1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Hey Gang, New truck in the stable! I pulled this 1959 Chevy Apache out of the CA desert to get it back on the road.

History:

Owned by a gold prospector who slept in the bed when he was out sniping for gold
Was run off the road and into a river, where it landed on an island
After healing from his broken leg, he used a household hammer, banged out as many dents as he could, and kept on truckin!


Rap Sheet:

235 and a 4 in the floor-turns over
Short Bed with spare
50's Caravan Top Camper Shell-Awesome.
Small window
Standard trim, no frills. No arm rests, no radio, no deluxe heater, no trim.. no nothin. Cheapest truck you could get I bet.



Current plans:

Power wash everything
get the 235 running
Fix the drivers lower hinge corner area in the cab so the door works.
Get the drum brakes functional and contemplate the ole dual reservoir upgrade.
Clean up some wheels and tires and slap em on.
Drive her to the local diner for a $5 milkshake.

Maybe...
Contemplate the T-5 trans swap if I can ever find one!


Parts I'd like to come across if anyone is in the Norcal Area:

Factory tan patina fenders
Factory bench seat
Chrome 6 lug wheels and tires
Top section of a small window cab

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Hay Dave , another beater ? Really !

Get the GMC going and enjoy it .

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

lots of potential there, love the stepsides

enjoy

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Hey Glen, yes, another truck getting saved from rusting back into the earth. She looks just like my first truck I bought from Del, the Jackalope, so how could I pass?

Of course the GMC is getting working on as well.

• Replaced the fuel pump with an ethanol tolerant rebuilt unit
• radiator is gone through
• cleaned up the rust from the rad support and repainted it
• Radiator support and shroud is at the powdercoat getting a fresh coat of black.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

First order of business was removing the giant bench seat out of a later truck.. not sure which one but it sure doesn't fit well!

After cleaning up the rat turds and nests and making space for tools, I pulled off the front clip last night to get at the disaster of a hinge corner that needs replacing. This looks like a complicated patch job, for sure!

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Gee the neighbors must be excited to watch you go at it . Kinda like dejavu :)
Was the carb on the manifold or was it open to the world ?
Looks like you got some welding to do .
So what desert did you find this fine example in ?

So where did you find a ethanol compliant fuel pump ? I need one for my ‘57 .

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

The neighbors near me put up with me, but there is some old bitty who always calls the city on me after a little while, they come out, make sure I parked in the driveway, and things are typically okay. They wont like the front clip off though.

The carb was there, I just pulled it off to start cleaning parts in preparation for the rebuild.. should go much faster than rebuilding the Carter AFB on the GMC!

I sure do! Kind of a complicated patch, to be honest. Fortunately its invisible to the outside and I will smooth out the 3" section you can see from inside the cab when you squint and know where to look. I just hope the door closes when I'm finished.

This came from Leavitt, CA.

I found a guy rebuilding them on ebay. Costs a bit more than usual, but I wanted a factory rebuild, not a repop.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

the look with that capper is awesome

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Yeah the tan color is my favorite, it blends perfectly with the patina, all shades of brown.

I need to figure out the wheel and tire combo that will look good with this!

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Thanks for the link .

How about a fauxtinna on a set of white spokes , that you already have on the GMC .
That way you can make use of them and get the wheels and tires you really what for the GMC .
Meanwhile you could free up some of my garage space by taking the set of stock wheel and tires that came with my NAPCO.

Sounds like a win win for both of us , and you don’t have to buy a new set of wheels and tires until you’re ready for them on the GMC .

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Or you could just put my NAPCO wheels & tires (there are 5 of them) on Goldenrod and call it good .
Did I mention that they are dark green.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

i'm sure you are on this already but when doing the hinge pillars it is always a good idea to have some fresh hinges and hang the door first, then x brace the opening once the door fits to your liking. then take the door off and cut stuff out as required. test fit the door periodically to ensure stuff still fits. also, check the front cab mounts that weld to the underside of the floor since you're there anyway. lots of parts go into making the hinge pillar solid so the door fits consistently time after time.
nice find and hey, they all need a good cleanout when we get them, at least ALL mine do. wife would like me to find something, just once, that we could just drive right away. whats the fun in that, i would have to strip it just to make sure it's good, haha.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Thank goodness I have at least one truck that needs only many thousand$$ in paint and body but I don't have to touch a welder. Unfortunately, it also allows me know what a door should feel and sound like, and I'm nowhere even remotely close to that feel/sound with today's project.

I finished it up mostly today, and before I saw your comment. Fortunately I know all about bracing and the importance of fitting the door. I proceeded to toss all of that knowledge out of the window and slapped it in without doing either.... I mean the door was a disaster before so it can only get better from here, right? Also it didn't make much sense to brace a cab that was already damaged and probably not correct anyways.

