guys here are some pic's of a 37' dodge truck that i'm attempting to make a deal on that has been tucked away for 40 years. it was recently moved out of 80 year old moms barn because well farm was being sold and current owner would like to sell it. need to id the 283 in it, the tach, the gauges, front bumper,front axle, rearend, tail lights. it has 5 on 4.75 bolt pattern on it and i don't know if it has been drilled for it or rearend is gm car and front axle might be chevy truck with 54' car hubs. guy has owned it for 40 years and isn't a car guy as it has been in storage most of that time, he's not a car guy. thanks guys and dig in.
Taillights look like 53-54 Buicks. I believe the tach is just a regular 60s era Sun using that box on the firewall. That's about as much as I can say with any confidence -
bingo on the tailights! the sending unit looks to be 60' according to the numbers but look at tach face, the numbering looks different from the 60' ones i have seen.
Neat piece in the constricted pictures. Typical of the 1970 era and into the mid-70s. Remember, 40 years is just 1970!
the truck had been built some time before the current owner obtained it in the 70's. he stated the that the previous owner had nailhead in it when originally built, he added the 283/pg later.
If that is an "S" on the engine stamp pad then the engine may decode to a 1962 327 from a full size car with a powerglide. Check the block casting numbers and date to be sure.
I thought the 327 wasn't available in full size Chevy cars until '64? Wouldn't a '62 date code make it a 283?
1962 was the first model year for the 327. (62s came out in Sept of 61) The 62 Chevy offered the Sun tach as a factory option but not with that face. The 62 factory tach looked exactly like a Sun tach of that year. All the 62 409 clones have driven up the price for an original Sun tach.
that sun tach from what i found was offered in the big GM trucks starting in 60', they are in the factory brochure in post #9. the one difference is the font and i'm trying to determine why.
i would have posted casting numbers but they were obstructed, carb linkage bracket in the way. i do believe that is a S stamped on the pad, the heads on motor are the power-pak ones. these are the valve covers. another thing i did notice was the Q-JET had some sort of spacer/adaptor under it on cast intake manifold.
The casting numbers will be on the back of the block behind the driver's side head. I don't know of any carb brackets that would be mounted way down there. The date code of the block should be on the block trans flange right behind the passenger side head.
keep in mind this is not a stock application and brackets have been fabbed up and when i get back to truck will post them and you will understand why i couldn't get to them. that is normally the first numbers i try and get and why i had to go with the stamped numbers as they were accessable.
If it looks like the engine was a simple transplant from a car to this truck then the valve covers say it was a 327. I know all of this stuff could have been changed but building engines from assorted parts was not as common back then as it is today. The stamped code on the block in front of the pass head will tell you the engine size, what it came from the factory in and what trans it started life with. Casting #s can be deceiving. My block casting # could be a 327 or a 350. stolen from the 59 firetruck post. Chevrolet used the stock Sun tachs. I don't think that your tach is a Chevrolet with that face. JMHO
Double check the year of the truck I think the 37 Dodge truck has a different grille. I don't think what you are looking at is a 37. These are 37 grilles. Also double check the bolt pattern and all that. It's possible it was all drilled to 4.75 if that's what it is as the front axle and rear axle look like stock OEM Dodge truck to me.
Grille looks like a '36, dash looks like '37 or '38. What's your firewall id tag say. '36 is a series LC, '37 is a series MC, '38 is a series RC, all half ton pickups. This is my '38 RC
Firetrucks are not a good example as they were not produced at the Chev factory and were outfitted by the firetruck builder and likely had the instrumentation installed then. During the outfitting for firetruck duty they would install instrumentation over and above what the truck came from the factory with. The picture you posted shows custom fitted builder installed gauges, none of that is factory Chev equipment.
if you go to the 60'-66' chevy truck site the factory brochure for the larger trucks show optional 5K tach and having owned one of these big trucks C60 i have seen these in person BUT the font for the lettering is different on this tach and thats where it throws you a curve. the truck is a 37' and i will post pic's when they become available. post some pic's of the stock front axle and rear end from your 37',38' trucks,
I agree. The grille is definitely a '36, but the dash is a '37 or '38, not a '36. But the '36 and '37 grilles are interchangeable, so since its a truck someone may have just replaced the original damaged grille. Bolt pattern should be 5 x 4.5", if its 5 x 4.75 then something's been changed. I'll take a closer look at my axles, but it may have just been re-drilled as yours appear stock at a quick glance anyway. If you can get a picture of the id tag on the firewall I can decode it.
I would imagine if the rearend is stock it has like a 4.11 or 4.56 gear in it, the 4.11 is typical for most cars back then, as a truck maybe they'd even go a step lower. So if you jacked it up and counted driveshaft revolutions to get a rough idea of the gear, and come up with around 3, 3 1/4, then it's probably not original.
Here's some shots of the stock front and rear axles on my '38. A little greasy, grimy and a few oil drips (it gets around and likes to mark it's territory) That's a nice '37 you've got, have often thought of repowering mine but it's such a dependable daily driver, it's tough to tear into it.
The Jalopy Journal
