New Here, Just started bringing my M-37 back from the dead.

[WhirlingSun]

Hello everybody, I am new here.

I picked up a M-37 from a truck graveyard recently. It was in service as a welding truck at an asphalt plant until about 10 years ago. Pretty fair amount of rust, but nothing that can't be fixed with a little ambition. Frame is solid, Body rust is not horrible. I've seen worse on 10 year old trucks.

The morning after I got the thing to my place we started taking it apart to see what's left of it. We had only hand tools and broke the heads off of just about every second bolt but we got the whole front clip apart. Then we were able to get the bed off and dismantled. The oily sand that the asphalt plant had stored in it preserved the bed very well. The wheel wells were well rotten though. Easy enough to fabricate though. The welders had welded the tailgate hinge onto the side panels and the welds rotted the rear-most vertical box tubing off of the bed sides. I have some ideas how to fix that.

The truck is about 100 miles away from me and I'll be restoring it on the weekends. This was Saturday's session. I unbolted a lot of small parts and brought them home with me to clean up, repaint or repair. Hopefully next week I'll be able to start fabricating some of the patch panels that need to be made up.

The number plate on the dash. January 18, 1952

This is my open air garage featuring mud floors and Lantern lighting. Overhead hydraulic hoist provided by big rusty bulldozer.

Here's a pic of the truck as I received it.

Under the smurf blue paint it was OD green. You can make out the outline of numbers and stars on the hood and doors. Looks like 2411048

After the first day... I can't wait until it isn't blue anymore!

 

[glcaines]

First, Welcome to Steel Soldiers! Sounds like a good project. Keep the photos coming as you make progress.

 

[highsiera]

Dynahoe...nice...

 

[WarrenD]

Welcome to SS. I just recovered my first M37 yesterday. Be sure to also check out the nice folks at g741.org (site just for M37s). A lot of folks frequent both places and I've found both sites to be helpful.

 

[Bill W]

WhirlingSun
According to the vin # on your trucks data plate its the 13,497th truck off the assembly line

 

[T. Highway]

According to the vin # on your trucks data plate its the 13,497th truck off the assembly line

Bill,
How did you find this out? I looked on the G741 site and it said Build Number 2250 and delivered in Jan of 1952.
My truck has a higher serial number but said Build Number 999 and delivered April 1952.

WhirlingSun,
Great looking truck, your garage is huge.

 

[Bill W]

Post your vin # ( should start with 800 or 802 on 1951-54 m-37s )

 

[WarrenD]

Bill, can you find a USA number from a VIN? If so, I'd be interested in the USA number for mine, SN 80048605. I know it was built in Mar 53 but that's about it. Sorry, don't mean to hijack the OP's thread....

 

[T. Highway]

Post your vin # ( should start with 800 or 802 on 1951-54 m-37s )

Vin # 80025289

 

[scrapdaddy]

That is going to be one big project. No way to get it closer to you. Those 100 mile trips are going to add up. Sounds like you have done some restoring before, so take the pictures and good luck. I always like to see a M37 come together.

 

[Bill W]

Warren
If your talking about the hood registration # I can't help you, I have a book on production figures only ( your truck was the 42,596th of the line )

T
Your truck was the 19,280th accepted into service (4-52) Edit: make that 1952 not 1962

 

[jamesfrom180]

Popcorn at the ready. Good luck, I too can't wait to see the Smurf blue gone. Very jealous you still had the hood numbers.

 

[WhirlingSun]

Bill W, Thank you for that information!

I haven't done a full-on restoration before, but I do a lot of metal fabrication and deal with rusty broken old stuff a lot. This is rusty, broken, old and was just calling out to me.

I go upstate every weekend. My strategy is going to be to take apart whatever I can and stuff all the small parts into my jeep Liberty to strip and repair/repaint at home, then stockpile all the refurbished parts in my shed until I can start putting parts back on.

On the weekends I'll work on whatever don't fit in the jeep.

