'61 Apache "BoomStick"

[realvc]

WAY TO GO!!!
Congrats. on the new rad. install.

[61_FL_Apache]

I did the same in my 61 and it worked perfect!! Looks great!

[metalprelude]

Looking at the drop spindles and disc brake conversion that you picked-up from Summit. I have 15 inch, 6 lug steel rims and am a little worried about the wheel's clearance of the caliper. Did you have any issues?

[rvrfoot]

Originally Posted by metalprelude

Looking at the drop spindles and disc brake conversion that you picked-up from Summit. I have 15 inch, 6 lug steel rims and am a little worried about the wheel's clearance of the caliper. Did you have any issues?

I was told by brothers trucks that the stock steel wheels will not work.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Originally Posted by metalprelude

Looking at the drop spindles and disc brake conversion that you picked-up from Summit. I have 15 inch, 6 lug steel rims and am a little worried about the wheel's clearance of the caliper. Did you have any issues?

Originally Posted by rvrfoot

I was told by brothers trucks that the stock steel wheels will not work.

If you read all the info on the spindle/disc brake kit there is one line that reads "suggested wheel diameter: 17"
I did not see this when i ordered and was hoping to use a set of stock steelies while i saved up for the Detroit Steel Wheels that i ultimately will use. When i got the kit I set the disc rotors and calipers inside the 15" wheel and they just barely fit (pic 1). I found the 17" black wheels im using now on CL for stupid cheap with basically brand new rubber. They work, but also just barely. The deeper back spacing pulled the lower ball joint into the wheel but because of the larger wheel diameter it was ok. (pic 2 the angle is weird but there is clearance of the ball joint)
I would suggest bigger wheels if you use this kit. If you're set on the stock wheels you may be able to get a smaller rotor that works on the spindle, but you'd have to call McGaughys to find out for sure

[Northwest Outlaw]

February 11th Update: Transmission tunnel repair time.
At some point in the truck's life, a blind 5 year old with a chainsaw tried to open up a place in the trans tunnel for a shifter. Needless to say, that workmanship was less than sub-par and needed to be addressed, aesthetically and for the fact that i'm not Fred Flintstone and don't need to put my feet through the floor! Once again "that buddy", Hotrod Erik, came down to help me fix the problem. We borrowed my neighbor's welder, cut out the hacked up mangled mess and replaced it. Hotrod Erik's previous life as a fabricator/metal worker came in quite handy as he recreated the step flange to match the cab floor's shape perfectly. After tacking it in he let me handle filling the seams around the patch panel. I haven't welded in years, and even back then it was minimal and well supervised by smarter people. I'm please with the result though.
Finding a high hump trans tunnel isn't the easiest, or cheapest, thing to do so i figured that I'd make my own. The truck is no where near a restoration project and i like the idea of putting my own touches on her. Using what we believe was part of an old car's roof, I traced out the template Erik made and cut, bent, trimmed, drilled, bent, re-bent, trimmed, cut and massaged the tunnel replacement into place. I wanted to retain the ability to access the top of the transmission/shift-linkage and made the new tunnel to fit and bolt into the same place as a stock tunnel would. The large radius just happened to be a match to the driveshaft i had just got back and the smaller curve was made with a pipe from an old chainlink fence gate. Who says you need the "right tools" to get a job done!
With this work done and a new driveshaft on hand there is very little standing in the way of driving...

[metalprelude]

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions about your brakes and providing pictures. That level of detail is extremely helpful.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Originally Posted by metalprelude

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions about your brakes and providing pictures. That level of detail is extremely helpful.

Absolutely man, that's what we're all here for. I knew just about nothing when I first started this build and have gathered a ton of knowledge from the guys and girls here. It feels good to be able to share what little i know when i can.
After a few test drives I have found another thing to point out with the front wheels, backspacing. The wheels i have are running about 6.25" BS and while they mount up and clear everything while straight, at full left and right steering there is scraping. The bolts on the lower ball joint scrape the inside of the wheel. I think i'll be able to adjust the torsion bars and change the angle just enough to get clearance. Just another thing to think about

[Northwest Outlaw]

February 20th Update: Running and DRIVING!
The day everyone dreams of, a day that lives in our memory forever, the day the wife never thought would happen. The first drive of my first major car project.

