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Finally, M37 pics
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:27 pm
by refit1701
Ok, here are some pics of my M37. It's still at the PO's house since the constant rain has hindered my recovering and moving efforts.
Believe it or not, it doesn't look as bad in person. Under the leaves and non-M37 crap, it's not too bad.
He's got the fenders off of it and had started working on it when he decided to sell.
http://apollosaturn.smugmug.com/gallery ... #212563187
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:53 pm
by Lifer
Looks salvageable.
Any chance it was originally a USAF truck? I see some Strata blue peeking out under the fenders!
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:55 pm
by Lifer
Hmmm! It appears to be the truck you were asking about in the other thread. My guess would be that it was an AF truck at one time.
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:57 pm
by refit1701
That's been a question I can't answer yet. It does have some blue paint, but much of it looks too dark to me to be strata. The hood and doors don't have any on the underside/inside. I won't know about the outside of the doors until I can sand on them.
The dash has blue layers, as do the bed, wheel wells, fenders, dash and engine compartment.
Looks Blue
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:31 pm
by m-37Bruce
To me, hopefully there is a windscreen in the bed?
Re: Looks Blue
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:50 am
by refit1701
m-37Bruce wrote:To me, hopefully there is a windscreen in the bed?
Yeah, it's in there. It's pretty complete, except for the homemade tailgate and fuel "can" in the bed.
New M37.....
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:54 am
by Nickathome
Nice looking truck. did it come with the front fenders? I didn't see them in the bed photo. If not then you might have some trouble locating a decent set. Why was the windshield removed? Curious in that regard. My first suggestion to you is to get it out of the elements as soon as you can. One of the best things you can do is to protect it from the rain. Water is the biggest killer of these trucks IMO. That and dryrot, but thankfully dryrot at least doesn't eat metal.
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:12 am
by refit1701
It has the fenders and all the sheet metal except the tailgate. He removed the windscreen because it was rusted at the bottom and was going to try to fix it. One of the fenders has a quarter size hole under the headlight bucket, the other one looks pretty good.
There is some rust in the rear bottom of the cab, but not too bad.
The passenger size rear fender has a few dents, and I may have to remove it to get them out. The driver's size looks good.
The tailgate is missing and was replaced with a home-made version.
The bed has some rust penetrations, but I might be able to weld them up instead of getting a new bed.
It's been garaged until recently, then covered with a tarp. We removed the tarp when we were looking at it and then the rain snuck up on us.
It's going from where it's at now to my garage, hopefully this weekend.
Rust issues.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:31 am
by Nickathome
None of your rust issues sound too difficult to repair, and all seem to be in the common rust prone areas, such as under the headlight, and under the windshield, etc. My truck has no rust issues under the headlights, but had some bad rust through under the windshield. Its an easy fix however as the cab in that area is all flat, so yo ujust cut out all the rot and weld in new pieces. Mine had rust on both windshield attachment points as well as n the one channel on the left rear of the bed. Again, not difficult to fix. Welding is my favorite repair job to do on these vehicles, and I enjoyed seeing the holes disappear.
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:02 am
by refit1701
It's the bottom of the windshield frame that is rusted, the cowl underneath it is ok. I'm not sure how difficult it will be to repair that frame.
Ebay
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:15 pm
by m-37Bruce
Hey refit1701,
Have you seen this one on ebay, not mine, but I would ask the seller for a better picture, it can't hurt?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... OTORS:1123
Re: Ebay
Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:51 pm
by refit1701
No, I hadn't. But it looks pretty rough. I think I see a bow along the top edge.
I'm still trying to figure all this out so I'll pass on this one. Thanks for the heads up!
Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:57 pm
by refit1701
I got the truck home today. I added a bunch more photos too.
http://apollosaturn.smugmug.com/gallery ... #212563187
The Right Paint
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:38 pm
by m-37Bruce
I noticed the Gillespie Coatings in the bed of your truck. Good stuff, what about those front fenders, they going to make the cut?
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:56 pm
by refit1701
The paint came with the truck, so that was lucky.
The fenders seem ok. There is a small hole in one under where the headlight mounts that is fixable. I'm going to start stripping them and make a final decision.
I still need to get it into the garage. There's a small rise running up the driveway and the brakes are not working at all. Once I get it to do more than idle, I hope to be able to creep up and make it inside the garage. Then the real work can start.
How does eveyone feel about POR-15? I was thinking of cleaning the frame and coating it with POR, then with OD.