The toolbox is about 90% gone but the cancer didn't spread to the bed cross-members or the side panel of the cargo box.

Driver's floor is rotted through, but the rest of the cab floor isn't, it looks as though there isn't any other rot on the cab's floor framework though.

People welded and bolted and riveted all kinds of silly things to it over the years. Most offensively were the truck turn signals on top of the fenders. I smashed them with a lump hammer. There are a lot of "wrong" 9/16" holes I have to weld up.

The roof looks homemade. I like soft tops better anyway. I'll keep it, because it fits and is in good shape, but I doubt I'll keep it on the truck most of the time.

And the tailgate hinges were welded to the side rails, which had rotted to the point I cannot even figure out how any of it went. There seemed to be some L shaped of stamped sheet metal inside the (rotted out) rear cross-member and up into the (rotted away) vertical square tube on the cargo box. Mine are about like a dry leaf. I'll have to take measurements from someone else's M-37 to figure out how to fab those corners up.

The frame looks to be in fine shape. I got the motor un-stuck but I am seriously considering a 4BT re-power. So, if the flathead needs anything more than minimal work before it whirs to life, I'm pulling it out while I still have the body apart. If it runs, I'll wait a bit to do the re-power. It's not like it's difficult to take this truck apart again later. Especially with all new bolts.

 

[jamesfrom180]

Good thoughts but I think I would recommend putting the restored parts back on. Don't underestimate the moral boost it will give. Its going to be hard to get over the hump in about 3 weeks. Then the holidays and cold weather. Excuses start to pile up more than the fixed parts. Even a good rattle can OD will lift your spirits. Good luck.

 

[hndrsonj]

Used sheetmetal comes up frequently and is usually cheaper and easier than fixing.

 

[WhirlingSun]

Good thoughts but I think I would recommend putting the restored parts back on. Don't underestimate the moral boost it will give. Its going to be hard to get over the hump in about 3 weeks. Then the holidays and cold weather. Excuses start to pile up more than the fixed parts. Even a good rattle can OD will lift your spirits. Good luck.

Good advice, thanks. I know just where you are coming from regarding the cosmetic things that give you that that "I can almost see it now" feeling.


I'm going to compartmentalize then. I'll aim specifically at getting the cargo box squared away 100% right now.


@hndrsonj: I have been on the hunt for toolbox floors and doors to no avail. But I've only been looking around a few weeks.

 

[WhirlingSun]

Update as of September 20

Just an update on the progress.

I got the entire cargo box apart and began wire wheeling off 5 layers of OD paint and 2 layers of smurf blue.

I picked up a sheet of 16 gage to begin making patch panels. Does anyone know if there are other gages of sheet metal on this truck? The door skins seem to be 18.

There are a lot more small spots of rot than I originally thought. After buzzing through the paint all the thin spots were exposed. Next weekend I will spend a day patching all that up. The bed itself was in good shape, in fact all the rot that ate through the bed came from underneath. I think the fact that there had been a yard of heavily oil-contaminated sand in the bed of the truck for a decade helped a lot.

The tailgate is in good shape except for the beginning of rust forming along the bottom seam. I'll cut the whole seam out and weld a 1" angle iron from Home Cheapo in there. Not puritanically original, but it's a $7 fix.

Inside the cab, The driver's side floor is completely gone... I will have to weld braces into the door jam before removing the cab, so it don't settle on me . Then I'll flip it upside down and replace all the crossmembers that have cancer.

The transfer case lever is frozen all the way forward, making it impossible to remove the transmission tunnel hump. I sprayed the **** out of the linkage and let it sit for the week. Hopefully it'll budge with some heat, hammers and hateful comments.

I'm waiting on my neighbor to get his sheet metal brake set up and then I'll start fabricating all the box-tubing that needs to be replaced.

Here are some pictures of bed parts in various states of disassembly, cleaning and priming. The jagged rusty scrap on those cross members is what remains of the toolbox floor.

I intend to have the cargo box squared away before winter sets in.

