The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1937 GMC T14

After over ten years of sitting on the back line of my project collection, during which I was gathering parts for the planned reconstruction of the truck, I finally decided it was time to get the project going. In late September we stripped all of the original suspension off of the chassis and started the process of installing the TCI front coil spring suspension w/disk brakes and power rack-pinion. The rear suspension is parabolic rear springs, tube shocks on a GM 10 bolt rear end.
The engine is a '71-72 Chevy 292 6 cyln with a 2004R trans

A little background on the 37 GMC.. I found the truck in a wrecking yard in central Nevada in Oct 2010, the truck was an old mine truck that had really fallen on hard times, been rode hard and put away wet. The 37-38 GM trucks are few and far between, especially the GMC's. A review of the pix will reveal that the headlights had been converted to '41 Chevy truck, and a very poor job at that. All of the instruments and the windshield frame was missing, however, everything else was there and the body was in excellent shape with hardly any rust out..
I gathered up a better set of fenders, an excellent grille shell/hood and a windshield frame.
The attached pix show the progress that has been made since the first of October with the chassis modifications and the mounting of the 292 eng/trans combo.
A review of the pix will show that we boxed the frame and created an X member around the trans mount to strengthen the chassis.
We are not building a hot rod, we are just improving the chassis for better safety.

Nice.

ED

I agree. Awesome project. Good to see another GMC project. Parts and pieces are a little more challenging but worth it in the end to put one of the GMC’s back together. Keep us apprised of your progress.

Ed, since your bumper is laying on the ground, not in use, you can send it my way. I don't have a 37-38 GMC front bumper, I have a 37-38 Chevy.
We built a '37 GMC up about 12 years ago with a 292 that was modified with a Clifford 6=8 4 barrel intake and Clifford headers. The chassis was from a Jag XJ 6.. A really nice truck, unfortunately a man fell in love with the truck, offered me a bunch of money for the truck so I sold.. Regretted selling the truck for several years. It had a matching GMC trailer which went with the truck.
The 292 that we are using for the current '37 has been rebuilt to stock, no head of cam alterations. Going to use a Clifford 6=8 dual Weber 38/38 DGAS Carbs/linkage, Clifford shorty headers, and a GM HEI ignition. Clifford claims the carbs/headers will produce 120% increase in HP/torque.
Note ! The engine re-builder had a typical one tract mind, he painted the engine Chevy Orange, it will be repainted a correct 37-38 gray color before the final install.
I am going to use Chevy mid '70 15" x 7. Rally wheels w/ police caps that are being powder coated similar to the orange color in the brochure copy I attached. Ultimately the truck will be painted similar to the three-tone orange "Harley Earl" GMC colors.
For those of you that are not familure with "Harley Earl".. Earl was the head stylist with GM for many years, starting in the mid '30's through the '60's.
In 1936 GMC (Yellow Truck Coach Trailer} were experiencing very poor sales. GMC Truck approached Earl asking him what could be done to improve sales. Harley Earl came up with the three-tone color combination for the '37 GMC's, sales went through the roof, which Chevrolet was not to happy about.
wm.

Nice project.

Ed

Having been through the rebuilding of a "short cab 37 over ten years ago, whereas we removed the fuel tank from inside of the cab, relocating it under the rear of the chassis. We left the seat platform and depressed floor pan for storage, however, we had a problem with seats because of the added height of the platform.
We removed the original seat platform and tank well in the current truck, fabricated a new floor panel which created a flat floor for the BMW 325 bucket seats I am going to use. The truck should be more comfortable to drive and ride in. I think we will be able to create a nice storage area behind the seats. I like the mid '80's BMW 325 seats because they are quite small, yet very comfortable, and they have a nice flip forward feature. I have used the BMW seats in four of my vehicle builds of the last fifteen years.
Several years ago I ran into a good buy on a very nice GMC T14 grille and grille shell. The grille shell was complete with all of the emblems and a nice pair of Guide 683 headlights with the marker lights on top. I am going to change the receptacles to dual filament so I can use them for park/turn lights.
When I posted the pix to my earlier comment I omitted the pix showing the X member, trans mount we are constructing to re-enforce the chassis, Attached is that pix. Wm.

Since this appears to be a ongoing project I’m going to move the thread to Project Journals Forum.

The project to bring the '37 T14 back to life has turned out to be a big deal.. My original plan was to re-power the truck with a good running inline 6 cylinder engine, a more modern driver friendly drive train and a higher degree of safety.
Things changed when we discovered that the chassis had many issues, the result of being pounded across many miles of Nevada's unimproved roads along with, the doubling of the available horse power that the 292 engine and AOD trans puts out.
Concealed rust out and fractured metal components within the lower portions of the cab is resulting in a complete rebuild of many portions of the cab.
I did not know that the cab to frame mounts were actually semi hardwood blocks that had rotted away from age. I ordered new cab mounts which turned out to be a very good representation of the original mounts. We did not like the wood blocks, we made new mounts out of "Delrin". We utilized some traditional horse-shoe body shims to square/align things up within the cab prior to doing any body repairs.. The doors now hang straight and close properly. We are now looking into 'bear-claw' type door latches, that will allow the use of the original interior/exterior handles. Wm.

