Projects 37 Chevy Hot Rod tribute project

Hhmm, never thought of that?! What I was thinking was that either one of the cars owners, or the Shop "McBride engineered competition racing machines" contracted the T & L company to make one off parts?! as a custom metal shop?! Either way I want to know more about both shops!!! The car was based in the Houston area, but had McBride engineered competition racing machines in Tulsa, but I have no idea where the T & L CO was based??

 

This car has been very interesting to work on, every time I mess with it I see something new, or learn something!! I've been scraping some of the old tar based insulation off of everything inside, and one of my friends saw this ink stamp on the metal that we think is a manufacturer stamp from the mill on the raw sheet before stamping?!?! Then, a few days later, I was reaching my hand down into the bottom of the inside of the drivers door cleaning out old dried up weather stripping pieces, dirt, and other crap, I found a 1937 Buffalo head nickel!!! Its in pretty good shape for riding around inside the door for how long?!

 

Awesome start to your project. I love 37 Chevy Coupes.
Maybe set that 37 Buffalo nickel into the shifter knob or dash, that way it can stay with the car. It may have been dropped in the door when it was new.

 

Amazing find ! I'm currently rebuilding a 36 Chevy that was also originally raced in the late 60s time period. Had the very same setup on the front of the traction bars when I got it. Even has a 58 Olds rear. (by the way 74 C10 pickup rear drums are a perfect fit). But.. it showed multiple instances of the brackets at the front being ripped loose from the frame and reattached, reinforced, etc. After speaking with a couple of guys who did this stuff for many many years and still do it was recommended to make the bars pivot some. It was explained that with a leaf spring rear and traction bars they don't play well together unless there's a slider or these short shackles available from Speedway incorporated. Made sense to me.

 

From what I know, your date deciphering looks right. How's it feel to be a hot rod archaeologist? I bet your dad would be pleased.

 

I was told once by an oldtimer that putting a penny or coin into a brand new car was once considered good luck, and fairly common. When I was tearing my Austin apart back in 2010 to build my other gasser I found two Canadian pennies that were in perfect condition, but turned dark with age. They were hidden in the frontend metal, and dropped out when I removed the front clip. The car was imported to Canada, so made sense the coins would be Canadian.

 

I am on cloud nine!!! I am very happy to have found such a clean, straight, rust free car!, then I'm over the top with it having some cool racing history!!! I know my Dad is up there with a big shit eatin grin!!! and I know in my heart he had a hand in me finding this car?!

 

Cool story, never heard that before. I was told by a guy on the 37-39 Chevy page, his dad told him they would put coins between the glass and weather strip to help stop rattles, then they would end up in the bottom when you hit a bump, or rolled the window down?!?

 

I have both pennies incorporated into the end of knobs on my Austin gasser when I finished it. Figured they've been with it since new, so I epoxied them permanently into two knobs.

 

I sure am glad you started a thread on this. I’ll be following along, this is awesome.

I ran across this the other day and it has some high res photos that you might could use for reference in your build - https://www.mershons.com/vehicle-de...gasser-coupe-8633ce11d545429b8ef7f0d347338e65

 

It's not a '37 but I sure do love my '38. I really enjoyed all the comments. '37 to '39 forever!!

 

So I wanted to see if the 64 Chevelle buckets, and steering column I had would work in here? Wanted these because I like the look, I had them, they were restored with new foam and covers, and I thought they fit the mid to late 60s build time frame perfectly?! So I took some measurements, and fabricated a temporary angle iron frame. They fit in there really well, and I feel comfortable in there after fiddling with position F to R, and different heights. Have to decide on a steering wheel? Moon Eyes repro one? Then have to decide on clutch/brake pedal assembly? floor mount Tilton?

 

Exactly. The original ladder bar design is in binding. Two arcs, one from rearend to front leaf eye, second from rearend to front bar eye. The arcs don't follow the same path. That's why they tore off. The short shackle fixes the problem. Still controls the spring wrap, but allows suspension movement.

That is why my original comment about them looking homemade, because of the faulty geometry. It would seem a professional shop should have been aware of this binding caused by different arcs.

 

The current black one is apropo for this era.

 

There were lots of professionally built cars built back in the period that had ladder bars with leaf springs that were in a bind, and built in ways we might not do today. But they did restrict travel, eliminate wheel hop, and just worked. Not in the sense they could be driven well on the street, but for strictly strip they were OK.

 

Super cool score, thanks for sharing it with us ! Can't help but think of Don Nowell & his 37 Chevy Gasser.

 

Found a really good deal on some used but never a tire mounted Rebel 15x10s. Then of course I found the American Mag 5 spokes I always wanted!? So I may have a set for street tires, and a dedicated set for the pie crusts or modern slicks?! Or one set may go to further fund the project?

 

I like the Rebel wheels ok...but the Americans look RIGHT.

 

Congratulations man, that's a great car to have, all that stuff still in place is awesome

 

What a fun journey, Hot Rods are allot of fun.

 

Couldn't leave well enough alone! Started sanding a little on the mostly original paint. Paint wasn't savable, cracked really bad, with Houston humidity causing surface rust underneath. Looks like 3/4 + of the paint was original?! with some spot priming to cover bare spots. Started to sand, was making a awful mess, and taking a lot longer than expected, so I started scraping with my gasket scraper, and it worked great on that old dried out cracked paint! Came off way faster, and a much easier mess to clean up

 

My car is getting lighter all the time!! scraping off piles of old paint, and old sound deadener insulation.

 

Wow! That thing is really clean underneath! It is always nice to start with a car that has little or no rust like yours.

 

Trying to get caught back up on posting progress on my car.
After scrapping and sanding quit a bit of the paint off the car, wanted to see what was under the lead of OLD repairs?! Whoever was slinging lead back then, would have been in love with Bondo, if it was available back then!! LOL Melted at least 10lbs out of the tail pan !! Hard to see in the pictures, but large areas where the lead was 1/2" thick!?!?

 

Cleaned up the aluminum tag

 

Welded up crack in the thin stainless upper grill trim, metal finishing, and prepping for polishing. I did a lot of the metal finishing on all the stainless trim, prior to handing off to the polisher to finish up.

 

All the stainless looks great back from the polisher!

 

Other than the damage to the bottom 1/4th of the deck lid skin and inner structure, and the bad damage to the tail pan area into the trunk a little bit. This car is very solid and straight!!!

 

This thing is gonna look phenomenal.

 

Who did you have do the polishing? They do it for profit or for fun? Looks very nice, glad there are still craftsmen out there!