1937 Chevrolet 1/2-ton Pickup
I purchased this truck from a fellow Stovebolter who had started restoring it and the project stalled. One of my sons, Lightholder on this forum, went on a road trip with me to retrieve this from the West coast.
The truck was disassembled down to a bare frame and then reassembled. I spent four years doing much of the work myself, although most of the body work and painting was done by a local shop.
My goal was to have a truck that is as close to stock as practical.
It has the original design drivetrain including a 4 speed non-synchronized transmission and 216 engine.
The electrical system is 6 volt with the original voltage cutout (no voltage regulator). I did take some liberties with modern products such as Remflex manifold gasket and Cunifer copper nickel brake and fuel lines.
The tires are Coker radials in the original size 6.00x16.
The original bed was kind of beat up, as the truck had been a landscaping truck for part of its life. I purchased a new bed and bed wood from Mar-K. As you can see from one of the photos , I painted the bed wood black so that it would appear stock, using the process described on Mar-K’s website.
Much of the restoration process would be familiar to you all but one aspect. I would like to highlight is how much work went into the fuel system to return it to the original configuration. The 1937 trucks are unique in that this is the only year there is no fuel filler tube for the under seat gas tank.
The bench seat is split, allowing you to raise the passenger half of the seat to reveal the gas tank cap or bung. It is not vented; the tank itself has a vent that exits at the bottom of the tank, just above a hole in the cab floor. To fill the tank, you open the passenger door, lift up the seat bottom half, open the bung and fill-er-up.
Well, unfortunately when I got the truck, it had a car gas tank strapped under the bed with the fill tube protruding through an ugly ragged hole in the passenger fender. The seat base that surrounds the stock gas tank had been removed and someone had constructed a wood seat that sat on the cab floor.
To return the truck to stock configuration, I ended up buying a bare late 1936 cab, cut the 35 spot welds holding down the seat base and welded it to the 1937 cab. Another Stovebolter sold me a nice original gas tank and seat back. I located seat bottoms from a local junk yard here in the desert.
The truck is a blast to drive and I have really fallen in love with the look of that era truck.
Last edited by Peggy M; Fri Sep 16 2022 10:54 PM.