Pretty well have all of the chassis work done. The new floor panels from Jim Carter Truck Parts have been installed along with the re-construction of former fuel tank area and seat area. We built up some mounts for the BMW bucket seats and mounted to seats, they are a perfect fit for the cab, good leg room and both of the seats flip forward for storage area behind the seat.
We are in the process of fitting the GM tilt column... I had picked one up for a GMC many years ago. After the column we will install the GM peddle assembly which is from a Nova.. think small.
The intake/carbs and headers from Clifford Performance are scheduled to be delivered today, as soon as they get here they will be installed along with the new GM HEI ignition I have... Things are getting exciting. Wm

Making progress, got the steering column mounted, had to be creative with column drop. We custom fabricated the drop to get good position on the steering wheel. The peddle assembly posed another problem, had several different GM peddle assy to choose from, none would work to get good position for the brake peddle. Had to custom fabricate a unit.
We installed the Clifford Performance 6=8 intake and headers.. Larry at Clifford was right when he said the Weber carbs sure add bling to the engine. Wm.

I need a little info on improving the door latches on the '37-38 T14 short cabs.
I feel that the original door latches are an accident waiting to happen, sudden bump and/or sharp turn and the door is going to pop open. I'm going to install shoulder harness seat belts so falling out of the cab should not be an issue.
Doing some online shopping I found that Car's of the 40's has several Bear Claw type of door latches one of which is #13311, a small thin type of latch that Car's of the 40's catalog will fit 1/2 ton '37-38 trucks.. See attached pix.
I know there is some welding required to fit the assembly into the door and jamb, has anybody in the group had any experience with the installation of bear claw latches in the older trucks...
Thank you in advance for any info you might be able to supply. Wm.

Progress on the T14 has been a little slow for the past month, many items to tidy up. Mounting a power steering pump/alternator on the engine, connecting the GM column to the steering gear in the rack, parking brake, going to use a Lokar foot brake assembly that is on back order until mid Feb. Finally figured out the bear claw latches for the doors. Chevy's of the 40's has a small set that they claimed works well in the '37-48 trucks.
The radiator is going to be a Summit racing radiator 25" x 19 x 2".. This is a cross flow radiator for a Ford that we will stand up. This trick puts the inlet/outlet in the correct position for a Chevy. The fan will be a Summit electric w/shroud that is made to fit the 25x19 radiator. I have used this combo on three previous builds, works very well. The radiator is rated for 500 HP and the cost is under $200.
Should have some pix for my next contribution to the thread. Wm

Huge progress has been made on the T14 in that past week. The installation of the bear claw door latches that I purchased from Car's of the 40's went better than expected. I purchased what was described as "small", the catalog claimed they would fit a '36-48 Chevy truck. We had to use some Yankee Engineering, moving the new latch down about six inches on the door and jamb. We then removed the original latch bolt from the lock set, reinstalled the original modified assembly in the door, then used it for a transission assembly to connect 3/16' rods to operate the bear claw and original exterior/interior handles, etc. My fabricator is one cleaver guy, I told him I wanted bear claw latches for safety, however, I wanted to retain the stock look.
The front end assembly was completed, springs, etc., and the steering, alternator, power steering pump was installed and hooked up.
We used a Lokar rear brake cable set for a Chevy to hook up the parking brake to the GM 10 bolt rear end. When the Lokar parking brake assemble shows up the brakes on the truck will be done. In order to get proper positioning of the brake peddle we had to make our own brake assembly. We used parts from a Dodge and a Ford truck to come up with one assembly to mount to the firewall and hold the brake booster.
When you review the attached pix you should note the transmission shift cross shaft that we harvested out of a mid 80's GM pickup. GM used this system for many years to properly position the shift rod from the column to the trans. GM was also concerned about the shift rod being under tension and thereby causing unwanted shifting of the trans if stress occurred due to chassis movement. Wm.

At the start of the rebuild of the T14 we had planned to retain the floor mounted brake assembly using a chassis mounted brake booster to keep the firewall clean and stock looking. As the project progressed it became apparent that the original chassis needed some help, which resulted in boxing the frame rails and building an X member that became an X member and a rear engine/trans mount.
A small 6" booster was bought and a search through my parts stash for a GM peddle assembly, none of which would work in the T14 cab resulted in the custom fabrication of a peddle assembly which I have mentioned earlier.
As a result of doing a lot of driving, some times in excess of 50K per year in modern vehicles, I have developed a habit of being a left foot brake user. We used a late model GM peddle with a large foot pad in lieu of a more traditional small pad.
Pix attached showing the completed column drop and brake peddle. I have also attached a pix of a nice set of original instruments I picked up on ebay.
I have to send the instruments off to a company call Red-Line in Saugus, CA to have them modified to 12v, temp converted to electric 12v, oil to 60 pound electric..

