Tyler Bolles' 1959 Chevrolet 1/2-Ton Apache

Hi all!

      This is my '59 Apache. I wasn't looking for a truck, or another vehicle for that matter, but I found her at a trailer park in Commerce, Georgia. I paid the old man who owned it $900 for her. I had no way to get it back to Vermont (where I live) other than drive it. So, after parking it at a friend's house, I headed back to Vermont to take care of some business and register the truck. A very loyal friend and I drove back down to Georgia, spent a day checking things out and greasing things here and there, and then headed for Vermont.

     So, four loooonnnnng days of driving, eight GALLONS of oil, and a good hunk of the ol' protective ozone layer later, the truck and my buddy (tailing me in another car) and I arrived in Vermont. The trip, to my relief, went smooth and without incident. My Dad says, "It's amazing what you can do when you don't know you can't."

      I say,"Go little 235!"

      I drove it for a summer, and it sat for a couple years in the yard (oh how it hurt to see it, sitting covered in snow). Now, I finally am making some progress. It's moved to the cement slab in the yard, and it's coming a part (a little), and being cleaned up.

      I don't know much about what I'm doing (this website is awsome, though!), and I have no money. So this is a functional, partial, and incremental rebuild. The engine (the original 235) is out, machined, and naked in the garage, surrounded by new parts to go in it.

      I want to have Mike at Kansas Kustoms do up my exhaust manifold when I get the dough. The rust is coming off (to clean solid metal!! -- mostly) little by little with an angle grinder and a light touch, and primer is going on. I hope the engine will be in and the hood back on by winter, and it will roll under its own power again by early spring. A paint job is in order by early summer. I don't want a museum piece, I just want to keep this bit of history proudly on the road for years, and I think I can do that respectably, with limited resources and a bunch of elbow grease.  

      These pictures are of the truck, and me doing stuff to it ... ripping things off of the engine to make it easier to pull; spraying undercoating on the cleaned and primed floorboard (hey, it's not a resto, I just want it be functional).

      Any advice would be great, guys!

Thanks!

Tyler Bolles,
Charlotte, VT

     Tyler, Thanks for creating a great submission! Cool truck and great write-up! ~~ Curator