{"id":2864,"date":"2009-11-12T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/11\/top-truck\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:56","slug":"top-truck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/11\/top-truck\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Truck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"picright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-10-14_1937FordPUWeb-Large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPUWeb-Feature.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"180\" alt=\"1937 Ford pickup\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nineteen thirty-seven was a very good year. Production of US cars, at 3.93 million, was the best since the peak year of 1929, and trucks, at 891,016 even surpassed the earlier year&#8217;s record. Particularly significant was Ford&#8217;s tally, first place among truck manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>The 1937 Ford trucks were not revolutionary. The sheet metal was basically the same as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1936FordTruckWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1936 Ford 1-1\/2 ton truck\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">1936<\/a>, but with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordGrilleWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford truck grille shell\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">blunted grille shell<\/a> and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordWindshieldWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford truck windshield\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">split windshield<\/a>. The major changes were under the skin, where the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordCommlChassisWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford Commercial Car frame\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">new chassis frame<\/a> for passenger cars was adopted by the light trucks, along with cable-operated brakes and an updated 85 hp <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordTruckEngineWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford 85-hp V8 engine\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">V8 engine<\/a>. Also new was an optional <a href=\"http:\/\/www.35pickup.com\/V8-60-complete.jpg\">60 hp V8<\/a>, a 136 cubic inch unit available in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/2008\/12\/meeting-standards.html\">Standard passenger cars<\/a> and nearly all trucks.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always liked <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordDumpWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford 1-1\/2 ton dump truck\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">1937 Ford trucks<\/a>, mainly because of the grille that&#8217;s &#8220;softer&#8221; than the 1936 item. For <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1939FordPanelWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1939 Ford panel truck\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">1938-39<\/a>, Ford trucks got a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1939FordPUWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1939 Ford pickup\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">new cab<\/a> as well as a new &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1939FordGrilleWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1939 Ford 'barrel front' grille\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">barrel front<\/a>&#8221; grille. I don&#8217;t care for those as much, finding the new grille too bold. Sales in 1938 dropped to a post-1934 low, as a new recession took hold.<\/p>\n<p>I stumbled across this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPULRWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford pickup - left rear\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">&#8217;37 Ford pickup<\/a> at Hershey last month. Basically complete, it looked like it had been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPUChainsWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford pickup tires\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">slumbering in a swamp<\/a>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPUEngineWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford pickup engine\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">engine<\/a> looked inert, and the body was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-10-14_1937FordRustWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford rotten cab\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">rotten<\/a>. I couldn&#8217;t tell whether the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPULWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford pickup - left\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">sagging<\/a> was due to cab rot or a broken frame. There was no price evident, but it was clearly a project only for the stout-hearted, even with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/images\/2009-11-12_1937FordPURWeb-Large.jpg\"target=\"_blank\" title=\"1937 Ford pickup - right\" target=\"_blank\"class=\"imglink\">spare cab<\/a> included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nineteen thirty-seven was a very good year. Production of US cars, at 3.93 million, was the best since the peak year of 1929, and trucks, at 891,016 even surpassed the earlier year&#8217;s record. Particularly significant was Ford&#8217;s tally, first place among truck manufacturers. The 1937 Ford trucks were not revolutionary. The sheet metal was basically<span style=\"color:#aaa\">&#8230;.<\/span> <br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/11\/top-truck\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2864"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3210,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2864\/revisions\/3210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}