1954 M37 rebuild thread

[T. Highway]

Project is looking good.

Bert

[06boblee]

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Does anyone know what attaches to these two captured nuts?

[rickf]

Front fender rear support?

[RMS]

supports the arctic heater fuel solenoid looking thing ?

[06boblee]

They are 3/8" bolts, and there was nothing there when I took it apart. It probably has something to do with the arctic heater install like RMS said.

[06boblee]

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Decided on this tire. 385-70R16 Nitto. 37.7" tall.

[rickf]

That tire calls for a MINIMUM of a 9.5" wide rim. It looks like you have the stock 6" rim there. That would mean the bead is not even lose to being properly seated.

[06boblee]

That tire calls for a MINIMUM of a 9.5" wide rim. It looks like you have the stock 6" rim there. That would mean the bead is not even lose to being properly seated.

The wheel is 8.5" wide. It is a bit thin, but seems to work ok. I could not find any tires that were 38" tall and not really wide. The bead seats fine, as it is a tubeless wheel.

[rickf]

8.5 is not too bad but still an inch smaller than the minimum. They call for 9.5 to 13.5. The problem with tires that are too wide for the rime is that the sealing surface of the bead would normally sit flat on the rim at the correct width but when the rim is too narrow it bends the bead out and pivots the sealing surface away from the inner part of the sealing surface. You are probably not going to be driving this rig that many miles but when I had a 4x4 shop I would see this a lot and what would happen is the bead of the tire would eventually wear and fail because it was always moving. The indicator was usually the tire popping off the bead off road even with normal air pressure but a couple guys got into accidents when the tire popped off on turns on the road at speed. Big tire blowing off the bead in a turn at speed never ends well. One guy got away with it since the only damage was to his truck but the other guy was sued very heavily since he plowed into another car and severely injured a couple people. That was thirty years ago and he is still paying for it, He will never be able to buy a house or a new car. It is your vehicle and I don't preach. I just mention these things so you know what can happen. Not saying it will happen.

[06boblee]

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First coat of OD on the fix.
This bodywork stuff is not for the faint of heart--my first try.
Look back in this thread for before and during pics.

[m-37Bruce]

Darn, that turned out real nice!

[murano3]

Great work!

[WeeksM37]

The work looks amazing, you are doing an amazing job. How did you build your own wiring harness? What did you use for a layout? I assume the Hemi 5.7 had to be equipped with it's own sub harness and computer to control the engine. The remainder of truck would have to be sectioned off in order to support each component. Thank you, Mark

[06boblee]

The work looks amazing, you are doing an amazing job. How did you build your own wiring harness? What did you use for a layout? I assume the Hemi 5.7 had to be equipped with it's own sub harness and computer to control the engine. The remainder of truck would have to be sectioned off in order to support each component. Thank you, Mark

That was one of the big expenses for this job- a stand alone system with a complete new harness for the engine and transmission. Uses reprogrammed ECU, TCU, ABS modules (Squire Inc.). Everything else is pretty much a standard wiring system (Ron Francis).

[Cal_Gary]

Impressive work-thanks for the pictures!
Gary