1937 Was A Watershed Year ...So pretty much all the vehicles in '37 were sweet . Of course I think the '37 Chevy Businessman's Coupe was far better than those incredibly beautiful '33 ~ '34 Ford Coupes . I like the '38 Ford pickups too ~ that goofy oval , protruding grille is just -SO- Art Deco it grabs me.... Here in La La Land we had a great junkyard called " Memory Lane and they'd get in all manner of cool old cars and one fine day SWMBO and I were driving by to see what the wrecker had dropped off out in front and just inside the gate , there it was : a black unrestored 1937 Chevy Coupe with three smoothie and one ribbed 16" trim rings on the wheels , four different brands of old Bias Ply tires , a 25 year old re-paint and well worn bench seat , untouched dashboard , perfect grille and bumpers , I clenched the steering wheel in my little Nash Metro so hard my knuckles turned white , Shirley asked if I was O.K. , I said - waitaminute and ran in to give it a quick peek , black & yellow California license plates with current tags , glass taillight lenses , original bulb - in headlights , oh no ~ I asked the counterman what was the deal , he said " granpa's old car , go take a crawl 'round it and you'll want to buy it , clean title , no salvage make me an offer and drive it home ! " NONONonononononononoonoonoooooooooooooooo ! I ran out to my Metro and hopped in , told Shirley it was my dream car and she said " so ? if you like it , I'll buy it for you " ~ (I LOVE this woman) I never even lifted the hood ~ it prolly had a late model full pressure 235 in it and if it did I knew I'd buy it Here in L.A. , it was only a $7,000.00 car .
First, thanks for the nice comments and speaking of past cars the owner of the 37 still has the first two cars he ever owned--the first is a 32 chev 5W coupe and the second is the 37 business coupe. Why didn't we all have the foresight to keep our first cars? The 32 has one of those pickup box conversions in it that you could get from Monkey Wards or Sears and lots of tradesmen and farmers used to discard the trunk lid and install the box in a coupe. He wants us to fab up a deck lid for it but I'm trying to talk him into leaving the box in it because it's unique in todays time. Nate, we also weld the doors in the opening on many occasions but this 37 didn't have enough support left to do so, even my best metal guy can't weld air. Pics show right door bottom and right quarter and the left quarter. The floor, cowl, trunk, and the entire bottom 8 inches of the car were gone. It's all new now and we're insulted when people say "it's as good as factory" because we're not hung over, bored with our job, watching the clock or some co-workers cute bottom, fighting with the wife, or just waiting for a paycheck like the original guys that built it.
Those " bored guys " Were..... Over at the FORD plant We all know that Generous Motors never let anything less than 100 % -perfect- leave one of it's many plants..... The Coupe Express was in fact , a Chevy option and yes , a few remain . We hired a kid a few years back , he hates InLine 6 bangers so naturally , he gets given all his elderly Japanese Uncles and Gramp's etc. old 6 banger Chevy cars and Ford pickups too..... One of his uncles has an original 1941 Chevy Coupe Express , he hates it and it was very gently worked back in the day so the body not only has NO RUST but still carries the original black paint.... the bed isn't even sprung . No , I cannot buy it , nor drive it , nor even go and sit quietly in it with my hand in my pants.... (oops) Life is -SO- unfair at times......
Man Evan it looks like you have to deal with the same kind of body rot that I've delt with on my truck. You're right about welding air,but as soon as I perfect it I'll give you a call. I really do enjoy doing a project that is like this because of the challenge, but sometimes I would like to have one of those arizona cars and cut out about 8 months of body work. Keep the pics coming.
Here you go! For anybody who has never seen what Evan is talking about, go to http://home.znet.com/p1937/carz.htm
Darn, Nate and Ken, I didn't realize the "coupe/pickup" was a GM option. I'm going to show this to the owner to convince him to let it be.
Just FYI You might have already done it, but if not, go to the online manual website and look at the 37 restopack. it has a diagram in it that shows the critical dimensions of the coupe pickup box. With those dimensions, you might be able to determine if it is an original chevy box or an aftermarket. http://chevy.tocmp.com/chevyresto/37index.htm Do me a huge favor and update (w/ pics) on this project!
Man, do I feel like a dufus! After dreaming about an ever so rare 1937 coupe pickup for 3 days now, I re-read Evan's comments and realized that the pickup box is on the 32, not the 37. Geez, do i feel like a dumba$$! Nevertheless, I've done some additional research and found out that chevy introduced the concept of adding a pickup box to a car body in 1926 called the Roadster pickup and even had a version that had an all-metal box with lockable doors on the rear. They seem to have disappeared by 1930, but resurfaced again in 1936 as the coupe pickup and finally disappeared altogether by 1942. Most of my research material came from a book that I have had since 1972 called "Sixty Years of Chevrolet" by George H. Dammann copyright 1972, published by Crestline publishing. If you love old cars and trucks, especially Chevrolet, this book is a "must have". Beats the hell out of internet research. And if you're into pictures, it has over 1600 of them.
