Hot Rods Official 1959 Chevy Apache Build Thread

I got the new HEI distributor timed and installed as well. I will be getting wires tomorrow I believe for it and then within the next several days I will try to get her running again. I guess we will see

 

Just finished up the welding on the drivers side cab corner. Then moved on prepping the passenger side cab corner. I got the inner cab corner replaced and tomorrow I will put the outer skin on. Then I will tear into the body work on the bed a little more. I starting pounding out dents on the rear fenders.

 

Well I got the passenger side skin on, welds kind of suck on A, but I cant get this metal too hot or it will warp. I am just going to grind down these welds and go from there. Ive knocked multiple dents out of both fenders and will be working on the bed cross sills and bed sides.

 

Well, I got the cab corners close enough that I can finish up the body work on them later. I started removing the nasty, old, bent angle strips and finished welding my new angle strips on my bed sides. Tomorrow I will start doing a little body work on the rear bed cross sill and maybe the front bed panel. Then she goes together in 1 piece.

 

Some more pictures

 

Not much picture worthy progress unfortunately, but I have been doing a lot of body work to the rear cross sill for the bed, I have been doing a little work here and there on the rear fenders and tomorrow I will be working on the front bed panel and patching up a small spot on one of the bed sides. Then I will go ahead and get rid of the dents on both bed sides and front panel, glaze, and then shoot high build primer on everything bed related. Its coming together!

 

Nice progress. Keep up the good work!

 

Cool, I wish it wasn't 130 degrees in my garage so I can work on mine.

 

its 100 with humidity here and its not stopping me...


pure madness

 

Just pulled the header to work on #1 piping to move it farther south of the #3 spark plug. I will begin work on that tonight. I am waiting for a buddy of mine to give me apiece of sheet metal back that he took to make a pattern because he wanted to try and do it. Biggest mistake ever. lol. He has had it hostage for 4 days now and isn't answering his phone. I will try and post some pics tonight or tomorrow

 

Well I did a lot of work on the front bed panel. I cut out and replaced the sheet metal that was bad on the bottom lip. I will finish it up tomorrow. I will also put the bed together tomorrow once I get it done and primered.

 

I also worked on the front bottom of the rear driver's side fender. It was pretty nasty after the sandblasting. Here are some of the pictures. I will finish that up tomorrow or try too as well.. We will see though.

 

I'm gonna have to do that soon too. Keep up the good work!

 

Wow! Just read the whole thread, great work. But I assume the Plym is on hold for the time being? Keep up the good work bud.

 

Yeah I need to get one out of the way and the Plymouth is way more work. I will try to finish this truck up or at least in paint before winter so that it is ready for next summer. We will see though. Thanks for looking guys! Thanks again turd!

 

Well I got the header done, need to grind some welds on it and paint it up. I also finished welding on the front bed panel. I need to grind those welds too. Here are some pictures!

 

I also set up one of the bed sides for giggles and boy did I get excited. I am going to get some wood strips so I can put the bed on completely to get it out of the way! I will probably try to do that by this weekend, as well as getting that header back on there and firing the truck up again

 

I cut up some wood and starting mocking up the bed. I got tired of the pieces laying around. Here are some pictures!

 

Here are some more pictures of the bed mock
up!

 

Well I mounted the front of the bed all together and have begun tightening the rest of the bed down so it at lease will not flop all over the place and get damaged. Next on the list is to finish a heat shield or using a little bit of asbestos cloth to ensure that my motor mount wont get roasted from heat coming from the header. Once that is done I can fix my front passenger side header and get it started again.

 

Great work. Keep it up.

