Build thread 37 Dodge PU

[falconvan]

Looks great, Mike! Glad to see you back on the 37!

[Mike P]

I got the welding on the floor section done this morning and both pieces bolted in. Now it's on to welding the 2 sections together and welding the perimeter.....then a lot of grinding the welds down.

[oldrodder43]

Oh Man, I love that truck! One would never find anything so clean in this part of the world, and if ever one did, could never afford to buy it----
I wonder what the chassis is that's underneath? Keep up the good work. perley

[Dave Severson]

Floor looks good Mike! Now for the grinding, and grinding, and grinding. Maybe we should rate difficulty of a project by how many grinding wheels and rolls of sandpaper they consume?????

[123pugsy]

Floor looks good Mike! Now for the grinding, and grinding, and grinding. Maybe we should rate difficulty of a project by how many grinding wheels and rolls of sandpaper they consume?????

Sounds about right. Total pain in the butt for sure.

[Mike P]

Perly it has the stock frame under it with the front portion boxed just past where the Mustang II front suspension was added (work that was done prior to me buying it). Ill finish boxing the rest of it when I get the body off. The rear has a Nova 10 Bolt on stock springs and some ugly hanger, I’ll be changing that out for a Dana 60 with 4.56 gears, new springs, hangers and I’m planning on building a set of Caltrac style bars for it.



“......Now for the grinding, and grinding, and grinding......”

And when that’s done I can take the cab off flip it over and do the bottom.

“.....Maybe we should rate difficulty of a project by how many grinding wheels and rolls of sandpaper they consume?????......”


Dave, Pugsy that might be a pretty good indicator

On a lot of my projects I keep a pretty detailed spread sheet on what I spend on parts (not happening on this one!!!). One thing I don’t keep track of are the expendables; welder and torch supplies, grinding and cut off wheels, sand paper, sealers, new nuts and bolts etc. On a project like this I could see it easily adding $1000-1500.

[dlotraf33]

Perly it has the stock frame under it with the front portion boxed just past where the Mustang II front suspension was added (work that was done prior to me buying it). Ill finish boxing the rest of it when I get the body off. The rear has a Nova 10 Bolt on stock springs and some ugly hanger, I’ll be changing that out for a Dana 60 with 4.56 gears, new springs, hangers and I’m planning on building a set of Caltrac style bars for it.



“......Now for the grinding, and grinding, and grinding......”

And when that’s done I can take the cab off flip it over and do the bottom.

“.....Maybe we should rate difficulty of a project by how many grinding wheels and rolls of sandpaper they consume?????......”


Dave, Pugsy that might be a pretty good indicator

On a lot of my projects I keep a pretty detailed spread sheet on what I spend on parts (not happening on this one!!!). One thing I don’t keep track of are the expendables; welder and torch supplies, grinding and cut off wheels, sand paper, sealers, new nuts and bolts etc. On a project like this I could see it easily adding $1000-1500.

Yeah I know what you mean....... On this one I'm keeping track of everything, just so I know. It kills me when you hear someone tell how they built a such and such and only have $1000.00 in it. And I can see lots of welding on chassis, and body. It's one of them deals, they already had, or were given, $5000.00 worth of parts, and spent $1000.00 cash, but did not count, as you put it, expendables. I know I had at least $200.00 in MIG wire alone, on my 48 cab, just the cab. But the nickle and dime stuff you might not want to add up............ probably just make ya sick............

[Bob Parmenter]

It wasn't too many years ago when we were telling people on here if they counted all the consumables entailed in a complete paint job that materials cost alone would run over $1k they'd scoff. It seems folks are wising up, glad to see it.

[cffisher]

And things aren't getting cheaper. I'm scared to total up what I have in the 57 and the Nova.

[Dave Severson]

Everything I buy under the heading of "shop supplies" I divide the expense out over the number of projects in the shop I'll be using them on....keeps the books a whole lot more honest.... Good plan whether you're doing it for a living or just doing your own projects and helping out friends! It certainly does add up!

[Mike P]

“...... Everything I buy under the heading of "shop supplies" I divide the expense out over the number of projects in the shop I'll be using them on.....”

Not a bad way to do it Dave. Years ago when I was first started running my shop a lot of the expendables didn’t get billed out..... until I realized how much I was giving away on some jobs.

“.....It kills me when you hear someone tell how they built a such and such and only have $1000.00 in it. And I can see lots of welding on chassis, and body. It's one of them deals, they already had, or were given, $5000.00 worth of parts, and spent $1000.00 cash,....”

