Projects 1937 Ford Pickup Build | Project FUBAR

Looking awesome!!!

Keep the updates coming, and have fun!

 

Looks great, nice pics of the progress.

 

It’s been a couple months since I’ve updated. I’ve been incredibly busy at work and summer time is here with lots of festivities. Another thing I’ve learned….cute red heads are not good for progress….the black beauty (aka my ol pickup) has a bit of competition! haha

Since I updated on 3/30, I’ve finished welding the frame and have begun test fitting all the components. Pretty cool to see the truck on wheels again!

Frame
Finish Weld/Grind
First up, I have finished welding and have cleaned up all the welds. I drug the frame outside for a day and went to town grinding welds. I didn’t really take any pictures of the frame after the day of grinding, but here a few more weld shots.







Trial Fit Assembly
After finishing the frame, I decided to trial fit the body and suspension components before painting the frame. This should help during the final assembly later down the road.

I measured and tacked on the rear leafs only to find out I was way off. Once I got her on the ground I had to shift the whole assembly back to get the wheels centered on the rear fenders.



Custom made 2x4 lowering blocks…worked like a charm for mach-up purposes!





This picture was taken with ~150 lbs of sand in the bed. The leaf springs were about parallel which seems to be the norm for the chassis engineering rear springs.


Here is the final position of the rear axle. I had to give-and-take a little since the left and right fenders were off in relation to one another. Not too happy overall, but this will have to suffice.




The front end was a bit of a pain but I finally resolved my issues with the ECI front disc brake assembly. The front swaybar was a much bigger pain than I expected as well. Once I get the motor set, I will fab up a transmission plate as well as mounting points for the wishbones.



Final frame after I got it rolling. I hate chrome wheels….so shiny…



Once the frame was rolling, I put the cab and fenders on to set my rear axle centerline. All of the weld nuts were perfect! It’s nice to see a assembled truck again!





Wheels
I sand blasted and painted my wheels so I can try and get tires mounted up.
The fronts are stock Kelsey Hayes artillery 4.5” and the rears were widened to 5.5” thanks to Jimmy at Rally America! The silver on the ID is master series paint to prevent rust. The cast iron gray color came out better than expected too!

 

Here is a little write up on what I did for my steering box. I was happy with how it turned out! Plus, I can crank down on the bolts without collapsing the boxed frame.

Steering Box / Frame
Since the cab was on, I finished up my steering box mount. This was an interesting process since I wanted to integrate threaded bolts instead of using long bolts that passed thru the frame. It turned out to be an elaborate painful process but it turned out great!

Step1: Make a dummy plate with the correct bolt pattern


Step2: Using long coupler nuts, I mounted the steering box and tack'd them in place (from the outside frame rail)


Step3: Weld em up!


Step 4: Grind em smooth!


Step 5: Continue welding and grinding….on the other side!


Step 6: Since the steering box does not sit flush with the frame rail, I built up weld to make the 3 mounting points flush with the steering box. I still need to add some material around the bottom hole, but I will do that later!

 

And now for some cool birds eye pictures of the shop. Looks pretty trick with two 1937 pickups in one garage! My dads pickup is almost off and rolling again.

 

I didn’t get a whole lot done this weekend, but it seemed like I made a giant leap forward!

Now that the rear end is set and centered, I moved on to the transmission mounts. I FINALLY decided to go with the automatic ford AOD transmission for simplicity’s sake. The extra time and cost out outweighed my urge for the manual T5.

Off with the old C4 transmission and on with the AOD! I used a dummy AOD transmission while mine gets built. Thanks to my dad for picking it up!
Below is the original Ford 289/C4 combo.






In for the first trial fit.



Everything fit well…almost too good.


I was worried the larger AOD would interfere with the crossmembers I built…but it fit perfect.


Since I was happy with everything, I went ahead and pulled the cab and bed off. Its time to finish up the frame! Transmission mount and brake pedal assembly are the big hurdles ahead.


After getting the motor/trans angle set, I started work on a lower mount for the transmission and split wishbones. Luckily, the transmission mount is almost flush with the crossmember, so I am hoping to use a flat plate. We shall see...


The first crack at a lower transmission mount. The plan is to cut it out of ¼” plate.

 

Finally another UPDATE! Since my last post, I’ve been to China and back and became an uncle somewhere in the mix. Its been a busy few months.


