The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1959 Chevy Apache 31 "Ernest"

I know that all of this doesn't have much if anything to do with building my 59', yet in a lot of ways it does. I just want to share a little with all of you. Now a little more on Dad and my "Truck Problem".

While Dad had many trucks while I was growing up only a couple really burned into my memory. The 56' 3200 was the earliest one, I'm not sure if it was anyone one thing that set that truck apart or if it was all the little things just added together. I can remember Dad adding Corvette style side pipes to it, hey it was the 70's. The low rumble was a thing of beauty, the little 283 would growl through those pipes and make it presence known. I loved the sound of those pipes so much that later when I came across a set of vintage Doug's side pipes I just had to buy them, as of now they are still in the original box just waiting for something. I loved the way the the clutch and brake would thump against the toe board when released, it was one of the many sounds that these old trucks have that just defines them. The 56' had rattles, they all rattled back then, but laying up on the bunk and looking out the front windshield the rattles seemed to just be in tune.

I lost my Dad when he was just 43, I never really had the chance spin wrenches with him or listen to him swap lies with his friends. I was 18, up till then he and I would work side by side, of course at that time I knew everything and he just couldn't understand. The trucks were different, they were what even for a brief time would bring us together. He taught me to rebuild brakes and install a clutch, there was even a time that I would get to help on the Drag Car. The 56' was used as a pull truck for the 56' 210 that my Dad bracket raced then. The 210 was nasty, straight axle, 4 speed and a big block, he campaigned the car all over So. California in the early 70's. I was exposed to some of the greatest people I would ever meet, I just didn't know it then.

We were at Lyons Dragway when the the rear-end on the truck decided to quit. I fetched tools all afternoon while Dad and his friends pull the rear apart and preformed open heart surgery there in the pits. Once it was done we were again on the road and headed home. Dad floated a valve on the 210 and went out in the second round. The 56' truck served as a resting place for a grease covered kid with a windshield view of the world. I would wake up just as we turned into the yard and Mom would tote me to the tub and bed.

I don't really remember when Dad sold the 56' 3200, it was replaced with a 60' Apache (learned to dive on that one), that was replaced with a 70" GMC Sierra Longhorn (I would get to drive that in High School). The last truck my Dad ever had.