1958 Chevrolet Apache Pickup : An actual "Barn Find".

[grenade]

First seen a few weeks ago on Flakebook, the price was far too high. The other day, the price dropped drastically, so I knew he was ready to shift it. The old guy was fast to respond, so off we went.

A little over an hour drive south and I was standing in front of it. He said it hasn't moved in over a decade. Sat in the back of this woodshop/barn. Covered in dust and spiderwebs. He said the last time it had a road legal reg- 1994.




It's a 1958 Chevrolet Apache pickup. Long bed, 8ft. Called a Fleetside, it's very popular here. I personally am not a Chevy guy, but I knew what this was. The 55-59 pickups are stylish albeit polarizing. You love 'em or you don't. There's not a bunch of in between with these things. Originally powered by a manual floor shifted inline 6 cylinder, single carburetor engine.

This one had a transplant many years ago with a 305cid engine and four speed manual box from a 1971 El Camino. This was done by a guy back in the late 70's, in Roswell New Mexico. So it lived in a dry state for the first part of it's life, then it sat in this barn for the second half.

He says it will run and drive, just prelube the engine, put it all back together and give it fuel, it'll run. "I know it will" he said.
He took it apart to fix the doors and solve the fueling problem and never got back to it.

We brought it home and I cleaned it out. I spread all the parts out to take inventory. Seems promising, although the doors are poorly repaired with bolts deep inside the hinges, drilled off center complete with a broken drill bit still in the hole.
It came with most of the parts to make it run and nearly everything to put it back together.
I decided the doors should be replaced. I found some local and they were cheap and complete. This takes out of the "Leave it the way it is" dirty patina look and now means that I have to paint it. Ok, so be it. It'll look great with a repaint, even a sketchy paint job as I've done in the past. Let's just say it'll be a "10 footer", Looks good from 10ft away . Who knows, maybe it'll be good- say a "5 footer".

In a couple days I am going to order the missing bits for the engine, give it a compression check and pressurize the oil galley and see if the thing wants to live.
I'd hate to do an LS swap, but then again... let's see where this takes us.
**Oh yes- I'm looking for a clever name for this truck. It's from New Mexico, Roswell which is famous for the alien stuff at Area 51.
It's an Apache Fleetside, so I'm looking for ideas on what to call it. Suggestions?

-P

[brachunky]

Now this I have bookmarked! That is a lovely ol girl and brings back memories of one I had in South Africa about 22 years ago.
Mine was too a Fleetside (1959) in a 25 ft condition I loved the truck and genuinely used it as a daily in my business and social. It had been tampered with a bit with an old 327 coupled to the stock 3 on the tree. Apart from that and a (I think!) GMC front bumper with those ugly dome over riders, she was stock. She was assembled at the GM plant being bought over from the USA in a CKD form and as such, was a right hand drive.
That bumper:


The old GM plant in which my dad worked in the press shop during the 70's













Excited to see how yours develops P

[Davey]

Area 58?

Will be keeping an eye on this!

[jjeffries]

Great find.

Finding a way not to paint it might be worth it.

Best, John

[crockpot]

That's a lovely old thing.
I would vote for saving the patina even if you have to fake it on the doors.

[grenade]

I'm struggling with the "leave it as it is"!
I'm looking at the doors thinking 'aw, c'mon- you know you can fix those"...

I'm thinking I should suckitupbuttercup and fix the doors, replace all the rubber & glass seals, service and maintenance everything, install the correct wood bed floor kit ($$$) and make the interior a nice place to be- I might have something here!

The painted ones sure are nice, but we've all seen my paint skills lol

Hmmmmm

[metalshapes]

Nice truck.

I like it ( maybe because its a love it or hate it kind of truck, the Chevy equivalent of my '60 Ford longbed styleside ... ).

[grenade]

Today I changed the distributor, added fuel and some new plugs. It RAN!

More on that later. We romved the points dizzy and stuck in a junkyeard HEI unit and we had spark.
Added some fire spray, and she LIT.

