1952 Dodge M37 revival

[Booze_Rooster]

This has been long build up to a much awaited project.

This story began in the mid 60's when my dad was a kid. While out with friends, he saw an old chipped and faded yellow truck parked outside of a garage in town. to him it was the most beautiful looking truck he'd ever seen and wanted to know more. His "knowledgeable" friend told him it was a "Dodge Power Wagon". Over the years he eventually ironed out the wrinkles in the info he was given, learned what it was and began to harbor a desire to own a Dodge M37.

Fast forward to the summer of 1997 when my father and a six year old me visited the local car show. On a field full of beautifully restored and resto-modded cars, we had gravitated up the hill to the small collection of chain drive dump trucks, stake bodies, vans, pickup trucks and a handful of old military vehicles. One stood out in particular, a hideous dark green M37 in solid shape, mostly complete and sporting a large FOR SALE sign on the windshield.

I remember at this age all kinds of talk about getting things my dad wanted to build and fix now that we had a nice new garage built next to the house. Nothing ever came to pass. So when dad started talking to an old man about this old green truck and what he might be asking, I hardly bothered to get my hopes up. I remember walking around this massive (to me at the time) truck and breathing in the smell of old grease, caked oil leaks and musty canvas. It had an arctic top, fender mounted heater, winch and came with a (then) new wiring harness in a box along with a pile of replacement brake lines.

It turns out the owner lived on the far side of our small town and had a command car and two M37's in his garage. He was swapping parts between the two and was selling the one he brought to the car show now that his customization was complete. I recall a less than enthusiastic mom driving her station wagon over there to drop us off. To my adolescent mind the sale and talking seemed to take forever until finally paperwork was exchanged and I clambered up into the passenger seat for the first time. Having only experienced the acres of plastic and dull gray cloth interiors of 90s cars so far in my life, sitting in this truck was a turning point in my life.

The drive home entailed taking the long way. Both to enjoy the drive and to give my dad a place to get a feel for it away from the busy main roads. At one point, with the windshield cracked open a hair, door windows down and cab rear window slid open, the bill of sale blew right out of my window into a field of tall grass. It took a good half hour to comb through the grass and find the paperwork before heading home.

Within a few days my father had obtained antique plates for the truck and we took it to go get ice cream a few times. I recall getting dropped off at school once in it, but the memory is fuzzy. We even took it a few towns over to visit my dad's dad and squeezed the 37 into his narrow driveway.

On the drive home from my grandfather's house, the wiring under the dash finally gave up the ghost. I remember climbing up on my half of the seat to get away from violent showers of sparks and burning wire insulation, while my dad in shorts battled against the discomfort in order to get us the last few miles home. On one of the last steep hills before home, the brakes decided to join the wiring harness- giving up completely. My dad had to contend with the electrical fire and having to engine brake and force the parking brake to help out. Once in the driveway, we rolled it nose first into the garage where it sat.

Talk of "fixing it up" in a father-son project seemed to always push the time table forward a year or two. Slowly the truck began to accumulate large strips of wood laid across the sideboards of the bed as my dad's woodworking ambitions took over. I remember playing in it frequently, envisioning the truck cleaned up, repainted and running again- jamming the gears in my first experience with a manual transmission. Again, something changed me- for the better. I remember seeing the David Ahl restoration guide and issue after issue of Military Vehicle Magazine laying around coffee tables and my fathers desk. Eventually these moved to a book case in the hall where they began to collect dust.


This however was the end of the story for a few...decades. Nothing happened with the truck all through my teenage years. It slowly gained cobwebs, rodent residents and a fine coating of sawdust. I graduated high school and enlisted in the Army. After three years at Fort Campbell with a deployment under my belt, I ETS'd and returned home- with a Uhaul truck full of Toyota pickup parts from my newfound love of rock crawling. Slowly the M37 became a storage unit for buckets of bolts, seats, bumpers, fenders, transfer cases, axle shafts and milk crate after milk crate of mirrors, paint cants, brake cleaner, weather stripping and wiring harnesses. The truck was boxed in from every angle.

In the fall of 2015 my dad began to talk about selling it. Immediately all of the awesome things I remembered about that truck flooded back and it became IMPERATIVE that I prevent the sale. I could see myself at a car show one day looking at an M37 for sale now insanely far out of my price range as I explained to my kid that my father used to have one of those. The once forgotten old rig was now a priority.

I then offered my (then) limited experience with working on my Toyota truck to "fix up" the M37 so he could get more money for a running, driving vehicle. I told him that the brake system had failed, we had spare brake parts. The electical system failed- we had a new wiring harness. Whatever was missing could still be obtained for a small amount of money that he'd make back when it sold.

My best friend showed up. We excavated the truck, pulled it out into the sunlight for the first time in two decades and washed it. We then removed the hood, grille, fenders, arctic top and headlights, packed them into a box and I conveniently buried them in a pile of old junk in the loft above the garage where my dad couldn't find them. Eventually he ran out of steam yelling at me for taking the truck apart to the point that only I knew how to put it back together. The safety of the truck was guaranteed for a few more years.

I ended up changing jobs, moving out of the house and pursuing my Toyota rock crawler obsession. When crazy two faced landlords and friends of friends no longer provided viable forms of independent living, I moved back into my parents house to save myself from wasting rent money and begin saving up.

I ended up landing a job with a professional restoration company in Massachusetts that almost exclusively deals with antique trucks, jeeps and cars. I ended up working on a HORRIBLY done CJ-2A roughly done up in the spirit of a Willy's MB but with erroneous markings, obvious defects and enough bondo to sneak it through a metal detector without arousing suspicion. As I worked away on this plain and simple old vehicle I began to think again of the M37. And so, with the cold winter months fading away- the project finally begins.

[Cal_Gary]

MY GOODNESS what a fantastic historical view of how you caught the OD fever!
We are so glad to hear of another M37 being saved-a number of our members have similar experiences as yours.
We'd love to see some photos-feel free to post your many questions, or use the search engine, as most everything you are getting ready to tackle has already been covered here.

Please add your location to your Profile so we can point you toward vendors etc. in your area.
Thanks,
Gary

[Argie1978]

That's a nice story indeed.
This is the builder blog section so,.....put some pictures and update us frequently with your progress.
You can put your questions here in this same thread you've started, or use the search engine as stated by Gary.
C ya.

Sebastian