The '37 Ford coupe has been a popular custom ride among the street-rod enthusiasts for many years. With its long French-curved exterior styling with teardrop capsule headlights, the '37 is one of Ford's sexiest vintage models ever built. Ford also offered a pickup in '37, but it did not resemble the sleek, sexy lines of the coupe at all. It would be a classic-truck enthusiast's dream to be able to transform a '37 Ford Coupe body with a stylish pickup bed and teardrop front and rear fenders.
An intimidating big-barrel...
An intimidating big-barrel shotgun-style bug catcher directs the air into the dual 650cfm Holley carburetors, which calibrate the correct air and fuel mixture into the massive B&M 420 Mega Supercharger.
Today, this body concept would be difficult to mass produce in steel, but a redesigned fiberglass body is doable. OZE Manufacturing in Quebec, Canada, had already offered a chopped '37 Ford Coupe body. With this in mind, they decided to go ahead and crossbreed the '37 coupe with a redesigned chopped pickup body and bed. No real surprise, the OZE '37 Ford pickup kit, with its easily removable lid, instantly transforms the pickup into a cool open-air roadster. It's this unique feature that sets the OZE '37 pickup from other glass '37 pickup manufacturers. An open-air ride is not only physically cool, especially during those hot days of summer, but it also looks cool.
James Hall from South Shore, Kentucky, has been heavily into the custom-rod scene for the past 20 years. James has had a passion for the Chevy Camaro and has built many over the years. He still has the keys to his tubbed and 'dropped '69 Camaro Pro-Street with a big-block wedged between the framerails. His last creation was a beautiful '34 Ford Coupe. He told himself his next ride would be a vintage '30s ride, but with a twist. James wanted something different and unique. It would have a cab and a bed, but no tailgate, and be constructed from fiberglass rather than steel. James purchased the seventh '37 Ford Pickup kit built at OZE Rods.
A sturdy OZE triangulated frame anchors the trick '37 Ford pickup. The 112-inch wheelbase makes for better handling and a comfortable ride. It is suspended with the aid of adjustable Air Ride Technologies pneumatic Shockwaves. A pair of Mustang II 2-1/2-inch dropped spindles drop the nose with less effort. A narrowed Ford 9-inch rear end, stuffed with Strange 3.56 gears, a posi-unit, and 31 spline axles makes acceleration easy. The immediate braking comes from four Mustang disc brakes. James' '37 spins on a set of Billet Specialties, Hustler 16x6-inch front and 18x10-inch rear billet wheels consumed in BFGoodrich rubber.
The grunt comes from a potent LS1 powerplant that was machined 0.030 over, balanced, and assembled by Brian Oney from Olive Hill, Kentucky. Brian swapped out the factory heads with a pair of Trick-Flow heads that he ported and polished for a more efficient fuel/airflow. A Crane camshaft was inserted to orchestrate the internal components with the healthy B&M 420 supercharger with a pair of 650cfm Holley carburetors capped with a huge Shotgun Bill bug catcher. The un-burnt gasses are exhausted from the exhaust ports into a pair of Dyno Max coated block hugger headers that collect into 3-inch Flowmaster mufflers. The healthy LS1 spun 525 horsepower on the engine dyno. A '94 GM automatic transmission was torn down and refurbished with new clutches, gear sets, and planetary gears. Brian resprung the valvebody and installed a Lokar floor shifter shift kit to achieve firmer shift points.