One Family '59 Apache, new shop truck.

[Zoomad75]

I swung by our bodyshop to check progress on the remaining stuff to get painted. All the new parts we got for the bed are in color now.

Front wall of the box is painted:


Wheel tubs are painted.


New Gate is in color. We are going to deviate from stock on the two tone treatment for more pleasing look. Ours will have the line between the turquoise and ivory match the line to the bedsides. We are debating to leave the letters in the chevrolet stamping turquoise to make it stand out on the white too. I found a couple of old brochure scans that showed the letters painted, but the boss has the weekend to veto it or not.


RH bedside and all the bed strips. Another deviation here. After much discussion the thought of painting the strips and bed lumber black as was stock we are going for a different look. The strips will be painted turquoise and the wood will get stained and sealed. I would have liked to have known this before I ordered the bed kit since I would have got oak instead of pine, but it's not my truck and the boss gets what he wants when he's footing the cost. Still with the right stain/sealer and the colored strips it will stand out. Might have a local woodworker make us some beside stake rails with our name carved into the side, stained to match the bed wood.



Got more to do for sure..Just hope that light at the end of the tunnel is a eastbound freight train coming at us!

[ChuckDriver]

Truck looks amazing! Do you think you will be doing more of these once people see the quality of your restoration skills?

[Kim57]

Looks real good.
Kim

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Truck looks amazing! Do you think you will be doing more of these once people see the quality of your restoration skills?

Thanks Chuck & Kim for the nice comments.

To answer your question, maybe. Problem is the pricetag. This project has become incredibly expensive as one would expect going to this level. When you factor the cost of labor at our retail door rates for the body and mechanical shops I'd have close to $40,000 into it up to this point and we got more to go. That isn't including the almost $20,000 I got in parts so far at actual costs. Factor a markup on those parts and the price goes up.

It's insane for me to see the numbers rack up like that since I'm the kind of guy that works on his own stuff. Most of the builds here are the guy in his garage type, farming out very little. So seeing our build in a dealership setting is out of the norm for sure. Not many dealers really do this kind of thing, some do but not many. It's not a highly profitable type of job compared to the typical bump-n-smash insurance jobs we normally take in the bodyshop. Still, if someone sees our truck on the showroom floor or at a local show and wants to have us tackle a restoration we won't turn them down.

Besides, we've got a 51 five window waiting in the wings that our owners son wants to tackle next. However, that one is way worse in condition than the 59 was to start with. I've looked it over and it's probably cheaper to buy a new reproduction cab, doors, fenders, hood, bed and start over with the original frame and drivetrain. I'm only saying that because of the sheer volume of man hours we have into rust repair and getting panels straight again. Even with the crappy fit of new restroration sheet metal, we'd be in for half the time we got into this one. Still we got to let the dust settle from this one before we dive into another.

[Zoomad75]

Progress. The guys in the bodyshop are putting in some late nights now. 8 days to go to our self set deadline. Still gives us a few days to shake it down and run it down the road.

Fenders have color!




Inner fender aprons are hung. Making a nice jewelbox to showcase the engine.








The body crew has been pulling the stockpile of parts I've ordered down daily now. We've checked and looked over multiple times but somehow I missed the fact that the complete weatherstrip kit was missing the windshield gasket. Plus the bed cross rails I ordered showed up as stepside size and not the fleetside versions I picked. The order showed the right number, they grabbed the wrong ones. I called Brothers where I ordered most of our parts from and explained the problem. I reminded how much we've ordered for the truck in the last 8 months. They confirmed they goofed and made an order for the right parts and rushed it with no charge to us. That was above and beyond!

[Zoomad75]

Couple of days of updates all coming now. Getting close..

So the doors are hung and adjusted.




Starting to hang the fenders.


Wheel tubs for the bed.


Just hung, not fully mounted and adjusted.


Bedsides getting lined on the lower inner surfaces.


Grille Support panel installed. First look of the bombay Ivory against the turquoise. Starting to look like a truck again.






By the time I've written this, the bedsides some have turquoise laid on the outside. As long as the correct bed cross rails show up monday as planned we should be assembling the bed then. All the panels will get final adjustments for gaps and fit, then the masking starts so the rest of the white can be laid down in a laser straight line from each panel to the next. We aren't going to have a goofy curved line like the last clowns that painted this did.

As anybody that has gone through a major project like this knows, when it comes down to crunch time you know some parts get missed. I've made a couple of orders to get stuff that got missed in my big orders before. Yesterday our bodyman was planning ahead getting bumper stuff together and realized we have no license plate bracket or light for the rear of the truck. HMM, nope never ordered it. Quick look at Brothers and LMC showed no listing for the fleetside chrome bumper. LMC shows the bracket for the stepside box which is consistent with the stepside bracket Brothers shows. My bodyman noted the bumper does have two square holes in the low spot for what looks like would be for the missing bracket. I called Brothers and the guy I spoke with confirmed that they don't list a bracket for the 58-59 fleetside chrome rear bumper. I had noticed the bracket they listed for the 60-62 fleetside bumper looked like the one we needed and asked if he had one to get some measurements off of. He told me to hold on a few and he'd run back to the warehouse and grab one to measure. He got back on the phone and gave me what I needed, 5 3/8" center to center on the holes. I measured our bumper and it's spot on to that measurement. That was great service.

