The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1958 Chevy Apache 3800 Project Truck

Here's my '58 3800 that has the 9 foot bed option on it. I bought it a few months ago in hopes of breathing some life back into it!

From what I can tell, it had a rough life as a farm truck. Bad rust, bondo, mis-matched parts, and a few accidents here and there. The hood and passenger side fender are off a '59 truck, and I think the cab is not original as well. The 235 might be toast, oil smells kinda burnt...

I've dissembled most of the truck and picked up a few parts for it already. I have a couple engine choices in mind for it, but that'll be down the road. Thinking about lowering it just a bit too, like flip the rear axle and put a drop axle up front.

The pics here show how it looked before disassembly, and its current state.

Like the loooong boxes- not too sure myself about lowering a heavy duty truck, but what you do isn’t up to me.
What are you thinking for the drivetrain?
Have fun.

I'm on the fence about lowering the truck, it won't be too much of a drop if I do so. I plan on using the truck as a truck once its running and driving and legal.

As for the drivetrain, I'm not sure yet, currently doing some research to see what other rear ends could fit.

Update on the truck:

A few weeks back I scored a cab, front clip, 2 doors, and 2 hoods on Craigslist for a great price!
The original cab is far too rusty to repair and would be too costly for me. The 'new' cab is in better condition, but still will need a bit of work.

Also my dad picked up a supposedly 383 stroker for real cheap from one of his friends. We'll have to open it up and see how it is in the inside. I'd like to put it in the truck, but not quite sure yet.

Now, as for the rear end. The truck still has the factory 8 lug 5.14 ratio axle. How stout is the factory axle? Would a 14 bolt be a good swap for a Taskforce era truck? I still would like to run the SM420 trans for the time being.

Gotta love them trucks. Looking forward to seeing pics as it comes along.

I bet the 14 bolt is still a good swap, check the original axle width and compare with info in the 14 bolt sticky thread.

Thanks Grigg! I've read though that thread a few times now to figure out what I need to search for.
The spring perches on the original axle measure a little over 40". The width for the original axle is very similar to a 14 bolt out of a C&C, its just a tad wider.

And it hit me yesterday, I know of a salvage yard with a mid-70s Chevy towtruck that might have one under it. Hopefully the truck is still there, was 2 months ago when I saw it.

Might check condition of the spindles, a heavily used axle may have spun races on the spindles.
I’ve bought several axles with various more or less non repairable issues before finding a real nice one.

RV’s can have them too, and frequently don’t see very many miles.

Update!

Slowly but surely, I'm making progress. Cab along with the engine/tranny is ready to come off the frame, then the fun job of scrapping and chiseling the decades of grease and oil off the frame. Doors are off with the glass and internals removed to be saved for the other doors I plan on using.

Also I scored a passenger side emblem at a flea market! Been hunting for one of those

Thanks for the update! Cool project. May we assume that you've scrapped the idea about lowering it??

There's a good chance of that, it was just a thought. Still have looooots of things to do on the truck before I consider it.

Sorry for the lack of updates here, had some laptop issues

I haven't really done anything to the truck, still needing to remove the cab and engine...

But I did snag a couple original 3/4-1 ton hubcaps off ebay for a really good price, they're in great condition too!

I realized that I completely forgot to post this...


(Picture 1)
The black cab I plan on using (which I posted earlier), someone already put in new outer cab corners and steps on it, though they need a little touching up with the welder. The cab does have some rust on it, but its nothing major, until I started looking over the back of it...

Somebody had welded a plate over a rust spot and then caked bondo over that along with another rust spot next to the plate. I honestly almost didn't notice it at first except for a little rough spot where the rust was eating through the bondo.

(Picture 2)
So I proceeded to hack it out. What made it a bit difficult was this happened to be right where the rear cab mounting bracket is, which also had some rust. Well I got that bracket out in one piece and welded and fixed it up to reuse it.

(Picture 3)
Then I cut out the same piece from the old cab to fill in the spot. First time drilling spot welds went so-so, considering I ended up drilling right through the piece...

(Picture 4)
Weld it up!

(Picture 5)
And hit it with some spray can primer!

Not bad for my first attempt at major rust repair!


This cab will need some floor work, but I'll mess with that later...

I want to tell you, with your first attempt at rust repair, it looks great!

I just bought a 1956 3800. Maybe I should have bought a new computer instead.... no I bought another truck.

Thanks Wayne! I would've gotten the truck too


And I have to confess something I've been holding in since January. Me and my dad borrowed my uncle's tractor to move some hay, his tractor has a loader on it where ours does not, so we used it to lift the cab and engine off the frame and set it aside. Come to find out, both frame rails are bent...


Like I said, I've been reluctant to post this for the past 3 months because I was pondering on what to do. I plan on swinging by a local body shop that can do frame straightening and see what they can do for me.
I'm still gathering parts and doing other work on the truck, but once I get over this hurdle it should be downhill from there. *knocks on wood*

A well overdue update!