Transmission Mount…
I made a cardboard mach-up for my trans mount and had a friend laser it out for me – it came out great!



Frame View - she sits low, but the trans pan is a bit lower than the mount.



Cad picture – ready to be lasered out




Lasered out parts! Beautiful cuts…with ¼” plate


Rear Shocks…
I measured and installed the rear shock mounts per chassis engineering specs. Pretty straight forward assembly. This assembly is really dependent on where the rear axle rides. Too far back and there could be big issues.








Transmission…
Finally got the Ford AOD that will go in my truck. Since I had a C4 lokar shifter, I had to buy a conversion kit from Lokar to make it compatible with the AOD. 100 bucks beats a new one at 200+!



Motor revitalization…
Bye bye white crusty nastiness…Lots of sand blasting and griding. HUGE thanks to my dad for cleaning up the block to remove the rough sand casting. I didn’t snag any pictures of the final block ready for paint, but I will take some this weekend.

The start. She was in dire need of some fresh paint. New Felpro gasket set ready to install as well!





Before sanding to remove rough casting marks.



Sand blasted and ready for paint.



Semour 16-139 Semi-Gloss Black.



Bead-blasted and painted the hardware. Ripped the cardboard to shreds, but it worked well to hold them in place!



Sanded off the paint from the fins to spiff up the valve covers!



My dad workin on his ol green machine – its up and running now! He’s the real Mc’Coy of looney tunes!

 

great build. Very nice work.

 

Great thread.

 

Some good friends you got there he did nice work on cutting the mount.

 

Well.....I agree with the good looking garage post. Two cool trucks, a son that is an engineer, and a hemi powered 52 racer? Man, it can't really get better then that......automotive DNA at it's best.. Your truck is coming along nicely. Keep it going, sir.

 

Another month, another update.

Motor revitalization…
I finished painting the motor. My dad jumped in and ground all the casting marks out of the block. Lots of time, but boy-oh-boy does it look stellar. I decided to go with the cast iron color scheme vs. the standard blue small block ford. I think it came out looking great and will match the truck. Also put a final coat on the transmission.





First batch of painted parts


Assembled minus a water pump-to-plate gasket. Apparently this motor has a 1983 timing cover/water pump. Its been a pain to track down.


Ready to install for the trans mount trial fit.





Transmission mount…
I spent nearly a weekend on this sucker. I’ve drilled and mounted it to the frame, but did not snag any pictures this weekend. Here are some weld pictures.

Tacked and test fit


Fun factor maxed out… Life is GOOD!!


Final welds – it came out quite nice!



I should also note that most materials that I’ve used have been from Tarheel Parts. Sanding equipment (Rollock discs, cartridge rolls), Seymour paints, Master Series paint, Blair step drills etc... Mention this thread and they will likely give you a discount! 1-800-322-1957.

So much work still to go…I need more time to get her done!
- Plumb brakes
- Plumb trans cooler lines
- Make brake pedal mount and booster support pieces
- Fab pieces from frame to x-member
- Split wishbone mounts
- Fab battery box mount from truck bed frame
- Re-assemble EVERYTHING!

 

Thanks KIDCAMPBELL71 !!!!
I will keep the updates coming! Its a TON of work, but I enjoy the shop time with my dad. The hot rod bug caught me early.

 

Outstanding details are the cherry on top.....of all that workity work. That truck is gonna' be phenomenal. Your engine has some fancy underpants.....I always wanted to polish drivetrain related stuff....you win, beat me by a mile and a decade or two. Gotta' love it !

 

Cool Project. I really like the trans mount.

 

Monthly update! Hoping to knock off a few punch list items this month as well. Lots of vacation to burn before the end of the year.

First…a little motivation. Here are the trucks I’ve modeled my build from. If only I could have bought the Woody Humpus truck (bottom right) from day 1…a sweet truck.


Transmission mount…finally DONE! Final pictures below



Split Wishbones…
My dad helped me bend with wishbone perches. This was MUCH easier than expected. We had been talking about it for over a year now. It went so quick, we looked at each other afterwards and said. “Wow…what do we do next?”

Here is the overall assembly before bending. I used some old metal scraps and tacked the axle into location. That way I could keep the axle in place while pulling on the wishbone perch.


My dad heated the perches and I did the bending. This is definitely a two man job unless your as fast as the Flash.


