M37 hood question

oilleaker1 · Post by **oilleaker1** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:03 pm

I've seen M37's with a hand loop rod to help open the hood. Mine does not have this option. Was this a FD or post military addition or what? It sure makes sense when opening the hood. Anyone know about this? Thanks, John

Post by **wesk** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:36 pm

Like this one on mine?

A few of the photos I have of M37's have one.

Zane · Post by **Zane** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:56 pm

this was an mwo on early trucks and was standard on later ones, they also added a hood latch in the center as an mwo

oilleaker1 · Post by **oilleaker1** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:50 pm

Wes, yes that's it. When looking at others, it does seem that they were later production units. Without it, you have to take your thumbs and push up on the hood edge at the front. I like the handle. You could make one easily. Thanks for the info.! John

Post by **wesk** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:47 pm

Zane,
Oddly enough it seems most of my photos without the handle are late M37's and M37B1's. Just how late was it before the factory started installing the handle?

Zane · Post by **Zane** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:34 pm

Wes after thinking about it this might be a marine corps feature as it seems all of mine with the handle are ex marine m37's, im not sure on the exact date for the handles

DJ · Post by DJ » Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:48 pm

My 1961 has one and it's still in army colors and numbers, looks like original paint.

DJ

Zane · Post by **Zane** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 2:27 pm

it must have been an mwo then i cant find the mwo at the moment , g741.com has production changes but not all the mwo's listed according to g741.com the hood safety catch was put into production in 1952 and i know for certain that an mwo existed to modify pre 52 trucks with a hood safety catch because i have one of those trucks that they crudely cut a hole for the catch to stick through, however i am not certain about the date of the mwo for the hood handle.

Post by **wesk** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:10 pm

Checked the Cabell Garbee web site. The hood handle is a USMC thing.

http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/usmcmodifications.htm

oilleaker1 · Post by **oilleaker1** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 6:53 pm

I just looked at 14 M37's for sale and 1/3 of them had the handle. None looked alike. Some had smaller rod than others for the handle. Could have been a user installed option. So, were the Marines the first???? This is going way further than I thought. --------Is a nice modification though. Makes sense!

John

Post by **wesk** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:29 pm

Looks like the USMC were the only ones to document the mod. The rest are copycatted and probably in most cases post military applied.