1953 M37

[F18hornetm]

OK finally downloaded some pics. Here is where floor pan under accelerator pedal was rusted out.

[F18hornetm]

Here is where I fit in a new piece. Then after fitting added the welded in nuts for the accelerator and tunnel cover

[F18hornetm]

Matched up the mounting holes with what was left of old piece. Now all welded in.

[F18hornetm]

I had fuel tank removed and wanted to move truck out of shop. So rigged up a little fuel tank with a piece of 3/8 hose and a bottle. Had no idea these old trucks would run on sweet tea!!!

[F18hornetm]

Think I mentioned in earlier post that I got a tailgate from Midwest. It was bent in every direction. But, was better than the tailgate I had for sure. > Had to make several cuts to get it straight then weld back up. As much as I hate body filler, it will hide the welds when done on the top edge.

[F18hornetm]

Got the frame all painted and the fuel tank put back in. Fuel tank was in great shape except for paint. Looks homemade judging by welds but still very good. I didn't really want the frame black. I would have preferred green but whoever had it at one time did a good job of painting the frame black. Didn't miss a spot and is still in fair shape. So I just continued with that. Much easier than changing a color. And its under the truck so maybe no one will really notice. The fuel pickup was in good shape just had to replace the fuel line which they had run in rubber, I made steel lines. Think looks neater and lasts longer. Had to buy new sender as float on my old one was full of fuel. Couldn't scrounge up another float so oh well.

[F18hornetm]

Worked on the battery box. It had some old nasty mess in the bottom. I removed the old battery tray from the box. Grp 24 batteries don't fit in it anyway. After some though and measuring to make a new tray I decided not to use any. I know when these trucks were new they did battery maintenance which meant over filling the cells and it running all over. . I just needed to space up the batteries from the battery box mounting bolts. Did that with a piece of 3/4 plywood with 4 holes to access box hold down bolts. Covered with rubber and painted everything. Then on sides of battery box I cut 5/16 rod, threaded and make sort of an offset stud. Welded to the box side but being bent allowed to put nuts on for a battery hold down.
It was missing its lid so made a new one as well. Had to make new pin hinges and pins to be sorta like the originals. Its pretty difficult rolling a piece of 16ga around a 3/16" pin But after making 4 of them came up with easier process. Also made a lid prop rod. Since I had no lid I had no idea what one looks like so just winged that. The box still had the latch just had to make the little hook that goes on the lid. All turned out pretty well. I did pre-paint OD green under everything.

[T. Highway]

Nice progress on the M37. The floor repair turned out very nice. The tailgate looks like it fits very well.

Bert

[F18hornetm]

Thank you. It looks much better than the one that was on there.
Today replaced rear brake lines. From where it splits at master cylinder to the rear axle. Someone had already replaced the left and right rear wheel cylinder lines. The front lines look pretty good. All Bled. Of course master cylinder is leaking and I need to fix but wanted the lines I made bled so went ahead and bled anyway.
Hope this week to get sanding and wire brushing inside the cab as well as get rear bed back in shop. I want to replace 2 more pieces on it.
At least moving forward again.

[m-37Bruce]

Excellent fab job on the floor and the prop for the bat box is better than original.

[T. Highway]

Are you going to swap out the temporary (Strap Style) battery terminals or have you had good luck with those?

I have always swapped that style out when I come across them. I have had nothing but problems with corrosion and charging issues if I left them in place. I do carry one of each side with me in the trucks, just in case I need to make a field repair.

Bert

[F18hornetm]

I know what you mean. Seem to get green/corroded right where strap is. Die-electric grease helps some with that.
I plan to use the marine type, top post w/stud battery terminals, I'm sure you've seen them, adapts the lead post over to a stud. I prefer threaded stud type batteries anyway like the grp 31 truck batteries vs the lead post but these grp 24s were on sale . Of course You can buy premade cables but I have plenty of cable so just usually make my own with soldered ring terminals on the end.
Moved a little further last night. Got most of the cab sanded and floor wire wheeled. Man this truck has some colors on it, like a rainbow. The order of colors is, OD green, air force blue, red, lime green, then lime green again. So plenty of paint on it
Cleaned up a bunch of captive nut threads and bolts. I use a tap w/tap adapter and a cordless drill. Makes quick work of cleaning up threads. I do the same thing with bolts, Put the die in the vise and run the bolts in with cordless drill. Beats turning by hand a 100 times.

[rcamacho]

Really nice resto thread, keep it up.

[F18hornetm]

Found a neat way easy way to make line clamps that ive used many times over the years. In the pic is a fuel line and vent line. Use small piece of rubber fuel line and a strip of 18ga sheet metal. You can also use aluminum if you have some. For 3/8" rubber fuel line you can start your bends with a 1/2" bolt. Then once a bend is made on each end of sheet metal, you can finish wrapping around lines with pliers. You can squeeze pretty tight and they stay put. This works well if one line is already secured say to the frame or cross member.

[F18hornetm]

Worked on the driver cowl corner tonight. While working on sanding the cab, found another small spot that need to be replaced. Marked out what needed to be cut out then measured a piece of 16ga sheet metal to fit. Of course this piece is curved greater at one end than the other. So that makes it a bit of a chore to fit well. Started at sharp bend end and worked towards less bent end. Used the inside curve of a dolly and a hatchet shaped dead blow hammer. I like using dead blow hammers on sheet metal as it doesn't dent up as bad. After I got the shape about right, I laid it on cowl and marked around the piece I made. Then cut it out. This makes the new piece fit perfect in the hole you just cut. Then just tac'd in place with mig. Taped down high spots with body hammer and ready for filling now.