We bent it twice. Once close to the axle to essentially widen the perch so it matched with the spring. The 2nd bend was to twist lower region so it was parallel with the spring eye.


Finished product. The right side isn’t perfect, but it all the bushings assemble without much difficulty.


Brake Pedal Assembly…
I spent entirely too much time on this. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 days. Its even adjustable between 4, 5 and 6:1 ratios.

Pedal assembly parts. I bought olite bushings and a 3/8 eyelet from McMaster Carr. For the shaft, I bought a 7/8” precision ground rod and 1-1/8" tubing from speedy metals. The pedal arm and booster/master cylinder are from MBM brakes. 7” dual diaphragm.


Phase 1 mock up.




I cut out the bracket parts from 3/16” plate. Its quite a beefy bracket.


Welded bracket


I had to drill a thru hole for the pedal. It wasn't too difficult to get centered. Still need to find a shoulder bolt with a tight fit.


Final pedal assembly in truck. The 5:1 ratio came out perfect for the amount of throw between the floor and full extension. The pedal BARELY squeezes between the header and transmission.

 

Looks like you've done some nice work so far! I'll look forward to following along.

Malcolm

 

Got a few things done over the holidays. Need to finish up the firewall, then I plan to assemble the truck to mach up everything before I paint the chassis.


Firewall…
This was what it looked like before I tore it out. Most of it was made out of aluminum siding so it wasn't too hard to rip it out. I also welded up the holes so it has a nice clean look.


Ready for some shiny new sheet metal.


Cardboard mach up to get a rough idea on what I needed to make.



I built the firewall and held the firewall in place with 1/8” clecos. Made the edges long so I could trim and butt weld it into the existing firewall.



My dad made this beauty for where the steering tube passes through the firewall. He made a template out of wood and hammered it out of aluminum. The plan is to rivet it in to give it aircraft look.



Starting the welding process.


I also made rough cut floorboards. They will need to be trimmed to fit around the transmission. Need to make a transmission tunnel as well.





Chassis Fab…
The final frontier. I have all the fab work done except for the battery box!

Made the stiffeners that run from the frame to center crossmember. The driver side was a bit*h since it had to fit around the brake booster. The top and bottom halves will bolt to tabs welded to the frame.





Transmission tunnel brace. I made this a while back but never posted any pictures. Its beefey with ¼” plate!



I got a little creative with the proportioning valve bracket. I trimmed it to match the profile of the valve. Came out looking sweet!


Current frame status as of 1/03/2015




Wood Cab Supports...
Instead of spending $200+ on new wood supports, I decided to fix the ones I had. They were in good shape except for the center sections. Used a product called Kwik Poly and it worked fantastic!

Some metal ribs to keep things stiff.


Packed with sawdust


Filled with kwik poly


Completed after some sanding to re-create the releifs


Back half

 

Picture rotations are all out of wack on my last post. Sorry fellas.

 

Since last updated, I've begun the final trial fit stage before pulling it apart to paint the frame etc... Starting to look like a truck again and I’m getting pumped to finish before summer!

Trial Assembly…
Pics from the trial assembly. My dad helped me and we assembled everything in a day. It’s amazing how quick these go together. He’s been helping me a lot lately and its made for some great progress!

The only notable issue I ran into was the front fenders. For some reason, I had to shim out my front fenders from the frame so the grill shell fit correctly. The spacers seem to fix the issues and now everything fits nice!













Radiator…
The radiator tray was my dad’s idea. We were worried the new aluminum radiator would crack over time so we went with a more modern tray design. Henry’s old design used a 2 post mount at the edge of each frame rail. The new tray is isolated with rubber and spans between the two old mounts.



Oil Cooler Mount – sits right underneath the radiator and has 18” lines that will run to the motor.



WIDE WHITEWALL TIRES!!!
I can’t even begin to add up the time I’ve spent looking for tires. Three requirements…tall/narrow, radial, and wide whites. Cokers suck and are WAY overpriced…so the hunt began for 16” tires with tall aspect ratios. Rears were easy with 225/75R16s, but the fronts were next to impossible. I really wanted a 175/75R16 tire, which is close to an old 550R16 but you can’t find them in the USA. I took two trips to china last year and saw them on just about every utility van around town.

At the end of the day, I bought tires from www.callitw.com. Excellent service and they even custom made some 195/65R16s for me. They use the same process as diamondback tires and are more reasonable.



