My '37 Chevy Truck


JC Whitney has over 4800 parts for 1937 Chevrolet Trucks
I
found my 37 Chevy truck on the side of the road, dead, in Clovis,
New
Mexico.
It took me no time at all to strip her down
to the frame. The
air in New
Mexico was so dry,
the only rust was light surface rust.
I
sand blasted and painted the frame, and started the LONG process of
rebuilding.
I had the engine rebuilt
by a man
named Billy Bob who had
forgotten more about that truck than I’ll ever know.
He helped me make sure all the drive train
was in order and within tolerances.
He still
remembered all those numbers correctly without reference to the book on
his
shelf. There was a
"parts store" (junk
yard) in town that had what was left of a 36-38 chevy ½ ton. There wasn’t enough left
to tell exactly
which year it was. I
got a few
mechanical parts from it, and the two cross members for the frame I was
missing. About the
time I was done with the parts
available from that parts store, the Air Force moved me down the road
four
hours to Alamogordo,
NM.
There was a whole new set
of parts at
their parts store. I
found the interior panels, and some other
smaller sheet metal pieces I needed there.
The blessings of the small town in New Mexico
came up again when it was time to
paint. I went into
“the” paint store in
town thinking I would look at paint chips and just pick some I liked. When the owner asked me
what year it was, I
jokingly told him “A '37 Chevy ½ ton, do you have the book?” Sure enough, he came out
of the back with the
original paint chips. We
matched them up
in the computer, so those are original colors.
Try that in the big city.
Driving
the truck was fun, and I put her in a few car
shows and took home several trophies for “best paint” and “People’s
Choice.” I
eventually became ready for a new project, but
the wife said only one toy at a time.
So
I sold the truck to a fellow in California. Last I heard he had put it
in the museum for
their tribute to Chevy trucks, and now is enjoying driving it in San
Something
city.
I sure wish I had found
these guys when I was
rebuilding my truck. They sell
factory licensed shop manuals for the '37
Chevy Truck on CD-ROM.
In fact, they have shop manuals for all Big Three makes and
models from 1909 to 1981!

JC Whitney has over 4800 parts for 1937 Chevrolet Trucks
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