We had a lot of the same issues as I've read here with the 1958 M37. After taking it to an engine machine shop, I think we have it fixed!
The main problem that we had was that the truck would not idle well at all. You could smell the fuel in the exhaust, and the carb was flooding. We adjusted the valves, checked the compression, checked the vacuum, all of the normal things. The vacuum was reading low at idle and would jump to normal just above idle, and the truck would drive fine. Also, the idle would speed up just a tick, and smooth right out, if you pulled the choke out about 1/2 inch. This was the giveaway to the machine shop. They advised that the idle circuit on the carb was too small. This causes the carb to pull fuel from the main jet because it's starving to stay at idle. The result is a flooding situation. They opened up the idle circuit a fraction and the all of the issues are gone. The truck starts, ideas, and drives like new.