June 2004
- 06-02-2004 Purchased 1953
Dodge M-37 via eBay, looks like a restorable truck.
- 06-04-2004 Went to Reading
PA met the seller, and bought my first part for the truck, a
WW2 gas can , strap, and Fire Extinguisher ($47)
- 06-10-2004 6am woke up to
begin the trip to pick up the
truck, the trailer I had
rented was not available, so I ended up getting a auto
transport trailer max weight of 3900, the truck weighs 5980
lbs. The trailer supports a car with a wheel base of 118”
the truck has a wheel base of 112”…hmm.. Drove 248 miles to
pick up the truck north of East Freedom PA, it took about an
hour and a half to dislodge the truck from the drive way,
spray the wasp nests, and slowly lower it down the drive
(steep!) onto the trailer. The straps designed to hold the
tires on the trailer dint fit so I put them around the front
axles instead. By 2pm we were on our way to get the title
transferred. After the title transfer, I stopped at the
local tractor supply place to pickup a web strap to hold the
beast down to the trailer, which was showing the load.
- After a long slow trip we
arrived home, back into the drive way and now how to figure
out how to offload the truck with a flat tire onto the
drive, after 30 minutes of pushing, pulling and winching
with no success, we ended up dragging the trailer out from
under the truck. Not wanting to wait, I hooked up the
battery and turned over the engine, didn’t start, but it
turned! Now the journey begins.
- 06-13-04 Took all the
canvas off the truck, removed the seats, covers and top, the
top is in great shape, but needs some new straps. Seats all
need new canvas. Pressure washed the entire vehicle, found
a few more letters hidden under the paint, and the original
stars and some sort of convoy/bridge sticker. Blasted off
huge hunks of grease/dirt/whatever. Pushed Truck into the
garage with my Ram 2500
- 06-14-04 replaced the coil,
condenser, and cleaned the points and all contacts; engine
has spark but no go.
- 06-15-04 It’s ALIVE, after
replacing the battery, adding some marvel mystery oil to
each cylinder and making up a temporary fuel supply using a
coffee can some leftover fittings, I added some gas, gave
the carb a squirt of starting fluid, and bang she caught
once! Then I started messing with the timing and carb
adjustments, after about 20 minutes of cranking on and off,
she started, sucked up all the gas and quit. I reconnected
the truck fuel supply (which had started to squirt gas
directly on the manifold (see Stupid)), and she ran rough,
but steady. Now its time to tune it up. In the mean time I
took off the rear fenders, and front cowl filler strips.
- 06-16-04 Since the engine
seems to be running ok, I took advantage of the pressure
washed engine and painted it black with high temperature
paint. Also removed the bow, two front windows, replaced
the top of one window frame. Spent an hour and a half under
the truck scraping grease and dirt from linkages and tranny.
Found that the flywheel pan has no drain plug, have to find
a replacement. One major accomplishment is that I cut the
tire off the rim, then manage to split the rim in two. It
will need major overhaul.
- 06-17-04 Found a leak in
the radiator, pinhole, right in the front. Fixed it
temporarily with Prestone Stop Leak, seems to be holding. I
started inventorying all the parts that are extras. Had a
major oil leak, seal opened on the filter housing, reseated
it and tightened
- 06-18-04 Removed the front
splash shields and the front two fenders, degreased them and
set them aside. Did some touch up work on the radiator.
- 06-19-04 Removed the floor
plates and transmission cover.
- 06-21-04 Jakes Birthday, he
was at camp, so didn’t do anything
- 06-22&23-04 Minor cleaning
and removed all screw in data plates, took horn apart and
rewired.
- 06-24-04 Removed all
ignition and starting system wiring and switches and
replaced with a keyed system.
- 06-25-04 drove truck out of
garage and blasted exposed areas again with degreaser and
water.
- 06-26-04 Made up an acid
dip using crystal draino and 3 gallons of water. Dipped all
the small parts to date, headlight buckets, all brackets,
gas can holder, and front shackle. Washed and primed
every part. Took all day.
- 06-27-04 Welded and filled
hole on right front fender. Then tackled cowl sheet metal
and window frame, wire brushed and ground metal then
primed.
July 2004
- 07-07-04 disassembled the
front dash, all of the switches, and looked at the frayed
wiring…yikes
- 07-10-04 Disassembled the
drivers side door, removed window and frame, welded window
channels.
- 07-18-04 Removed Master
Cylinder and replaced all parts with rebuild kit. Brakes
still not up to par.
