My latest project

[rickf]

Right before Thanksgiving I went down to Richmond Virginia to pick up a 1953 M37 I bought. I will put up some pics of the pickup and some of what I have found and done so far. I apologize for the picture orientation, once you click on them they enlarge and are fine. I am working on it but have not found the magic button yet.
This is a shot from a rest stop on Rt. 301 in Virginia east of DC on the way down and back up on the next day. Same parking spot, one without the truck and one with the truck. I had a hard time getting the same angle coming back since it was 2:00 in the afternoon and crowded. Going down it was 05:30 in the morning and empty.

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Here it is where I picked it up. It turned out to be 80 degrees that day!!

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Made it home. This thing had three hummer tires on it, 16.5's on 16 inch rims and one old, old OLD retread on the left front. AND, I had 5 more mounted tires in the truck. 3 on combat rims. Anyone that has ever picked up M37 wheels and tires knows how heavy they are. the combat rims are 40-50 lbs. heavier than regular rims. I had 1,000 lbs. of tires/rims just in the truck!

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Here is how it is looking right now. I will add some pics tomorrow of the rest of the truck.

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[m3a1]

That's HORRIBLE. (You should give it to me and increase your property values at home.)

[rickf]

Hold your breath.

[Horst]

Looks awesome. I always wanted a M37 in the fleet. But over here there are a little harder to find. And thankfully, these days I don't have the funds anymore even if I run into one.

[Hambone]

Nice truck, you splurged on that one, does this mean you have 2 now?

[rickf]

I have two now, one W/winch and one without. There is more to this ones story though. This was a fire service brush truck before the previous owner got it and they converted it to 12 volt. I have no problem with that part since the ignition parts are SO much cheaper and very readily available. The problem is the way it was done. I have not had time to really dig into the wiring yet but someone put in a Painless wiring harness and added a fuse panel which the last owner moved inside kind of in the way. There is also some crossed wiring somewhere. It has a draw that will kill the battery overnight. Actually more than one draw. I found one where with the main power switch on the blackout lights are on. The military headlight switch is either bypassed or hacked, haven't gotten that far yet. Found the fuse for those lights and pulled it and thought I had the problem solved. Next day battery was dead. So that will be something I need to get into. My main issue when I got it was brakes. Supposedly it had all new brakes and wheel cylinders and master cylinder but had sat for 7 years. I did know this truck from many years ago, I bought the old rear floor that came out of it for my other 37. Well, it had nothing when I got it. Come to find out someone added a hydro-vac booster from what I am told a 62 Cadillac in it. Welded to the frame back by the rear with a ton of vacuum line (heater hose) and 5/16 brake lines going to that. So, no fluid, previous owner told me it did have fluid and it was DOT3. So, we have a leak somewhere. I fill it up and bleed it and not much of anything happens. It kind of, maybe, thinks about trying to stop. Check brake adjustments, This has heel and toe adjusters and I found right away that a couple were never touched and frozen and the ones that were touched were touched in the wrong direction. So, off come those monster Hummer tires and combat rims and drums. Found the leaks, plural. All but one of the new wheel cylinders were leaking. I figured that since they were new I would be able to just get kits and clean them up and rebuild them so I pulled one off and the first thing I found was it was backwards. M37's have wheel cylinders with two different size cups with the large cup facing the rear. So this one had the rights on the left and lefts on the right. Took one wheel cylinder apart and called Midwest Military and ordered 4 new ones, They were junk. They had originally had DOT5 in them and the conversion was done by just flushing out with DOT3. This leave the DOT5 laying in the bottom of the cylinder along with any water in the system so they were full of goo and the bottom of the cylinders was rusted badly. The master cylinder looked good but I tried to rebuild it and it failed so I just got a new one. I will play with that one later, it just needs more honing. I bypassed the hydrovac since it is probably just as rusted inside the slave cylinder and there are 30-40 different models so I do not know which on it is. I tried my best to read the label but no go. So the hydraulic side of the brakes is all good now but the drums have been cut so far it had already been fitted with oversized shoes made just for this reason. The shoes are new so lucky there and they do not appear to be fouled with fluid so I am going to see if they will run in. Got all the adjustments freed up and adjusted as best I can. It stops but not real well. Transmission shifter is also an issue as you have to reach practically into the passengers lap to get into third gear. The shifter gate is shot but the truck did come with an NOS top cover so that will be this weeks job.
More pics to came later on today.

[Bryan45]

Thanks for sharing, Rick. The M37 has always been my favorite from the 3/4 to 1 1/4 ton class.

[glcaines]

I love M37s. I drove one for awhile in the Army in 1971-72 and have driven several since. I was lucky in that while in the Army we still had M37s, M715s and were just starting to get Gamma Goats. I don't think we were supposed to still have M37s, but we did. I also drove an M37 while mapping in an underground marble mine in North Georgia. We were several layers of mine underground and it was imperative that remaining columns of rock in each layer or room lined up with the one above and below to prevent a cave in. The underground mapping had to be exact, which was very difficult. The M37 had been retrofitted with a Ford tractor diesel engine but was otherwise unmolested. It was really spooky when deep underground in that thing and turning off the lights. Total darkness!

[FoxMike]

Looks like a nice project Rick. I’ve also been a fan of the M37 but not yet owned one. They pop up every so often for sale around here.

[m3a1]

What a hunk of junk. You should give it to me. I'll haul it out of your yard for you and raise the property values in your neighborhood threefold.

[csmith]

Nice Rick! Get her ready for Graves 24!!