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My 38

Accidents happen!

I was on the way to a cruise night last fall when I hit some object in the road. It was just suddenly there! I didn’t have time to swerve so I hit it pretty much head on. I stopped and found a three foot section of a log wedged under my front end. I backed off of the thing and limped home. The light of day revealed a crushed “chin” on the doghouse, damaged power steering rack and bent Mustang II crossmember.

38 Chevrolet on trailer

Here is what I thought I wanted. Look closely and you'll see that I signed the drawing in '94. As with many rods, it evolved away from my concept and changed several times before it was cruise ready.

283 engine

 

38 chevy w/mustang 2

movedayG

Here, the Mustang front end is installed, SB 400 in and patch panels welded in. Fiberglass fenders are from Superior Glass Works. They are great people to work with and provide a huge variety of 37/38 component. The suicide doors have also been fabricated.

The car stays like this for awhile until I save up the money for paint.

my hoodless 38 chevy

38 chevrolet coupe

The coupe finally gains a hood and interior. Now complete...no wait...still changes to make like replacing the 400 with a fresh 355, Comp Cam, etc...

my 38 chevrolet interior

my 38 chevy trunk

Crushed chin

The Journey is the Reward!

Here is my 1938 Chevrolet Coupe the day I brought it home. The coupe had been a hot rod for some time. It had a 283 engine, TH350 transmission and an unknown rear end. The steering was connected thru what looked to be a tractor steering box. It was so large that they had the 283 mounted off to the passenger side to clear it. Inside was the stock bench seat and a huge gas tank floating around behind the seat. The closer you looked, the more there was to do!

38 chevy line drawing

My neighbor had just installed a Mustang II front end under his ’37 so I had to have one for my ’38. Of course the 283 had to come out to install the crossmember. The chassis was blasted and motor mounts fabricated. The power rack eliminated the tractor style steering box so everything cleaned up nicely. Now it’s time to put the 283 back in. Or was it? The 283 was replaced by a SB 400 and now a 355. That's right - third engine...

38 Chevy chassis update

SB400G

38 chevy in primer

Fast forward a few years at a time... The coupe got paint in 2000 but still lacked a few things...like interior and oh, a hood.  I ran hoodless for several years until I could design a way to have it flip forward. I modified hood hinges made by Superior Glass Works. They also provided the glass hood and fenders.

my 38 chevy cpe

my 38 chevy hood

With the hood on it was time to turn to the interior. The rear seat area was boxed in to house a sound system and some storage. (In 1938 Chevrolet didn't really put a back seat in the coupe. In the Businessman's Coupe, the trunk extended forward nearly to the front bench seat. That allowed for a salesman to carry a fair sized inventory of product store in the car.

Even with the interior done in 2013, I still have work to do. I wasn't really prepared with arm rests at the time so we left the tear drop are to be completed later. Current plans call for ostrich skin covering the tear drop area and a curved arm rest mounted in the center. We'll see!

my 38 chevy door panel