- 07-20-04 Ordered Chevy 1
ton master cylinder.
- 07-23-04 Removed tire from
wheel, took 3 hours. Cut tire from wheel with saws-all,
then used grinder and chisel to cut through steel cable on
tire edge. Pried off remaining tire parts off of wheel,
stuck with rust onto wheel. Then proceed to lightly tap
combat wheel with 15 lbs sledge hammer, after delivering
2-300 gentle taps on the wheel, I got the rim to separate
into two halves.
Now only four more tires and rims to do,
the wheels are dated 1943.
- 07-24-04 Tried wire
brushing wheel… no good, will wait and have them
sandblasted.
August 2004
- 08-04-04 Repaired steering
wheel and horn ring. Needs a finish coat on gloss paint.
- 08-06-23-04 Vacation…found
a 1946 MB Willy’s jeep in Green River Wyoming…passed it
by…son wants it for his project.
- 08-28-04 Removed existing
master cylinder and replaced it with Chevy 1 ton cylinder,
broke all four bolts on side step while removing it, had to
make four trips to NAPA to get the right size adapters to
convert to Dodge brake lines, after drilling, grinding, and
mounting realized that brake return spring would have to be
moved, and there wasn’t enough room to fit a wrench onto nut
to tighten fitting, removed entire assembly and re bored
holes. Break for a week.
September 2004
- O9-04-04 Removed both rear
wheels, and drums, the three screws took the equivalent of 1
ton of TNT to remove. With the assistance of my son, I bled
the brake lines, and success, I now have brakes, just no
tires on the truck….step by step….
- 09-07-04 Removed rear light
mounting brackets, took about an hour, and then straightened
them using 12-ton hydraulic press.
- 09-12-04 Removed the entire wiring harness from the
truck, 99% is rotted out and exposed. Add that to the tic
list.
- 09-13-04 Finally removed the last two tires from the
combat rims, broke 5 studs off the very last wheel-circa
1943.
- 09-17-04 Sent Wheels off to be sandblasted and primed by
a local company
- 09-22-04 started to chemically strip front bumper,
switched to angle grinder and stripped it to bare
metal, acid etched then primed, and painted
- 09-25-28-04 the hood, used grinder to strip all paint
down to bare metal, tack welded loose under frames, hammered
out the major dents, and used body filler to smooth every
thing out. 12 hours of hand sanding can't feel my
arms....
October 2004
- 10/1/04 Worked on the steering
wheel, filled cracks with epoxy and sanded smooth.
- 10/4/04 Painted floor boards, glove
box interior and transmission and transfer case controls.
- 10/5/04 Repainted steering wheel,
installed NOS horn kit. Picked up combat wheels from the
sandblaster, look great on the exterior, serviceable on the
interior.
- 10/6/04 Rebuilt interior of cab,
all floor panels blasted, primed repainted and installed,
all rubber gaskets and seals replaced.
- 10/9/04 My son Jake and I made a
trip to Sam Winer
Motors in Akron, and salvaged troop
seat hardware from fourteen M37's. After all the work, I
have enough parts for one complete set and a couple of
replacement pieces.
- 10/12/04 Started spray painting the
hood, front clip and wheels, and a
few odds and ends. Considering this is the first time I ever
used a spray gun to paint something like this, it looks very
good. I was going for the 'fifty foot rule' now its good at
ten feet
- 10/22/04 Been a few days since I
updated the site, so I'll play catch up. I painted all the
loose items, headlight buckets, taillights, brackets, about
40 nuts and bolts. I attached all the hardware to the hood,
and installed the hood on the truck. Posted some before and
after pictures on the site, still can't believe I did this!
looking like a real truck.
- 10/26/04 filled in the rust holes
in the doors with new steel, ground and sanded it smooth,
then primered and painted the doors. Ordered some felt
window strips from John Bizal at
Midwest Military
the parts came in at the perfect time, finished the doors,
installed the glass, and voila, it works! I adjusted the
doors and windows, and they slide like new!
- 10/30-31/04 I began cutting out the
rusted sections of the front fenders and cutting out patch
panels from
Jeepanels Plus the best side was the Drivers side, so I
did that first. Here is a
pic of front
fender, ready for final grind and paint prep.
November 2004
- 11/1/04 Started cutting out damaged
area on passenger side
Fender
Created Patch and welded in place, took about 6 hours for
one section
- 11/10/04 Tires, flaps and tubes
arrived, started mounting them one by one. Now at last
the truck can actually move on its own!!