Dlotraf That’s the main reason I’m not keeping track on this build. It would fall into the ridiculously low dollar category (for the parts involved) because there is so much I’m using that I’ve had laying around and a lot of those items were good deals, given to me or that I traded for.

[dlotraf33]

Thats good when you have alot of stuff accumulated for a build and you don't spend much for the actual build. I'm not knocking that. I just wanted to clarify that, I don't want to sound negative, I might have come across that way, after rereading my post. It's when they lead you to believe that you or anyone else could build the same project for that low cost. Most guys in this as a hobby don't really want to know how much we spend, and even when we do sometimes we don't want anyone else to know......

[123pugsy]

Thats good when you have alot of stuff accumulated for a build and you don't spend much for the actual build. I'm not knocking that. I just wanted to clarify that, I don't want to sound negative, I might have come across that way, after rereading my post. It's when they lead you to believe that you or anyone else could build the same project for that low cost. Most guys in this as a hobby don't really want to know how much we spend, and even when we do sometimes we don't want anyone else to know......

There's really only one person you don't want to know.
I can quickly type this as she's having a nap right now....

[Mike P]

“....There's really only one person you don't want to know.
I can quickly type this as she's having a nap right now....”




“......Thats good when you have alot of stuff accumulated for a build and you don't spend much for the actual build. I'm not knocking that. I just wanted to clarify that, I don't want to sound negative, I might have come across that way, after rereading my post. It's when they lead you to believe that you or anyone else could build the same project for that low cost.....”

Dlotraf, I didn’t take what you wrote as negative, I know exactly what you mean, especially when someone is bragging about how cheap the project was (when you know differently).

As I mentioned I’m not keeping track on this build BECAUSE there is so much that I have for it that was either traded for, a really good deal at the time or donated (in some cases deals that were done over 20 years ago).

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, (and what you’re referring to) I wrote this post back in 08 shortly after I got the HEMI for the Dodge running.

“.......Well I took a deep breath and sat down the other night and figured out how much it cost to build the 331 Hemi that’s going in the 37 Dodge. I was a very pleasantly surprised, but I really don’t know how to list it.

Keep in mind I’ve had the engine for 15 years and only started putting it together a couple of years ago. It was originally going to go in a 54 Studebaker1/2 ton short-bed but that changed when I picked up the 37.

Even at the time the engine was a good deal to begin with at $500, and I traded out labor doing an engine swap for it.

I traded a pair for $50 swap meet carburetors and set them up on a friends engine for a lot of the machine work.

I got a deal on a bunch of early HEMI parts from a guy that was moving ……$50 for: a 53 extended block Hemi, heads, valve covers, 392 dual point distributor, Tri-power intake (now on the 57 Plymouth) and set of new Jahns .060 pistons (in the 331). I then sold the block, heads and dual point to a friend for $160. So a $110 net profit?

I sold the original intake from the 331 on E Bay another $110.

I picked up the 6 X 2 intake at a swap meet 12 years ago before they were popular or E Bay was so big for $100 and the carbs were either free take-offs or $3-$5 swap meet units with $15 dollar kits in each one.

The windage tray was free……. the guy I got it from didn’t know what it was (it was laying behind a 52 (?) Chrysler that had been a Hemi car and was parted out). Even after I told him what it was he said just take it.

As it sits on the stand right now (less the 4 speed adaptor) it figures out to right at $2500 out of pocket or $3200 if you add the labor trade for the engine and don’t subtract what I sold the spare parts for.....”

That $2500-3200 cost includes all the s listed above plus chroming a set of valve covers and all the new parts (cam, lifters, pushrods, bearings. Gaskets etc etc) required to put the engine together.

It’s what it cost me, but it in no way reflects a realistic cost for someone else to build one.

[Mike P]

I have planned on eliminating the spare tire well on the passenger fender of the 37 since I did the first mockup on the truck. The spare mounted on the front fender is really neat looking, but just doesn’t fit with my plans for the truck. Lately I’ve been looking at options on just how to go about that.







The easy way out would probably be just to pick up a pair of fiberglass front fenders that don’t have the well. It’s probably the last choice as I would really like to keep the truck all metal.

One suggestion was to use a drivers fender to cut a patch out of, but studying the drivers fender it looks like the crown (curve ?) of the fender is different (opposite) from side to side and I haven’t had a lot of luck locating one anyway.

I suspect the best way would be to find someone with an english wheel who is good with it and have him make the patch....unfortunately I’m striking out there too.

At this point I’m open to any suggestions anyone may have about doing this fender.