifter. So I did, from a Radio Shack roller lever switch and some sheetmetal for brackets and arm. You adjust it by bending the brackets.



We couldn't find anything that looked good on the back of the truck for backup lights, when I saw these LED license plate frames on evilbay. Seven LEDs on each side of the frame are plenty bright and don't clash with the taillights. The plate light is an EMPI VW part, turned upside down from the Bug position.



This hot rod truck will be occasionally used as a truck, so the bed was worked over, holes welded, some rust fixed, and then a custom navy blue tinted bedliner was sprayed in by the same shop that did the running boards.





-KK

 

nice work man ....

 

That is a great truck.

 

The blue bed liner is a very nice touch

Adam

 

Diggin this build very much.
Mart.

 

thanks for sharing your build , very nice truck .

 

That is an awesome truck, and built to give the owner years of dependable service. Those who see it drive by will have not a clue as to what resides inside. It will be an inspiriation for my '48 F1.
thanks for sharing.

Frank

 

Always wanted to build a project like this.Leave the body much as it was with just fixing the problem areas and build a strong road worthy underside to mount it on.Great build and thanks for sharing.

 

Looks Good!

 

Nice job on the truck, looks like you be drivin her soon.

 

Some very good ideas and just plain cool! I am partial to the Yblock so I think it's a great choice. The Flatty can go into another cool project. You are doing that truck justice!

 

Thanks for the nice words, guys. This was a huge learning experience for me, stepping out of my Falcon/Comet/early Mustang mold and doing something totally different, but with lots of input and help from people all across the country - vendors, HAMBers, local rodders, and the understanding guy behind the counter at CarQuest auto parts who always says "Ah, yeah, OK, street rod. Well, let's see if this works..." Y'all have made a big job fun.

The next day after the bedliner was done, I took it to the Apache Muffler for a complete dual system with turbo mufflers. Pablo did the job, but we call him Pablo Picasso because he's an artist. It was a complex job because of all of the I.C. tubing and the torque arm setup, requiring the pipes to take a few tricky bends. But no problem for Pablo.





I made up the door and kick panels from door card stock and had them and the seat upholstered by a local shop. In a tip of the hat to the old '50s interior that it had for so long, the new interior is oxblood red crush vinyl.





Enjoy the ride, but safety first: 1/4" plates were made to mount the three point inertia reel seat belts.



A restored vintage accessory heater was converted to 12 volt and painted navy blue to match the interior metal. It was installed with a T on the output to direct air to the defroster ducts and the floor at the same time.



The original radiator was restored and reconfigured to Y block inlet and outlet (by blocking off two of the four flat head tubes) and was installed with a trans cooler from a Volvo and a Spal electric pusher fan. The Spal works with an engine driven flex fan, but it had to be a small diameter to clear the power steering pulley. The low mounted engine fan and high mounted electric use the whole radiator and keeps the 312 happy.



The truck came with a decent grille, but the owner wanted a mint one, and he wanted it to be restored to show quality to be a focal point. So he found a really nice grille in Vegas, had it shipped over, and the bottom was rusted too thin. No problem, his son is an accomplished body and paint guy, so he cut the lower chin section from the original grille, welded it to the nicer one, made it flwless, painted it navy blue with a cream center to tie into the engine bay, and straightened and polished the stainless trim. A new V8 85 emblem and matching radiator cap emblem was sourced from Spadaro, and the finished grille is a stunner:





Installing it meant adjusting nearly all front sheetmetal to make everything fit and then re-adjusting some of it for the hood to align. Starting to look complete now.





The valve covers and air cleaner were stripped and painted in a matching cream color and new Thunderbird Special decals were slid on. The air cleaner lid is early '55 6 volt T-bird on a 14" standard base.



The Y block fills the engine bay very nicely, giving a balanced look that's not too big or small. Many have said that it looks like it belongs there.







Gas pedal arm is a cable unit from a Maverick, pedal pad is late Mustang, and it was the perfect fit with one mounting ear cut off the left side and welded to the right side. It pulls a Lokar cable, and a Lokar kickdown cable is used for the C4.