[Picture 1]
For the past few months I've been working on and off this truck, mostly repairing the rust on the cab. It seemed to have a growing theme of "Bondo over rust". Both outer corners had been replaced previously though were poorly welded in and had bondo slathered over them. I removed all the bondo and touched up the welds to my satisfaction.

[Pictures 2,3,4,5]
As for the floor, I hacked out the section with the galvanized welded over and bought a new floor piece(even though when the piece arrived it wasn't exactly what I ordered, but I made it work) and proceeded to cut it to the right dimensions.

[Pictures 6,7,8]
But before I could burn the new floor in, I needed to cut out a spot next to the hinge pocket that had rusted through and once again was hidden by bondo(I welded in that hole in the cab brace as well) Fabbed up a replacement panel from the old floor and put that in to appear factory.

[Pictures 9,10]
Then it was finally time for the floor to be put in! Luckily I still had the old section of floor to fill in the hole above the new floor.


So once the passenger side gets finished up, its off to the driver's. Thankfully its nowhere near as bad!

Forgot to mention in the previous post. The local body shop said they could straighten out the frame for a few hundred bucks! They'll just have to remove 2 of the cross members to do so. I'm gonna go for it

Facebook Marketplace score! Its a rust-free 9' bed sitting on a late 80s(?) frame cut down into a trailer. Mainly got it for the bed itself but it has other goodies as well like new LED lights, 10k lb. ball hitch, an 8 lug 14 bolt axle, and a receiver on the back. Might use the bed for this truck or save it for another project, not sure yet. Not bad for $500

That's a great find!

Great job 👍

Update!

Been working off and on the cab itself, almost all the rust spots have been replaced, just need to tackle the kick panels and above the windshield.

Also got the frame back from the body shop, its nice and straight now considering how it looked previously! I went ahead and ground off the rivets holding the front shock mounts on to clean up the rust that was between them and the frame rails, since they form a pocket where water and dirt ends up. Seen where people have drilled a small drain hole in the mounts, so I did that as well.

If you wanted to avoid an axle swap, Chevy used that rear end up until ‘72 and even made 4.10 gear sets. Most 14 bolt FF will be 4.10 or 4.56, but 3.23 and 3.73 gear sets were factory options if you need something that high

Huh, didn't know that. Though I still plan on running a 14 bolt, got a friend who has 3 late 70s GM motorhomes he wants to break down and told him I'd like the 14s from them.

Don't forget, 14 bolts came in SF and FF.

Ed

I'm well aware The 'trailer' I posted before has a SF while the motorhomes have the narrower FF axles.

Ok so I've started the tear-down and rebuild process on the front axle. I've removed the hubs to check the bearings and to take off the old wheel cylinders. New wheel cylinders and front brake lines have been ordered and are on their way. The bearings still looked good and still rolled quite well, most likely will reuse them unless y'all say otherwise.

Though I have a question for those who have rebuilt one of these axles(or just anyone who would know). Is there a lip-type seal that I can replace these felt seals with? Or will that require me to take measurements and try to find one that will work? I haven't attempted to pull them out yet.

Take your dimensions to a seal catalogue.

Ed

Thanks Ed, figured it would come down to that. I did find a bearing & seal kit on ebay, but its a bit pricey imo though I haven't ruled it out. The original felt seal seemed to have been doing a good job so far, might stick with it but not sure

Both Timken and SKF have cross ref tools on their websites. The GM part number for the seal is 379654 which crosses over to 20669 for SKF and 5756 for Timken. I used cross ref tool when I bought new seals for my truck, just can’t remember which ones I bought. I would still confirm the dimensions to make sure.

Dave

Thanks Dave! I couldn't figure out the part number for that felt seal, so you helped me out big time

i have removed lots of frame brackets thru the yrs -to clean up frame rust & sometimes weld frame & grind down & ALWAYS USE "sherwin william" caulking -between the mount & frame- & its has held up for 10yrs on 1 old truck-keeps moisture out !lots of new commercial truck use it to slow down or prevent rust !it comes in several colors -white-gray -black use it you will like it !

Well its been over 2 years since I've dropped an update here. Progress has been slow and at times been put on the backburner, but I'm now in the process of painting and reassembling the frame to a rolling state. I have many pictures from disassembly up until this point!

So I'm pondering, should I leave this thread here, or ask for it to be moved to the Project Journals

Guess I ought to pick up where I left off, just to fill in the time gap.

[Pictures 1,2,3]
After pulling out the front axle, it was off to the back axle and springs. It was pretty straight forward, pull the pins and just roll it out!

[Pictures 4 & 5]
The pins and shackles were a greasy mess, but a dip in the carb cleaner at my job cleaned them up nicely.

