1961 Apache

[62c30]

This was my grandfathers truck that he bought when it was less than a year old. He died before I was born and what i've been told has not been on the road since 1982. My grandma said I could have it in the late '80's early 90's. I brought it from Missouri to Kansas in 2002. It has been sitting ever since. I didn't want to start on it until I could go through it completely so I didn't have a project scattered all over my garage for years. I built a new garage last year and loaded the truck on the trailer to finally store it inside and noticed the rear of the frame was rotted. Put it in the garage and a few months later a friend called and he had found a 60-62 swb frame. So the frame rotted out was kinda a bad thing at first but now I am going to build the other frame and just swap the body. I always wanted to put it back to stock or close to it. Plan is to swap it on to this other frame with an LS and drive it for a year or 20 and then when I have all the resources to go through the body then restore back to stock. Would like to have it running and driving this year.......

[62c30]

Here is the frame I just started with. I got it stripped down and had it sandblasted and have received a few of the new parts. There are a couple of small rust areas that need to be fixed.

[62c30]

[62c30]

[SkinnyG]

Nice!

[The Rocknrod]

Thanks for the updates, should be a great project.

[88Stanger]

Awesome!!! there is alot of great people on here that will help you along when you need it. they have been great for me as they will be for you. cannot wait to see updates....

[MT65]

It will be an awesome project, your grandad would be pleased.......

[Grizz1963]

Excellent work so far.

[SkinnyG]

Why are you cutting out the middle of the X?

[62c30]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Why are you cutting out the middle of the X?

Cause the bottom was full of rust holes. I’m going to replace it. Anyone know of a better idea than sheet metal that holds dirt and water?

[SkinnyG]

Ah. I see.

The original plate had holes in it to drain out the water. The reinforcement (or placement?) ribs would probably trap some mud in, and couple that with lots of dirt roads, and it may rust out.

I made a new one for mine out of 3/16" plate and just made it flat instead of bent, since mine is riding very low.

[62c30]

I thought about a flat plate but wasn’t sure since I am just doing 3” drop spindles and 4” drop springs.

[62c30]

So I started to make up a plate for the x frame. Since I would like to restore this truck back to stock eventually I might try to find a stock part for it in the future. This one will hopefully work for now, still needs a little work. The factory welds are absolutely terrible. I guess when we do put the truck back to stock to duplicate the factory welds I'll drink a fifth of whiskey and get the arc welder out after not using it for 20 years and maybe close one eye and I should get pretty close to the factory look. Found a picture of the truck sitting in the barn about 30 years ago.

[62c30]

Primed, hopefully paint tomorrow.

[62c30]

Painted, turned out pretty good

[88Stanger]

Great looking truck to start with. progress looks good.

[ElReeso]

Nice work!

[62c30]

Not much but a little progress. I’m going to try to get the rearend in this week.

[62c30]

So the frontend is ready to go in, the rearend is in and I made a mount for the gas tank.

[62c30]

front end is in, cut down the engine perches. hopefully set the engine in next week or two.

[62c30]

Brought the engine home for a little test fit.

[62c30]

Been working a lot on the truck. Truck is apart and started on rust repair. Truck is no longer going to be a patina truck, cab goes in next week to get stripped. I have a lot more pictures on my old phone I'll try to upload latter. Both sides on the top of the A pillar were rotted out, I pieced in one side from a cab cut and bought a shrinker/strechter to make the other side, not perfect but a lot better than I was expecting. I cut the roof off to fix the rust in the top of the cab, got a new roof from LMC, looks good but have not fitted it yet. I left a piece of the roof on above the windshield until I get it back from the blaster. Hopefully the cab wont be too bad when I get it back.

[62c30]

some pictures

[62c30]

more pictures