Hot Rods Official 1959 Chevy Apache Build Thread

Thanks guys, the encouragement means a lot and keeps me going

 

Here are some pictures of the new hinges, the door mounted, and the brake proportioning valve bracket (where it is mounted). Even though I rebuilt my hinges they were still not good and had to be replaced. man what a difference

More pictures to come.

 

Here are some pictures of the door gaps, still needs very minimal tweaking, but now I can get the step, the cab corner, and the front fender finished!

 

Well I finally got some picture worthy work done on the truck. I have the door on there and adjusted as close as I can get it for now. I welded the bottom front fender to better match the contours of the bend over the wheel arch, the contour of the door and also straightened everything out as far as the gap. I still have to do a little work to the front of the door. I also fixed the step so it matches the front fender contour, the cab corner, and is straight with the bottom of the door. Here are some pictures

 

Here are the second batch of pictures. I still have a lot of work to do on the cab corner to get the front contour just right and everything else finished.

Man I am going to have to do some grinding.... good thing I bought a new dremel tool to get in the hard places to grind some of this crap down.

I will get some tube nuts and get these brake lines flared and installed since I ran out of welding gas today.

 

I finally have a day off tomorrow! My job sucks so its much needed...

I ordered some stainless brake line clamps so I can install my lines. I am going to take my lines down to a local shop that has a very good double flare tool to just flare my lines for 15 bucks. It is cheaper than buying the tool and using it once...

I ground welds for about 4 hours tonight.. doesnt look like I made much head way, but it will look nice in the end.

Going to pick up another bottle of argon/co2 mix for my MIG for 26 bucks about 30 minutes south of here
Going to the Road Rocket Rumble tomorrow as well and will pick up my lines later in the day and then install them (maybe even bleed the brakes!)

Will post pictures when I can manage to get some that are worthy

 

Keep up the progress. It's nice to see how much effort it really takes. I've been on the collecting parts side but will get to all this type of body repairs eventually.

 

Thanks for the compliment, its getting there eventually, but from what I started with it is definitely a huge change.

 

Lookin sweet! Looking real sweet.

 

Last night I started working on the truck at about 9 PM and stayed up until 3 AM to work on this thing. It doesn't look like a lot but I ground a lot of crap from the previous weld and am starting to go around and fix the seam of the step so it looks nice.

Well I picked up a buddy of mine and went to get my refill of welding gas for $26 bucks for my 3 foot MIG tank. Then I went to the Road Rocket Rumble, I was there a little early so there weren't many cars at all, which was a shame. I decided to just head home and work on the truck so I can try to make it to at least one car show this year.

Today I got those brake lines double flared at a old local shop (another hot rod enthusiast), he was only going to charge me $15, but I gave him $20 because I will be going back there soon to get another set done. He is the kind of guy that would probably do the next set for $5 to $10 if that. I am glad I did, they were perfect. I went and bent and installed all of the lines this afternoon from 5-10 pm. I put some fluid in the master cylinder to see what would leak... nothing did really, just one line that wasn't tightened down all the way. She is good to go now, just need to install the brake line clamps to hold the lines down and I can forget about this part of the project and start bleeding the brakes and fixing the brake pedal the rest of the way. All in all, it was a pretty good day. Next I will finish welding the step and start tackling cleaning up the welds in the process and hopefully get the cab corner completed on that side.

Here are some pics.. I know some of the lines aren't pretty right now, but hey at least I will be able to drive it.

 

Thanks man I appreciate it!

 

tightened up the lines that were leaking today, I have them really snug now, so if they continue leaking I am going to throw down for another GM proportioning valve because obviously this one must have something wrong with it. I fired it up today and wished I had the brakes bled... I cannot wait to take this thing around the block.... very exciting.

 

Well after 7 hours of hard work (grinding welds mostly) I am at this point.. Everything just needs to be tweaked and I can be done with this cab corner until I am ready to lay down some body filler to see how warped the panel is.. (not much at all) but all in all, I am satisfied with it. I will play with it some more tomorrow and get it where I want it.... boy it has been a long day...

Oh and to add insult to injury regarding the breaks. the distribution block will not stop leaking from one of the brake line outlets so I just bought another for $40 bucks and it should be here sometime this week. I will install it and hopefully bleed the breaks without issue.

 

I also ordered door latches, outside handles and a couple other things to get the doors to close and stay latched.. the latches are so worn that they just unhook themselves without rhyme or reason. Those should also be in some time this week for me to install.

