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

TUTS 59,

I think Brothers sold you a front anti-sway bar for an AD series truck. They did the same thing to me. The installation instructions that came with the anti-sway bar were for an AD truck.

I bought the correct one directly from CPP, PN CP12030, 1955-59. Here’s a couple pictures of the one I bought and installed.

DB, I had seen your post some time back on your sway bar install and wondered the same thing. I have looked at many after market kits and more than a few are like the one I installed. I do know that once I had the chassis on the ground the sway bar really stiffened it up.

Looking at your install I 'm not sure if I would have the clearance for your bar as I have a 4 inch drop axel. I have seen both types of bars installed on Task Force trucks, will it make a great difference?

TUTS 59

I have a Sids 3” drop on my front axle. The way my anti-sway bar is mounted, I don’t think the drop comes into play as the drop is outboard of the axle anti-sway bar mounting points.

This is my first Task Force truck and only anti-sway bar install on one, so I’m no expert. Your install may work great. I do know that the one I have installed works really well and improves the driveability of my truck.

The one big difference I see between the two bars is the one I have mounts to the outside of the frame where the one you have is mounted more on the center of the frame. The wider bar should provide more roll control.

Not knocking your install, pointing out an option and looking out for a fellow bolter.

DB, I did some searching on the web at lunch. Brothers lists the one I have for 55.2-59, the one they list for 47-55.1 is completely different. I also looked at CPP and a few others, seem the one you have is more consistent with our year trucks.

I don't know if what I have is wrong or just a different design. I'm going to stay with what I have for now as it's mounted and seems to work, time will tell I guess. Thanks for the opinion it didn't go unheard.

TUTS 59,

Cool, I hope I didn’t muddy the waters for you or cause you extra work.

Obviously, there’s more then one way to skin a cat. I’m sure your install will be fine and I look forward to following your build progress.

I have been gathering parts to complete the power steering gear install on the chassis. Have decided to use the CP 400 steering gear rather than the Saginaw 800 meant I needed to change most of the linkage as well. The CP 400 of mounts in the factory location, this steering gear is newer version of the Toyota design that was used on the 4x4's. The pitman arm allows the original drag link and steering arm to be used.

I had modified the steering arm to use with the 800 series box and so now needed a replacement. I had no luck locally and even posted a thread in the "Parts Wanted" with no results. Lugnutz suggested a wreaking yard near him. I contacted the owner and he did have the part, with some further coordination Lugnutz was able to secure the part for me (Thanks Jay).

The steering arm arrived and was perfect, I had also bought an adjustable drag link from CPP, the original was gone long ago. Now that all the parts are on hand I will mock up everything and make adjustments as needed.

"Kits" are for people who are too timid to try to fabricate something for themselves. It doesn't sound like you fit into that category! Good luck!
Jerry

Just something I saw that jerry posted, I thought it suits the way I look at my build.

I mounted the steering arm and drag link. Once everything was fitted I centered the steering gear and adjusted the drag link to get the turning radius equal. The toe in measurements are close, I'll mount the hubs and tires and check the toe in again.

Seems I need to play catch up on this journal. I have been building the shop and really haven't focused to much on Ernest, that's not say I haven't been working on him , just not enough.
A little while back I played with mounting the fuel tank in the rear of the frame. I took pictures but didn't take the time to document them in the journal. I'm using a tank for a 69' Mustang (I know F@&d) simply because it measured the closest to my needs and had a 20 gallon capacity. Moving the taking out of the cab was just to gain some more room, I have had seat tanks most of my life and it has never presented an issue.
Locating the tank in the rear of the frame requires moving the last crossmember, I am planning on having a rear filler neck located behind a Chevelle style flip down tag. I had to trim the lower portion of the frame rails just slightly to clearance the tank, other than that it slid in like it was supposed to be there all along. I will need to radius the rear cross member and weld in a "C" to allow the filler neck to fit. I also want to weld captive nuts on the inside of the crossmember to allow it to be bolted in from below.
I have completed a few smaller project, mostly cleaning and painting small parts . All in all the building of the shop has taken up all of my time. Once I get a roof over my head I'll finally be able to scratch this bad itch with wanting to work on the truck.

Thanks for following.

Spent some time on the front fender. My BIL weded in the lower parch panel, I ground the weld down and added some filler. I am not a body man buy any means. This is just to get the patch filled, my friend Keefe is going to do all the finish work and blocking.

I found a couple of all pin holes.under the headlight bezel. I drilled the holes out and then welded them up. I ground the welds down and primed the area. I will strip the fender and coat it with epoxy primer later.

There has been some discussion between the Bossman (John) and the Moderators on how to manage the Project Journals. John's intent was that the project Journals be more of a literary Blog and not "What I have done to my Truck", after all that is the intent of the General Truck Forum.

