Moparts

First street rod

Posted By: johnnycuda

First street rod - 01/11/22 11:31 PM

I have always had Mopar musclecars, 70 Cuda, 69 Valiant, 66 Barracuda, went and bought a 1938 Dodge truck 2 weeks ago, about 80% complete, but no rust, so thats a good thing!
I am in need of a seat, hood ornament, the tailight brackets I have do not match up with the holes in the backside of the bed, plan is for a 360/408 with a 904. The rear axle measures 61.5" drum to drum, I have the 8.75 from my 70 Cuda, it is 61 5/8", may use that, just move the perches.
Posted By: Sniper

Re: First street rod - 01/12/22 12:01 AM

tail light brackets

LE-187R
LE-187L

https://dcmclassics.com/lighting/519-le-187r-tail-light-bracket-rh.html

For the seat and hood ornament, try these guys

http://www.frenchlakeautoparts.com/
Posted By: poorboy

Re: First street rod - 01/12/22 12:19 AM

Johnny, Sounds like your off to a really good start.
A 38 Dodge truck has a pretty tight interior, if you are not concerned about originality of the seat, the 2nd row bench seat in a mini van fits pretty good, you need a seat that sits pretty upright rather then recline a bit. You loose too much cab space with a seat that leans back too far. The next option would probably be a pair of bucket seats, again I like the minivan second row buckets. they sit more upright, most have backs the tilt forward, and most have most of the seat belt attached to the seats. Mini van seats are pretty easy to find in really good shape in pick and pulls, for pretty cheap.

The hood ornament may be a challenge, and might be expensive. Many of that era pickup trucks were sold without rear bumpers, most went to farmers and they built their own. Tail light brackets are pretty generic, but repo tail lights are available. Shop around, prices are all over the board.

If you have a Cuda 8 3/4 laying around, I wouldn't hesitate on using it under your truck. Other options have many drawbacks.

A google search for "38 Dodge pickup parts" will net you some parts sources. Also, www.robertsmotorparts.com, and www,vicsgarage.com are a couple more. Don't overlook LMC trucks either. Gene
Posted By: dart4forte

Re: First street rod - 01/12/22 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by poorboy
Johnny, Sounds like your off to a really good start.
A 38 Dodge truck has a pretty tight interior, if you are not concerned about originality of the seat, the 2nd row bench seat in a mini van fits pretty good, you need a seat that sits pretty upright rather then recline a bit. You loose too much cab space with a seat that leans back too far. The next option would probably be a pair of bucket seats, again I like the minivan second row buckets. they sit more upright, most have backs the tilt forward, and most have most of the seat belt attached to the seats. Mini van seats are pretty easy to find in really good shape in pick and pulls, for pretty cheap.

The hood ornament may be a challenge, and might be expensive. Many of that era pickup trucks were sold without rear bumpers, most went to farmers and they built their own. Tail light brackets are pretty generic, but repo tail lights are available. Shop around, prices are all over the board.

If you have a Cuda 8 3/4 laying around, I wouldn't hesitate on using it under your truck. Other options have many drawbacks.

A google search for "38 Dodge pickup parts" will net you some parts sources. Also, www.robertsmotorparts.com, and www,vicsgarage.com are a couple more. Don't overlook LMC trucks either. Gene



I have an 88 Dakota bench in my 52. Also, I have the tail lights off my 52. I went to cat eyes.
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 01/12/22 06:38 PM

Sniper, yes sir, looking at their site made me realize my brackets are wrong, maybe for a different year or car?, I started a shopping cart on their site already, adding up quickly, lol.
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 01/12/22 06:58 PM

Hey poorboy, thanks for the heads up on the 2nd row seat, I am not concerned with originally on the seat, so that works for me, it measured about 45" wide at the rear in usable space, I had been thinking Dakota, but needing to be upright is a good point, I will need a little gut room, haha.
I have bumpers and brackets, haven't tried to bolt them on yet, just kinda set them in place, but wasn't aware how far out they are from the frame, and heard some cut them down or remake them into "shorty " brackets. I am definitely using the Cuda's rear, since I already have it...plus gets it out of my way in the garage!





Originally Posted by poorboy
Johnny, Sounds like your off to a really good start.
A 38 Dodge truck has a pretty tight interior, if you are not concerned about originality of the seat, the 2nd row bench seat in a mini van fits pretty good, you need a seat that sits pretty upright rather then recline a bit. You loose too much cab space with a seat that leans back too far. The next option would probably be a pair of bucket seats, again I like the minivan second row buckets. they sit more upright, most have backs the tilt forward, and most have most of the seat belt attached to the seats. Mini van seats are pretty easy to find in really good shape in pick and pulls, for pretty cheap.

