1937 Chevy Coupe

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

This is a project that I have been wanting to do for some time. This is a 1937 Chevrolet Businessman's Coupe. The car was popular with the Salesmen back in the day. It had a very large trunk to carry around their wares from door to door. This is also a very popular year to make into a Hot Rod. That will be the next thing I do is turn it into a Hot Rod. I will be making an engine for it later, but not sure if I am going to make both engines, 6 cylinder for the vintage and a nice V8 for the Hot Rod.

While displacement was increased only slightly, to 216.5 cubic inches, the stroke-to-bore ratio was shortened from 1.21:1 to 1.07:1. This made possible the use of shorter, stronger rods.
A new, stronger, 68-pound crankshaft was cradled in four main bearings, instead of the previous three, while bearing surface was increased by 10 percent.
A 1937 sales brochure described the improved oiling system thusly: "Positive pressure feed to crankshaft, camshaft and valve rocker arms. Connecting rod bearings lubricated by dippers at low speeds, and at higher speeds by pressure jets of oil directed against the dippers."
Pistons, though still made of cast iron, were now domed and designed with "slipper" skirts. Thus, their efficiency was increased while their weight was substantially reduced.
The new powerplant was slightly shorter and 52 pounds lighter than its predecessor, and its compression ratio was advanced from 6.0:1 to 6.25:1. This not only increased horsepower to 85 (matching the advertised figure of Ford's V-8), but -- just as importantly -- it raised the torque output from 156 to 160 pound-feet.