1937 Buick Coupe / 455 Turbo Street Rod

Featured in this article is a 1937 Buick Coupe Street Rod. This is the perfect street rod to take to the cruise-ins and car shows not to mention the strip.Many automobile models during the 1930's became popular street rods and hot rods such as the 32 Ford Deuce Coupe.

1937 Buick Coupe Street Rod

Great Bargains During the 1930's

to the local cruise-ins and car shows

The automobile model year of 1937 offered some terrific values for buyers. An old article from the Chicago Tribune in the fall of 1936 stated that car buyers will see some of the best bargains ever offered for new automobiles. Buick offered some of the lowest prices ever that year. DeSoto itself advertised that their 1937 new car prices would be less than the year before.

Success for Buick in the 1930's

Buick was doing well in 1937 and offered some classic designs. It was the time when Buick put out some elegant automobiles. General Motors had a reputation for putting a lot of emphasis in body design. ome say that the 37 Buick was the best designed Buick of the 30's.

Starting in 1934 Buick came out with designs with smoother flowing lines. In fact, Buick designs throughout the mid to late 30's were among the best in the market. By the 1930s, Buick's market had been comprised of mostly upper class and professional people who had moved up from a Chevrolet, Oakland or Oldsmobile.

Customized 37 Buick Coupe

The 1937 Buick Street Rod

One vintage Buick that has had a lot of success and popularity as a street rod is the 37 Buick Coupe. The 1937 Buick 455 Turbo featured in this article is a street rod classic. Both the 1937 and 1938 model Buicks are very popular with restorers and rodders. Both the 37's and 38's were very similar in design with only minor changes. Some say that these designs with their classic lines represented some of the best put out by Buick.

A fine resource for street rods is the National Street Rod Association. The association lists many classified ads, a list of upcoming street rod events and much more. See their website at.....http://www.nsra-usa.com/

1937 Buick Stock Specifications

The 1937 Buick came with a 248 cubic inch valve-in-head straight eight stock engine. Buick was proud of their engines in 1937 and advertised them as smooth, quiet and high powered. Buick said that the valve-in-head design allowed more power from every gallon of gasoline. The Buick straight eight, in several variations, was produced from 1931 to 1953.

Dimensions of the Buick Coupe included a wheelbase of 122.0 inches, an overall length of 199.756 inches, a width of 72.0 inches and a height of 39.20 inches. Curb weight was 3,445 lbs.

The 1937 Buick's debuted a new type of carburetor, “the Aerobat”.Buick advertised this all position carburetor as offering thrift and better efficiency.

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The 455 Turbo Street Rod Engine

The 37 Buick featured in this article comes with a Big Block 455 Turbo engine. A 455 Turbo engine is really meant for one thing, and that's speed and power. This Big Block Buick engine was built from 1970 to 1976. The regular Buick 455 was rated at 350 horsepower. A 455 Stage 1 delivered 360 horsepower. Because of new federal emission regulations, horsepower was reduced in 1971. Beginning in 1972 the horsepower was rated at 250 due to the new measurement of horsepower as  SAE  net horsepower as opposed to a gross horsepower rating.Obviously this had the same effect on every American automaker's engines.

Beautiful dashboard

1937 Buick's As Collector Cars

In general all automobiles from the 1930's make excellent collector car candidates.

Buick street rods of the 1930's that are for sale will have a wide price range depending on overall condition, modifications, customization, and the type of engine installed.

As of this writing we see a 37 Buick Coupe Street Rod with custom wheels and a large 468 cubic inch V-8 with an 8-71 supercharger with an asking price of $26,000. We see another 37 Buick Century,  restored and rebuilt with a 320 cubic inch straight eight engine with an asking price of  $18,500. Also listed is a 1938 Buick 4 Door Sedan Rat Rod with a 454 BBC, 400 transmission for $5,900.

