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As my M37 did not have the canvas cargo cover (paulin) or any of the support structure when I purchased it, I've been accumulating the parts needed for it. I cut the wood pieces using the dimensions from the garbee website (http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/bedwood.htm), but when I assembled everything today, I noticed that the wood bows are very loose in the seat back supports and in the curved steel bow corners. I can understand some tolerance to allow for paint thickness, but these seem unnecessarily sloppy.

The wood bows measure 1-1/8" x 1-9/16"

The inside dimensions of the seat back supports are 1-7/32" x 1-27/32", which leaves 3/32" excess on one side, and 9/32" on the other.

The inside dimensions of the corners are 1-11/32" x 1-11/16", which leaves 7/32" excess and 1/8" on the other.

The joints will probably tighten up with the carriage bolts installed, but I'm concerned about deforming the supports and corners trying to tighten the nuts against that much clearance.

Is this condition normal?

Unfortunately, the bow corners and vertical uprights are not uniform (they are bent up sheet metal and vary from unit to unit, plus they have often stretched or shrunk slightly over time. Therefore, each unit needs to be made to fit which means you need to number and measure each connection or measure them all and make the boards to fit the largest one and sand or file the rest to fit.

Sorry you didn't know this first. It's not in the manuals. It's experiential "tribal knowledge".

Try different bows on different pieces, or make some shims.

Or build some more.

Sorry,

52 M-42

On the wood underside of each of my bows, centered, there is a small steel bracket the in an upside-down "n"and it is shaped to accept a board. The bracket is a little bigger than one (1) inch tall by two (2) inches wide.

Once all the bows are set in their pockets an alignment board is inserted into all the steel brackets to align all the bows. This board is one (1) inch by two (2) inches by I think (about ) sixty-eight (68) inches long. This alignment board holds the bows in place.

Paddy

Thanks for the replies, guys.

On a related note, I've stumbled across a third variation of the corner bows, the first being the regular M37 bows with the bolt holes on the sides, and the second being the M101 trailer bow with the bolt holes on the face that makes contact with the canvas. ORD 9 SNL G-741 references 5/16" sq-nk (square neck) carriage bolts to attach the corner bows to the vertical and horizontal wood bows on the M37, and I have a couple of these M37 corner bows that have square holes for these bolts. But I also received some corner bows, which are otherwise the same dimensions as the M37 bows, but which have holes for 1/4" oval neck carriage bolts. What vehicle application are these bows for?