[RockTonka]

Looks fantastic, really nice work from your team.

[Zoomad75]

Originally Posted by RockTonka

Looks fantastic, really nice work from your team.

Thanks, I'm proud of them all. They are pouring their heart and soul into this truck and the results are just starting to be seen. It's leading into the final push and I see me staying late this week to lend a hand. Lots of little things to be done and we need some extra hands or the body guys are going to run out of gas!

Little side note, our Senior owner at the dealership (the owner's Dad that founded the store) was in last week and gave some surprising praise of the guys work. He's not been a fan from the get-go as he's more of a dollars and cents kind of guy and saw this as a giant money sucking hole. But, that being said he complemented the work and said it really looks great. He did jab that the money we are into it we could have bought a brand new 2015 Silverado, but it wouldn't look like this. Still it's a good feeling to know that the quality of work here broke through that old guy's shell and he could see it as what it is. A stock restoration preserving a little slice of history showing where we've come from.

[Kim57]

Looks great.
Kim

[Zoomad75]

Lots of progress in the last two days.. Here we go!

Headlight assemblies. All rebuilt with the original T3 headlamps. Nice!



White got laid down on the cab and fenders yesterday and assembly has taken a big leap forward.





Glass is in the back of the cab.


Left side assembled.



The hood emblem getting detailed out with some One Shot paint plus more finished parts.



Bed Assembly. Still Waiting on our cross sills! ARRGH!




Right side UP!




Tailgate installed.


The Bed has had the white laid down this afternoon, but no pics. Shooting through the booth is worthless as the glass needs cleaned up! We've been busy on other things as you can see.

Really looking awesome right now.

[Kim57]

Looking real sharp.
Kim

[Zoomad75]

More progress pics:

Bed with the white applied. Already starting to wet sand.


Tailgate. Love the letters.


Hooray! The CORRECT bed cross rails showed up a day earlier than expected. I was sweating this showing up on time.


Small details..


Cab with the rear glass and seat installed. You can see the seat upholstery through the glass.


Sneek peek at the seat.


Our restored fender and hood emblems.

[ChuckDriver]

Looks great!

What clips did you use to install the cab trim around the big window?

Thanks!

[northern 85]

Wow shes a beauty!!!

[Kim57]

Very very nice.
Kim

[Advanced Design]

Coming together really nice! I get the founding owners reservations. Back in the day he probably stressed over keeping the business alive, meeting payroll and making the mortgage payments.

[Zoomad75]

[QUOTE=ChuckDriver;7272401]Looks great!

What clips did you use to install the cab trim around the big window?

Thanks![/QUOTE

I wasn't back there when they did it, but we did have all the old clips we pulled off the truck when we tore it down.

Back to the progress pics.

Here you can see the box is installed to the frame. The hood is on, but will be coming off again. Will explain..


Front end complete. Now why is the hood coming off? Small tactical error on our painters part. You might remember the first parts that got painted turquoise was the hood, wheels and cowl vent. Our painter was told to mix enough paint to do the entire truck. He didn't. So once we painted everything else we found the mismatch on the cowl vent when we put it on the cab. He repainted it with the fresh batch of paint we mixed for the rest of the truck and it was fine. But we knew then the hood would have to be redone once we brought it down. He forgot. You can't tell from this pic, but it's off. BIG TIME. Still our painter has done an awesome job so far, but everybody is bound to goof up sooner or later. He's going to pull it off, resquirt it and we'll be back on track.


Restored fender badge installed.



Bed is on!!




Right side.

[Kim57]

Looks great.
Kim

[Zoomad75]

Bed wood is in. Not quite finished installing at the time I shot this, but way cool for sure.




The completed interior.


As they were true to the word they gave me, the guys at Bill's Truck shop in Canada got the bedside trim delivered across the border in 3days on time. The trim came packed safely and is perfect. As the included instructions indicated, pre-fitting the end parts to the side trim is highly suggested as the repop stuff is thicker and requires some hand fitting.


Big shout out to the guys at Bill's. They really stepped up big to deliver on time and since they were behind by a week to get them in they helped by dropping the price of the trim by enough to offset the three day rushed international shipping. Wow.

[RockinKees]

That's one very nice piece of history you're building!!
Love the color!

[DirtyLarry]

That is purdy! Love the interior!

[Kim57]

Everything is looking great.
Kim

[ChuckDriver]

Truly amazing!

[Zoomad75]

Ok folks, it's done. Well, almost. Nothing is ever done as we all know. There is a few fit and finish issues we need to address but it's a complete unit. I can't believe it's done and I have to say I'm very proud of the entire team from both the service and body shop. Guys took parts home to work on at home, stayed late and put in the effort to really make a stunning truck. The boss is one of few words, but he was so excited he couldn't stop talking about it. Without further delay, here's some pics.

Finishing up the bedsides with our new trim.



The Boss after he pulled it out of the body shop for the first time since it was done.


Interior out in the sun.


Looking at it from the front.



The view from the backside.


Probably my favorite shot so far. Even with the random salesman in the pic. (that I just lost my mind over him leaning on the bedside, he won't do it again thats for sure)


We appreciate all the kind words on the project. All the effort has paid off and the boss can't wait to show off our work. I'm proud of all of them and of this amazing truck. It's a keeper for sure.

[Kim57]

Turned out beautiful.
Kim