I tested a 205/65R16 to see how much sidewall bulge I would end up with. It was a bit too much, so I bought 195s instead.


Center Trans Tunnel Cover
My granddads old slip roller. My dad refurbished it, so now it’s a “skip” roller. Skipper enjoys sheet metal work but I’m not patient enough.








Pedal Assemblies…
It was cool to finally sit behind the wheel. It worked out so I can use a straight shot throttle rod to the carb. I found a sweet firewall boot that will look trick - Seals-It GS4001-WPT.



Bumpers…
I need you guys to vote on which bumper looks better! I’m un-decided!

36 Bumper

37 Bumper


Grinder fail!! No pain no gain? haha

 

youch!...I didn't need that last pic.
very nice thought-out work on your truck,I like the 36 front bumper myself, gives the front some character instead of the strate bumper.

 

Nice build !!!!

The details are awesome !
Not many would bother with most of what you are doing, but that's what drives the cream up to the top.

 

I like the 36 bumper but prefer the 37 overriders. Cool truck, thanks for bringing us along.


did I hear mention of a cute red head?

 

Nice build, really loving this truck.

 

Sure enjoy this thread, good job.

 

I like the 36 bumpers too. Kills me to put a 36 bumper on a 37 pickup, but it adds some much needed flair up front.

fourspeedwagon - the stellar red head jumped off the train before it got rolling. Oh well, more time to finish my truck!

 

Thanks for the kind words! I get too caught up in the details sometimes! Could be because it's my first build too. Should be all worth it when it rolls out under its own power this year!!

 

I lost a two weekends for a work trip to Argentina and a festival here in Charlotte. Finally got back at it this past weekend and made some progress!

My 10 year high school reunion is in August of this year….so I have a new piece of motivation to finish the truck. Looking forward to seeing all of the fat football players and cheerleaders.


WWW Tires…
The wide whites are looking GOOD!! Pretty happy with how the fronts turned out. Callitw.com did a great job with quick shipping. 195/65R16 with a 2” whitewall. The rears are 225/75R16 with a 2.5” whitewall.







Dash…
I’ve got the dash mostly installed. Trying to figure out the best finishing washer to use at the 5 mounting locations. I have a few options, but am not sure which of the 3 I like.





Dipstick…
Quick an easy dipstick mount - Bent out of 20ga sheet metal. Its shortened from stock.



Floorboards and Firewall...
I’ve just about finished with the floorboards and the bottom edge of the firewall. I wrapped the sheet metal under to make a flange that the floorboard sits on. Looks pretty trick overall.



Tee nuts for holding down the trans tunnel too.



Front Windshield…
Anyone that’s ever taken one of these apart knows the amount of headache they cause. Getting the old seal out was a HUGE pain. Lots and lots of time with a box knife, seized bolts etc… Its ready for paint now.



Doors…
I pulled everything out of the doors and began the restoration process. My dad helped me out and spruced up the door latches and window regulators. I wire brushed and painted the inside edge with Master Series 2 part epoxy paint. I did learn that you use a little thinner to help the paint lay flat. I had a few bubbles since it was too thick, but its good enough.






Grille Trim…
Got the grille trim on a few weeks back. It’s amazing how polished stainless can add flair.




<<Begin Rant>>
Chassis Engineering Rant…
Let me start by saying Chassis Engineering is a great company, but there “bolt-on” kits are far from perfect.

Chassis engineering is supposedly the best in the business, right? So far the front sway-bar and the rear leaf spring kits have proven to be massive pain. If assembled as “designed”, the sway-bar links would have bound up with the front spring. To fix this, I had to make a custom spacer/bracket that centered everything between the axle and spring (see picture below).

For the rear end leaf spring brackets, I had to cut the locating tab off to shift the brackets inward. If left alone, the leaf springs did not run parallel and you had to had to cut off a portion of the rear fender due to interference. Maybe I wouldn’t have cared if I had fiberglass fenders…but who wants to chop up Henrys good fenders? I’ve got pictures showing the interference on page 1, post # 11.

All in all, I’ve probably spent 2-3 days extra trying to make their kits work. I paid the CE premium to get good parts but they have left a lot to be desired.
<< End Rant>>




Picture of my pop’s shop. A.K.A. “My Happy Place”
Shop Goddess and Buddha on the far right.

 

fantastic build the attention to detail is excellent. what is the target for first drive , keep up the good work. TOM

 

Fantastic work!