VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions 1937 Chevy Truck, Original shocks Question

I'm starting to pull off all the things I'm not going to be using on this 37 chevy 1/2 ton truck.

I was looking at the original friction, or knee action shocks that these things come with. They look to be in pretty good shape.

Are these worth rebuilding at all? Haven't looked at the prices of rebuild kits for these but I imagine they are cheaper than modern shocks. (Possibly?)

Anyways, are these shocks really even effective when rebuilt properly? Or is it a waste of time .

I'd like this truck to ride nice with the original straight axle and leaf springs for now and want it to look as original as possible. But if the old shocks don't do much I'd rather put modern shocks on it and call it a day.

They are hydraulic shocks and it's quite expensive to rebuild them. I had mine rebuilt but still had a violent shimmy problem. I replaced my lever action shocks on the front with modern style tube shocks which solved the problem. Other folks have no issues with the OEM shocks so it's not a one size fits all issue. My issue could have partly been that the Master car has single action shocks. I believe the truck also came with single action shocks. If yours are in good condition and the ride is acceptable I'd just make sure they have oil in them and leave them alone. If you need to add oil, hydraulic jack oil works well.

Tiny and I have had various discussions about these single acting shocks. He is correct that in some cases they work just fine. I agree because mine did as long as I could keep oil in them.

They are relatively expensive to have rebuilt, It costs about $200 @ the last time I checked plus shipping both ways. I installed new seals on the front shocks on my ‘37 Master coupe. It did not fix the problem because the portion of the shaft where the seal operates was so worn and pitted. That is why the rebuild is so expensive. They spray weld and machine the shaft to give a new sealing surface.

I did what Tiny did. I converted the front end to tubular shocks. Except the shocks I got from Jake and Pete’s are not stiff enough. I sometimes still have the steering shimmy problem due to axle oscillation. So I will be installing stiffer shocks. The conversion kit and 2 new longer u-bolts cost me about 2/3 of rebuilding one shock.

Tony? Who's Tony?

Thank you. Fumble fingers at work!!

I added them on my 1936 GMC and it made the world of difference in the handling. Expensive to rebuild but once done they"re done.