How to Build a 1937 Chevy Sedan Hot Rod
- 1). Remove the aluminum and steel trim from the car and have it painted. Unless the car sports a particularly good looking original coat of paint, it's usually best to have the car painted. Choose the original color for the car if the hot rod project is a restoration hot rod, but otherwise, black and fire engine red are both good options.
- 2). Jack up the car and support it on jack stands, then remove the wheels and tires, as well as the springs and shock absorbers, replacing them with air ride suspension so that you can adjust the ride height of both the front and rear of the car, giving the ride the specific "look" that you want to achieve: raked, where the rear of the car is higher, level, slammed, when the car rides as low to the ground as possible, and stock, which is best for driving.
- 3). Install a ribbed Desoto front bumper on the car, as well as on the rear if you can find two of them. The special design of the Desoto bumpers made them extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s as custom options for shade tree mechanics had to be relatively simple to install. Desoto bumpers today are quite popular regardless of what hot rod they are mounted onto.
- 4). Install an Offenhauser intake setup onto the stock engine of the '37. If you aren't using a late-model small block engine, the Offenhauser intake provides an extra touch of vintage hot rod appeal. Retain the original intake, however, in case you ever might wish to return the car to a restored state.
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