Hello all Dodgiac afficionados. Could anyone confirm if Dodge were still producing their standard chassis with flat-faced cowl in 1938?

Dodge Pickups History & Restoration book by Don Bunn & Tom Brownell published in 1991 shows picture in book is of 1933 HC model including all fenders, hood trim etc on standard X-type frame as used on passenger vehicles. Described as being lowest priced commercial vehicel selling for $340. I assume that the buyer would have arranged for a cab & tray to be fitted to the chassis & cowl.

I've just acquired a 1938 1/2 ton pickup that appears to have been made with the flat-faced cowl. Can anyone help to shed some light on this. The seller claims that the vehicle was owned/used by the Military. Were Dodge supplying these cheap options to them to be fitted out?

All opinions on this welcome...

I own a late Second Series '35 KCL flat faced cowl and chassis with a custom van body (wood framing with metal covering) installed in Toronto by Smith Brothers Motor Bodies Ltd. I think I have somewhat deciphered the coding used by Dodge to denote different body styles. My cowl and chassis has a body number tag with 'B-1-0' on it and I believe this means 'flat faced cowl'. I have records from a 1939 Dodge truck that shows a body number starting with 'M-1-0' and it is a custom body on a flat faced cowl and chassis. So it would follow that Dodge would have been making flat faced cowl and chassis right through 1938 to atleast 1939. Does your body number plate start with a code like this? The plate is a very small aluminum plate about 2" long screwed on the firewall just under the larger 'DODGE TRUCKS' plate. It should end with an 'LR' (line registration number)like LR2324. This last number is the actual body sequence number. Can we have a photo of your truck? These custom jobs are very rare. I only know of 4, mine and 3 others. One is the '39 pickup truck in Sweden with a 'crew cab', one is a copy of a 1933 Dodge car on a KCL chassis in Canberra Australia and the other is a close copy of a Cantrell station wagon. The Cantrell station wagons were made out of 'windshield cowl' and chassis ,M-2-0, but this station wagon is made out of a flat face cowl. It's in South America. (Flat faced cowl means the Dodge windshield with a 6" roof section ,and 'A' posts, is deleted. There was also a 'cab and chassis',M-1-2 and M-2-2 in '39.) This makes it yours in New Zealand,mine in Canada,the one in Sweden,the one in South America and the "1933" car in Australia. I think the survival rate is so low because the wood rotted and the metal panels fell off and they were taken to the wreckers many years ago.

Thanks for the info DodgeKCL. Although worn the digits on the ID tag described are K-1-0-LR1748.

I have a couple of photos but at the moment the technical challenge of putting them on the posting needs to be overcome (I'll carry on working on it).

It would seem though that I've have some luck with condition of the pick-up. The timber in the cab is now rotten and needs to be replaced, at least there is sufficient remnants to take patterns off.
Steel in the cab is quite reasonable, a little serious rust along the lower doors & cowl area but not much else.

Can anyone point me in the direction of finding information about the correct timber used in construction ?
Make life really easy and send me patterns & instructions...
Heck, while you're at it come to NZ and restore the neat old girl for me.

Thanks folks I'll try to get photos on soon.

Mine had suffered the same dry rot but it was still in one piece so as you say I just rebuilt it using the old pieces as patterns. My truck used all kinds of wood. Mass produced cars used mostly ash but it seems the truck body makers weren't fussy. So I've used maple,cherry,ash,oak and just about any seasoned hard wood I could find for a reasonable price. You have an uphill battle on your hands. I've been at mine for years and I'm just now finishing up. For instance hard wood will not accept a wood screw without having a pilot hole drilled first both for the shank of the screw and a smaller one for the threads. Hard wood has the consistency of metal and has to be worked on as such. I went through quite a learning curve. But it will be a 'one of' when I'm finshed. If you can send me your e-mail address I'll send you photos of my 'project'. I can't figure out how to put them on this site either. You can contact me through bobpat@nexicom.net

Thanks for the e-mail and photos.

Bodies were normally framed with ash. It has a consistency between hardwood and softwood and is not too hard to work.

They would use oak sometimes where extra strength and rot resistance was required such as the sills that went on top of the frame and supported the whole body.

There might be a custom wood working shop near you that has the skills and equipment to help out. There used to be a wood working shop here in my small town, that made doors and windows to order. They could work wonders with wood.

I guess mine is '38 flat-faced cowl. there seems to be weldings just above dash on windshield posts.

Give me your email and we could trade pics. Mine is mika(dot)jaakkola(at)mac(dot)com

I found some pictures from a finnish book called Fiude (means car in spoken 30's finnish language) I think I must share!!

These are from then finnish Dodge dealer.
There seems to be several '38 Dodge passenger cars, BUT LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THOSE 2 PICTURES and tell me what you see!!!



I'd bet the other one is my car!!

dodginthewife
i dont know what part of NZ you are in but for woodwork use southland beech

Yes it's a flat faced cowl and chassis on it way to have a body installed. I wonder what it ended up as? (My avatar is now a photo of a HC/KC flat faced cowl and chassis (body type B-1-0); what my van looked like when it left Hamtramck on it's way to Toronto to have it's custom body installed.)

DodgeKCL, do you got any pics of your car?
I'd bet the chassis is my car? the crew cab in my signature.
I think there could not have been many those '38 chassis's delivered to Finland.