I am the first to admit that I'm not the most literary of individuals, I think I was in Auto Shop when I should have been in Mrs. Hofacker's English class (that's another story). I thought I needed to tell all of you how and why I decided to build my 59' Apache "Earnest". I suppose the best place to start over so to speak would be with My Dad and Grandpa, they are the true reason for this obsession that I have with Old rusty trucks. I use the term obsession because that is exactly what it is, there is no real medical or mental diagnoses to support my "Problem" but it is just that a problem.

As far back it my past as I can remember there was always a truck in the family, the make and model are ingrained in my memory like the names of my Kids. For me the first was my Dad's 57' Dodge D100, not that he was a Mopar man, it was just what he had. I was about 3 or 4 then, but I can still remember standing ( yes I know we all did that back then :D) on the seat between him and Mom as we went through town. I know that was years ago and I was really young but I still hear the sound of that DeSoto Hemi through those glasspacks. That is some how one of my best memory from around then.

Dad and Grandpa were traders, we never had any one truck or car for very long. Dad would leave for work in one truck and come home in another, it sort of became the norm around my house. Mom would just shake her head as Dad pulled into the yard with yet another project. The D100 was replaced with a 51' GMC 1/2 ton flat bed and that was replaced with a 63' F100 unibody. The list of vehicle went on and on as I watched Grandpa and Dad wrench on each one until it was sold and another took it's place. There were but a few that managed to stay longer, a 56" Chevy 3200 LWB was one of my favorites. The 56' was white with red interior, a camper shell with a front boot so us kids could lay on a bunk and lookout the windshield, a really Cool thing for a kid to do back then. The truck had a 283, 3 speed on the column and chrome reverse wheels with baby moon caps. To me this was the truck to have, Dad in fact did keep this one for several years, that may be why it was on my wish list when I found "Earnest". More on that later.

Craig, I think we all like your truck “problem”. Keep it coming.

I don't remember too many of the cats we had. Dad had a stake bed truck provided by the company he worked for with a canvas cover and after that a box truck. His brother had 50s Chevy cars that he abused because he was always going to fix the lane. We had a 1947 Nash when we moved to Indiana in 1956 then a 1954 Chrysler Newport 4-door. I got my driver's license in a baby blue 1959 Ford Custom 300. Then a succession of Chryslers.

Today was a great day, not that I got to much done with the 59', but I had a great visit from Mark Sharp (59fleet). Mark and I talked about many of my plans for "Earnest" and something I maybe should do differently. I did get a closer look at Marks truck, he really put a lot of thought into how things are laid out electrically, some very nice work. The interior of his truck is absolutely gorgeous, Mark did all the upholstery himself, and it's top notch.

It has a been good while since I have worked on the 59'. I have been concentrating on the shop build and other projects around the house. I suppose just seeing Marks 59' was the kick in the pants I needed. After Mark left I worked on the brake booster and hydraulic clutch master cylinder mount. I had a friend of mine powder coat the mounting bracket a while back and had not mocked up the assembly. The booster for the 59' consists of a Hydrobooster from a 96' Chevy 3500 Van, the brake master cylinder is a dual style from CPP, for the Hydraulic Clutch master cylinder I chose a 3/4" unit from Speedway. The mounting bracket started as a generic assembly from Speedway as well. I have modified the mount to accept the clutch master and hydobooster so that both can be removed separately from the mount.

Going forward I will bend up the pressure and return lines for the hydrobooster, routing them back to the power steering pump. For the brake lines I purchased a stainless line set from Inline Tube, these will also need to be modified to work with the Mount and dual master cylinder. For the moment the assembly is snugged in place with all the hardware allowing me to remove it to make bends and connections as needed. I plan to repaint the frame once the weather warms up so all of this will need to be removed prior to that happening.

I was glad Mark had the opportunity and time to come and spend the morning with me, we all need a kick every now and then.

I had yesterday off from work and decided to keep the momentum going on the brake system. I laid out the rear drum setup and installed the shoes and hardware along with the parking brake cable. I have been compiling parts for years on this project and the brake system was no different. The upper loft of my shed is overflowing with cardboard boxes, all have a note on the outside as to it's contents. The trick is finding just the right box, even locating the part is fun.

The rear axel for the 59' is from a 72' El Camino that had belonged to my late BIL. The El Camino was dying of rust so it was delegated to being used as parts by the time I acquired it. The 10 bolt rear was close to the width of the original rear for the truck and replacement parts were readily available at most FLAPS. All of this was some time ago. At that point rear wheel discs were not the hot conversion that everyone is doing these days, the drum brakes seemed like a great fit. If I were to do this again would I have converted to rear disc, probably not, the drums offer plenty of stopping power and don't require a lot of fabrication to use.

Sometimes I feel like that line in the old Johnny Cash song "One Piece At A Time, when he tells of everything going great until they decided to put it together. I had purchased the shoes and hardware kit for the 72' and the parking brake cables for the 59', what could go wrong. the shoes went right on with no issue, the trouble started when I added the parking brake lever. The lever was for the El Camino and fit the shoes correctly but the parking brake cable had a different style end than the lever would accept. So that started the modification stage of the brake assembly, it really didn't take much, I had to radius the slot in the lever to allow the cable end to fit smoothly.

