Hot Rods Official 1959 Chevy Apache Build Thread

and of the column getting stripped down. In order to do extend the column I had to remove and install the column multiple times... a lot of work..

 

Welp, lost my job... I guess that means the truck is going to be put on hold until I find another job

 

Sorry to hear that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed you ind another job quickly!!!!

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it

 

Hope you find another job soon, but look at all the spare time to work on your rods! There is always a lot you can do on them without spending much, good time to do body work.

 

Very true Dave! If they only got rid of me earlier in the summer I could have enjoyed a lot more car shows!!!!! haha I am sure that I will get another job soon, there are plenty out there. I already have interviews being set up

 

Damn! Sorry to hear that, bro.

 

Thanks Saxman, it's alright.. that job blew anyway

I think I am going to work on cleaning up the garage and maybe transporting the Plymouth to my buddy Danny's in Monrovia so I have more room in the garage to get into some more body work with the truck. I may clean out the garage and get rid of a bunch of crap too. I will also get cracking on the column and get that looking nice and finally get it painted

 

Sorry to hear about the job. I have been following your build. With your attention to details and the skills you've shown here, I don't see you having much trouble landing another one. I am doing a budget build on my 50 Styleline that was somebody elses started project. I am trying to learn before trying to take on the 59 Apache that I bartered away some 20 years ago. You have been an awesome inspiration, and a wealth of knowledge and ideas. I wish you the best with the job hunt.

 

Thank you very very much, it means a lot to me.

Tomorrow I will get cracking on something and post some pictures of the progress!

Thanks for everyone's support!

 

Well I got a lot done around the house finally, which was nice... now I can take care of the property because I finally see daylight instead of working some lousy off shift 10 am to 7 pm or later 4 pm to 1 am.

So I decided to continue with the steering column and get it looking decent before repainting it. Here are some pictures of me stripping the rest of it down and grinding before the final weld bead

 

here are some more pictures.

 

Well I decided to paint the column today after cleaning out parts of my garage and a buddy of mine (36DodgeRam) stopped by with his '40 Plymouth. We talked about old cars and tried to troubleshoot these new headers, etc. for around an hour or so over a beer, it was a good break. There is so much crap that I can do on this truck at the moment that won't take much money (thanks Dave), so I got cracking on it after he had to head home.


I finished painting the bottom half with some high temp paint for headers, since the whole thing will be riding right next to these headers. Also, the top half (in the cab) with a gloss. Here are some of the pictures of it drying...

 

Here are some pictures of me cleaning up the wiring to make everything a lot more safe. I went zip tie crazy!!! It is looking a lot better though.

 

pics are great. good article. i just got a 59 big back window and fleetside. got some ideas from you. thanks.

 

Thank you for the compliments and glad you enjoy it so far.

 

Well I went out there most of the day just staring at what I wanted to do and it took about an hour or so to actually do it. I kept cutting little by little and finally got it just right... I also installed the steering column

 

Here is a picture of my new ceramic plug wires. Also, my bracket to stabilize my steering shaft. I will weld it to the frame and that portion of the project will be complete. Then to fix the other header since the plug is so far off and the boot wont fit over the plug. I will then go ahead and hook up the exhaust again. Then fire this thing up.

I am considering putting the serpentine belt setup on evilbay and get a couple normal looking things that fit the engine, this extra weight and the convenience of a serpentine belt just isnt worth it to me. Plus I can actually make some money off of it too

 

Got to this thread late, subscribed.

Great looking truck!

 

Looks great man keep it up

 

Thanks guys!

Not much got accomplished today except taking the passenger side header off six times to try and fit my new ceramic plugs. I got it close enough for the new ceramic boot to click to the plug, but am concerned if it has room enough to stay in one piece.. as in the header heats up and cracks the ceramic plug boot. I also didn't like the wires all over the place so I went through and put my wire seperators on, I will have to cut them to length soon and be done with them.

I decided to start cleaning up my garage since I have this extra time now... so that took a big portion of my car day up

Since I lost my job I am going to have to sell my serpentine belt setup and associated pumps and alternator with it before getting what I want to make the engine compartment more traditional. If anyone wants what I have then just let me know.