[Pictures 6 & 7]
I noticed that 4 of those 6 pins had excessive wear on them, so I searched the web and came up with 2 NOS pins (GM 3656669) from ebay and 2 from LMC (30-0342). Oddly, the NOS ones were cheaper.

After pulling the front hubs and giving them a good look over(a few months ago), I discovered both bearings for the driver's side hub were starting to flake and needed to be replaced. I got a new B45 outer bearing and a NOS 909044 inner bearing.

Fast forward to this past weekend. After knocking the old ones out and cleaning out the old grease that had basically turned to syrup, I tapped the new ones in and greased them up along with the passenger side bearings.

Oh and if you plan on using the older style 3-piece bearings, make sure you put the bearing cage in before the wheel seal

The seals used were SKF 20669. They fit pretty snug around the inner bearing race, but a little grease helped to pop them in.

I wire wheeled the drum side of the backing plate and shot it with some of that Rust Encapsulator from Eastwoods, hope that stuff works since I got a whole case of it! Then I slid the dust shield on each spindle followed by the assembled hubs. Cleaned up the washer and nut and installed them with a new cotter pin for both sides, and considered the front hubs to be complete!

Haven't done anything major, but minor progress is still progress!

I'd come home from work, wire wheel a couple of the smaller suspension parts, then hit them with a couple coats of Rust Encapsulator and let them dry overnight. Rinse and repeat throughout the past week.

Also I removed the 6 bolts that were on the alignment clamps(or whatever they're called?) on the rear leaf packs. These were pretty rough so I'll use new 3.5" long 3/8 bolts with some tubing to replicate them.

Past few days have been a little chilly, not good for painting. I've got the leaf springs and the rear end ready for when it warms up.

Made a trip to Lowes and picked up the nuts and bolts I needed for the alignment clamps.
3" long 3/8 (2 for the front leaf packs) and 3.5" long 3/8 (6 for the rear packs) bolts did the trick. Already had a 3/8 i.d. pipe laying around that I cut down to size.

The original rear end is complete!....minus brakes. Those will be put on later. I know I mentioned in an earlier post about doing a 14 bolt swap, that may be a future upgrade but I'll stick with this axle for now.

Ring gear, pinion, and bearings all looked good so the only things replaced were seals and gaskets. I found a cheap 1 5/8" socket at Napa to grind down and make it fit the pinion nut.

Gaskets, seals and other miscellaneous stuff used:
SKF 99259 yoke sleeve
Fel-pro 55350 axle shaft flange gasket (x2)
Fel-pro RDS5090 carrier gasket
Fel-pro RDS5088 cover gasket
National 411330N pinion seal
National 2081 wheel seal (x2)
GM 3758222 pinion retainer gasket
New 8.5" x 2.5" U bolts

Heya everyone, back to posting updates again. I had to put the truck on hiatus due to my dad falling ill this past March, but he has gotten better so I'm hopping back on it!


So after completing the rear end, naturally the front axle would be next to reassemble. Lots of scrapping and wire-wheeling to get the old dried up grease off the kingpins and spindles. The tie rod identified as a banana and actually took a good bit of effort to straighten out, had no idea how stout they were for 1 tons! After that I cleaned up both tie rod ends and clamps, one end required a new grease zerk. Next was to put it all together(minus brakes) and lay some paint! Not pictured are the painted leaf springs mounted on the axle with the caster plates, lower shock mounts, and a set of new POL u-bolts...I'll have to snap a pic of that later.

Well I decided that since I'm putting new pins in the rear leaf springs, I might as well put new bushings in them too! Wasn't going to at first since the original bushings were steel, but they had enough wear for me to question them.

I previously got the new pins from LMC and they matched the original pins, so I ordered the new bushings from them thinking they'd match the old ones. Well I was wrong. But I blame myself for that since the bushings offered are for the 47-55 AD's and I just assumed they would work. Same I.D. and O.D. but just not long enough.

I didn't know the GM number for them, so it took me a while to finally find some. Thankfully Olds Obsolete had a set of NOS 1150039 that I quickly snatched up!

The old bushings needed some persuasion with a reciprocating saw to come out. I then made one of these to install the new ones, it just needed a larger piece of pipe and larger washers to accommodate the larger bushings. And boom, 4 new brass bushings installed!

One step forward, two steps back...

The new bushings I installed ended up slightly oblonged when they were pressed into the spring eyelets to the point where the spring pins couldn't slide through, so I had to push them back out and take them to the local machine shop to have the insides turned. Once they were re-installed, I discovered the 4 LMC pins could now go through them, but the 2 NOS pins wouldn't Soooo I bought 2 more of those pins off LMC, thankfully they're only $8 a piece.

Regardless of all that, I now have a rolling frame!

I'll finish up paint later, as for now it will be rolled into the shed and out of the elements. Now to focus on cab repairs and figuring out my engine options.