My M37 Restoration Thread

[JStinson]

Here's a shot of the underside of the hole patch:



Hole filled in and ready for a new bolt hole:



Pilot hole:

[Chris Olson]

I would suggest at leat trying PB Blaster or Kroil before you say the bolts can't be free'd up... once I used PB Blaster I wanted to throw the WD40 out....

[JStinson]

I managed to get all the extra stuff off of the bumper. I had to cut all of the bolts all off, it was the fastest thing to do.

All the bumper extras, fresh off of the truck:



I didn't think to do a before shot for this next picture. I wish I had, the bolt hole had been cut out for some reason, the hole was destroyed and completely open. This is the patch that I welded in:



Getting there:

[gusbratz]

seemed like my front bumper bolts were the worst on the truck so far in the work i have done to mine. they take a lot of weather out there. mine were all NF thread.

[JStinson]

Dumb question, you are using PB Blaster, right?

WD-40. The issue with most of these nuts is that they've been wet and have rust on them. Any amount of penetrant can't free them.

[jrodjared]

Dumb question, you are using PB Blaster, right?

[jrodjared]

Looking good, keep the pics coming.

[JStinson]

I've taken to cutting bolts off of the bumper. I generally try to salvage one of each type of bolt and nut used, but this is beginning to be a pipe dream. Some of these bolts haven't been off in 58 years, and they're stubborn. I expect this will be a recurring theme throughout much of the project. I used a hefty Snap-On pull handle for one of the bolts (not the ratchet handle pictured), but only ended up bloody when the bolt wrung off.

Hilarious attempt:



Labeling parts:



Attempting to salvage one type of each bolt and nut doesn't always work. In these cases, I'm just taking the bolt specs and writing them down so I'll have a guide when I go to buy new bolts and nuts.

[JStinson]

It had holes cut in it in seemingly random places. I really wish I knew more about what this truck has been through. I know it was used as a tractor at one point. The gentleman that had it before me said that when he got it, it had a bottom plow attached. I don't know what purpose random holes in the bumper served, however.

I found some metal and cut some to fill the bigger holes. There were four holes total. The smaller two were easily filled in with the wire welder.



Shiny:



I primed the bare metal to avoid rust (I know, it's just a drop of water in an endless sea):



I flipped it over and smoothed out the rear of the bumper where the patches were made as well. The bumper will sit until I am ready to take a bunch of parts to the blaster. The smaller parts like the mounting bracket and recovery hooks I will be able to blast. Thankfully, we have one of those handy dandy sand blasting cabinets.

[JStinson]

So, with the engine in the shop and with me not having the motivation to tear major parts off, I started on the bumper. The bumper had a ginormous plate welded to it. I do not know why. It has bothered me since day one. Good news, it is no more:



Getting ready to patch holes and grind slag:



In the middle of it:

[JStinson]

Went down to the shop where the engine is being rebuilt today. I took some more pictures of it. I was hoping to get some progression shots, but they had made no progress on it. Which is fine because I've got plenty of other things to do with the truck before the engine becomes a factor.

Clearer picture of this angle:



This one was really blurry because my lens was fogging up:



Hopefully the last picture of a totally stripped engine I'll take:



The trouble with the shop is that it's primarily an auto shop, they do rebuilds by special request. They are very good at it, but not so quick. They only have three employees and plenty of vehicles to work on. All the parts are right there ready to be dropped in. I'll see if I can make some progress on the body and frame while I wait on an engine.

[JStinson]

looks like a nice truck allready. hope you have fun makeing it even nicer.

It's a pretty good truck without a doubt. Besides some seals and bearings that need replacing, it's pretty mechanically solid. It has some cosmetic issues though. I'll need to put in some patch panels and the like. The biggest thing I've been doing during my time away from GA is collecting parts. It needs a lot of tlc because it's basically been dirt daubered together over the years, long before I got it, and made run with paper clips and bubble gum. During the first "restoration" I did on it, I wired it myself without using a proper harness. It worked, without a doubt, but I want it done right this time. Here are a few more pictures:

The old engine finally out:



Loaded up and on the way to the shop:



Making progress:




Fun story: I went down to the shop where it's being rebuilt to check it out and talk to the mechanic. He was showing me the parts that he had accumulated from his various sources. He showed me an old wax cardboard "Genuine Mopar Parts" box with a new oil pickup in it. He told me that the old one was just kinda floating around in the bottom of the oil pan...

Have no idea why I didn't spin a bearing...or worse.

[gusbratz]

looks like a nice truck allready. hope you have fun makeing it even nicer.

[Gordon Maney]

Absolutely.

Wonderful!

[JStinson]

The truck looks like a great start.


How about an article at some point for the magazine? ....or several?

Absolutely.