Enjoy 1937 Ford Race Car stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

New year, new projects right? Well, sort of, at least for Davin and the Redline Rebuild crew. Last year was a bit of a debacle, given how the Buick straight-eight progressed (and regressed at times) but all that is behind us. Now the focus is on tackling some things left undone from 2020, while also crossing off some checklist items for 2021.

The first item under consideration is the ’37 Ford race car. The Chrysler 440 block is hung in the chassis now, but a bare block is not going to push this car through laps at a dirt track. Davin is going to get cracking on that engine and kick off the rest of the fabrication to get that car track-ready. He says it will be doing laps this year, which is a big goal, but if anyone is going to knock that project out of the park in that timeline it’s him.

Next on the roster is a new addition to the garage. So many motorcycle riders started their two-wheeled addiction onboard a Honda Trail 70 just like the orange 1973 model that recently came into our care. It’s in good shape cosmetically, but pretty sad shape mechanically. A full teardown and rebuild is in its future—and likely some trail miles, too.

The traditional Redline Rebuild viewers will be pleased to hear at least one future project is an engine, and an interesting one at that. Hagerty has a 1957 Cadillac four-door that has been a part of the company collection for decades, and it is is well deserving of a refresh. Davin will be taking on the engine while another team will be handling the body and other mechanical parts.

Lastly, our 1946 Ford pickup will be getting a T5 transmission to replace the original three-speed. Davin already started on this project, but like any big swap, it hasn’t been without its challenges. None of these hurdles can’t be jumped, of course, but the process takes a little time. Getting it right the first time is priority number one.

All of this will, of course, be thoroughly documented with weekly updates and also larger feature videos. If you want to see the work done and also how we do it, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty Youtube channel.

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Enjoy 1937 Ford Race Car stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Playing with race cars can be a freeing experience, especially for someone who, like Davin, has the mind of an engineer. As he tackles mounting the engine and transmission in the 1937 Ford race car, he essentially faces a blank slate. Davin decides to embrace this mechanical tabula rasa and design motor mounts to place the engine where he—and not some rulebook or designer—wants it to sit.

The reason for this unusual degree of freedom is twofold. The first is that Chrysler 440 V-8 was never fully mounted into the Ford, so there isn’t much already in the chassis. Secondly, the coupe won’t be competing in any races and therefore is not bound to the confines of any particular rulebook. Davin can put the engine pretty much anywhere he wants, and, of course, he’s in search of the configuration that will yield the best performance possible.

With the chassis stripped, cleaned, and sandblasted, it’s the perfect time to be doing the heavy fabrication as well. Davin’s ready to massage the floorpan to give enough clearance and to fabricate the mounts.

With the engine and transmission bolted into the car, Davin’s made some real progress on the Ford. There is still much to do though, because that bare engine block won’t push the coupe down the road without some serious reassembly. That’s a problem for another episode, though.

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Enjoy 1937 Ford Race Car stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The 1937 Ford race car has been on the back burner for a minute, but now it is blasting to the top of Davin’s to-do list. That’s because the body and chassis are headed to the sandblaster to be cleaned up. The process could potentially reveal some structural problems, but Davin is hoping the car’s bones are solid. He’s also crossing his fingers that rebuilding the restarting assembly on the Buick straight-eight will be trouble-free—and, sometimes, Davin gets what he wants.

The axle-less coupe is levered onto Davin’s flat-deck trailer and dropped off for sand blasting. The car looks pretty solid through the thin, mismatched paint. There are a few rust holes, but is that really any surprise when you’re dealing with an 80-year-old race car? It shouldn’t be.

Expecting that the Ford could be picked up later in the day, the team heads back to the shop’s engine assembly room and makes some progress on the Buick straight-eight. New pistons have arrived and are ready for their rings. This requires properly filing the rings and assembling the pistons onto the connecting rods. However, right when Davin is about to put the pistons into the block and torque down the rotating assembly, he gets a phone call that the Ford is ready to be picked up—and he had better hurry, because rain is on the way.

So off to the blaster goes the team, loading the trailer quickly and bringing the Ford back to the climate-controlled safety of the Redline Rebuild garage. There the vintage racer is safe from flash-rusting, and Davin can inspect it to see just how much welding wire he’ll be burning in the coming months. Judging from the first look, he’ll need more than a little … If you want to see the whole process, you’ll have to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel and wait for next week’s Redline Update.

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Enjoy 1937 Ford Race Car stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The Barn Find Hunter and Redline Rebuild crossover continues as the 1937 Ford moves to the tear-down phase. Tom and Davin divvy up the projects to get the front suspension and rear axle stripped down to nuts and bolts. Of course, it’s never that easy. (more…)

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Enjoy 1937 Ford Race Car stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

It’s a matchup for the ages as Tom Cotter takes a break from hunting roadside treasures and helps Davin tear down the ’37 Ford racer in the Redline Garage. If there were ever a perfect project for Tom, it’s this one—for a multitude of reasons.

First off, Tom was the one who found this particular car. Years ago, as Tom was traversing the countryside prepping to write his book about barn finds, Tom stumbled upon the property of Snowball Bishop. The grounds were packed with a seemingly endless supply of interesting cars, but something about this particular race car piqued Tom’s interest. It never really left his mind, and when he returned with the Barn Find Hunter camera crew, Tom made sure to discuss the vintage racer.

A second reason is the smorgasbord of parts which comprise the car. While we call it a ’37 Ford, that is a bit misleading. The chassis is from a 1955 Chevrolet, the solid front axle is from a Ford, and there is a smattering of race-car-specific parts throughout the chassis. The “wide-five” front brakes from Franklin, for example, are not a factory piece for anything.

Which is where Davin enters the scene. Over the last 20 years, Davin honed his racing skills behind the wheel of a dirt modified race car on tracks across the Midwest. Tom is no slouch as a racing driver—he holds his SVRA racing license—but dirt tracks are new territory for him. Davin plans to leverage both his and Tom’s knowledge to create a car that does more than just look the part—it also can tear up some dirt.

With a Chrysler 440 V-8 under the hood, the racer certainly won’t be lacking for horsepower. Davin also notes that viewers have asked for a car with a slick paint job, and that wish is about to be fulfilled. The Redline Garage hasn’t had something shiny on its lifts in awhile, and it time for that to change.

Tom and Davin get the car stripped down to its most basic components; next, the heavy lifting will begin. While it doesn’t seem like there could be much left hiding on the body and chassis, Davin is sorting out a way to blast off the remaining corrosion and paint so he can complete some reinforcement and re-engineering. To see this racer return to the track, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive updates with each new Redline Update that goes live.

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