1960 Apache K10 build

[tchevs]

Nice concept. Its not my vehicle but cant wait to see its final stance. Also wondering on the price of the EZ swap kit.

[Just-in-credible]

Originally Posted by tchevs

Nice concept. Its not my vehicle but cant wait to see its final stance. Also wondering on the price of the EZ swap kit.

I think it will sit just shy of 7' to the top of the cab when I'm all done. I ordered 35x12.50's for it, and they should be in this week. I do notice that the suspension does settle a fair bit when I have all the sheet metal on it.

I cant remember exactly what the kit was worth. I think it was somewhere around 1500 bucks. Overall, its a decent kit. there are definitely gaps, but for the most part, I figured most of it out. Sometimes the guy replies, sometimes he doesn't. The instructions are so so. the fit is okay. But you have to be prepared to make it work and adjust some things. Don't expect to just zap it on and go.

But like I said, overall, it is pretty good. The kit was supposed to come with cab bolts, and didn't. I don't know if it was supposed to come with rear bumper mounts or not, but it didn't. The front bumper mounts say they are for a 60-66, but I learned that a 60-62 and a 63-66 bumper are shaped juuuuust different enough to not work properly. So I will have to figure something out for that. But all in all, those are minor things I feel.

If you're at all handy at fabricating, and figuring things out, this kit will work fine for you. My skills are entry level at best, and I am making it work.

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And as for updates...

I got a fair bit done!

I got the heater installed. It was kind of a bummer because I THOUGHT I got the kit that would work with what I had, but apparently not. I kind of figured the AC lines would not be correct, but It is missing two of the lever assemblies to make the defrost blend work, and it is missing the lever to make the AC work. So I got as much working as I could. I really want to take it for a spin once I get it together, and defrost and heat is essential. So the heater is together enough to be functional now. I did not install the nice little under dash vents yet, because I figured they would just be in the way for wiring.

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The heater hangs down a bit, and it's kinda ugly, but I think it will disappear once I get some black carpet or even rubber floor mats in place.

It certainly moves a lot of air when it is on high.

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Next I moved on to the wiring. I got an american autowire kit, and for the most part, it has really made the wiring a snap so far. I got the main fuse panel mounted, and the switches and ignition working. The only thing is that there is a TON of circuits that I will not be using. SO my plan is to get it together, get it driving, and then once I get it to that point, I will go ahead and remove the things I do not need. For example, it has circuits for a dedicated VSS signal, but my Tahoe harness has all of those things already. as long as they all work, I should be in the clear. A lot of things like the main harness that comes out of the firewall by the distributor, I don't think I need any of it. And most of the gauge cluster will get information from the OBD2 port, so that plug will be redundant as well. But I would rather work around them for now, than snip them and wish I hadn't.

and some other things should all be plug and play. I will be able to just connect my harness from the flaming river column into the main wiring harness.

I also rough mounted the throttle pedal. I only put one bolt in it for now. I will do something better later, but I wanted to have the seat in it, and drive it around for a sec to see if the pedal is too high or too low.

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The next focus was the main power system and cooling fans.

I got one of those sweet little MSD relays, and mounted it out of the way, under the battery. I am set up so my PCM controls the fans, and they send a ground trigger. So this was super simple. I would recommend these relays. I am going to use two channels for fans, and the other two I will use for headlights down the road.

I have noticed that feeding power directly from the battery through a relay to the headlights increases light output significantly on these old trucks. I may even get fancy down the road and put in the new Holley Retrobright lights. But that is a future Justin problem, not a today Justin problem. So the relays are mounted, and they work great. and MAN does this radiator move a lot of air when both fans are on.

One thing to note, I did have to flip the orientation of the relay from what you see in the picture so I could clear the inner fender. I thought about that one too late, but that was an easy fix.

I repurposed the factory Tahoe main battery and ground cables, and just crimped new lugs on them where I wanted them. they actually worked pretty good!

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And you know what that means....the next step was starting this beast.

I wired up the fuel pump, and the PCM. searched up a few videos for tuning tips, plugged in my lap top, made a few adjustments, uploaded a quick tune, did my few last minute checks(we will get back to that in a second)...and hit the key.

and...no life. Cranked, but no fuel pump, no life.

so I started trouble shooting...I realized that perhaps I was a little bit excited, and forgot to plug the PCM into the harness.

I plugged it in, hit the key, and it came to life immediately.

and it was running and idling SO good. Sow here's the next stupid thing I did...

Remember how I said I did my last checks before start up? Well I crawled under it, and THOUGHT I put it in neutral. I ACTUALLY put it in reverse. I had a complete brain fart. I thought it was P-N-R not P-R-N. I clicked it into park, clicked it back one, and off I went. Boy, was I about to get a surprise...

Once I fired it up, of course, I blipped the throttle. I had it on dollies so I could roll it around. The wheels turned, it spit the dollies at my ankle, plopped on the ground, and slowly rolled into the wall.

Talk about a wake up hahaha. Anyhow, no damage or anything happened, it was all pretty slow motion. my ankle and my pride are a bit bruised, but other than that, everything is good.

It runs and sounds SO good.

[Just-in-credible]

if you look, you will see that only the front is on dollies haha. Anyhow, it was running at this point!

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a quick little clip of it idling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVqHCiBMZhc

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After I got the engine running, I focused on the brakes. Nothing fancy to see here.

