After ceasing work on my 1954 M37 restoration project for a number of years to spend my available time on a combination of historic house restoration and archaeological pursuits, I recently jump-started my M37 restoration project. I thought I'd post my work here as it progresses. I started posting my progress on the Steel Soldiers forum about three months ago. Rather than re-post those items here, you can get caught up with my work by looking at my Steel Soldiers thread here: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/m ... ed.219891/
A couple of days ago, I started digging through my stored M37 parts and found a number of items that I've already restored/rebuilt. Here are a couple of them:
ETW1 carburetor. I rebuilt the carb completely, including re-plating the linkage parts, installing new passage plugs, refinishing the body with a dichromate conversion coating, overhauling the governor, installing safety lock wire, etc., etc.
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Here's the combination fuel/vacuum pump that I rebuilt:
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Last edited by Blue Chips on Tue Aug 27, 2024 12:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Here are a few other items that I dug out of storage:
This is a specialized tool that I made for adjusting the carburetor governor. I made it from a screwdriver, a couple of bronze bushings, and an old socket. The bronze bushings keep the DIY hollow-ground screwdriver centered, and I filed the socket to make a couple of wrench facets and two pins/prongs. I had to grind down the lower portion of the socket to fit the opening, as I recall.
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I totally rebuilt a couple of distributors. Here's one that I kept completely stock:
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And here's another distributor that I set up for breakerless ignition with a Pertronix Ignitor. NOTE: I made this MANY years ago, before Pertronix was offering a 24V Ignitor to fit the M37 distributor. I used an Ignitor for another vehicle, and I custom-molded the inside of the magnet ring to match the distributor cam and installed a resistor, since it was a 12V unit that would be running on 24V. I still haven't tried it in a vehicle yet, but as I recall, it seemed to work fine on the bench.
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Cal_Gary wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 11:52 am
Agreed-nice work!
T. Highway wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 6:33 am
Nice looking work on the parts so far.
Regards,
Bert
Thanks. It's fun to get back to my M37 project after a long hiatus. We've just started a new project (building a second garage), which we hope to complete before the end of the year. That should free up more space to work on my M37, which should speed up the restoration process. I'll post more here as I complete various tasks.
This is a repair that I did a while ago. The floor under an M37 battery box often rusts out, since it's out of sight and tends to collect dirt and water (i.e., mud). Sorry, no 'before' picture. I cut out that section of the floor, made a template out of thin, stiff cardboard, and used the template as a model for cutting and bending the steel replacement. The photo is looking straight down at the floor with the replacement piece installed. The green dashed line shows the extent of the new replacement piece. I welded it in place with at least 50 plug and stitch welds, sealed the seams with paintable urethane marine sealant, then applied a coat of primer. I was pleased that the metal replacement piece fit well with no further modification. Taking a bit of extra time to create an accurate template helped a great deal.
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Thanks. I don't work very fast, and I like to pay attention to details, which is why my M37 probably won't be ready to roll for some time yet, but as long as I'm enjoying the work, that's OK with me.
Hey Blue Chips! It's great to see you diving back into your M37 restoration project after all this time. Your progress on rebuilding the carburetor and the fuel/vacuum pump looks fantastic! It's awesome that you're documenting everything and sharing it with the community. Remember to take it one step at a time, enjoy the process, and don't hesitate to reach out if you need any advice or just want to chat about your project. Keep up the amazing work!
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