Hot Rods Official 1959 Chevy Apache Build Thread

heyyyy great! Thanks Flingdingo I appreciate it! I now know that all of the wiring is correct, the headlight switch is working how it should, and now I can move on to making it look decent and finishing it up.

 

Well no picture worthy progress tonight, I just flared the last couple brake lines around the rear of the truck. I have decided since I am so close to being able to drive this thing I will just try to finish up the brake system and lube up the u-joints and service the rear end.

I mean, if I can manage to get the time in to do it. The GoodGuys car show is in Indy this weekend and I may stop in for the swap meet. I work from 8-5 then a 1.5 hour drive back home on Thursday. Friday is a half day at work. My dad is driving from Oklahoma to Indy non-stop on business for one night to see me, the truck, and his friends So hopefully I can have it so it will go around the block. I would really enjoy that. I will have pictures up soon of more progress!

 

Well it has been decided... my dad wants to take this truck around the block with me.... I will make sure the brakes are in working order for Saturday. I just purchased several fuel filters for my power steering unit return line to remove all of the sediment from the new unit. The previous owner didn't plug the holes after he installed either the power steering unit or the gearbox, instead he jamed them full of paper towels and they just absorbed water and sediment to the top of the gearbox. When I ran it for 30 seconds it took a completely clean filter and basically turned it black. So... I bought 2 more and hopefully that will do it. I might just keep running fluid into it and letting it drain into a pan instead of recirculating. Then when I am done I will just make it a regular return line without a filter.

That is tomorrow and so is lubing up the u-joints. I will do most of the brake checks then as well after work Then come Saturday morning I run to the scrap yard, make some money, come home, break in the motor and hopefully I will be able to drive it around the block with my dad! It is a very exciting time for me... I am so close to being able to go to a car show!!!!!! I will post a video of the break-in for the motor as well as several on the voyage around the block. So stay tuned!

 

Okay I just flushed my power steering pump out and boy was that filthy (2 clear fuel filters turned black, the third just barely was dirty). I got it topped off, I have 10 quarts of ATF in this 700r4 so far... 1.5 quarts to go until its "full" I ran it for 30 seconds after running it for short bursts to flush the power steering system. I do need to top off the coolant though... for some reason the electric fan hasnt gone on yet, so we will see about that... I think its just because the coolant is low. Everything else looks great though!

Oh... and Boy this thing sounds HEALTHY... It will be a joy breaking it in tomorrow morning. I will post the video tomorrow.

 

I got it tuned in with my Dad today, I need to break it in here still, but it was a first start up and it sounds great!

 

I went through my brake lines today, serviced the rear end, went to go and lube up the u joints, but cant get access to them so I might drop the drive shaft out of there and see if I can lube them up while its out... I tried a couple different ends with the grease gun and just cant get it in the correct way... I guess I need to try a couple things to see if I can manage to do it while the drive shaft is in the car.

Short of that I need to focus on the small tranny leak coming from the front somewhere... that tranny I think has been sitting a while, so I will have to see what I can do about that.. maybe it just needs to be run a little. I need to go through the front lines and make sure everything is tight and fill it up with dot3. The good news... I will be driving it soon. Too much stuff happened this past week/weekend and I wasn't able to get it driving, but my Dad loved sharing that moment of starting that thing up for more than 20 seconds. The first thing he said was "wow this thing sounds wicked! I am so proud of you" .... I am glad I got to spend a day with him, It makes you feel good when you share something like that, you know?

 

Well, I have made sure all of the brake lines are tight, I put some brake fluid in it and no leaks so far, I need to bleed them the rest of the way. The rear wheel cylinders worry me though because they look like they have leaked before. I will see if the do in fact leak before replacing them tomorrow, once everything has settled a while. I also found out where my tranny was leaking from... funny story... I thought I had tightened that pan down.... oh well, its tight now and not leaking. I was happy about that actually, I thought it was leaking from the front main seal. Dodged a bullet there. Still waiting on a nice day to break this sucker in... I have yet to have one.

 

I got the motor broken in today, boy does this thing run great. This power steering pump is an issue though. It seems like it has sat too long (was brand new, but I have no idea how long it sat before I got the truck) It makes a hell of a racket when turning the wheel (more than it should) I found that the hide away tube for the electrical can't be within about 1 foot of the headers or it will eventually heat up and melt. Other than that it runs a little too hot while stationary at about 3000 rpms, which I believe is normal seeing as there isnt any airflow. So it has been a good day today, sometime tomorrow or the next day it looks like I am going to try to fix a couple leaks in the brake line and see if I can get it so it will go around the block!

 

Its been a couple days since an update. I have decided this week to go get my bed blasted along with the bed cross sills. Also, my brakes are giving a very big problem everywhere, so I suppose I will be working on these for a while. I will post some pictures of what I am doing sometime soon!

 

Looking good! Where did you get your radiator? My stocker radiator has started leaking and I'm wondering whether I ought to get it recored or just buy a new one. I'm leaning toward new.

 

I went to get my stock radiator recored, but the cheapest place I found was waaay to high and more expensive than the one I found. I bought mine from Evilbay and from a seller named suncoastdeals out of florida. They actually warehouse these radiator for Summit Racing. It was 180 USD to my door. hope this helps! let me know if you have any spare parts

 

Thanks for the info. The price was right on that radiator. Are you happy with the quality?

Let me know what parts you're looking for. I don't have a lot of stuff but who knows?

 

Great quality, I am really happy with it. No complaints other than you have to cut your own holes for it to mount.