I plumbed stainless lines to all 4 corners, tying into the factory lines where the rubber flex hoses start.

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After the brakes were done, I started reassembly. I mounted the cab for the last time, and I figured that I might as well give the cab a quick coat of rattle can white while I was at it. I can not believe how that changed the look of the whole thing.

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i also hooked up the fuel filler. I used a hole saw behind the seat, and used 1-1/4" hose to route into the original tahoe tank. I used one of the ports as a vent, which seems to have a check valve on it

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i scrubbed up the old bench, and it actually came back to life pretty good! i just scrubbed it with dish soap and a scrubbie, and it got most of the stains.

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got the interior together enough...

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and then...time to take it for a spin! it was dark, i had no headlights. so i just took it for a couple quick donuts behind the shop. it seems like it revs clean and drives nice so far!

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The most exciting part of all was seeing it with the new wheels and tires! After waiting almost 2 months, they finally came in.

I got american racing Baja’s with 35x12.50 17 tires. And I absolutely love the stance. I don’t have the bed on yet, but it is about 81” to the top of the cab. I expect this to settle just a little bit, but that gives you guys some perspective on how it sits.

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And now I am jumping into the transfer case wiring. I carefully pulled the wiring harness out of the tahoe, and swapped everything over. I found all the schematics of the transfer case control module and then hooked everything up one by one. And I had no life.

It was driving me bonkers for a few reasons.
First of all, I did not have the serial data wire hooked up. I didn’t know it wouldn’t work without this. So after some googling, I hooked that up. I dug out the evap pin out of the old harness and pinned that into the second serial data slot in the PCM.
The second thing that had me screwed up was the fact that I did not realize that the engine had to be running for the transfer case module to shift. So I monkeyed with it for hours trying to chase down problems. I had the key in the run position, so I assumed it would work. WRONG. Anyhow, the next think, I thought I had either a bad module or switch. Maybe I damaged something when I tore it apart. So I went to the junkyard and got a used one of each. I swapped them over, still nothing. So I eventually came up with the idea of starting it…WHOA! IT WORKS! Kinda. I think I still have a bad switch because it will work for a bit, and then just die. So who knows what that is about. But I ordered a replacement switch, so I am hoping this will solve the last of my issues.

Next step, bed assembly, wheel alignment, and CRUISE!

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and in the middle of all this, i decided it was time to check off a major bucket list item. I made my way to Dino's Git Down. and WOW was that ever cool. I even managed to get a pic with the big cat himself! What a cool guy. Just so kind. He listened to me ramble about my build. took a couple quick pics, and off he went.

there was just SO much to see down there. But i can say one thing. there sure were not many short box fleetside 60-66 trucks there! I think i only saw 3 or 4. but talk about a cool event.

[Braunschweiger]

Wow, you stepped on the gas there,
it looks great and works, congratulations.

[rbruno68]

It is really coming together. I give you a lot of credit for blending the two trucks and getting all the wiring bugs worked out. That will be a cool truck once it is finished.
Rob

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The first thing I jumped back into was the transfer case writing. It was driving me absolutely bonkers. I went on all data, I got the schematics, and I went wire by wire through the entire thing. I had a few issues. The first issue was that I did not have the serial data wire hooked up. No big deal…I just jumped a wire from the serial data wire in the TCCM into the OBD2 port, as this is where the serial data goes. I wasn’t sure if I had life or not yet, but now I had some sort of volatage happening in the TCCM, where before, it was all just dead.
So I knew I was on the right track. I had everything wired temporarily and I had assumed that things would work if I had power to the unit and the ignition was on.
Well folks…this was the main problem the entire time. As a complete coincidence, I fired the thing up to move it so I could sweep the floor…and to my complete and utter surprise, the switch came to life and the damn thing started working.

So lesson learned… for anyone attempting this same thing, the TCCM needs data that the engine is actually running before it will do anything. Having the ignition on is not the same thing, and you will beat your head against a wall for days on end trying to figure out what you did wrong.
So after this, I tucked all the wires up as tidy as I could, and I zip tied the original switch under the dash. I will clean this up eventually, but for now, this will work.

A lot of the wiring has been this way because I need to figure out what needs to go where before I can clean it up and tidy it up.

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The next thing I jumped into was the front bumper. I learned that there is a significant difference between the 60-62 bumper and the 63-66 bumpers. The kit said 60-66 would work, and I learned very quickly that it would not.

I had the original bumper which was all bent and mangled, so I straightened it the best I could. You could tell that someone had got this truck stuck and some point, and tried pulling off the bumper with a chain at some point in its life. So that made mounting the bumper a bit challenging…
My plan here is to just buy a 63-66 set of bumpers, and everything will bolt right in, but for now, I decided to make a set of mounts to use the bumper that I have. I copied the same design that the kit has, utilizing a plate that mounts to the bulkhead with a tab that sticks straight out. I then made two tabs that bolted to the bumper, I clamped these to the bulkhead mount I made, I wrestled with it until I had it as straight as I could get it, and then tacked it into place, and took it apart to final weld it. I think it turned out as good as a person could expect with an old mangled bumper

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front bumper tab

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front bumper mounted

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I added a bung for the vent from the fuel tank. I simply got a 1/4NPT tab, and made a quick bung in my lathe, and welded it into the filler adapter that I made. I dumped a jerry can in the fuel tank and had no leaks. So I called this a win and moved on