I separated the patch into two pieces, and welded the jamb piece in first that holds the captive nuts first. Since it has the formed indents where the ID plates go, I was able to position it based on the measurements of indents. Once i had that in, I could fit the other piece. It was very apparent during this step that I would not get it perfect as the cab was deformed slightly, but some solid steel is better than what I started with. I accidentally sanded one section a bit thin so I overlapped a small piece of sheet metal scrap to strengthen it a bit.

The front mount and step are definitely off...pushed down. This is a driveway job, so there will be no cab mount repair, I'll just be thankful if I can get the door to correctly latch and not swing open while driving.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I sprayed some primer on there for now, I may go back and clean up some welds, tack in some spots. You can see how straight the door edge is, which is due to damage on the door. Everything on this truck is dented, damaged, or rusted except the bedsides and the hood!

I cleaned up and rebuilt the carb, one more item off of the bring-back-the-dead check list. I use this old metal hardware holder to separate and organize the little carb parts, and it really helps quite a bit.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

I use some cake pans stolen from the house to clean stuff like carbs in. They collect the overspray well. For the small parts one of those steel mesh tea leaf holders works well. Again, stolen from the house.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Coming along .
How does the door fit ?

The Door Closes!
 

Yesterday I spent some time on the driver door itself. The bottom hinge nuts were all cracked and pulled forward, so I hammered those flat, drilled out the cracks, and welded them all. The lower hinge pocket itself was also slightly mislocated due to some deformation on the door side, so I hammered that flat again as well.

I also spent some time fixing the seam damage cause by Farmer Browns hammer and a previously mis-aligned door. It's not perfect but it's better.

After raising the cab-to-hinge height to it's maximum setting, I put the door on and the gaps were spot-on right away... I couldn't believe it. I adjusted the pillar striker as far inward as possible and it now closes solidly with no jiggling.

A week of work and we have a door! Now I have to fix the fender, and its on to the passenger door.

Am I doing this backwards? It doesn't even run yet, no brakes... and here I am doing bodywork.

I also took a scotch-brite to one of the inner fenders to see if I could clean it up... and it looks awesome! Worn but presentable, just how I like em.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Do you have a big Ape to run shotgun with you?
Mind you that was a 55 bowtie, but the color and capper fit the look

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Looking good Dave , it’s coming along nicely .

You say you’re doing this backwards, body work first then mechanical , I say you’re doing the hard stuff first . So when you get it running you are done without having the bodywork hanging over you .

Keep at it and in no time you’ll be driving it and then you can focus on the GMC .
Besides you’ll have new tires and wheels for Goldielocks on May 10 .

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Ha, I had bought and sold a 56 last year and that was the first thing everyone thought of! Except Clint's camper was like twice the size.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Thanks Glen!

I haven't lost my GMC focus, just waiting for and acquiring parts... although I am feeling a bit shy about the power steering rebuild...I'm pretty unqualified.

Part of me wants to just swap the box out for a CPP unit, but I would love to experience the actual feel of the factory setup. Either way, I'm not going to run manual steering in that truck. It deserves better.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Dave if you decide to replace the P/S box use CPP #CP 50006C

Currently 15% off at Ecklers classic Chevy
# 61-866311-1 p/s box regular price $ 392.99 sale price $ 375.88
# 5559PA-T pitman arm also needed
Stock Modified steering column
New drag link

This mounts in the stock location so the drag link geometry stays stock .

Ya I know more money but this is what I planned to do to it if I kept the stock suspension .

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking of...I probably just need to remove the factory box and diagnose.

Fender correction
 

Yesterday I did a bit of work on the front fender to allow it to fit somewhat correct-ish to the cab corner. There's still a hole, still 1 million dents...I spent some time trying to re-establish some semblance of the shapes and curves of the fender. I have no training/experience with bodywork, just a bit of youtube and trial and error. Ideally I would be working with clean, bare metal, not painted and rusty sheet.. but I like painted and rusty sheet.

The lower bolt is snapped off and was fighting me yesterday... welded three nuts to it to try and get it out... no luck yet. I'll keep working it/give up and drill.

Getting close to dealing with the mechanical function.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Here's your new shoes for Goldielocks ... gee maybe I should have shoes on too :)

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Awesome, those are really going to up my top speed! Thanks Glen

Special Rear Axle?
 

I noticed today that the rear axle much more closely resembled the rear axle in my GMC than the round cover of my last Chevy... and then I saw it.. a "45" stamped on the housing.

A Spicer 45 in a Chevy? I thought these only came in the GMC? Based on the rest of the truck, the owner didn't appear to be the swap-it-out kinda guy, so I'm curious how that got there. Someone on the HAMB said that it indicates a positraction rear, but thats a rare option for such a plane-jane truck and I doubt that is what I'm looking at.

Anyone else find a Spicer 45 rear in their Chevy?