Having President's Day off from work and all the parts i needed, it was time to make this project a driver again. The last part i needed was the driveshaft that would fit between the th400 and the rear differential. Drivelines NW was the shop that everyone recommended and they got the job done. Cut to length and balanced, plus new u-joints on both ends. The driveshaft came as a "bonus" when i got the truck, along with the th400 and a seized small block, all of which came from a mid 70's truck according to the serial numbers on the block. I brought the driveshaft from the '61 with me to the shop and they were able to measure for the correct size u-joint to connect to the rear diff. With a new set of straps for the front u-joint the installation was a piece of cake.

A few other items were quickly crossed off the list; a better alternator bracket so it didn't shake, "fill" the trans with fluid (i'll explain in a minute), slap on some temporary exhaust flex pipes, reinstall the seat and hood (neither super easy by myself) and finally clean out the bed and windshield from a year+ worth of dust and garbage collection.

With everything i could think of prepped, i started her and warmed up the engine. She still runs a little rough and needs some more tuning/adjustment to the idle mix and timing.
Since this is the first time i've ever attempted anything like this, and i was flying solo today, i was on the nervous side. I set up some wood blocks about 6' behind the truck so i wouldn't roll into the neighbor's cars if there was a catastrophic failure. With the engine warmed up I jumped in and shifted into reverse, maybe...or neutral...oh yeah there it is, reversing slowly, brakes work and we're stopped. Letting her idle a few seconds in park i reveled in my accomplishment; reversing for a whole 5'. It felt great.
Drive didn't seem to catch so i used 1st and rolled forward. Ok good, i can go backwards, forwards and i can stop. After repeating this twice more i figured we were ready for the alley.
Backing out of a garage door that is only 10" wider than your truck, into an alley with neighbor's cars really close, with a fresh engine and tranny swap and not having power steering makes you a really cautious driver. Luckily i had done this a few times when the truck had the inline 6 so i knew what the pattern was. Now that i was lined up and pointed down the alley I dropped her back into 1st and drove 100', then backed up, then drove it again. The brakes are spongy, the idle is rough and stalled out a time or two, and the trans hesitated going into gear, but i was driving a truck that i had pulled the engine out of and replaced with a V8! I felt like a bonafide hotrodder.
Killing the engine and starting it a bunch of times finally trained the battery (sidenote, i need to check and make sure the charging system is working). My neighbor was home and able to give me a quick jump and i pulled the Boomstick back into the garage after her maiden voyage. I claimed the day a major Win.
After talking with Hotrod Erik he informed me that i didn't use enough trans fluid and that was causing the shift delay. I poured 6 more quarts in for a total of 12 and the dipstick reads full. Quicky internet research had only given me the pan capacity, not the whole system capacity. I can't wait to get more time behind the wheel

[realvc]

Congrats. on the first drive of you hot rod truck.

[61_FL_Apache]

Originally Posted by realvc

Congrats. on the first drive of you hot rod truck.

2nd that!!

[mud.man.rj]

Good for you, nice to finally get it out for a short rip.
Mudman.

[61_FL_Apache]

Sweet!! Nice job!

[Northwest Outlaw]

^Bright lights after replacing with some LED bulbs (http://a.co/7VMIsYI)

The alternator wasn't charging. It was only reading 11.9-12.5v at both the battery and alternator positive post. After making sure all my grounds were good, wiring was all going to the right places and doing a bunch of research i was able to find the problem. I'm using a Front Wiring harness for a 1963 truck since that's when they started using alternators. The firewall plug is the same so i was hoping that it would work seamlessly. Well the external voltage regulator needs a 12v feed from the ignition switch, this doesn't exist in the 1961 dash wiring harness, at least not on mine. So first i tried to make a patch of my own by running a wire from the Front Harness to the ignition switch. It gave the regulator power alright, enough to start it smoking after about 5 seconds when the key was turned to "On". In the end I figured that now that i knew what the issue was i should just go with what everyone told me to do in the first place. I picked up the internally regulated, single wire alternator and it works like a champ. After removing the now unnecessary alternator wires from the harness i wound it back up with electrical tape and you can't even tell it was modified.


With that problem fixed, i took the rest of Sunday afternoon and drove around the neighborhood. Driving video: https://youtu.be/tNjguboyxIs
She makes a lot of noises while driving, most of which is the bed hardware bouncing around but there are a few clanks and clunks that i'll be investigating. The exhaust note is really nice.
I have a month and a half to get ready for the first road trip, a 3 hour drive from Seattle to Manson, WA for their annual Rat Rod Show.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Having a driver is so much more fun than the truck sitting in the garage!
I've been able run a few errands with her and its a blast, but the work is far from done. This pic is a recreation of the first time i had the truck at my parts shop, a year and eight months ago!


