Projects My Apache...

i bought this truck when i was 18, i drove it occasionally for a year and it has sat for almost a year since then. ive been collecting parts up untill now so i figured i start a good ol' build thread. the body is BEAT with a capital B . it has an 81 camaro clip, 350 with a crane cam, weiand alum. intake with a 670 holley, th350 trans with a shift kit, and a 10 bolt out back. it runs friggin awesome, i hauled ass 4 1/2 hours home from north jersey when i bought it with zero issue. did i mention the body is BEAT tho . heres a few pics.....

 

so i mentioned i had been collecting parts this whole time. ive met some badass people so far and theyve helped me out a lot. im doing this build on a budget as best i can, ill be doing all work myself or trading/bartering for it. first dude was a fellow hamber named gary. his user name is 39 dodge. great guy. he sent me some inner fenderwells, a rear fender, tailgate and bed steps heres a few pics of those






the tailgate was way rougher than i thought, but what the hell, it was incredibly cheap. i cant bitch

 

Hell, that thing at least LOOKS straight. (if the doors aer loose at the hinges, NAPA has hinge kits for those, easy to install. They are bushings thet fit in easily, and pins replace.

Looks like you have some nice, useable pieces there, also. Nice to see a stepside for a change. (everybody seems to love their 'Fleetside' beds: Mystery to me...)

 

Keeping my eye on this one!!!

 

i shot up to fall carlisle in 2010 not expecting much, but i scored quite a few deals. and i met a great guy named steve who would come to be one of the biggest helps with this truck.

i was looking at speedos at an aftermarket booth, $600 seemed to be the price for a new one!!!! fuckin insane mann. i scoured the swap meet area and ill be damned. older fella rebuilt this speedo and later switched to a digital. 100 bucks and it was mine



now this is when i met steve. great dude. i got the other rear fender i needed and a d/s front fender. lower rear of the front fender is bent but ill patch that in the future. all his parts are from AZ and very fresh



i also picked up a repop bed front that was on sale and a set of cal custom valve covers for 45 bucks. i came home and shot a coat of primer on the sheetmetal i had with a rattle can for the time being

 

so spring carlisle rolls around in 2011 and im back up to steves trailer lookin for parts. i snagged a set of bedsides with a few dents, but alltogether clean, and a tailgate because that one is just too damn beat






the parts this dude has are so damn fresh its unreal. i kept steves card and have been going to him since then. guys awesome really. i started to tear the bed off at this point. this will show how bad the jersey sheetmetal really was. it was fried.








the pics actually make the sheetmetal look way better than it was. it was bad.... REAL bad, and all the areas that looked decent were pure bondo

 

Hell that truck is in excellent shape!! You wanna see beat go take a look at my uncles 50 gmc!!

 

i was shootin around on craigslist and found a dude locally with a shit ton of rears for sale. i picked up this 9 inch in good running shape for 125 bucks. came out of a 78 f150, 3.50 gears






i took a piece of scrap wood and cut a hole so i could set the pinion in it and clean/paint it. worked pretty well

 

i also scored an air compressor on craigslist for cheapand shot it with some rattle can flames it came out of a foreclosed house. dude bought the property and inherited a shit ton of tools and a few mustang projects and was sellin it all for cheap

frog tape does the job well lol




also scored another deal on craigslist and got an m20 muncie for a good price. then a few days later on the hamb i found a 55 bellhousing, clutch, b&b pressure plate, and a fresh starter on the cheap, so i drove to reading pa to snatch that up as well




i took this moon gas pedal and drilled it and made a bellcrank out of aluminum for the throttle linkage. all getting mocked up as we speak

 

[QUOTE="T'RANTULA";8165846]Hell that truck is in excellent shape!! You wanna see beat go take a look at my uncles 50 gmc!![/QUOTE]


haha the pictures i have really do hide the rot. i didnt get pics of the really bad areas. the cab is shot to piss. ill have to get a pic of the windshield frame for you guys. its non existent almost. i have a 3 inch hole in the roof as well

 

so i think at this point its like winter 2011 and i realize just how shitty my roof is. i dont have pics right now but ill get some. the a pillars are bondo and the roof literally caves wherever you touch it. its bad, so i call steve and he has plenty of roof clips. he brings a clip for me along with a 59 jimmy grille and a set of door panels



the pic doesnt do this grille justice, its in killer shape. i have some plans for some modifications to this as well



i then shot a quick coat of primer on the roof when i got it back

 

i had been really busy at work at this point so the truck pretty much sat. im in constant contact with steve and the more i dig into my cab the worse it looks. i can fix the roof with the clip but more problems keep arising. the more i deal with him the more he cuts me deals. so the roof clip, some cash and that shitty tailgate i got 2 years ago are going in on a trade for a fresh cab. the tailgate catches a coat of primer first......


and then were off to trade. we rented a truck to go get the cab, my buddy wasnt available on that weekend so i needed some way to get it.
we rented this new f150, thing hauled assssss


i built this dolly out of scrap wood to roll the new cab around the little garage i rent



heres a few pics of the cab, its in great shape especially considering the one i had. ill have to get pics of the old one for you guys. its a rolling tetanus festival





the passneger floor will need a patch, and ill have to swap the gmc dash in favor of the chevy outta the old cab




im not sure what this plate was for or if it was factory ? anyone have any clues ?