I was looking at the patch that was installed by an ex-friend of mine (who wound up robbing me of tools and money) and it is crooked... So I might be in the market for a drivers side front fender because it is so far off... You can't tell until you are standing way back, but it sticks out like a sore thumb... You would definitely notice with paint... (which would be too late).

Anyway, here are some more pictures of the cab corner progress. Again... I say... boy what a long day.. haha

Here are some more pictures:

 

Another batch of pics of the semi final completion of this cab corner

 

Last batch of pictures for tonight. More to come tomorrow as I complete this side of the truck finally!

 

Try backing off the nuts on those leaky lines and then retighten. Sometimes the flare gets a little cockeyed on the seat and they'll leak no matter how tight they are.

 

thanks I will try that to see if that helps. hopefully it does. thanks!

 

Man ain't it fun grinding all them welds down? hahaha
You are doing some great work, really looks BITCHIN..
Where did you get your master cylinder/booster from? I like it...... Great work......

 

The master cylinder was a frame mount one (can be bought anywhere) that came with the truck when I traded it for my MG Midget. I didnt want to frame mount it because of the exhaust/tranny/crossmember position since I am using a 700r4. I had to position the master cylinder right on the firewall and I have had to really hack up the brake pedal, but it is all well worth it.

Thanks for the compliments I appreciate them.

 

Wow, you have been busy. I know, like many others out there, you can get sick and tired of welding and grinding all day long. Looks like you're doing well! Keep it up.

 

Well here is the finished product on the cab corner: Took me another several hours to get this crap all ground down so it looks decent. I fixed the seam a little more as well. I am happy I am finished with this until I have to actually throw filler and crap on everything.... eegad.. looks like that maybe a little ways away though.

I am thinking about getting my wood bed ready to go soon. That is my next step to getting this thing on the road/street legal. I am still waiting for my parts to get here to work on a few other things too.

 

Well Here is the outside shot with the door hanging a little bit open to show that it matches the contour pretty well... When doing this I noticed how the light was hitting the front fender.. I will NEVER let someone touch my vehicle again unless I know exactly what they are doing. This exfriend of mine cant do body work for shit.. and he went to wyotech and spent 30 grand doing it... I am going to have to hack this thing off and make it look normal now. This is just a mess...

 

I also flipped one of the bed cross sills because it was flipped the wrong way so I couldnt put on the step supports, so that took about an hour or so and I put on one of the two supports. I only did the drivers side since I am done with this side for now.

I also tried to loosen and then tighten down the lines to the front brakes on the distribution block, like what was stated previously by flingdingo... I couldnt get them to seal. I will try again to see if I can get it to work, but good thing I have that distribution block on order. I also predrilled some of the holes I need for my stainless steel brake clamps for installation..

Since I was exhausted from doing all this crap for 6+ hours. I decided to take off the front drivers fender since I am going to be hacking on that next. When I got that off I decided to play with some of my parts that I ordered... Soooo.. I mocked up the roll pan on the ass end of the truck. Boy I can't wait to be done with this thing. I think this truck is going to be pretty badass.

 

Thanks farmer, I know you know about how tiring welding and grinding is from constantly reading your thread.. I am glad you can relate haha.

 

well I got all of my toys in today, but was exhausted from work so I only went out and bled the brakes with my sister that is here from her summer break from college. We got them somewhat bled, but they are still giving me a problem.
I have my door latches and strikers in as well, so everything is looking good so far. I need to do a little work to the new handles (installing the new locks) and then I can go ahead and install them on the truck. I will post some pictures soon.

 

Here are some pictures of what I am dealing with. The new proportioning valve is a massive piece of shit, so I just spliced the lines to the front and ran a line to the rear, all of a sudden I have decent brake pressure with bleeding it myself. I will do a nice bleed soon when I get someone to give me a hand.
Also I am prepping the front fender to fix up the shoddy body work that the loser ex-friend of mine did. I cant believe he spent 50k+ on school at wyotech and he still sucks ass. I will reverse this and make it look decent enough that I have something to work with. Here are some pictures

 

Here are some more pictures... I got absolutely nothing done today, which is a little depressing... So I guess I will get back at it sometime this week.

the patch is fairly even, I may leave it on to see how she looks when I grind the weld down...

 

Well I made some progress on that front fender that was looking pretty nasty, my objective is to get this thing as close as possible and take minimal filler to take up the slack. Tomorrow or the next day I will try to get this even closer to getting done on the bottom end and then work on the eyebrow to make it look decent.... anyway... its getting there...

 

Here are some more pictures of the front fender... I will be grinding again soon... fun fun.....