With the new alternator i wanted to be able to monitor the charging system so I replaced the P.O.'s ammeter with a Sunpro Voltmeter. The dash cluster was already "modified" by one of the previous owners putting in Sunpro Water Temp, Oil Pressure and Ammeter gauges. The installation was less than good looking, making any new modification easy to swallow since i'm not ruining a good original piece. The truck did come with a spare cluster that is still stock and complete in case i ever want to go back to that. I also installed a Sunpro Super Tach II to keep an eye on the RPMs. I hung this from the bottom of the dash just under the ignition key and it's pretty well hidden when you look in the driver's window but easy to read while driving.


After installing and testing the new gauges, i lost my headlights! After some investigation i was able to trace the problem to a burnt out headlight switch. Hopefully it's a simple replacement and nothing else was hurt. I hear there is a "headlight relay mod" that a lot of people do to avoid this exact thing so i'll be researching that. While i was working on the lighting circuits i replaced a bunch of hack-job splices in the tail light harness and got my passenger side brake and signal light working.

[realvc]

Way to go all round on your progress. Driving in your truck after all the time and effort to get it on the road again is a huge accomplishment.

I'm looking forward to getting mine on the road in the distant future.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Pulled a grille from a junkyard donor and stole the “CHEVROLET” text insert. Pulled my grille off and painted all of it satin black, accent color 1 of choice for all exterior trim. Outlined the letters with One Shot Red, accent color 2. Next ill pain the bumper and hood inserts black with some red pin stripes.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Armed with a new headlight and dimmer switch I tackled my lack of headlights. Not only do I want to replace the broken switches but I also learned that a headlight relay mod in these old trucks is very helpful. So again I turned the forum and found about a dozen posts about doing the relay upgrade and it looked fairly simple. By using a relay to pull power straight from the battery you’re able to run brighter lamps and don’t need to worry about the headlight switch burning out.

With a quick test to confirm that the new switches fixed my problem I moved on to adding the relays. I mounted them next to my Horn Relay and pulled the constant 12v power from there and then ran the ground wires all the way to the frame. Cutting my brand new wiring harness was a little nerve wracking, but it had to be done. Leaving as much wire as possible before the stock plug into the radiator support I maintained the correct color coding for headlight wires.

A little snipping, stripping, soldering, crimping and heat shrinking and boom! I had working relays, for my low beams only… So I started checking all the leads and all my connections. Nothing was wrong. Why wasn’t I getting power to the high beams?! Finally I checked the main terminal in the fire wall and realized the high beam blade in the plug had be bent and wasn’t seating into it’s respectful location. Success!

A bonus of replacing the headlight switch was that I got my dash lights back too! Even the high beam indicator works, which is a tiny little Chevy bowtie that lights up red, super cool. Lastly I installed a new dome light and license plate light. All lights are now working, except the front passenger blinker which has a bad socket.

Since I have a pretty much complete working dash cluster now, I decided it needed to be pulled out and painted. The water temp gauge doesn’t have a disconnect on the sender wire, so I had to pull the sender unit from the head and thread the whole thing back through the cab to get the cluster out. I disassembled the cluster and the gauges. There is a clear plexiglass piece with all the lettering and speedo numbers painted on the back. I cleaned that really well and got rid of a bunch of fogginess. Next is a thin stamped aluminum sheet that was black on the front and light green on the back. This serves to reflect the light and make the original gauges glow, so I painted that and rest of the cluster housing white to reflect better. The front of the dash plate got sprayed red to match the exterior accents. Using pinstripe tape I masked off the speedometer face and needle and hit that with satin black to match the exterior trim. Honestly it turned out a lot better than I thought.

Other work done was replacing the valve cover gaskets to stop the oil leaks, drained the extra fluid from the transmission to stop it from leaking, and added 1/4” spacers to the front wheels to stop the rims from scraping the control arms when turned all the way.
Im having a blast driving her every couple days.

[Northwest Outlaw]

Longest drive yet, 16 miles! Friday after work decided to take a longer drive than my typical neighborhood loop or run to the auto parts. I know 16 miles isn't a real test, but it was the longest, furthest and fastest i've driven the Boomstick yet. So i was excited to pull back into the garage with all the gauges where they should be, 170 degree temp, 30-40 psi oil pressure and constant 14+ volts. The best part was the stretch of road where i got her cruising at 50-55 mph, she handled it like a dream.

A few issues are still needing to be worked out. The biggest is my front wheels and there backspacing. Whenever there is a sudden jolt in the front suspension, pot hole or dip in the road, there is a teeth clenching sudden screech. I'm pretty sure its the lower control arm slamming into the inside of the rim. The wheels have about 6.5" of backspacing and are super close to the control arm. Gonna play with some spacers to see if i can push them out enough to clear.

