Military Classic Turned Beast

When you think of the Dodge M37, you think of an American classic—a real war hero. In the past, these vehicles were forgotten, but every so often you’ll find them in museums and classic car shows. You’ll also find them rotting away in backyards across the country, unfortunately. Heck, they’re still even spotted driving around small Midwest towns, which is a refreshing sight.

Well, if you thought any of those were accurate about this 1953 M37—you thought wrong. This is John Jordan’s ride, and his classic has been formed into something much greater than what the military drove back in the 50s and 60s. I’m sure the soldiers from that era would have preferred to drive this vehicle instead of what they had at the time. Nonetheless, this rig was built by Allied Fab out of Washougal, Washington. John wanted to build something that was unique and capable, but his main reason was to GO FAST!

We will get to the heartbeat of this monster soon enough, but for now we will start on the outside and work our way into this beautiful machine. Starting off in the front, you can see it has a custom aluminum grille that still pays tribute to the M37 grille. The headlights? Who needs those? This rig is fully equipped with a Baja Designs light bar behind the grille that really puts some light out there. The M37 is also sporting up to five Holley Performance LED lights up top in a custom rack to help get some distance when John is catching higher speeds in the desert and forests. Some bodywork has been done to this rig to help fit and make everything look original, such as the custom-rolled door panels and fenders and the custom rear bed panels that really look cool alongside the massive tires.

Now, as I was saying about John wanting to go fast—his heavy foot wouldn’t be enough to do the trick alone. He needed a motor to help make his need for speed a reality. This absolute machine of a build was paired with a Texas Speed 427ci LS7 with 11.3:1 compression, an MSD intake manifold, a stock 90 mm throttle body, and custom 3-inch long tube headers. Hearing this rig fire up in person is a treat in itself—it sounded fantastic out in the dunes and across the open desert. Paired up with this impressive motor is a custom Circle D 6L90 transmission with a 3,500 stall and CBR rear-mounted coolers to keep all that power cool and breathing right. Also connected to the transmission is an NP205 transfer case, and releasing those ponies to the axles is a 13.50 front and 14.10 rear driveshaft—beefy and lightweight!

This rig is running a full set of fabricated axle housings to really be able to take all the abuse John can throw at it. The front drive axle is from Spidertrax, and the rear axle is a custom Allied Fab housing with Gearworks 5.43 gears in the front and Tubeworks 5.43 gears in the rear. Keeping those axles and gears all locked up while in the harsh rock trails, you can find an industry-standard ARB Air Locker in the front and spool locker in the rear. Now, all of this tough gear is very heavy-duty and made to take abuse, but with all of this weight, you need reliable brakes that won’t fail on you. With that being said, this Dodge M37 is running Wilwood 6-piston brakes all around, along with 17-inch rotors and a matching Wilwood master cylinder to keep all of the braking components fluent with one another.

The custom frame was designed by Allied Fab out of 2-inch DOM material to ensure its structure and toughness in all situations. Structure also needs stability, and to help keep this rig stable on the rocks, in the sand, and through the whoops, you’ll find 2.0 14-inch coilovers and 3.0 14-inch 4-tube bypass shocks in the front. Alongside this front-end suspension, you’ll find 2.0 14-inch coilovers and 16-inch 4-tube bypass shocks in the rear to allow for a little more travel and flex all around. Outside of those big shocks are massive Maxxis Trepador tires in a staggering 42×14.50R17 size wrapped tightly around powdercoated Method 304 beadlocks for a truly unique look.

Hopping into the cockpit, you’ll find that John is running a set of OMB race seats, a custom aluminum dash, shifter, gauges, a PCI Race Radios unit, and a Lowrance GPS system to keep him on track when exploring the roads untraveled. This machine has all the bells and whistles and tons of custom work all around—it is by far one of my favorite-looking rigs I’ve ever covered in my time of writing and capturing photos for this magazine. It’s crazy, unique, and something you have never seen before—plus it’s AMERICAN! How can you get any more American than building a retired military rig into a custom-built rig that you can wheel and have fun in? That’s the life we all dream of.

My hat goes off to Jason of Allied Fab for building such a badass rig and to John for the vision he had. We thank these guys for bringing this M37 to King of the Hammers and putting on a hell of a show for me to shoot—this crew was an awesome group of down-to-earth enthusiasts. We are excited for what other builds Jason and his guys have in store for the future! Until those days come, always remember to tread on!