1958 Chevy ApacheStella"Start to finish w/upgrades"
Turned 65 this year with a hankerin' to find a 1958 Apache project to take from start to finish. It's been 45+ years since I have been into car projects. The last project I didn’t get to finish as career stuff got in the way. Then marriage, kids and then life started winding down.
First pix of the new project is when my cousin and I trailered it home from New Mexico to Illinois.
A little more of the story:
My last car projected was a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda in 1980. I had just completed a 383, built from direct connection parts and a fortune in machine work paid for at the $3-5 per hour I earned at that time. I had just started it on open headers for its first run when I took a job a thousand miles away. I had an engine and direct connection torque flight and a body that needed a ton of work.
I ended up crating the engine and tranny, sold the body for parts and moved. A year later i sold the engine and tranny. Goodbye dream!
Back in those days, we painted cars in our garages with lacquer. We shared hoists, lifts and stands among a small group of guys.
As I looked at this Apache, it will get a complete tear down to the frame. It will need cab corners, lower doors, lower fenders and whatever other old bodywork I find under the two color changes it has had.
I plan to do away with the under the driver master brake cylinder and add power steering. The wife will probably make me add A/C. All the glass is cracked or otherwise shot. The front end needs work.
This truck was partially dismantled when the owner passed. I picked it up from another owner who decided to pass on all the work needed. It came with a late 70’s era 350 and the original Muncie 3 speed and a converted floor shifter.
Engine and tranny came home in the bed of the Apache. I know the engine has already been rebuilt once and it was out because of blowing smoke. My plan at this point is to drop a crate small block /auto tranny combo in but who knows. I don't need an engine tranny right now.
I started dismantling the bed as the front end will be easy cuz it's all been off already. I’m halfway thru the 80 plus bed wood screws. Some unscrew, those that don't get the head drilled off.
I have so much going in my head right now that I don't want to write about. Gotta get her apart to know what's next.
I plan to get it down to the cab on the frame and then hope to start steel work while the doors are still hanging. Once the welding and body work on the cab is done, I will remove the doors and pull the cab so I can get at the cab bottom and then address frame clean up.
After that, I hope to fix doors and fenders while I rebuild the front end and decide to do with the rear end.
I think I’m looking at two years to get paint on it. With all the changes in paint tech, I gotta figure out what i can spray new steel patches and other bodywork with to keep it from rusting. It needs to be rattle cans for this as the temporary spray booth construction is down the road.
At least everything is stored in doors.
I attached another pic taken after I unloaded her into my shop area. Plenty of barns to store body parts inside.
This post is long and I’m tired of fat fingering my phone.