Tired...
Dig it!

[braaap]

Can't You take off the door skins and put them on the replacement doors, in order to keep the complete patina?

[Alpina99]

Not particularly a lover of pick ups but this is a nice project,
I have to say it's in remarkable overall condition, will it be a "keeper" ??
Looking forward to seeing future updates, Bookmarked,
Nigel

[grenade]

Aug 15, 2024 7:11:12 GMT braaap said:

Can't You take off the door skins and put them on the replacement doors, in order to keep the complete patina?

The driver's door has a partial bare metal panel/skin on it already, so it's a small bit to match. Not as bad I know.
If I remove the door skins, they'll be mangled/chewed up for sure.

I'm mentally committing slowly, to keep the patina. Today is being spent doing 10hrs of editing- all the video footage from last week, to upload for tonight's 7pm EST weekly upload.
I'll get my brain back on the Apache next week. Friday is house duties/cutting grass & Saturday is collecting bits and Sunday is possibly collecting another old junker lol
I'll get back on the Poncho truck next week.

[grenade]

Aug 15, 2024 9:30:42 GMT Alpina99 said:

Not particularly a lover of pick ups but this is a nice project,
I have to say it's in remarkable overall condition, will it be a "keeper" ??
Looking forward to seeing future updates, Bookmarked,
Nigel

I can't keep them all. I look at it like this as it's been my motto for years:
"I want ALL the cars, for a few minutes each. Every last one of them."

[grenade]

Searching the 'net I discovered that Toyota FJ cruiser rims will fit the hubs of this Apache truck.
I also discovered that Chevy modern 6 lug truck rims will also fit.
Price was first, looks were second.
Decent rubber already fitted on this set and for only $150 usd. Done.

I have named it Poncho Palomino. Actually, the mother in law kind of named it, but I chuckled- so there you have it!

Brake parts and engine parts have been ordered and are on the way. I should be able to drive around the yard late this week.
I know it doesn't really look "era correct" with these wheels, but they were cheap and nearby. The white steel wagon wheels that were on it, were welded and rusted through pretty bad. Not safe, they had to go.

These will do for now, and I may paint them later, to make them appear "aged".







Also- I went to buy repair steel bits from a guy and ended up with this entire donor cab, from the same model trcuk. I will harvest steel this week

More as it happens

[glenanderson]

To my eyes it looks much better with that size wheels and tyres. Even if the rims do look a bit too modern, there must be a steel option with that size and offset out there somewhere.

So many people seem to go for the “lows”, with smaller wheels and lower profile tyres, which then seldom fill arches built for much bigger rubber. A working truck like this only looks right in my book if it still looks like it can be put to work.

[grenade]

Yes, someone can order steel wheels that fit, just as these do. My main concern was budget so this is it.
I like the big size too, they fit nice and now I think it looks more like a truck.
I'm excited to actually drive it! 1958 here we come!

[jimi]

[grenade]

Let's do a little Before & After:

Engine before:



After a couple days and few hundred bucks:






It starts by simply touching 2 wires together. Actually idles! Revs out fine, although the exhaust is very perforated. I've pulled all the glass and the rotten wood floor from the bed. New glass is on the way and since those bed kits are CRAZY expensive, I've borrowed a router table and I'm goint to make the floor planks myself.
Probably. lol

More as it happens

[jimi]

Engine looks good how does it sound?

[grenade]

I know RR readers prefer the written word- and let's face it, most of us will never be good TV presenters. But if you wanna hear the engine and see some solid repair footage, feel free to click and watch.
Thank you RR for allowing me to share for niegh on 10yrs.

[Davey]

Aug 23, 2024 1:23:27 GMT grenade said:

I know RR readers prefer the written word- and let's face it, most of us will never be good TV presenters. But if you wanna hear the engine and see some solid repair footage, feel free to click and watch.
Thank you RR for allowing me to share for niegh on 10yrs.

Finally subscribed!