The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1960 Chevy C10 - "A Family Heirloom"

Getting back to the '60 Apache. I have been working a lot on "Thor" these past few months, that's not saying the '60 hasn't had some work done to it , I just haven't posted it. We continued to blow the Truck apart and have actually gotten the cab separated from the chassis. The bottom of the cab is as solid as the day it was made, the upper "A" pillars not so much. The frame has some serious issues in a couple of places. The crossmember where the rear trailing arms mount it s paper thin. The rear frame section behind the spring mounts is all but gone.

The plan going forward is to start with the frame and suspension, make some repairs and upgrdes as we go. Being that the '60 was the Frist year for the new design there aren't a lot of parts readily available for the suspension. The torsion bar front end was a two year run ending in '62, the rear suspension with coil springs carried over to later years. We made a plan, disc brakes on the front, power steering, and a T5 transmission. I was glad Linda decided to stay with a manual transmission, the over drive is the way to go. I had a T5 in the shop, it has been since relocated to Lugnutz for him to do his magic with. We will replace or rebuild everything as we go. The '60 being a transition year had some unique features, a hydraulic clutch, dual feed master cylinder.

Linda and I went to the Moultrie Spring Swap Meet and found most of what we needed for the suspension and brakes. A vendor actually had a 6 lug disc conversion kit that works with the torsion bar front end. The spindles are different that the later style coil spring design. We purchased an aluminum radiator, tailgate, front bed panel, lower front fender patch, inner cowl panel, upper windshield panel(inner and outer). We were not able to get the roof panel as it needed to be ordered ahead of the Swap Meet. We had a truck load when we left.

I have ordered many other parts as well. I bought a master cylinder mount and power steering box mount form Custom Fab (Lugnutz suggested them). I ordered a stainless steel brake line kit from Inline Tube. Many other small pieces and parts. Once I repair the rear frame section and trailing arm crossmember the frame will be mounted on a rotisserie (on loan from Lugnutz). it will get blasted clean to epoxy primed and sealed. The chassis needs to be together prior to getting started on the cab and bed. Lots of things to do.