- 11/14/04 All four tires mounted on
truck. Pulled it out of the driveway
on its own power!!!! Tested brakes. They work!
Had my son Jake hop in the truck, and off we went, around
the block, coughing and sputtering, but she ran, my wife
followed, but not too close with her Jeep Liberty. After one
trip and a bit of adjusting, off we went for a 3/4 of a mile
trip... success!! But I did find a oil leak at the
distributor mount....one step forward, two steps back.
- 11/15/04 Went back to work on the
passenger side fender, drilled and tapped the fender to
accept the jerry can mounts, and fabricated the supports and
mounted them. Disassembled the five troop seat
brackets, and did some straightening of metal. Have a small
pile of parts to take to the blaster.
- 11/20/04 Removed the front panel on
the bed. Drilled through each bolt to get in out. Sanded
rear of cab in preparation for painting
- 11/26/04 Painted rear of cab.
wrapped entire front of truck in plastic sheeting to protect
it from grinding to be done on bed. Painted Spare tire
support and spinner, Painted front turn signals.
- 11/30/04 Wrapped the front of truck
in plastic to protect it from the dust and cold. Bought a
few miscellaneous items. Didn't do any work at all on truck
Christmas is looming and funds are spent on family instead
of truck. See everyone in 2005!!!
Happy New Year!!!
January 2005
- Well, all that snow you see in the picture above melted,
and of course flooded into my garage, so, spent New Years
Eve day installing a sump pump in my garage to keep it dry.
- 01/03/05 Had a few hours and a warm garage, so I
primered and painted my troop roof brackets, metal bed
reflector rings, and some small miscellaneous brackets.
Can't wait to dive in and start grinding and cutting.
February 2005
- Finally it warmed up enough and was clear out. I
pushed the truck outside and straightened up the garage and
began the removal of the bed. Taking out the six bolts
took about an hour and a half, snapped three of them and
drilled one stubborn one out. Using a combination of
straps and muscle I lifted the bed from the frame. With my
sons help I rolled the truck out from under it and then set
it down on saw horses. While the truck was outside I
scraped all the loose dirt and road tar accretions off the
frame. The gas tank is in mint shape, still green!
- 02/5-6/05 Cleaned and adjusted the emergency brake.
Began work on the tailgate, welded, pounded and straightened
and pounded again. Looking better and better.
Minor work on the axe for the pioneer rack, and painted the
first aid kit.
- 02/13/05 Started cutting on the bed, was at the store to
buy steel when I saw a trailer fender, the same gauge as the
fender I needed to replace, a pre shaped piece of steel that
was only $15! Cut out the old section
(see picture on photo page) using my
jigsaw and a fine tooth metal blade, cut a patch out of the
new fender, and after much grinding and fitting started to
tack and weld it in place.
March 2005
- Bought my seat covers from
WeeBee Webbing,
Started installing those. Can't believe its still so cold.
Replaced the parking brake band. Nice reproduction from
Second Armored.
April 2005
- April 1st, first chance I have had to work on the truck
bed, spent the day cutting out the rusted sections and
welding in new steel. One more wheel well to go and it's off
to the blaster.
- April 2nd- well the April fool's joke was that I woke up
to snow on the ground here in Chardon. So I made the best of
the day and removed the fuel tank from the truck and sloshed
it around and poured out the brownish red fuel, lots of
particulate in it, cleaned it out.
- April 6th, Painted the gas tank, and a few odds and
ends, ammo boxes, tailgate chains. Work continues on
the bed, I think I found a source for the rear cargo box
cross member that is rusted out.
- April 8th, installed fuel gauge sender and oil pressure
sender, see the techniques portion for more info and photos.
May 2005
- May 4, 5 Some time to work at last,
Finished stripping the frame, primed and painted.
Sanded and primed the front fenders, see before and after
photo on he photo page. Oh, my air compressor seized up on
me today, always something to keep me occupied.
- May 6. perfect weather for
painting, low humidity, and warm temp, so I painted my
fenders, headlight guards, inner fenders, bolts, gas can, AB
243 antenna mount. Now I can't wait to get the bed out
of the garage and to the sand blaster! While the paint
was drying, I installed the gas tank, rear tail lights, and
new exhaust system.
- May 12-13 Installed front fenders,
headlight buckets, front marker assemblies, and blackout
drive light. Grill Guard, fender welting and inner splash
shields installed.
