1961 Apache SB SBW build

[64tantruck]

I figure we would start a thread of our build.
My wife drove my 64 C-20 most of the summer, and fell in love with it. After a project last year (failed corvair). We cut our losses and purchased this 61 Apache.
My wife is pretty handy. Her father was a 30 year plus Chevy mechanic at our local Chevy dealership. As an only child growing up she worked alongside of her father on side jobs, pulling motors, brakes, chassis work etc.
Myself I grew up alongside of her family working in her uncles garage (also a chevy tech of 25-30 years) We both have strong mech. skills, we lack in in welding and body work skills



We bought this truck on eBay. Paid too much for it was. Seller wasn’t dishonest, just not fore coming with information. He was nice enough to deliver it from Maryland to Central Ny for a small fee.

Here are some pics of when we got it. Looks pretty good until, unloading off the trailer, the new brakes failed. Were we able to stop it without damaging it. (A chunk of 4x4 thrown under the tire, slows one of these down pretty quick. After digging into it, many areas covered in Bondo, patches welded to the ability that our 7 year old daughter could compete with.

So we made the decision that once the sheetrock in the new garage was finished we would start tearing it down.
Yesterday we started, the tearing down the truck. Amazed that we had all the sheet metal off the front in about two hours. We were amazed how much the hood weighs. About as much as my wife’s daily driver (Nissan Cube)


I’m sure your asking the plans:
Strip it down to the frame, rebuild the chassis, blast and paint the frame. She likes ClemDaddy’s (66?) so were going with red on the bottom, black top, and a gold stripe between the two. A mostly black interior. Factory bench, possibly covered door panels. Short bed, wood floor, stock tailgate. New chrome bumpers, 2010 suburban alloy wheels. Stock ride height, 73-87 front end conversion. Chevy 350 with powerglide. May upgrade to a TH350.
Hope to have it ready by the 2014 summer seasons. I know best made plans with every day life, two kids mortgage etc…

We will keep you posted. Thanks for following out build thread.