The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks "Swamp Thing" restoration - 1960 C20 Apache Step Side Long Bed

Love at first sight, just like the better half in my life. 1960 C20 Apache Step Side Long Bed with Beautiful eyes hooked me, and what a great back end too᠁᠁ the truck!!!! I found this beauty on one of my bike rides in the hills outside Yamhill, Oregon. It was parked over twenty years ago in a seasonal wet spot.. which means that 8 months of the year it sat in 6 to 12 inches of water and rusted from the bottom up. I just snapped or cut off 90 percent of the bolts holding it together. Anyway, I am in way over my head. Purchased a good compressor, paint and sanding equipment, Hobart 140 MIG welder and new tools as needed. No help on this at the house as I know of people out here socializing while they know they have something contagious.... Not worth the risk. But I can come here for info and advice, thank you.

I have shipped the cab off to have it dipped. The cab will need numerous pieces replaced due to rust through. Picked up a nice MIG unit that I really like. Plans are to prime all the areas that will not be cut out and removed. The engine went to a rebuilder in the hills who has been doing these old engines for many years. I am not sure how many parts will get dipped and how many I will sand down to bare metal. So much interior rust on all body pieces. I cannot access many areas with rust which means dipping in acid may be only realistic alternative.

The frame will go out for sand blasting and then get powder coated. I may do the same on front suspension unit and rear end.... too soon to tell as I am still thinking this through. I appreciate all comments and any good advice. More to this story soon.

pictures. 1. Parked in the swampy field 2. On the trailer, going home 3. After first de-tox 4. taking cab off with no extra help 5. down to the frame and running gear

Hey there;

Welcome to the addiction...
Keep posting as you make progress, I find it keeps me motivated to get out and work. The guys here are very supportive and Knowledgeable so use that resource as much as you can.
You chose well with the MIG welder, I am in the market to buy one too and that is what the guys at the shop are recommending.

Awesome backdrop to work in BTW..

Steve

The frame is stripped down and ready to go out for sand blasting. The cab has been dipped.... what a dilemma. So much rust and tiny holes to fix. Decided to hold off on priming the cab until I have more time to do it right. I pulled off the front end as a unit. Took it to a shop to have it pulled apart properly. I will replace every wear part in the A Arms and such as what ever did not rust has rotted. The rear axle was quite a surprise when I removed it. I had to cut the U-Bolts off to drop the axle. Picture shows that the U-bolts were actually rusting through, almost 1/3 less metal on one of them, see picture. The drag arm bolts were also rusted solid and needed to be cut off. @ hour project took several days but the axle is off. Is this when it gets easier???? ha

glad you are saving it. I know that you know it does not get any easier. I does get better though. Get to that point where things go back together and you are on the positive side of the curve.

The frame is back with a beautiful powder coat finish. The engine is back as well with many upgrades to the internals. No big power boost but the better head, new pistons and such should make for a great little town runner. Also picked up the rear axle today with the differential completely gone through. Replaced all the bearings in the differential, rebuilt the brakes including new brake cylinders, new bearings and seals, bead blasted and painted the drums to boot. Luckily there was enough meat left on the drums to have them turned. Could not find a new brake kit with the springs and such.... Well, need to look at that in the future. I tucked the axle under the frame for inspiration.
The trailing arms and panhard bar were both sand blasted. I replaced the bushings in both. 60 years old means if it is a wear part I replace it. I just have no desire to drive this Beast for a month and find out I did not replace a $10 part while I had the rig torn apart. Plans are to start painting all the rear end and front end parts for the steering and suspension. Everything is completely torn apart, a true tear down on this girl. I hope to have the frame, suspension and steering completely rebuilt and put together before the rains start in September. I will get some help putting the front chassis pieces put back together and back on the frame. Maybe even get the drive train back in..... Still have not started on the 4 speed as I am not certain if I am going to have it torn apart and inspected... odds are good that will happen soon.
The toughest part is finding the dang parts. I got a lot of wrong parts from Nationally known vendors. Fortunately Six States Distributors came through on many hard to find bearings. Yep, expensive as you would expect but they were the right parts and no higher priced than some of the places that sent me the wrong parts.

pictures: I included a photo of the one man show. I lifted the rear axle out of the truck, stuffed the wheels onto it and rolled it under the shiny chassis. One picture shows a lot of the pieces to the front steering and suspension being prepped for painting.

