Projects Not Your Average Coupe Build: ‘37 Chevy Unearthed

Lot of potential there, and a lot of work! 37-38 Chevy coupes make great customs and hot rods, either way the end results are nice.

 

I owned two 40 Chevrolet coupes. Ten years ago I was searching for a body to put on a cherry frame that was under a Car Craft cover car. That's how my build began. I landed up bidding on two bodies and scored both.
One was a pristine, original body that was in a basement in Connecticut for 27 years.
The second was modified, new firewall, floors and Nova clip along with receipts for 11k to a hot rod shop in Rhode Island. Real questionable work, but I bought it right.

So here I am with two bodies, side by side. Took a tape measure to both. Differences were between1/8 to 3/8". I guess they did not adequately brace the car before cutting out the floors and firewall.

Moral of the story. If you can find an original car and the owner let's you measure, it may be time we'll spent, especially if you source new doors down the road.

But don't listen to me. I am slower than a turtle. Still have both cars. LOL.

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The '37 Chevy Coupe is to Chevy lover's what the '36 Ford Coupe is to Ford lovers, IMHO..................................................

 

Well said!


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...those hood side louvers are still upside down!...dang.

 

I'll surely be messing around with that once the cars back together


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I bought extra hoods and pieces to do the vent flip. But, the more I looked at it, the more I came to believe that the original was not the famous 'mistake' that has been sited many times before.

Flipping them side to side does situate the louvers in a more traditional orientation. But then the feature line is at the top and does not mimic the side of the doors.

They look good either way, but I'm not sure it was a 'mistake'. The factory slant of the louvers picks up the angle of the windshield post.
Will be watching. I may do something a little different with my spare hood and parts. If so, I'll post it.

 

Great Work.

 

I found some parts you forgot in little Rho dy. I will mail them to you !

 

nice score ! Bet Guys a swap meet gave you funny looks walking away with that.. I found the clock !

 

37 Chevy, one of my favorite years! Looking forward to watching your build. Probably past by you at some point at the Amherst Flea Market. Loved going there hunting for deals!

 

Much of the design work on the 37 Chevy belonged to GM designer Jules Agromonte. The head of the design group back then was the legendary Harley Earl who's designs were very much non-traditional and usually way ahead of their time. The hood lines flow nicely from front to back complimenting the new body line that fades into the door. The redesign in 37 was introduced by Earl as "Diamond Crown Speed Line Styling". I think the end result was one of the nicest looking car designs to come out in the 1930's.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!


I think Keith's looks so good is because by dropping the headlights and the louvers you break them away from needing to match up with the body lines.
I'm a ways away from messing with the details but I'll be looking for some guidance when it comes to those touches


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Nice! Thanks. Never saw that picture before either


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Made some more progress this afternoon. Turns out the bottom of the drivers door opening spread open about 3/4" past what it should be during transport. Before I made too much progress on the floor I pulled the geometry back to where it should be with a ratchet strap accross the two cross supports. Then tacked in a door opening support of the correct length




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Now that the coupe was relatively square again. I started to work on planning the floor. I realized the 4 corners of the body where the the floor would essentially attach to the body was roached.





So I pulled out the fabrication station and started making some panels. Since most of the steel was gone, some guesswork was involved

Started the fab process again by planning the panel with masking paper.

I used to let my daughter write on my coke cooler welder cart with paint marker, then I'd prime over it so she could start over. I don't think I'll ever prime over it again though. Memories!





Chose the closest set of bead roller dies I could



Then formed the offset needed to connect the panel to the rear quarter



It's not perfect, but fits like a glove!





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Then fabbed the drivers front Seen below





Passenger front panel





Passenger rear panel






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The last step of the day was to weld some "new" angle iron where the original angles were.

For those of you 37 guys out there. What the heck are the angles for? Are they gas tank brackets? It's my understanding the gas tank is behind the drivers seat in coupes






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Now to reveal my floor plan!

My daughter helped me sketch out the plans on her little white board

I plan to weld a square tube frame shown in brown that welds to the four corner panels I made today. Then I'll continue the frame over the rear axle and into the trunk.

Once the frame is done, I can start fabbing floor panels to weld them to.

I'm planning to drill holes and weld threaded inserts or just pipe for the bolts to pass through for the body mounts and the seat mounts.





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Forgot to post this little gem that my dad hooked me up with. 41 Cadillac front bumper. Planning to use it as the rear bumper on the 37





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Nice work , looks like an ambitious project!
Not sure if those angle brackets are for the tank, I never had a coupe, but my 37 sedan does not have them. The tank is underneath in the sedan. You are probably right, hopefully a coupe expert will chime in. If not PM Raymay, he has had a bunch of 37s and is a very helpful knowledgeable guy.

 

..that angle was used to lay the plywood floor cover over the gas tank. The tank sat on these 2 wood supports shown in this pic, a piece of wood stood up along the front of the tank supported the plywood also.

 

Thanks for the info and pic! I made sure to save that one. Not too many 37's floating around to reference. Especially this time of year in Wisconsin lol


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Actually if you have any other pictures of the factory floor (and trunk floor) that would be appreciated!


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Haha not here most the stuff you buy around here is like that.

 

Thanks for the pictures rusty1! They will certainly come in handy


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Looking good, can't wait to see more!

 

I was able to get the outer most portion of the floor structure done today, but I ended up running out of square tube so I didn't get a whole lot of progress.

For the couple of bends I needed, I went with the notch and weld method





Below is where it mounts to the new patch panels I made last weekend up front.



To give the main rear mounting points a little more support. I welded some vertical square tube up to the gas tank cover angle iron



Once I get some more square tube, I should be able to complete the floor structure in just a couple of hours




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Another Sunday in the books!

I ended up raising the floor 2-1/2", but the body will only be dropped half that because of the tube structure.

So at the end of the day the coupes got a 3" chop and a 1-1/4" channel.

Got my square tube on Friday and was able to finish up the passenger compartment floor structure this afternoon. Welded 3/4 of the way around. I'll wait to do the overhead welding for a rainy day



Then I moved on to the driveshaft tunnel so I can tie the two halves together.

I had this old empty oxy bottle my dad gave me, and I planned the floor dimensions around the 3.5" radius to form the tunnel



Formed the radius



Formed the legs



I bought a cheap planishing hammer at northern tool that I'll use to smooth out the imperfections. Once I cut the legs down to the 1-1/4" length of the tube, I'm going to chase the perimeter with the bead roller to add a little rigidity






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