 

[jamesfrom180]

Looking good. One sheet metal tool that will help is going to be a shrink/strecher. Useful to say the least.
FREE SHIPPING — Woodward-Fab Shrinker/Stretcher, Model# WFSS10 | Slip Rollers | Northern Tool + Equipment
Harbor cheap has a few also.

 

[M-37Bruce]

Welcome Aboard WhirlingSun!
That looks like a big project, but you sound like your up for the challenge & it appears to be mostly there!

 

[WhirlingSun]

Haven't posted in a while... some progress:

I have been sticking to my plan and going up mostly on the weekends and working on the truck. For the greater part of the entire winter, the only tool I needed was a grinder. I cut off the heads of every bolt on the chassis, cut out a lot of scaly rust and wire wheeled off 60 years of paint and rust.

I am finally at a point where I can start putting restored parts back onto the truck!

Anyway, the verdict is that I have a LOT more rot than I had originally assessed, mainly in the cab and frame. I decided to abandon the puritanical "period correct"restoration since I will be fabricating so many parts. I'm going to go ahead and "update" this truck but still keep it an M-37. (as opposed to some of the completely adulterated frankensteins I see on some of the off road forums).

I cut out all the wiring... it was a mess and beyond salvage. I'm going to put a 12V hot rod wiring harness in it. I also think I will put in an inverter and convert those military 24v axillary plugs on the driver's cowl and the taillight into 110 outlets.

I have a GM small block laying around that I can drop in it in an afternoon. I'll mate it up to a NV4500 and that will be my temporary motor until I can find a (cheap) 4BT. I'll fabricate the mounts with the future re-re-power in mind.

The cab floor is a complete write-off. I went and picked up some steel 2x4s and 2x2s. I'm going to make up a pair of steel ladders to weld in place of the stamped floor cross-members. The only 2x4 tubing I could find was 3/16" thick so I'm going to have some HEAVY DUTY rocker panels now. That don't bother me any.

I am definitely going to do the disk brake conversion. If for no other reason than the fact that original wheel cylinders and drums cost so much for this truck.

I already started to truck bed liner the bed. I know some people scoff at doing that because it's not military... I did it to "blend" the texture of the pitted rusty areas into the clean sheet metal. It's the roll on rustoleum version. So far I only have good things to say about the stuff.

Anyway, here's some progress photos.

Here's some pics of the rotted out cab floor. The rockers and most of what keeps the cab from folding in on itself like a ripe jack-o-lantern is gone.

I did the passenger door. It had some rot on the bottom. I reskinned it and am in the process of collecting rubber. The driver's door has no rot, just a big dent where it was slammed into the fender. While I was stripping the door I got down to a layer of paint with the original white star and engineer marking.

the door after re-skinning. I'm painting the truck flat armor-sand.

Some other restored parts: the tailgate and a troop seat. The tailgate was rotted pretty badly and was twisted. I got the twist out with a sledge hammer and the bulldozer (It's like repairing a dumpster) There's a whole pile of small stuff I cleaned, welded and painted so far, I just haven't taken pictures yet.

Here's the frame as I left it this past weekend. I took/cut out the fuel and brake system, cleaned up as much of the rust as I could and slapped some rustoleum truck bed liner on everything.

Here you can see another one of my problems: the person who put that home-made roof on the cab cut the standing seam off the back of the cab to make it fit. I have figure out how to make that all better. I might weld it up then stitch weld a 3/4" U channel over it as a cap to give it strength. It won't look original, but 99% or people will never know. It is what it is.

I'm no forensics guy, but I think this is a bullet hole. I found it in the radiator support right next to the headlight. I will leave that there!

Some time in the next few weekends I will get around to removing the transfer case and cleaning it up. Are those rubber pads readily available? I expect mine to disintegrate when I cut the bolt heads off.

I cannot get that steering wheel off for anything. I broke that nut in the middle trying to do it the way they say in the manual. it won't budge! Luckily the cab floor was rotted out or I wouldn't have gotten the cab over the steering wheel. haha.