 

Well I decided that I need to go ahead and get the front clip down to the blasters since they are backed up at least 2 weeks. That will give me plenty of time to work on the bottom front pillars (or front cab corners to some). So I need to get the sheet metal work finished on the front right hand fender. Here are some pictures of the mess

 

Alright, well I decided that I will probably get new headers down the road after I get it running at to shows and crap after its painted... Its easier to spend the money on getting it painted and body work and such compared to never getting it complete because I keep changing crap around in the building stage. So here are a couple pictures of the header wrapped for the one to protect it from burning up against the motor mount. The other pictures are of my rough initiation into that bottom fender. I will make it look nice within the next two days when I finish it up. The pictures are just of my basic starting blocks. I will be sending this crap out this Friday to the blasters so I can work on other crap!

 

Well I got the header back on and I got the exhaust hooked back up. I got the wiring hillbilly rigged for the time being to ensure that I have the truck timed properly. I removed all of the sheet metal I need to have blasted and it it in the back of my friends truck. I finished the passenger side bottom of the fender. I was going to try and fire it up, but I must have left the key in the 'ON' position for too long. Woops! I will try and get it started before I go to bed tonight to see if she fires!

 

Just finished welding up the driver's side rear fender. I need to grind some welds and do a once over and the front part should be good to go. All I need to do at this point is go through the lip of the fender and replace the metal that is rotten. Then I am done with that one. I also got my truck to fire up, but I am still worried that since the distributor is made for a pre-86 engine and the block is a post '86 engine, meaning the gear on the distributor is not hardened. I may just purchase another and put this new distributor on my plymouth.

 

Well I did quite a bit of body work to both fenders. There are a TON of dents in these things... It looks like these things were tossed around in a cement mixer. Anyways, I did some welding, did some work on the one patch panel and got it so close I can stop using pneumatic tools and start using a sanding block to smooth everything out. It still needs to be tweaked, but I can probably move on to something else with one more go at it. I will be working on the same front part on the passenger side front fender here soon. I will also try to work on getting the front pillars done as well. We will see though. Hopefully I can finish all this crap up so this truck is ready for primer soon!

I should be getting all of my front sheet metal back from the blasters here soon, probably this weekend! Its getting close! I also got a new distributor for the truck since it requires a dizzy with a hardened gear on the end. I need a new one for the plymouth anyways, so I will just drop this one in the Plymouth and be done with it.

 

the front clip is done as far as being blasted and it will be picked up today. So we will see what she looks like when I get it back.

I have kind of been stalemated due to my distributor being damaged that I just ordered.. The one that I had in there was for a pre 1986 block and this is a post '86 block, so it needs the hardened gear. I removed my new starter I just got to find that the vacuum advance was crushed because it was packed like crap and was hanging out of the side of the box when I got it. So they tried to screw me off of evilbay and say "it doesn't come with a warranty" implying that I broke it. Needless to say I chewed out a manager and the replacement is coming on Monday. I will try to get it running with the new distributor this next week.

I am trying to finish the front pillars because they are rusted on the inner bottoms. I will try to post some pictures sometime this weekend. After that I guess I have to start tearing into the body work and actually get it ready for paint.

Its hard to believe that just one year ago this was a big heap of junk. I am getting really excited.

 

Okay, pictures will be coming tomorrow. I cut out the left inner front A-Pillar of the cab and have begun trying to prep it to complete sometime later this week. I have to tweak that aftermarket sheet metal (that stuff is never right). I also got everything back from the blasters and boy does it look nice. I am excited because this thing is sooo close to the body work stage... I can taste the paint already......

Anyways, I also got the truck running with the new HEI distributor. I finally got my sweet wire separators in and man that engine looks stellar. I will post pics of that tomorrow too.

 

Here are the pictures I promised of some of the sandblasted stuff I got shot in primer. Some of it needs work.

 

Here is the passenger and drivers side front A pillar.... not one shred of metal.. it was ALL bondo and rust inhibitor/tar, both are equally bad..


What slays me is the guy that I traded for the truck claimed to be an expert in body work... WEB OF LIES!

First 5 are of the passenger side the last two pictures are the drivers side. What is on the floor are the solid pieces that fell out of the passenger side.. notice barely any metal on the ground.