Hot Rods Official 1959 Chevy Apache Build Thread

Anytime Doyle, just let me know if you need anything else

 

Here are some pictures of where I am at right now. I had to order a crank and water pump pulley. I am probably going to have to get an alternator and will have to reroute my fuel line. I am going to remove the seal of the crank and replace since I removed the balancer and it wasn't on there right in the first place. I cleaned the balancer up and once I get the seal out I will clean up the nose of the crank and slide this sucker back on. Then I just have to make sure everything is connected and I am off to the races.

Once I get everything installed and tuned in then I will start working on making the engine pretty

Also I welded up the fender and will start grinding on it soon to see where I need to do some work.

 

Well I went out and did a couple little things, I just cranked down the temp gauge and hopefully that will seal. If not, then I may be in trouble

I hooked up a couple hoses and got a couple other things set and ready to go too.

I went ahead and ground down my welds as well... More on that tomorrow and my fixes. It will be a lot easier since I filled the void if I need to do some more work in straightening out that part of the panel too, its pretty good as far as ballparking it goes.

I am going to go pick up another crank seal and hopefully get that harmonic balancer installed as well. Here are some pictures.

 

i have a problem and can't post pics on here. this is the only place i have trouble, and i used be able to post here also. any ideas on whats changed?

 

You have to go to advanced when posting and hitting manage attachments. Internet speeds have a lot to do with it too

 

that's what i've been doing. i actually have a faster computer than before, and i have roadrunners fastest service. i'll try again.

 

trying to post a pic. it says it failed again. gonna have to see what's up.

 

Well I got the front crank seal pulled after battling that for an hour or two because of clearance. I got that back on, polished the end of the crank and slipped the harmonic balancer on. I went ahead and shot some gloss black on my patch panel to see how close I was and there is like a 4 to 6 inch section that needs a little work, but the rest of it is spot on. I am getting better at this day by day, soon I will be able to really do some nice work on the plymouth. Here are some pictures. I will post some more soon.

 

Well I cut the rest of the problem area up, shot it with some gloss and tweaked everything so all I have to do is weld it. I will finish it up tomorrow and start working on another area of the eyebrow. While the paint was drying I also started working on the brake pedal, to get that finished. I welded that up and drilled my hole for my return spring. Here are some pictures.

 

Here are some more pictures. While the pedal was cooling down I started welding a little.

 

Well I ground down what I started with yesterday. I massaged that back out to where it is supposed to be. I also went through and welded the rest of it up, but still got a little warpage, so I am in the process of working that back out so it is like everything else. My aim is to get it as close as possible. Hopefully I get complete it tomorrow and move on to another part of the eyebrow. By the weekend I hope to have the hood back on, seems to be a reasonable goal to me.

 

Since I didnt feel like battling this thing for days I just decided to cut it off and weld in a nice new piece, so I did and I am sure it cut my time down on this fender quite a bit. I will weld it up and grind it down tomorrow, but more or less this is a perfect fit. With any luck tomorrow I may get the fender finished and move on to installing the hood again.

 

Well another 6 hour day out on the truck and I pretty much finished up the fender and got the inner fender ground down and primered to reinstall tomorrow.

Enjoy!

 

Here are some pictures of what I have been doing the past several days. I have been fighting broken tools and in general things just not working out how they are supposed to. I have really needed a win and lately it has just not been working for me. Here is the setup so far.

I still need to tweak the alignment of the power steering and pick up some better lines (or have them made) and then this thing is back up and running. I am in the process of running a better fuel line setup too. Fortunately, I am still going to be able to use the dual fuel feed line. More on that to come and I may just fire it up without the power steering hooked up just to see how the setup runs.

 

Well I got an early Christmas from my girlfriend, she was so excited to give them to me she couldn't wait. So she got me a pair of side mirrors and windshield wiper parts and a very cool Aviation video collection from the National Archives. Those are pretty much all I need at this point, short of the wood bed that would make this truck complete.

And that's why I love her

Here are some pictures of the loot

 

what steering box are you using?

 

its a power steering box conversion, I want to say it is an S10 gear box. If you look at my past threads you may be able to find your answer

 

She got you Counterpart parts. She must really love you, she's a keeper!

 

That's one cool girlfriend!

 

I couldn't agree more guys.

I just found a place locally that will make the lines I need for the power steering pressure line. I am going out right now to make the fuel line and hook all of that up. I am pretty excited to get this thing up and running. I will post some pictures soon

 

I got a lot of work done on the truck today, even with the limited time I had. I rerouted the fuel line, sized up a power steering line that I am taking down to get made tomorrow, got the fan swapped on the alternator (because the big plastic one was really lame), got all my pulleys aligned, and measured my length for my power steering belt. If all goes well I should have this thing up and running tomorrow . But...... we will see.

 

It is from like an 85 chevy van (mounts on the outside of the frame instead of the inside)

 

Wow, you have been busy! But you know all the time spent on this car means you're not working on the Plymouth! You're doing great work on both cars by the way!

 

Well..... truth be told... I did remove the power steering pump from the Plymouth to check out if it had a spacer in the pump mount for the truck... haha. Now I need to go match it up somewhere and reinstall both pumps!

Thanks for the compliment, if I could just focus on one project like you I maybe able to get to a higher level of build like yours.

 

Well I am leaking a TINY bit from the pressure line to the power steering pump, just need to loosen and tighten it again like a brake line. I fired it up and no real mishaps with it. It actually turned over a little better than before when the big ugly serpentine belt setup was on there. I think I may have the alternator wired up incorrectly or something came loose because it ran on after the key was shut off. I had to pull the fuse to the fuel pump

Here are the video and pictures:

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks nitrohonkey. I am working on it

I will need to break the alternator apart and replace the diode because the engine runs on after key off. Other than that I do not have any leaks. I will start to reinstall the inner fender, fender, and hood shortly. I still need to finish up the brake pedal as well. My Dad called me up and wanted to throw half down on a nice wood bed for me for a Christmas present so that is really nice. More on that soon!

 

+

Had that problem with a harley once, the alternator-regulator was wired in the wrong place. It goes to the battery, not in behind the switch. (sounds like it is back feeding the dist). You don't really want 70 amps going through your ignition switch anyways. Tie it into the fuse panel terminal if possible, thou don't fuse it. (did that once years ago too) That don't work. AND yes, they get heavy when pushing them.

My truck is still sitting awaiting my return to my shop. I'd be happy if it kept on running.
Did you get your louvers worked out?? Need some photo-help??

 

Thanks for the pointers. I may do some more looking to see where this is backfeeding. I think it is going back through the ignition switch. I may need some photohelp at some point. For right now I think I am going to spin this thing around and start working on the bed and getting that finished. My parents said that they were going to pay 300 bucks out of 500 for an oak bed with stainless hardware and strips. So that was really nice. I need to order that soon for sure.

 

Carb allright?? I am thinking of going mega-squirt fuel injection. You can do a LCD virtual dash,overlay it with gps, all instruments, music videos, Custom alarm, etc....

I got a stack of carbs that have sat, this new gasoline, or what they sell for it, makes varnish in about two months and sticks..