We had a little difficulty hooking up the pulleys for the water pump, alternator, power steering to the harmonic balancer on the crank shaft.
Fortunately the crank shaft pulley, which was the original truck double served as the staring point. The water pump presented a problem, originally was a truck double pulley, had to be a single pulley to line up with the alternator, thereby freeing up the second pulley on the crank for the power steering pump.
Looked through all of my parts stashes, nada, then the lights came on in my pea sized brain to check a '65 230 six that I have. Score, the water pump pulley was a perfect fit for the 292 water pump to alternator belt. Don't need to worry about fan clearance because I am going to use an electric fan/ shroud mounted to the radiator.

We have been experiencing problems getting parts to continue with the build on my T14, seems that everything is on back order.
Too keep the project moving I dug out the fenders, front/rear that I had gathered up over the years for the project, decent fenders for a '37-38 GM pickup are hard to come by. Picked out the best set of fronts then harvested patch panels out or the worst fenders, now have a good set of front fenders. As you will note from the attached pix, the project looks better with the front fenders sitting on the chassis.
Now that most of the fabrication work has been done on the engine mounting, we pulled the engine, cleaned it up an painted it a correct gray color. Of course the OHV 6 is not correct for a GMC, they had Olds flat head engines, we used Chevy 37-38 gray paint.. Sure looks better than the Chevy orange that the re-builder used.
I don't think that most people know that the GMC's prior to '39 generally had either a Pontiac or a Olds flat-head six.

It was almost like Xmas the other day, all of the parts that were on back order showed up. One of the parts that showed up was a Lokar foot operated parking brake unit. Since the truck now has a column shift, I did not want a floor mounted parking brake.
I have been thinking about what I was going to do with the interior of the truck. Originally they were painted, the GMC's were a dark medium brown color, with a slight crinkle texture, Since all of the interior panels are removable from the cab, I have decided to have the panels powder coated with a satin color close to the original. I think it will be cost effective to powder coat the panels/pieces because the PC shop will strip the old finish and or rust, prime the surface and powder coat the exposed sides for a reasonable price. Wm

Progress is being made with the T14 project, all of the repairs to the front/rear fenders has been completed. The fenders. etc., I'm using are not original to the truck. The original fenders were very badly beat up, lots of attempted repairs by someone that had not idea what he was doing, or how to use an arch welder on body metal. As I believe I have mentioned in earlier comments to this thread, I have been gathering parts for the T14 project for over ten years.
the running boards proved to be quite a project, it probably would have been cheaper to purchase aftermarket smoothies, however, I prefer the original ribbed boards, fortunately I had three sets of boards that we could harvest repair pieces from.
The most exciting recent addition to the T14 was the grille shell. The shell I am using is not original to the truck, the original shell was beyond repair. I picked up the shell we are using on craigslist in the Stockton.CA area over ten years ago. As you can see from the attached pix, the grille is in excellent condition, with all of the correct GMC emblems and grille bars in place. The head lights I have for the truck are Guide 681-C sealed beams with the marker lights on the top. The Guide lights came out in 1940 as a replacement for the original reflector type lights.

No progress has been made on the T14 for the past month plus. Ended up in the hospital in early April, with a heart problem. Fortunately I had the sense to dial 911, turned out I was having a heart event, the result of a 90% shut down in one artery, and a 60% in another. Quick action by the emergency staff saved the day (night) I dialed 911 at 8:15 PM, I was in the EMR by 8:30. Another pot hole in the road of life was a voided.
Spent three days in the hospital. Had to put my hobby projects on the back burner for a few weeks, so I could devote some time to getting my life in order. Wm

Yikes! Wishing you a speedy recovery. Glad you got on it.

Not much action on the T14 for the past couple of months, my health has been fine, been spending a considerable amount of time getting my 'house in order', tidying up paper work and trying to minimize the number of projects I am involved with.
I did spend a little time modifying the aluminum radiator that I bought for the T14. I have had real good luck with aluminum racing radiators from Summit, on the older vehicles like my T14 we use a 19" x 26" cross flow radiator that we stand up, fabricate brackets to attach the radiator to the stock core support. I now have to figure out what we are going to use for a shroud to mount the electric fan (s). Wm.

Have made some headway with GMC project in the last couple of months. The entire chassis is now painted semi-gloss black using POR-15. The wheels should be back from the powder coating shop next week. I had them powder coated orange to match what the finish color will be.
The next project will be to put the sound deadening material on the inside of the cab. Wm

Been away from this forum for awhile, been directing most of my time to getting my '64 C10 RR Trk done.
I have decided to step the '37 T14 project up a bit, my original plan was to do the '37 as a high level 'as found' state of restoration, have decided to make the truck look like the truck shown in the promo pix I have of a Omaha Orange truck.
Wm

Wm,

Glad to see you are back. I bet folks will like to see progress your on the GMC.

Besides getting back to the '37, you may not have noticed, by the DITY Gallery has re-opened of late. Maybe you can give an update to the '64 in your thread!! That was your first post made in 2019! We'd love to hear more of the story on that truck also.

Peg