 

alright so that was the timeline on the past 2 years of me collecting parts. like i said im trying to keep a fair budget so it took some time and some searching to find some deals. at this point, since i had the bed off i started cleaning the frame off and stripping the whole ass end of the truck. it had a cutlass gas tank rigged in there with some sketchy ass straps and some blown shocks






the rear crossmember was bent. it looked like someone welded a tab on the back and pulled it. idk what the deal was. the frame measured square......




so to address the altitude issue and get this truck in the weeds me n my buddy nick threw in a step notch. i got the notch from welders series. neat little thing. just folds up from a perferated laser cut and you weld in the corner after the fold. my buddy nick is awesome and a pretty gnarly welder. he hooked me up pretty good

heres the notch folded up, pretty trick




just getting an idea of where everything will end up .......



time to cut er upp!







we threw in some new 2x3 crossmembers. got rid of that bent crap and the old shock crossmember. i hate rivets. what a bitch to get those out........

btw the truck wont be on bags. i talked with fellow hamber meddler1 and will be running a similar setup to his. thanks for the guidance man, and if you guys havent checked it out his truck is bitchin. im goin with an axle flip, drop springs and maybe a few other goodies to get er down real low. the front clip should be pretty straight forward to drop

 

and finally just recently i bought a 3x2 setup off neverdun here on the hamb. three rochesters and a c355. i ended up selling the c355 because i didnt know it was for the early small blocks dumbass me. so its now gone and a c357 will be on the way soon. squirrell also hooked me up with the stock clutch pedal and linkage so ill have that for when the cab comes off and i swap the trannys out. now that you guys are caught up on the past few years i hope to really get thrashing on this fucker and start getting some real work done. heres a few pics of the trip setup




and the c355 that was sold

 

Im really likeing this build. Im also diggin the gold intake!

 

thanks dude. the goldish tint was the light reflection in the picture lol

 

how are you guys running power brakes under the cab ? modifying the stock brackets or ? i really dont wanna run a firewall brake setup

 

started on some 2" drop shackles today and cleaned the frame a little more. there turning out good so far. i still have to drill the hole for the center bolts



pic of them mocked up on the old springs



also the man in brown dropped off a sweet little gift...... posies 3" leaves



once i get the shackles all finished and the posies in for mock up we will set the pinion angle for good and weld on the perches, and upper/lower shock mounts. tryin to keep the progress steady

 

WOW...Great work...Subscribed!

 

YOu don't really need the center bolt if it has nuts holding the plates to the pins. Early cars had no nuts, so they relied on the center bolts to hold the side plates on.

Looking good!

 

Awesome!

 

Thanks guys. Didnt know that squirrell. Thanks for the info, ill probly drill it anyway cuz im paranoid hahah. Thanks for the clutch pedal and linkage again man.

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Makin some good progress! Like it a lot . Just thinking the other day how much I wanted a stepside bed. My bed is super hard to find but there is just something about a stepside I love.

 

Thanks man. I love both beds. They each have there own distinct look. What did you do with the impala bumper off that truck? I may be interested if you still have it

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I traded the impala bumper to a friend for a stocker. I like the stock bumpers. But I do still have the impala rear?

 

Subscribed. This is the first time I've seen this thread. I don't know how I missed it.

Hey, what is the width on that '78 F-150 rear?

 

The width was 3 inches too wide but it was a 4x4 rear so the "pumpkin" was offset for the transfer case. Shortened the long side 3 inches and now its stock width for the truck, or very close. i believe stock is 62 inches. and im really just lookin for the impala front, thanks though

so ebay saved my ass, i tossed the backing plates for the drums because i thought i was gonna run discs. ended up changing my mind and stickin with drums. i couldnt find backing plates anywhereeee. i scored the backing plates with all new drum components for 60 bucks. thank god

 

not much update. shackles are done. the mobtown greaseball was yesterday. badass show. its probably triple the size of what it was when i first started goin. met some cool people, had a good time. were finally getting some lights in my garage too. ive had a single light bulb to light the place so im stoked about that. ill have pics up when the pinion is set and the whole ass end is mocked up for good

 

love these trucks, keep at it.
subscribed..

 

Cool project, I like it a lot.