1937 Pickup Cab question

[eric]

Is it possible to bolt a 1937 ford car nose to a 1937 Ford pick up cab without major modification or headaches ? I know it isn't how ford made the truck, but I like the look of the car nose better than the truck.

[blucar]

NO! There is absolutely nothing about the 37 passenger car front sheet metal that is compatible with the truck.
There are a couple 36 pickups floating around that have a passenger front ends on them, however, this requires a lot of re-fabrication.
It would be easier to convert a '37 coupe into a pickup utilizing a pickup box in lieu pf the coupe trunk.

[tubman]

There are a couple of threads on the H.A.M.B. about this very thing that might be worth looking at. I will have to agree that it's a lot of work, but most of the time, it appears to be worth it.

[moefuzz]

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If I recall,
The truck cab measured at the cowl/top is much skinnier than the Ford Car cowl.

This would mean that you have to pie cut the car hood and make it skinnier.
Next is the height of the fenders and hood as a package.
The height of the car and truck hoods is different
and when you combine the difference in height and contours of the fenders ...

After pie cutting and making the car hood skinnier, you will need to pie cut the sides of the hood so it sits on the truck cowl and still matches the newly found car fenders that you wish to mount.

So now just in the hood you have cut welded straightened (warpage) the hood to the right width as well as you've cut and either raised or lowered the height of each side of the hood, welded and fixed the warpage.

Next is the side contour of the truck versus the side/cowl of the car.
For this you have to adjust the rear of the car fenders to match the cowl of the truck.
Over and above the different contours, also there will be length/dimensions from the nose of the hood and fenders to match the truck cowl.

in the fenders you will have to reshape to match the cowl land either stretch or remove metal from the fenders to get to match the cowl.

Next is how the fenders attach to inner fenders and those attach to the frame.

Since you've now cut and fit the outer finders to 'height/width/length, you will now need to match all the inner fenders to do the same while.

Next is the rad and rad support which will have to be trimmed and or added to where your new car fenders have been widened/wedged/heightened/lowered and re-contoured
This may mean that now the radiator height and mounting is incorrect so a new rad may be required.

To open and close the hood you will need to figure out new mounting brackets/supports/holes/etc. for the hinges to proper seat the hood while it's closed and support it while it's up.

To make the hood latch you will need to adjust/move and modify the existing hood latch/release that is mounted generally just in front of the rad/rad support.

As there was a difference in length of hood and matching it to the cowl, so to have the dimensions changed at the nose of the hood were it would have latched at the cross-member in front of the rad.

Keep in mind that this is all a very visual thing and one of the hardest parts is analyzing and visualizing how the height at the nose of the hood lines up with the side lines of the body of the truck.
Cut/splice/weld everything in to high and the look from the side is obnoxious
go to low and the thing looks really bad 1948 custom using the new fiberglass methods of the day, yuck.

Now keep in mind while all this is going on you have to maintain proper wheel opening geometry with the center line of the front axle. You do not want to be further than an inch either way of the center line of the front axle otherwise the incorrectly offset front wheel openings will stand out like a sore thumb.

All of the above is not for amateurs or backyard welders.
This all involves serious long term skills in welding, fabricating, and bodywork and taht is over and above the ability to be able to see the sideline of the truck as a whole and not just "mount the fenders here and lets get it over with" attitude.

If you've successfully and tastefully chopped a roof an a 41 Ford Business coupe (or similiar) than you may at least have some of the skills to start "thinking" about the much more envolved and complex task of putting a car clip on a truck.

Several years ago I had to fix an incorrectly chopped roof on a 55 Ford truck cab.

I didn't have to fix the roof chop once, I had to do it twice because the guy figured he new what he was doing and after I had fixed the chop using yet another 55 roof for 'parts', the guy cut it off and then re-tacked all the spot welds of the new roof I had just sectioned and fit.

At That point, it was the third time the roof had been "chopped",
First chop was a disaster, second chop enveloped another donor hood and was good to go,
3rd "chop" was the guy cutting all the tacks and realigning the roof to were he thought it should go.

And where he though it should go...
... Was about 1 1/2 inches lower over the drivers head than it was over the passenger/head. Apparently he didn't think that a tilted roof over the drivers side was wrong.

So then I had to re re-cut all those tacks and fit the roof up to the proper height again.
Call it the 4th chop...


Do you know how many hours were involved?
-while the guys who initially totally fracked the first chop by fully welding in what looked like a butt crack (weld shrinkage at the center top of the "new" roof caused it to have an ass shape),
the amount of hours to go out find another donor cab and properly re pie cut and add or subtract metal while shaping the roof to the windshield, back and sides was plenty already at about $75 shop rate.
Then after the owner so tastefully re reshaped the work I had done, it came back for another round of fixing/uncutting and again aligning the roof again back to the roof/sides and back.

3 years later the truck has been finished (January) and just graced the pages of a hotrod magazine.

Ok, so I was interested in the issue and article seeing that I had so much work involved in unfracking the ass hat of a roof that was botched more than once so I bought the issue of the magazine to read all about the truck etc.

Funny, the article is written/guided by the guy that fracked just about everything not once but...
... and no where in the article does it mention that he put an nice azz crack in the top center of the roof, it got cut off and new roof went on only to have a certain 'guy' shift the roof cockeyed in just another short day or 4.

No, the article only mentions all the excellent quality work and modifications that this super d duper "machinist" by trade had done to make the truck a show winner..
And it was built to be a show winner, it will not drive a single 4 mile between now and ??? years as the truck is to be trailer-ed to the show circuit to compete in points in the SCCA show circuit (world of wheels show circuit). The truck won't even be started as this will heat the exhaust and discolor it possibly loosing points on the very real and extremely competitive $how car award circuit.


All of the above wa for a 'Simple' roof chop that was botched in the first place.

If you think that a roof chop is easy, and you have been Successful at that, then by all means Challenge yourself to an even more involved and difficult job of fitting/fabricating a car clip onto a 39 truck cab. For a talented fabricator this would take several weeks at 8 hours day and only Then it goes on for body/paint (and by that we don't mean a 5 gallon bucket of bondo).

For the average handy but as yet unskilled backyard kinda welder, consider the hours and damage done to a "Simple" truck roof chop and he may reconsider his options. The original owner of the truck paid dearly (and not just on having us fix the roof twice, there was a lot more botulism to be extricated than just the azz shaped roof) to have a full blown award winning show car quality shop to have 99% of the shat welding that his buddy the machinist totally botched.

A simple truck roof chop is not an easy job if you've limited experience and a front clip graft is 10 times more involved than a simple 'chop'















BTW, there is no bondo or filler in this truck (zero), you are looking at all metal with just the required layers of primers and color to cover bare metal.

And being a show circuit truck, even the undersides of all welds etc. are ground and massaged so that even from the underside you would not know where it was cut or welded.
-Even if the weld is under the dash or hidden by frame/crossmembers, the welds had to disappear as this is Exactly where judges look to find botulism and you will loose points. And the judges are looking right where they thought you could get away with the tiniest infraction and deducting points from you on the show circuit/score.

That's speaks as to how competitive the show car circuit is.



good luck with your project,
moe of the north







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