(Article and photos copyright Muscle Car Journal)

1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe Street Rod / Chevy 350

The automobile featured in this article is a 1932 Ford 3-Window Coupe Street Rod.  Ford models from the 1932's have long been popular as street rods and dragsters. Don't be surprised to see a modified 1932 Ford Coupe power packed with a 510 HP Supercharged 355 cubic inch SB Chevy engine. Our featured car in this article has a 350 cubic inch Chevy V-8 engine.

32 Ford Coupe with 350 Chevy V-8

Chevy 350 Engines

Chevrolet's small block V-8 made a name for itself in automotive engine history. The engine was considered technologically advanced when it was introduced in 1955.

There have been several variations of the Chevy small block V-8 . These highly popular engines have been put into a large variety of vehicles, including race cars, off-road trucks, boats, and  custom motorcycles. Today, you'll find many of these in classic Ford hot rods like the one featured here.

A real interesting bit of automotive history is that this small block Chevy V-8 of 1955 was not the first of it's kind. There were several thousand automobiles built with the little known Chevy Series D V-8 between the years 1917-1919. These were 288 cubic inch V-8's that delivered 55 horsepower. The Series D V-8 was also the first overhead valve V-8. It took some 35 years after this initial small scale introduction that the small block Chevy was born. Without a doubt this was the best engine series ever created.

A good look at the small block 350 Chevy engine

The 1932 Fords

The year 1932 found the country entering the Great Depression. Prices were down. The 1932 Ford automobiles were selling new at a price range of about $500 to $650.

Ford’s were mass produced for volume and as such they were essentially targeted to the middle and/or working classes. The high end cars during the early 1930′s either sold at high prices to those who could afford them or they didn’t sell at all. This is why the 1930′s represented the end for many of the higher priced automakers and caused a several key mergers between them.
result.

Every 1932 Ford whether it was a Model B or a Model 18 came with black fenders and wire wheels. The difference between the Model B and the Model 18 was in the engine. The Model 18's had V-8's and the Model B's had four cylinder engines.

Dashboard on customized 32 Ford Coupe

The Ford Model 18's

The 1932 Ford Model 18, also known as the Ford V-8, was the world's first low priced V-8 and was the result of a secret project between Henry Ford and a team of his engineers.

This project was spurred by two things. One was the onset of the Great Depression where something new was needed to sell cars but also at a low price. The second reason was simply heavy competition from Chevrolet for the lower priced market. The hope was that a higher powered V-8 at a low price would help sell cars.

The Model 18′s in 1932 were offered to the pubic in some eighteen different body styles. These styles included the 2 door cabriolet, the 2 door roadster, 4 door phaeton, two and four door sedans, four door ‘Woodie’ station wagon, two door Convertible Sedan, two door Victoria, Panel and Sedan Deliveries, 5-window coupe, and the 3-window Deluxe Coupe.

1932 Ford Coupe as Street Rods 

As mentioned above, 1932 Ford Coupes make very popular street rods. The frame was light and putting a V-8 into it made for a powerful hot rod or street rod. The most popular Ford hot rod is probably the 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe. These were relatively plentiful and cheap to buy during the 1940's. These were many of the cars that were raced on dirt tracks along the west coast and on the dry lake beds outside Los Angeles.


Most people accept the difference between a street rod and a hot rod depends on the car's parts. If the car has mostly original parts it's referred to as a hot rods. Hot rods are those going back all the way to the 1930's. Street rods are considered those cars built with mostly new and reproduction parts. The car featured in this article is a street rod.

Rear view of the customized 32 Ford

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1937 Buick Coupe / Turbo 455

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1932 Ford Coupe Kit Cars

The 1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe over the years has been modified into many type street rods. Modifications are all over the place. You'll see many fiberglass kit cars as well. In fact, several companies sell 1932 Ford street rod bodies.

Just to give you an idea of how large the industry is for 1932 Ford Coupe kits, including bodies and body parts, below is a partial list of suppliers as of this writing...

American Street Rods / Maryville, TN

Bear Fiberglass / Prescott, AZ

Brookville Roadster Company / Brookville, OH

Rod Action / Lincoln, NE

(Article and photos copyright Muscle Car Journal)