The hood ornament may be a challenge, and might be expensive. Many of that era pickup trucks were sold without rear bumpers, most went to farmers and they built their own. Tail light brackets are pretty generic, but repo tail lights are available. Shop around, prices are all over the board.

If you have a Cuda 8 3/4 laying around, I wouldn't hesitate on using it under your truck. Other options have many drawbacks.

A google search for "38 Dodge pickup parts" will net you some parts sources. Also, www.robertsmotorparts.com, and www,vicsgarage.com are a couple more. Don't overlook LMC trucks either. Gene
Posted By: poorboy

Re: First street rod - 01/13/22 01:15 AM

Johnny, I'm pretty sure a Dakota bench seat will be too wide for your truck. A Dakota bench seats 3 people across (close together) but I believe you only have room to seat 2 people. A pair of buckets out of a Dakota should work though, as long as they sit upright enough.
Also, I had a 39-47 Dodge pickup and if I had the seat low enough the seat back was under the back window ledge, that let the seat sit back another 2". I don't know if that would help on your older truck. Gene
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 01/13/22 06:14 PM

poorboy, thank you for the advice, believe me, I will have my tape measure with me at the salvage yards when I go looking.
Posted By: Mike P

Re: First street rod - 01/14/22 12:12 PM

Should be a fun project…..my 37 was.

A couple things you will probably run into;

Stock rear springs are narrow and extremely harsh, the stockers make it ride like a log wagon when the bed is empty.

Battery and fuel tank located under the cab floor make running a decent dual exhaust problematic.

Radiator shell is narrow but finding a radiator to fit is not that difficult. The issue that may pop up is limited room in front of the radiator and between engine and radiator making things like trans coolers, AC evaporators and electric fans a challenge.

Agree with what has been said about seats, cab /leg room is limited so something that sits up straight and with a thin seat back works best. After I got mine on the road it hit me that moving the floor board kick up forward might have been an option. The original floor boards are wood and you might want to replace them anyway.

For what it’s worth here's a link to another web site I did my build on. Don’t know how much longer the photobucket pictures will still be hosted however.

http://www.clubhotrod.com/hot-rod-build-logs/48796-build-thread-37-dodge-pu.html

Also a short video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndlUhQnqq4Q

.
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 01/14/22 06:55 PM

I work at Calvert Racing and I measured the springs' length, they are 1" off from what a S10 spring is, so we may redrill the rear half of the S10 spring to 27", have to make a wider front hangar, and of course shackle.
There is a guy with a site called 37plyguy, he mounted a aluminum tank behind the rear axle, below the bed, looks like his fill neck is in the bed though, his tank is 17 gallons,
The stock tank looks kinda small , I am guessing 10 or so gallons?,
I was wonderfing where the battery was mounted until I saw his post, his is mounted behind passengers tire, is that normal?, my truck was apart when I got it, no motor or trans, but it looks like most of the parts are there.

Anybody have a extra drivers side wiper cover plate?, I guess it has a hole for a switch?
Posted By: poorboy

Re: First street rod - 01/15/22 12:11 AM

The wiper cover sounds like the same set up Dodge used in the 39-47 trucks, and all the military trucks from 40 until about 68. Don't know how much stuff fits the 39-47 cab, but www.vintagepowerwagon.com repos a lot of parts for the military trucks many of which carry over to the civilian trucks of 39-47. might be another choice. I built a hot rod 39 Dodge pickup, and found a lot of stuff there for better prices then many places offered. Its pretty standard the one company repops a part, and everyone pads the bill and sells that company's same parts. Vintage power wagon repops a lot of parts. Gene
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 02/11/22 07:04 PM

Hey guys, anyone have a picture of the rear taillight brackets and where they bolt on to a '38 Dodge truck, it came with tail lights, but the brackets on them do not line up to the holes on the back side of the bed, and the brackets are the ones I see for sale on a couple of the sites, ( DCM, Vics etc)
The guy at Vics said all of these trucks had a wood bed, mine is steel, and the '37 Plymouth bed I used to have was steel as well?
Posted By: Sniper

Re: First street rod - 02/11/22 09:46 PM

The brackets bolt to a mounting plate that in turn bolts to the truck.
Posted By: johnnycuda

Re: First street rod - 02/11/22 10:48 PM

I figured I was missing something, a bracket there, another part to be on the lookout for, thank you.
Posted By: Sniper

Re: First street rod - 02/11/22 11:57 PM

If you go to the link I posted earlier the bracket listing also gives you the part number for the mounting plate, put that number in their search and it will show you what that looks like.
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