Also, I also welded and tested out my steering linkage; I am happy with it.

here are some pictures

 

Well I installed the column the rest of the way and went through and got the plug wires a little closer to where I want them (I still have to do a little more, then cut and crimp them). I removed the tranny dipstick because the wire mesh pulled out of the end. They say you can't fix it and its basically garbage afterward.... what a bunch of lies, I got it fixed in about 10 minutes. The solution is 1 zip tie, wire cutters, and a small flathead screw driver. Finally I removed the rest of that hide-away tube, so I will begin to start buttoning down the wiring harness again. I think I will drop by a local speed shop to pick up a set of 2.5" to 2.5" header reducers for my exhaust so I can get the old setup off the floor and back on the truck. Hopefully I can get this running and around the block before November, which is my goal. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

 

Looking forward to seeing it on the road. Your making good Progress.

 

Thanks!

I spent a lot of yesterday and the day before cleaning up the garage. I ended up tossing about 8 full 44 gallon garbage bags with crap that I would never use (from my parents from the 80's). So I claimed about 7 square feet of garage space back, now I can kind of spread things out and clean things up so its a lot easier to work in. It really got me in the mood to start working on the plymouth again, which will be exciting.

I decided to finish up the plug wires.. and boy what a tragedy those were. Took me 4 to 5 hours to get things cut to the right length and get them crimped and reinstalled... they were such a pain in my ass that i've satisfied my yearly quota of cursing in one night. The misses was on the other side of the house, upstairs, in a closed room and could hear me cussing up a storm. She helped me on one of the plug wires that were so stubborn that I needed two people to get it finished. Thank You Shannon!

I learned a couple things that I'll pass on. 1) use an enormous amount of dielectric grease (i'll post pictures on where to put it) 2) Then use more grease because the first amount you thought was enough isn't 3) my hands hurt 4) bend the tips of the clamps so they crimp down correctly.

Here are the pictures:

 

Here are some more pictures. The trick is to lather the wire about 3-4 inches up then put a huge glob on the end. THEN you have to get the boot and fill the end you are inserting the wire through with about 1/4 of an inch of grease, then pray the God of Speed is going to be nice to you today. Again, my hands hurt.

More tomorrow! I think I may reinstall my tranny dipstick, mount it correctly so it doesnt pull apart, and maybe button down the wiring harness so it is mounted to the inner fender. If that doesn't take too long I may stop by and get my 2.5" header reducers and finish up the new portion of the exhaust. I'm on a roll!

 

Hahahaha! Getting the boots on those plug wires sucks!!!! I just did it a couple o weeks ago. Sucked for me too. And I didn't have grease, lol.

 

Yeah, honestly though... I may consider not doing them again lol.

 

I went through and started buttoning down the wiring harness to the firewall and the inner fender. I also reinstalled my tranny dipstick and am in the process of making new mounting holes for it. More pictures to come as I am only taking a break today.

 

Okay its been a little while since my last update; a lot has happened. I have been cleaning my garage and finding a lot of lost tools that have been consumed by that special spot (every garage has one).
16, 44 gallon trashbags full of crap not needed later, I now can walk around the Plymouth and start working on that again probably this winter!

I also have been doing a lot of little crap on the truck, like stripping the glass out of the old drivers side door so I can scrap it, adding clamps and zip ties to the wiring harnesses, wiring in the fuel pump the rest of the way, etc.

I just now finished tonight the exhaust AGAIN... I bought a 10 foot section of aluminized exhaust and had a local shop bend it on the ends to 90 degrees. Since the guy who owns the place has a '56 chevy with a 454 in it sitting in front of the shop we started talking about cars and he just told me all of the bending would be free and to just let him know if I needed anything else. Cool guy; he was just happy that a younger kid was into old cars.

Here are some pictures of my 6 hour day. The exhaust piping was dented pretty badly so I had to cut a trianle out, straighten it out and weld it back on, which was a lot of work. The drivers side was easy, mainly because I had room to work. Enjoy!

 

Here are some pictures of the piece I had to cut out, straighten, and weld back on. Here is also why the passenger side was a little harder to do. Here are a couple shots of the right side all welded up and ready to reinstall.