Brian Duffee, the engine rebuilder, came over from Phoenix to be there for the first engine fire-up. We pulled the distributor, primed the pump, checked everything several times, and it fired on the second try.



First drive revealed a problem with the C4, wouldn't shift out of first. A shift kit had been installed in the past, and the rebuilder got a little confused as to what aftermarket spring thing went where. The problem was eliminated with a new rebuilt stock valve body.



The center hood hinge was broken, so I repaired it by welding in a cut-down roll pin at the front where it goes under the retainer, and cleaning and lubing the hinge. It was installed and then a pinstriping friend of mine (everyone should have a pinstriping friend) came over and completely re-striped the truck using what was left of the '50s (imperfect) striping as a guide. We only added one stripe that it didn't have, the single white square around the tail gate. It was enough, and the owner didn't want the FORD script on the tail gate outlined.



-KK

 

Wow, that looks amazing.

-Dave

 

More pics of the striping:











A molded ABS headliner was bought through SoCal Speed Shop, it's made for the '37 pickup by Quiet Ride Solutions and is in the pattern of the original cardboard headliner. The whole cab was carpeted with navy blue cut pile from the firewall to the rear cab up to the window. I cut the carpet on the removable floor section and my upholstery guy sewed and edged it. Carpet backing was then glued on. It has velcro on each side so it can be lifted to get to the battery and master cylinder access panels.





With the drivability problems slowly being ironed out, it was time to take it back to Industrial Chassis for a few axle adjustments, a front end alignment, front spring adjustment, connecting the parking brake cables because I didn't really have a good idea how to do that (they made it look easy) and a few other incidentals. It came home driving straight and true.



My tune&test 14" wheels had to go, and it was time to figure out backspace and tire size to get the ball rolling on the final rolling stock. The fronts are 15x6 early '70s Ford, the rears are 15x7 from Wheel kid (Rally America) out of CA, Fresno I think. Another great HAMB vendor, and the wheels are perfect. Painted the same cream as the grille and engine bay, but in urathane. Tires are BFG T/A 235/70 rear and 215/65 front, which are exactly 28" and 26" tall, just what we wanted. Ground clearance had to be good enough to negotiate speed bumps, and it couldn't be too tall or the owner would have a hard time getting into it.









The owners' son about to take the owner for his first ride:



And hauling ass down the road near my house. They were in passing gear and really moving, so this was a lucky shot!



And that's where it stands today. The list of things to do is small enough that it should be ready in a couple of weeks, and then it's onto the next project.

-KK

 

What a great build. I am in the midst of a 37 Ford ton and half build. Many of the tech and parts source is very helpful. Some really great ideas and solutions for some of the same issues that I am finding. Congratulations on a great lookings truck.

 

Amazing build. Very inspiring.

 

Very nice, thanks for showing it, that final stance is just about perfect. Currently building a 36 with intentions of just about what you have done here. We'll have new paint though, since ours did not have any old paint left.

 

Love it,very cool little truck.

 

thanks for sharing your update photos nice work on the truck

 

Awesome truck and this thread will be a great help in my build as I get deeper into it. Some thought has gone into the truck and the outcome is perfect. Well done to all involved.

 

Beautiful! Well done.

 

Man what an asome truck, sits good and looks like it funtions good aswell. This is insperation for my build. I realy like the engine combo. The air cleaner is a good touch too. The good this is you could drive it any where. Cool build, good tech, congrats.

 

Thanks.

 

Here's a shot that shows the bracket inside the fender.



-KK

 

Neat build, Lots of restraint, and really inspirational. It would have been easy to get carried away with more detail.

 

Glad to see a build like this.

 

I've got a set of those mounts to go onto my '48. It still has the lever shocks. If possible, I'd like to see how you attached the bottom mount for the front shocks. You have some photos that sort of show it, but not quite.

Beautiful build, great mix of old looks with new tech where it is hidden but is most useful. Just perfect.

Ed

 

post #14 pics 3 & 7

 

Another angle. I.C. welded an angled tab, maybe 1/4" stock, to the end of the wishbone.



-KK

 

That grille is a work of art! How's about a little engine running video?...I am a bit of a Y- block nut.