M37 Restoration (53-41242)

[Wayne Hingley]

A few photos of the cross members. Rob: I’m assuming you had trouble with the large boxed-in cross member to the rear of the transfer case. All cross members on this one are solid. They should clean up nicely.

[Rob Crombie]

That does look really solid. The boxed cross member is the only one that warrants repair on my truck. It was utterly rotten where the spring perches are, and had several pounds of dirt/rust inside. So out it will come to be patched up. It has also done a number on the fuel and brake lines where they pass through the cutouts in that crossmember. What are you planning to replace your lines with? I decided to go with some copper/nickel alloy lines as They should outlast steel, and are easy to work with.

[Wayne Hingley]

Yes I can see how that would have an unfortunate impact on your leaf spring mounting brackets. Let me know if you need any measurements or photos as you fabricate the pieces for your repair.

I haven’t made any decisions on material for the replacement brake and fuel lines, but that will be needed soon enough. I did however pick up a few lengths of stainless steel coil armour for the new lines.

[Wayne Hingley]

Frame ready to go for blasting.

[Wayne Hingley]

Well, today I learned that the major tire shops won’t even touch the split locking ring wheels like on the M37. I even went to a commercial shop that does heavy duty equipment, highway trucks, farm equipment, etc. They looked at me like I was carrying a bomb in my truck. I was planning to stop at a non-franchised shop on my way home, but ran out of time and decided to give it a try myself.

I did a quick review of Bob’s 2016 thread where he tried out his fancy new tool on some stuck CMP wheels and tires and got a few ideas.

I tried breaking the bead with my pickup on one side of the tire, and tractor bucket on the other... no luck.

[Wayne Hingley]

That’s when I realized that I would have to cut the tires off. So I copied the method described by Jacques Reed in Bob’s thread. After learning the technique on the first tire, I was able to salvage the flaps on the other 3. I have one more to do tomorrow.

[Wayne Hingley]

While handling the wheels and tires, I noticed that one of them was particularly heavy. It felt like it was a loaded tire, but no sloshing noise. As I was cutting that tire, I found it to be almost twice as thick as all the others. It was 8 ply rating Good Year tire, just like all the others. Cross-section comparison below.