Also hearing a noise from the front passenger brake when applying pressure. It sounds like something is rubbing a the speed of the wheel, but only when i'm on the brake, as soon as i let off it goes away. the rotor is clean and doesn't show a scrapes or grooving as if a rock was in there. I'll have to pull wheel and investigate further.

On saturday a neighbor was getting rid of some plywood, so i grabbed it and made a temporary bed. The weathered, used and aged look of the sheets fit perfectly with the look of the truck. And having a "solid" bed without all the metal straps and bolts clanking around make driving a much quieter experience. I use the extra bed fenders for the templates and some new carriage bolts. It's a good solution until i can do a proper wood bed.

I also rewired the ignition switch to the dash wire harness. the PO had, as with many other locations, done a shoddy job of crimping and extending the wires, so i got everything soldered and shrink wrapped and it looks a ton better under the dash.

[realvc]

Some more great updates/repairs. Way to go!

[mud.man.rj]

And, your using it, good for you. Enjoy the truck.
Mudman.

[realvc]

Congrats. on the round trip with no problems. Also the bed mod. is cool and functional.
I'm looking forward to getting mine on the road some day.

[Northwest Outlaw]

In preparation for the Manson Rat Rod Show on May 19-20th I started trying to wrap up all the electrical bugs and get some highway tests in. The rear lights are turning out to be very temperamental and after blowing fuses, tearing apart and re-soldering plugs and replace half the wires I’ve decided it’s as good as it’s going to get; both taillights, both blinkers but only if the taillights aren’t on, and driver’s side brake light. I also replaced the thermostat with a 180 degree one and drilled the 1/16” hole that everyone says to do.


I haven’t had any overheating issues, but since the trip was going to be about 4 hours and the weather report was calling for sun and 80+ temps I decided to build a fan shroud. Using 14’ wide galvanized roof flashing I was able to bend, cut, fold and crimp a sturdy box with a giant hole in the middle. To ease installation I fabricated it in two pieces. The first attempt was a “top and bottom” design that failed because I could slide it under the radiator hose and over the fan. I wanted the ability to remove the shroud without any other disassembly, so I went back to the drawing board. The second design halved the shroud down the middle and allowed each side to be dropped into the engine bay from above and then slide together around the fan. Another advantage of doing the whole thing over was that I was able to make better cuts and folds in the sheet metal. There are no raw edges to cut yourself on. With the shroud on and motor running there is a fairly strong air flow felt in front of the grill. It evens sucks in piece of paper from 6” away!

Living in the great Pacific Northwest has a few unique requirements for all vehicles. One of those is windshield wipers. Mine didn’t do anything when I turned the switch, but I knew it was getting power. So I took out the motor and tore it apart. The copper bushing that the gear shaft spins in was completely rusted to the shaft. After hammering it apart, wire brushing the crap off and a good scotch pad cleaning everything was back to work order. Even picked up new wiper blades to replace the cracked and dusty old ones.

My travel partner, Hot Rod Erik, was bringing his boy Daniel along for the trip. That meant I needed a third seat belt. I figured while I had the bench seat out to install the third seatbelt it would be a good time for a more comfortable seat cover. Future plans include rebuilding the seat completely but there wasn’t time for that now. I convinced the wife to help in fashioning some Mexican blankets into temporary covers. She used tarp grommets and rope to get a really nice, snug fit that held the blankets in place while sliding in and out of the truck.


The evening before the trip I was finally able to get out on a little highway near our house. Getting up to 65-70 mph I was feeling pretty good about the build, until a giant white smoke cloud appeared behind me! I immediately pulled off at the next exit and found a safe place to park and take a look. The cause was transmission fluid puking all over the exhaust on the passenger side. With some more test drives it only seemed to be happening at higher RPMs, around 3000 if I was pushing to 70 mph. This led me to believe that I may have over filled the trans fluid and the excess was be forced out of the vent tube. The splattered pattern was consistent with the theory, so I sucked out some fluid and attached a drain hose from the vent tube to a catch bottle. I didn’t have time to test it out that night, but I planned on doing some more drive tests with Erik the next day. Having “solved” the trans problem and wrapped up a bunch of little tasks , I was getting excited for the trip to Manson.

[realvc]

Way to go on all counts. Your fan shroud design is functional and looks good too.
Good luck on your trip.

[mud.man.rj]

I agree, after all the hard work enjoy the truck.
Mudman.