The pretty "new" bolt on things..... Yep, those boxes are new bearings, ball joints and brake parts. If it can wear out, it was worn out or rusted under the grease. I am trying to keep everything original where possible. The chassis and suspension will probably look easy after I start fixing the sheet metal. It probably will not be cover girl magazine material when it is finished but I hope it will be a great driver that looks pretty good. I also want this truck to be safe and not worry about what will fall off next.

Time to start bolting some parts back onto the Chassis. Chassis is powder coated and I have been painting the steering and suspension pieces. The rear end came back. Seems the work is great but their painting will need to be redone. Rust already coming through in many places. Also, the paint just peeled off where I put masking tape on to protect spots while I painted. They did a great job of stripping the axle down but their paint just did not stick....
Here are some in progress pics. I hope to have the rear end bolted in today. Then I will get some help putting the front suspension and steering back together. The rain is coming as is colder weather so I may put the project into slow mode and work on the engine and drive train.

PS: Very happy with my Ingersoll rand air compressor. Really more than I need for painting but the air sanders really put it to the test. Single stage pump really has to work hard, even with the 60 gallon tank. The Concours paint gun set from Eastwood has done well from a rookie painters point of view. I tried some PPG gray primer and it was excellent. The Eastwood primer looks fine. The 2K ceramic Black Chassis paint is also easy enough to work with. Had a couple runs but mostly my fault trying to paint sideways or in nooks and crannies. Very pleased with pieces I had sand blasted. The acid dip was the only way to go with some of the body parts... but it really removes a lot of metal with the rust. Probably for the best so you have to replace what should be replaced. Boltsandnuts.com was excellent for sourcing high quality Grade 8 parts. Price was very reasonable when you consider all the time and gas I saved, plus free shipping. Bolt and thread sizes were there for everything I needed. I did find it cheaper to buy groups of 10 or 25 pieces was cheaper than buying just 4 or 6 as I needed.
Since almost every nut was rust welded onto the bolt I needed a lot just for where I am at putting the chassis back together.

The sad thing is this is a major shop known for high end work... mostly on newer performance cars. They do some older resto-mods but I think my low dollar 60 Apache may not have rated the top paint work. It is also possible that they rarely do much paint work. I think most of their jobs involve high end restoration shops that do all their own paint work. This shop did seem to do a really thorough rework on the brakes and differential. They have six lifts and a large warehouse that is always full of cars being worked on. Nothing sits around there, get it in, get it done. I just never gave much thought to them doing paint work... Just food for thought for anyone else facing similar work in the future. Ask first....

Swamp Beast is back, not looking so swampy and rusty now. Chassis was powder coated and all other pieces were painted with Eastwood Chassis Black. Ready for an engine but that will have to wait... Still need to get the tranny reworked. I did the paint, really pleased with my new set-up, so says the rookie.....

If one is good, two is just crazy. Well, I brought home a second C20 long bed. This is a 1961 California rig. Thinking of calling it the Calico something due to the special paint job it has. Found some old papers that show it was born with a six cylinder but now has a V8. Looks like the previous owner was in the middle of a restoration, sold it in 2006. It has sat for 14 years give or take and then I bought it. I plan on putting the V8 into the Swamp Beast if I get it running and then we shall see what happens. Not sure where this road is going but certain it is full of twists and turns only a rookie would take. Not sure what year this rig was brought up from CA but the bones are really good with minimal rust in the usual places on the cab.

Parts truck? Or another to fix up? Nice find either way. The cleaned up chassis looks great!

Just to put rumors to rest... I am still working on both my Apache restorations in case they do not sell. I did 2 coats of primer on the bottom of the cab today. Hope to get the rest of the cab ion primer as time and weather allows. This is just to protect the cab until there is time to replace the rockers and a few small areas in the floor.
I really enjoy restoring the Beast but life changed and I may need to stop and let them go. Better to let someone with more desire and a better situation than where I am right now. But I will not let them rust into the ground or give them away to see them rust in someone else's yard.

Wonder if any of you 60-66 guys have heard from 60ApacheC20, and if he still has his Swamp Thing? Followed his story for a while in PJ. Like others, I really liked the pictures ... and his "work shop" a/k/a the great outdoors.

The one picture reminded me a lot of one John took of Hambone's (and did some PhotoShop magic) that made the cover of the 60-66 calendar one year. (See the images below.)

Looks like it was coming along nicely for awhile. I wonder if he ever got to finishing it. These old resto threads are kind of addictive. I guess it's better than Facebook :-D