- May 14 Installed new electric
fuel pump. See techniques for
details. Constructed a front wiring harness and ran all
wiring into cab. Began construction of the rear wiring
harness, ran out of wire though, used almost 200'feet of
wire so far, all 14 gauge. Working on a schematic of my
wiring diagram to assist me in making all the right
connections.
- May 20,21,22 Attended the
Findlay Ohio, Armed
Forces Day. Very nice weekend, great remembrance
of those who served in our Armed Forces. Came back
with NOS Bed Stakes, WW2 Shovel, brass data plates, straps,
R-49/TRC-8 Radio set, and a few misc. items.
June 2005
- Blitz week, this was the week I was going to get the bed
of the truck done.....unfortunately the truck had other
ideas.....
- June 2-5 time out for a trip to WW2 weekend at the Mid
Atlantic Air Museum....worth it!
- June 6th replaced the oil pan, bell housing, and all
lower gaskets, Replaced my military oil pump with a civilian
pump given to me by another m37 aficionado, replaced the
distributor, fired it up- nothing happened, tinkered with
timing, for a long time, finally got it fired up and
running....BUT on only four cylinders, so, I started
checking everything again, determined it was a stuck valves,
ordered a new head gasket from NAPA.
- June 7th, pulled the head, cleaned all the soot and
grime off the cylinder, and scoured the cylinder head,
painted it while it was off, replaced the head, torqued
everything down, replaced all the parts I removed, and fired
it up- no start, I cracked the distributor cap while
working on the truck... ordered a replacement, Decided to
let it and myself cool down.
- June 8th, applied all my stencils on the front half of
the truck. The stencils look great, the paint masks
were made by Rick Larsen at
Military Stencils.
See the photo page for a picture.
- June 9th, the distributor cap came in, installed it, truck
fired up, timed it as best I could, fairly smooth running!
July 2005
- July 9th Finally got the truck registered as an
Historical Vehicle in the State of Ohio!!!
- Work continues on a variety of small things, on of which
was the replacement of the brand new fuel pump, it burned
out for some strange reason.
August 2005
- In the first week of August, I installed a NOS Rifle
mount in the front of the vehicle, and I installed a NOS
military radio speaker in the truck, I wanted to be able to
play CD's in the truck, period music, so I wired in a 44
watt amplifier into the truck under the passenger seat with
an input from a standard portable CD player. I hid a
standard car speaker behind the passenger as well.
September 2005
- Sept 7th Finally, the bed is sent off to the
sandblaster!!! now I am getting all the bed stakes and troop
seats ready for installation.
- Sept 16 the bed is
back from the
Sand blaster, spent the night and most of Saturday
finish filling the myriad pits and scratches picked up from
the sand blaster. Late Saturday night I began laying down
the finish
coat on the bed.
- Sept 19-23 Took the whole week off of work to finish the
bed and all bed accessories. Mated the cargo box to
the frame, made new body mount pads from 1/2" truck flaps.
Planed all the oak for the troop seats, bed rails and head
ache rack. Finished all the wood with Varathane. Painted all
bed hardware and installed it all. Mounted the rear
fenders and fender welting. Took it for a test drive on
Thursday. Friday, mounted pioneer rack, spare tire
mount, and spare tire.
- Sept 24, my wife's and my anniversary, took the truck on
it's first trip, went out to breakfast, my son riding in the
troop seats. Trip was flawless.
- Sept 24th, afternoon My son and I take the truck for a
longer drive, after about 2.5 miles, the fuel pump I
installed (the SECOND ONE!) dies, my wife has to tow us back
with my Dodge Ram.
- Sept 25th, I replace the alternator with a single wire
model, 63amps, I think the old alternator was producing way
to much voltage, and burned up the fuel pump. Replaced
fuel pump with a new version. A 'Master' fuel pump Model
Number E80112S. Test drove truck, found out right rear
brake cylinder leaked, took apart, honed and replaced
internals.
- Sept 26th, finished applying all the stencils to the
truck, and it looks GREAT!!
- Sept 28 Received
replacement front springs from
Cabell Garbee
and mounted them in the truck on October 7-8, found out my
drivers side springs had 3 broken leafs, and the passenger
side had 1, gained 3" in front ride height! Thanks Cabell.
October 2005
-
Everything except the brakes seem to be
working fine, replaced the wheel cylinder and brake pads on
the right rear.
-
Took truck for yet another test drive, right
rear continues to lock up. I shortened the Master Cylinder
3/8th of an inch in order to try and solve the problem.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by
so many to so few. -- Sir Winston Churchill
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