Custom or Not?

[dotgain]

Sorry I haven't posted to this thread in a while… however I have had a busy 4-5 years.
Truck is pretty much done, except for some window seals, winch cable odd thing here and there.

Ended up chopping 2'' from the cab roof and windscreen, deleted the plates on the back of the front fenders and added some civilian badging.
Line-x inner fenders, step ups, inside cab and box.

If there is interest, I can post a few more pictures of the finished truck.
Drove it to work for the first time this week which felt great!

[k8icu]

Yes more pictures of the the truck. If you have any between the torn down frame and the finished truck would be awesome. I like the look of the 2 inch drop on the top, but I don't know if I would fit in after the fact. Truck looks great. Congrats on finishing it.

[dotgain]

Thanks… I'm pretty happy with it.
I'll get some pictures together, not sure what I have regarding the drop but I'll look.
Main reason for the 2'' drop was so I could get it into my garage with a 7' door, it just makes it now.
It's not so much head room as it is getting a good view out the windshield when you are at a stoplight waiting for it to change.

[CAM]

I think that your truck looks great, and only someone that knows these trucks could tell the difference.

[dotgain]

This is all I could find regarding pics of the roof chop, must have been going through a work mode and forgot the camera.
Basically I rebuilt the pillars out of 1/8 plate and welded in pipe similar to original design (however shorter as I felt the originals were too long and tapered so fit was easier).

Salvaged the lower channel from the original roof and wrapped a stepped sheet metal strip to it (shown on pic) and the rear window opening, the rest of the roof I sent out to have new sheet metal added as I just needed to get the project moving again.
The new sheet metal wrapped around the pillars, attached to the channel at bottom and to the original roof at top, the rear window was then sectioned in.

While that was happening I took out the 2'' out of the windshield which was tough to keep straight and also to keep the channels open to allow for the weather seal and the glass, but making sure that structurally it was still okay.
I took out the 2'' below the swing out arms so the geometry was not affected, new glass cut and went together pretty good.

I had multiple door glass frames so what I did was put two together into one, placing one 2'' up from the original, this way the lower glass stop worked off the original frame and the upper stop was attached to the section that was set 2'' higher.
So when the window is rolled up or down it looks original but the glass is 2'' shorter.

[dotgain]

Thought I'd post some pics of the box side rebuild, took the best stake posts that I had and welded onto 1/8 plate that I had bent.
Rebuilt the wheel wells and cut holes in for tool boxes and filler neck etc.

[R1830]

Box looks great as does the rest of the truck, I'm about to start down the same road with my 52 CDN

[m-37Bruce]

I'm hoping my bed turns out half as nice as yours has!

[dotgain]

Thanks for the compliments on the bed, nice to have that feedback after 6 years of “Where's dad… oh he's in the garage again”.

When I was 18, I bought a Triumph Spitfire (polar opposite of an M37) it was just stuffed full of bondo and way beyond anything that I could have completed at that age.
Worked on it off and on, as you would at 18 for a year or two and then sold it for 1/2 of what I paid originally.

So now about 30 years later, I really still did not have a clue as to the time commitment (and $$$) that I was going to have to make available to this build.
It always bugged me that I didn't get that Triumph done so this truck was important for me to finish.

Breaking the build down into a series of smaller projects made it more manageable and not so overwhelming.
Personal satisfaction after the completion of each “small project”, sitting back an thinking, wow that part came up nice or that went together well.
Then there's times where you just have to leave it for a while, giving both yourself and your truck a break.

Now that it is done it's the people who remember the truck when they were younger and the thumbs up when your driving around.

There is a convenience store owner where I live and see almost on a daily basis.
He remembers as a boy running behind these trucks in Korea trying to get up on the gate as they drove by.
You could tell it was emotional for him, rehashing old childhood memories.

Here's a pic of the custom grill shroud hiding the sheet metal ends.

[m-37Bruce]

Extra nice, looks like a Grand Prize winner, your skills and determination are evident. What paint did you go with looks a bit like Gillespie?

[dotgain]

I can't take any credit for the final paint as I sent out for final body work.
Paint is UTech single stage gloss, scanned to match the lense covers.

Picture of seats below, I went to Tandy Leather and picked out a couple sides of a cow (likely not the same cow ).
It's like an oil skin, almost like a baseball mit, has branding marks and fence scratches which is pretty cool.
Took to a local upholstery guy who did a great job putting it together.

[T. Highway]

I am liking the seats allot. What did you use for the backing? Foam?

Bert

[dotgain]

Seat backs are original springs cleaned up and painted with a dense +/- 1'' mat, I think this mat is also used under horse saddles?
Bottoms, 3'' foam on passenger side and 4'' foam on drivers.

Pictures of the box finished and the troop seats.
Box is Line-X'ed except for gas tank and filler neck access.
wood is ash with clear coat.

[m-37Bruce]

Nice work, seats and all!

[dotgain]

Some pics of the 251 going together, most of internal the motor work was done by a previous owner.
Block came to me oiled down and wrapped in plastic, new cups, valves, seats, rings and cylinders honed from what we could tell.

My late father in law (who knows these motors well) checked it over for clearances etc.
From there it was really just a matter of paint and bolting up accessories which was fairly straight forward as I had the original motor to reference to.