1963 Dodge M-37B1 Project

She's done! - mostly

2011-11-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

She's all done. painted, put back together. all except the winch. just have to paint it, put it back in and take a picture.

2011-06-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

I finall sandblasted the M-37! It only took me all weekend. It took me about two weeks to prepare for it too. No time for details, we're getting ready to go to Bremerton this weekend. hopefully the pictures are self-explanatory.

finishing painting the hood

2010-06-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

after doing the body work, I painted everything with primer.

I sanded the primer to make everything look smooth

then I put a sealer coat on and covered that with two coats of color enamel.

the color doesn't match the old faded paint, but I plan on painting everything else to match the hood.

TADA!

painting the hood

2010-06-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the hood for quite some time. out of all the panels on the truck, the hood was the worst, so I started by working on that.

first I had to strip the hood of all of its paint, then I removed the big dents with a hammer and dolly and a stud gun. then all of the remaining dents, I covered with bondo. I sanded the bondo until it was nice and smooth.
these are the nuts, bolts, brackets and hinges that go on the hood. I sand blasted them to get the old paint off.

Utah Lake Excursion

2009-06-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is My friend Wolf's Rig pulling his trailer and his M-37 ontop and my M-37 being pulled behind. Wolf's friend Aaron came with his M-37 too.

This is Wolf's rig about to come down a fairly steep hill. We just put it in 4-low in first gear and let the engine take us down the hill. there was a ledge near the top that you just had to fall off and hope for the best. it felt at times that the truck was going to flip over, but then the back wheels would hit the ground and you were fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISELsrsW55I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_5g9ZDw6Co

We stopped here after the Hill descent to grab a snack and rest up. you can see our tracks in the grass on the hill where we came down.

We picked up some stow-aways on our way down the slope. Aaron was going to run over a dead tree, but at the last minute he stopped. he backed up and went around and later looked at his radiator. he discovered that a branch had poked through and came close to puncturing his radiator.

Me on the left, Aaron in the middle, Wolf on the right.

Here's some more videos from our trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksnXPxgdnk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6VOoqz6xf8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWR5fZ511uU

2009-05-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Jennifer pleaded for me to install seatbelts, so I took a trip to the junkyard and got a few things I needed.

At the junkyard, I picked up the seatbelts out of a van. and found this rear view mirror in a mail Jeep. I made this shifter knob out of a 3/4 in. socket. I welded a nut into the socket and welded a bolt onto the end of the shifter. I took the socket and covered it in epoxy clay, then stuck it on the end of a drill and spun it real fast while applying sandpaper and it smoothed it right out. I think it turned out pretty good.

I finally got my blinkers working. I hooked the switch up to a flasher and to the battery and also to the turn signal lights. It all works great now.

the tail lights work as both brake lights and signal lights.

I fabed up some brakets for the front turn signals. they turned out perfect.

My son sure likes playing with the truck. so many buttons and levers. he's in heaven

We got to take it out in the dirt to test it out. I was very impressed!

Here are some youtube videos of our off road excursion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipNDde12G1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuLm07JRsOg&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpsdNqkpXo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQulxRlbryw&feature=related

Brakes and pinion seals

2009-03-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm finally finished installing the master cylinder and wheel cylinders. I decided to go with the Chevy 1 ton rebuilt MC so I could get a dual circuit going. I hope this turns out to be a good decision. we'll see when it comes time to test it out. as you can see, I drilled holes in the frame so I could plumb the lines through.

I had to drill some new holes in the running board arm because the original holes don't match up.

I plumbed the brake light switch into the line. It's always good to let people know you are stopping.

I added two residual pressure valves (Magenta) to keep a little pressure on the shoes so I don't have to keep pumping the pedal. I also installed an adjustable proportioning valve (Bottom). this will keep the back tires from locking up on me when I brake.

tada!
I also had a chance to put in a new pinion seal. It was a pain in the rear getting the old one out. I had to bend and brake it to get a hold of it with a puller and then I finally got it out.
a friend of mine at work let me borrow his puller and another friend let me borrow these washers to help push the new seal in the dif housing. I'm excited that it's all coming together.

Taking out the winch

2008-11-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

I decided that even though I wouldn't be able to fix it for a while, I would tear out the Winch to get it out of the way and make things easier to work on.

I have a ceiling hoist. It helped me greatly to manuver it off the bumper.

I had wade come over and help me lift it onto the bench so I could work on it at some later date.

Putting on the canvas top

2008-11-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

I decided to put the canvas top on for the cab and the skeleton for the canopy. the top for the cab is actually in pretty good shape.

the only thing wrong is the plastic for the rear window. it is cracked and faded. I plan on having that replaced by an upholstry shop.

she's starting to look good.

I've decided to name her Sam. for Uncle sam. It's also a girl's name.

Outside pictures

2008-11-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

I had to move the Beast outside so we could work on a different car. I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures.

they had a tow bar added to the front bumper so they could take it any where they wanted. when I'm all through, I will probably leave the tow bar off.

Fuel System

2008-11-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

The original gas tank was in bad shape. it had holes in the top from rubbing against the bed, and it was filled with old, sticky gas. I took the original tank to a radiator shop to see if they could get the old gas out and patch up the holes, but they said it was beyond repair. so I decided to retrofit a gas tank from a Ram Charger I found in the junk yard. There are several advantages to this gas tank. it is plastic, so it won't rust through. It holds about 13 more gallons, so I won't run out of gas as often. and the parts for it are available at most Chrysler dealerships.

I had to make a few modifications for it to work. I had to drill two new holes so the straps would hold it up

I also had to create a new pipe for the filler neck. I cut up the filler neck from the Ram Charger and welded it so it would lead to the gas tank.

the old fuel line was clogged with old gas, so I replaced the whole thing. there was a section that was pretty tight, so I had to snake it through along the fram rail (not shown).
I had to run the fuel line under the engine to get it to the fuel pump. I attached it to the engine support. the shaft on the left runs the PTO winch.

Moving the Beast

2008-11-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

After eight years of sitting behind the shop, I get to move the Power Wagon into the shop. luckily, I got some help from a very willing friend, Wade. He's almost as excited as I am as you can tell.

the tires were still flat, so we had a hard time getting her to turn where we wanted her to. I still enjoyed every minute of it.
and there she is, finally in the shop where I can spend countless hours making my wife mad at me.
as you can see, the seats need some help. most of the sheet metal is in really good shape. no complaints here.

The 230 ci chysler industrial 6 cyl. flat head engine just needed basic maintainence to get her started. I changed the oil, spark plugs, tightened the head bolts, rebuilt the carburator, hooked up two batteries and voila! she started right up. I still need to replace the water pump and thermostat. it seems they have both gone bad.

Purchasing the Beast

2008-10-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is the guy that sold us the truck and the house.
it is in suprisingly good shape. It looks like it has been partially restored before.
No major rust issues. I got lucky with this one.
As you can see, it sat for a while behind the shop just waiting for me to move it and work on it.