Owned by Ben Allred "BrokeBurb" Bolter # 19186 Utah

1959 Chevy Apache Suburban

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From Ben :

Hello everyone. This is my 1959 Chevy Apache Suburban.

My friend is in a truck club, and a buddy of his was driving through Delta, Utah last year when he spotted an old Dodge in some guy's back field. While he was back there looking around, he spotted the Burb sitting -- flat tired and wheel deep in the sand. He told my friend about it, who was very interested. I went down with him and we trailered it home to his place.

He had a large number of other projects he was working on. ( Ben's friend is Eric Radack ... and he does have a lot of projects - from a 1931 Model A Ford to a 1986 Chevy 4 x 4 - and probably others. We have a few of the stories in our Gallery; others Eric has links to pictures. Check this listing we have from 2013! )

After a short while, and the generosity of his awesome heart, it ended up in my possession.

It's a pretty unique truck as it was formerly a special order school vehicle (paint code: SPEC) used by Delta High School through most of the first chunk of its life. Try as I might, I have never seen pictures of any other Apache Suburbans like this that were school vehicles. All the other yellow vehicles were a different shade of yellow for those years, and only the school vehicles got the bright yellow paint job this did (color normally available at the dealership). I plan on keeping it that color (I like it! ~ Editor)

In the 70s, it was picked up by the second owner who had it running until it was last registered in 1979. From then, it sat in the same spot until my friend purchased it.

Some air was put into the 35+ year old tires and the 'Burb was loaded onto a trailer. Surprisingly, the tires are still holding air almost a year after being filled (though they are in no way road worthy).

My friend got the truck running, and changed out the brake lines. It wasn't really charging the battery at all, so we swapped in a newer alternator, and with some fidgeting got that working beautifully.

We got all the lights wired up and working as well. I had to clean out the gas tank, but it's been a pretty decent running vehicle. (Although I don't actually drive it yet, as I still need to get it registered, and get new tires on it.)

I plan on replacing the Rochester carb with a different one, as the Rochester is being difficult on me, even after a rebuild.

The truck is running though. I got it registered recently, and was driving it around until the rear end went out. I replaced the rear end just last week and drove it around again. I need to do some carburetor adjustment to really get it running great. I've put around 200 miles in it since I got it though.

Body work is pretty shot. I'm still undecided if I want to really go all in and fix it up, or just keep the character it's developed over a rough life.

I also picked up a 1962 Aristocrat Lil' Loafer travel trailer that I'm going to fix up to match and tow around.

Glad to have a truck in the amazing Stovebolt Gallery again. I had a 1960 Chevy Apache 10 in there from 2004-2009 -- sold that truck, and sorry to report that it didn't have a happy ending.

Ben

Keep track of the restoration project details in the DITY Gallery and check for new photos to the Photobucket album. Any and all questions welcome! If you post in the forum, others can share in the discussion. Thanks ~ Editor

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