I had a small problem with the self adjusters, the kit didn't seem to have the correct return spring. The spring supplied with the hardware kit didn't have the correct bend on the ends and as such wouldn't engage the pawl. I bent he loop end of the spring around to match the slop in the adjuster and managed to get it attached.

The parking brake cables were another problem, the retainer was smaller than the hole in the backing plate. The cable assembly slides through the backing plate on the lower end and attaches to the lever on the rear shoe. The hole that the cable passes through was just large enough the retainer slipped though as well. I made up a thin shoulder washer and slid it over the cable end and secured the the cable sleeve with the bend tabs on the inside of the backing plate. Problem resolved.

As I previously mentioned I bought a stainless steel brake line kit from Inline Tube. I knew that the brake lines would need to re-bent or otherwise modified to work with my system, I did think that this kit would be a great starting point. The brake lines are very close to the correct length and the bend are in the right areas, so yes it was a good starting point. Other than needing to change the lines to route around the U-bolts and the different angle of the wheel cylinders the lines fit the axel very well.

I am going to continue with the lines, mocking up the connections for the master cylinder and adding the residual pressure and proportioning valves. All of this will be removed and reinstalled once the frame is repainted.

This past weekend I finished mocking up all of the lines with the proportioning valve and residual pressure valves in place. I had to work out where to place the proportioning valve as it needed to be accessible from under the frame. I needed to account for the exhaust and placement of the mufflers, I plan to exit the exhaust beneath the the bed steps in front of the wheels. Everything seemed to workout for the best, the booster and valves are in the same area so this may just work out.

I mocked up the fuel line as well. The tank I'm using is a 1968 Mustang design mounted in the rear of the frame. The fuel pickup line is at the bottom on the front side of the tank and angled towards the driver side of the frame. The 59's original fuel line was mounted on the passenger side. I bent up a 3/8 inch stainless line that feeds up from the tank and along the rear crossmember to the passenger side frame rail. I worked out the placement of a in line fuel filter, for the filter I used the same style that latter GM trucks used (88-97). The filter uses flare nuts and longer "push" style flares with rubber "O" rings. Once the filter location was figured in I mocked up the remaining fuel line going forward. Being that my 327 uses side engine mounts I had to account for that while making up the bends. I purposely left the fuel line long as I will need to determine the final bends once the engine is set in place.

For now I have removed the booster and all lines and will start prepping the frame for final paint. I'll talk more about POR15 once I start the painting project.

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.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your dad at the age of 43. That must have been really hard on you, your Mom and family.

Great story and a nice addition to your Project Journal! Thanks for sharing!

The time has come to pour the rest of the concrete on the shop. The problem now is I need to move the shed I have been working out of for the past 12 years. All that means I have to empty it out and take stock of all the parts I have amassed for the 59'.

Other than the Cab and what chassis I have assembled the rest of the Truck is in the shed. I have a couple of Friends that are willing to lend a hand so getting the shed emptied is not that big of a issue. I do want to take inventory and separate the parts out as much as possible, that may take some time.

I have been putting off the next phase of the build, the patch panels on the Cab. It's not that I afraid it's just making that first cut and not looking back. I have some time off coming up and really want to start with filling the holes on the firewall. My welding skills have improved but I'm still not comfortable with starting on a large panel.

I have followed other members builds and seen the route the have taken to replace the toe boards and floor panels. The are some very skilled people on the "Bolt". I think the firewall is a good starting point for me.

I sometimes feel like everything in my world comes before my truck, lately everything has. I had a little time this past weekend and managed to finish up the patch panel on the front fender. Its not perfect, still need to strip it and apply epoxy primer and do final blocking but it all one piece.

I played around with placing the badges back on and even mocked it up over the tire. I guess it's just a motivation factor. Well time will tell if it worked, I need all the motivation I can get.

The way to get more time for your truck is to tell others you not working on theirs till yours is on the road...I've felt your pain so many times.
Just remember my motto. Just 15 minutes EVERY dzy will surprise you and keep you motivated.
Let me know what weekend you want me to come down!!

I did some serious deconstruction to the dash this weekend. I stripped the gauge cluster and all the knobs and controls along with all of area up an under the dash. I didn't find any unexpected surprises, I did find the drivers Vent has some serious rot. I had 2 lbs chunk of Bondo fall out of the lower hinge pocket on the drivers side, the stuff is over an inch thick.

I'll need to figure out what I want to do with the kick panel vents. I plan to add A/C so they are not really needed but I do like the look of them. I'll research the replacement panels although I don't think I have seen any.

The next step for the cab is to clean the mess and prep for media blasting. I'm not sure what type of media to use as I don't want to be to aggressive, more research. Progress is progress, thanks for following.