I am looking for front right fender (eyebrow or "fender cap"), rear left fender or enough for me to cover this one that has the fender cutout, rear bumper/brackets, tail lights, seat belts, good interior door handles/cranks, and so much more lol

 

Well I got my brake problem figured out. I guess they must have used a massive grinder to buzz some corners off this caliper for a 81 chevy truck (astro vans use the same caliper) When they did buzz it they must have heated up that particular side something fierce because it warped the seat of it and it looked like a train wreck. so a $14 rotor and a $17 brake hose did the trick on that side, I am getting a new brake hose for the other side because of the same problem with the hose not seating against the caliper and that should fix everything with the front brakes. next on the list is making sure that crap is tight then going through and working on the rear to make sure everything checks out there. It looks like I may need to replace the wheel cylinders on both sides. pics to come soon

 

great build!! I want a 58/59 apache in the worst way!!

 

Thank you

More news on the truck. I fixed the brake leaks on the truck for now. Hopefully 4 hours got something done. I also bled the brakes, but will probably have to do it again. I drained the oil and replaced the filter from the breaking in of the motor. Tomorrow I am going to get some anti-friction oil additive and will be putting the new oil in tomorrow. After that I will lube up the u joints and take a gander at my steering one more time before getting it ready to go around the block. I am getting close!

 

well I finally got sick of these damned pre-flared brake lines and went and bought a 25 foot roll of steel brake line and flared them myself. Not leaking a drop now, go figure. I need to focus on the front left caliper, which is still leaking... I think once the calipers get heated up and everything that they will seal up the leak that I have. I might just look into getting more crush washers to finalize this thing. Who knows. I should be able to bleed the brakes for the final time soon, so we will see

 

Well, I got the front caliper to stop leaking finally.. those smaller crush washers are garbage. I got a nice big flat one and no leaks... go figure. So I partially bled the brakes all the way around. I said partially because I didnt want to make too big of a mess, plus I need to do a little tweeking to the brake pedal.

So once that was done I fired it up to make sure everything was running right and to test my brake booster to see what was up with that and boy oh boy that thing is smooth as butter... I dont have vacuum assist on my plymouth and boy is that a scary ride.

So I didnt feel like getting into brake work anymore because I have been screwing with it for like a week and a half. So I decided I wanted to get the bumper out of the way for the time being and get the frame rails straightened out on the front so I can mount it up. The following pictures are what you can do with just a torch, a hammer, and a piece of wood. Keep in mind both sides looked the same and the one I straightened out isnt completed, but is close.

 

Try cranking the steering lock to lock several times to work the air out of the system. A lot of times that's all it takes to quiet 'em down...

 

I will try that tomorrow and see what it does. thanks for the info blacksheep

 

Well I got a bunch of patch panels for the truck in. cab corners, patch panel for passenger lower rear, an eye brow patch panel and some inner front a pillar patch panels to start on the body work. I am having the entire bed (rails and all) sent down to be blasted and primed tomorrow. So I can actually have a bed on the vehicle! There is a lot of body work to be done on the bed so we will see how that goes. Pictures are to come soon.

 

I got the truck plated! So all I need to do is get the rest of the truck in order to be drivable and street legal and then I can take a cruise in it! I also straightened out the frame rails so the bumper can now mount without any hassles. Some pics attached of that. Also, I got my cab corner patch panels in and started working on them since the bed is down at the blasters for 2 weeks. I have that long to get both of them done. Also, I have had a problem with the ignition module not working so I have to troubleshoot that too. Attached are a couple pictures of what the cab corners are now with hunks of bondo going at least and inch thick in some places. Soon after the bed is back in and I get to working on that I will go ahead and take the entire front clip and doors down to be blasted and primed and then the body work resumes!

 

I think I have been going at this whole body work thing all wrong.... If I were to just pour bondo down the nook's and cranny's I dont think I would need to buy any patch panels.


I guess I will just have to continue finding gems in there. I did find a 22 bullet in the mess... interesting if I do say so myself.

 

my face =

 

I got most of the bad metal cut out. I need to do a little bit more work and then put on my patch panels for the inner cab corner and then I slap on my outer cab corner and she's done... I will need to sand blast this puppy on this side before putting it all back together however.

 

Well It looks like the passenger side isnt nearly as bad as far as the cab corner. I went ahead and butchered the other side to see what I had to deal with and it looks like the bondo work was a little less. So I will go ahead and tear that side apart while I am at it and will finish up doing the inner cab corner on the drivers side tuesday or wednesday... then I can just slap on the outer cab corner and be done with the drivers side. I also get my entire bed back this week. Then I start on that body work.... Then I will have the truck at least in one piece for the most part!

 

Inner cab corners will be finished tomorrow, rust inhibitor applied, and the outer cab corner welded on tomorrow as well. I went ahead and tore apart the other side and it looks like I will be needing to get an inner cab corner for the passenger side. That side is too far gone to save.

 

It looks like my bed has been sandblasted and is ready to be picked up. I will be doing that tomorrow and be adding pics. Once the bed is in one piece and some of the body work finished on it then I will take the front clip and doors down to get blasted. I am getting close to getting it painted! well closer...

 

Picture of my drivers side cab corner nearing completion. The passenger side inner cab corner is in the mail. I got my new hei distributor too. I also got my entire bed back from the blasters and it actually didnt turn out that bad. Since I have to wait on the inner cab corner for the right side of the truck I am just going to weld my stainless corner strips on my bed sides so I can finally put the bed together and get it out of the way.

 

I just got back inside from cutting up the inner and outer cab corner to prepare for the new sheet metal I bought for installation. I got everything finished minus welding up the rotted holes and flanging the cab for the panel to fit on top of it. I am getting pretty close to being done on these. Next up is the bed