- Posted by Matt Gieselman on November 7, 2008
Monroe County Indiana had an auction that included a 1954 Dodge M37 that had been restored by the county around 1988, a few bids later by my nephew and the truck was all mine. Having a second M37 makes putting the first one back together much easier.
I call the truck The Patriot because it has a red, white and blue color scheme. Below is an article from the Monroe County Herald from February of 1988 detailing parts of the restoration, even though the truck was restored in 1988 that was still 20 years ago so there are some leaks to be fixed and such.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on October 3, 2008
I went on my second dive trip in as many years to Bahia de los Angeles, the 406 mile trip down was mostly uneventful although I did get pulled over by the Federales for passing in a no passing zone. I got lucky, the Federales got a more important call and let me go.
The trip down with stops took us about 12 hours, you can do it in 8 or so if you just stop for gas. In Bahia we stayed at Villa Bahia which has A/C from 7 PM to 7 AM, it's hot and humid in Bahia but tolerable after the sun goes down.
This year as in years past we used Ricardo's Diving Tours to shuttle us to the various local dive spots. Ricardo does an excellent job and has the best outfitted pangas I have ever been on, with marine radios, oxygen and life jackets. It may not seem like a luxury but Ricaro's panga has a ladder which makes for an easy exit.
Ricardo picked us up each morning in front of Villa Bahia and took us out for 2 dives per day, at the end of the day Ricardo filled our tanks and rinsed our gear, he gets bonus points for that. The visibility (20-40 feet) this year was less than last year however the lack of vis meant more plankton and more plankon meant more Whale Sharks. We got to dive with a total of 8 or so Whale Sharks varying in size from 12 to about 21 feet.
Water temperature ran from 77 to 81 degrees.
Here are some pictures from the trip.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on September 22, 2008
This will give you the current executable directory in .Net:
System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on July 13, 2008
Some other pictures of my progress
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on July 13, 2008
After a quick Google I learned that the appropriate method for MIG welding for sheet metal was:
- Use 0.30 solid core wire with Argon/CO2 gas.
- Space welds about 1" apart allowing piece to cool to prevent warping.
- Once the welding is finished you can grind down the welds, go slow to prevent heat build up and warping.
Below are a before and after of a crack I welded up on my project.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on July 1, 2008
A couple birds my little buddy caught
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on July 1, 2008
The M37 with the hard top removed, I also personalized it with some primer.
The brush guards and winch cable removed.
Fenders and lights removed.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on June 1, 2008
I bought a 1952 Dodge M37 in April 2008 as my first restoration project. I decided on the M37 because it's appearance, luckily there are lots of NOS (New Old Stock) parts available.
The M37 was produced from 1952 - 1969 and saw service in both Korea and Vietnam, there are 6 variants of the M37:
My M37 has the PTO driven winch which adds 300 lbs to the overall weight of the truck.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on May 30, 2008
For an animal that sleeps 18 hours a day my cat, Mr. Big, is like the Terminator of the feline realm.
I like to think he does this out of love.
Another victim on 5/31.
Okay, now it's kind of ridiculous, he got this guy on 6/1, that's 3 mice in 3 days.
Okay, it's even more ridiculous now, 2 mice in the same day, this mouse lived to tell his tail. He was rescued and
transported to an undisclosed location where he received a new identity.
Temporary housing while the mouse awaited relocation.
- Posted by Matt Gieselman on May 17, 2008
You can order reproductions of all the original M37 manuals here. The Faxon manuals are all reproductions.
You can also find them on eBay sometimes for less but not always.