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Well after doing more research, it looks like the only way a Spicer 45 ends up here is when using Positraction, so that's pretty exciting! This is a somewhat rare option.... now I have to decide if I want to swap this into my GMC Suburban pickup that also has a Spicer 45, but didn't necessarily come factory with Positraction. They had the fast-cruising 3.07's back in 56, but no posi option...of course if I found a 3.07 gear set in there, it would stay!

While waiting for parts to arrive and taking a break from wrestling with doors (the passenger hinge pocket is also crap and the caged nut was set free to spin for eternity), I decided to see what else is wrong with this old girl.


I used a spare gauge cluster I had to replace a missing speedo needle and Both odo's looked bad, so I took the easy road here. I didn't have a new odo handy and I dont need to report miles to the DMV here, so eh.

I found some fried wires/melted plastic terminal insulators... not a good sign! Without rewiring the whole truck, anyone have a simple/economical how-to for adding a basic fuse block to a fuseless factory 59? The wiring is so strange with how things join at ammeters, on relays, etc. We really need a write-up on how to add some fusing and improve the factory wiring without needing an ez-wire and starting from scratch.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

I also had a crack at rebuilding my first distributor. It's quite easy, actually, and I don't know why anyone would just swap out bits when the whole thing comes apart with 5 screws/bolts and a pin. Relaxing job, 10/10 will rebuild the next one that comes along.

I left out some of the good bits for now, as I'm doing the HEI conversion found HERE

Making progress on a few things
 

There are so many things to do with this truck just to get it working again... forget about customization. Working doors, hinges, electrical, etc.... just taking off the muck is a task by itself!

I managed to get more crud off of the engine. I've been scrubbing some areas down with old gas since its good for nothin else, and I've done another round of power washing since this step but it still looks pretty far from decent.

Quick door latch fix
 

Both interior door handles had broken springs and as far as I could tell, you cant buy just the springs. I removed them, welded them back, and replaced them. Handles actually open the doors now!

These are those little projects that take a whole afternoon/evening and all you have to show for it is something just doing what it's supposed to do! Sure is nice to open the door though (=

wet sanding
 

While I was messing around with the door and fussing with dents and fitment, I took a break from the hard stuff to see how easily the old primer would come off the factory Frontier Beige paint that I love so much... it came off relatively easily! High grit and plenty of water and I didn't blow through.

New body tools
 

I got some new body tools to play around with, including one tool I already owned that became a cab straightening device. Worked great! I pushed the bottom step against the frame and while creating tension there, I smacked the dented cab mount to straighten it out and help keep the step in it's new location.

I knew it worked because I had to remove and realign the door completely, which took a couple of afternoons and some profanity.

More fixing crap wiring
 

I pulled the ignition only to find every terminal had a red wire attached to it, crimped to another wire, sometimes crimped to a THIRD color. I hate this crap so much...

I like when the colors match the schematics, so I ordered some bits and ran fresh wires, and soldered/shrank the connections instead of these crimps.

Sure, the old wiring might have worked, but I want to help me and the next guy out, and the vintage style insulators are cheap happiness.

HEI Distributor converted
 

I finished the HEI conversion to the distributor today, and I had to order a second reluctor since i filed the first one incorrectly. I went much slower on round two and got a nice fit this time. After making the adapter plate that allows me to switch back to points anytime, I got it assembled, adjusted, and routed the wired out after notching the wall above the prior hole for the cap negative terminal wire. New vacuum and we're ready to install!

I made up a mount for the HEI module but I need to get some dielectric grease behind it before I secure it up. Once that's wired up I'll get some photos.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

i never expect it to work as well as it does, but one cheap can of foaming engine degreaser and a warm water pressure washer does AMAZING work. blast, foam, blast, foam, blast and you could eat off an old engine.

that's freakin awesome about the primer coming off!

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

I've had pretty good results with oven cleaner. Castrol super clean also works pretty good.
Going back a few pics, it looks like your cab mount/floor support has a rust hole at the door step/hinge pillar end. That will give you door alignment issues until fixed if that's the case.
Cool idea on the hei convo. Is that something you made up or a kit?

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

Oh man I would love a warm water pressure washer! They are pretty pricey, I believe.. I have small consumer gas one.

Yes I was very stoked about the primer... It's going to a fun have-a-beer-sand-the-primer type of activity, just a little at a time. Granted the body still looks like crap nearly everywhere, so I'm not sure what I'm really accomplishing.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

That might be an optical illusion, but even so, this cab is still not perfect and never will be. I got the door to latch and that was my big victory (=

It can be purchased as a kit, but I DIY'd it. Check it out HERE. I think this is usually something reserved for a nicer build, but I liked the experience and knowledge that comes with it, and I'll take a hotter spark any day if I'm going to get this thing running.

Re: 1959 Chevy Apache Short Step "Goldilocks"
 

oh yeah, mine is just a basic washer too. i just run my hose from the slop sink and turn both hot and cold on full. when i ran just the hot i melted the grease out of the pump and had to open it up to get it working again. warm is within the limits in the manual. anything but straight cold for cleaning grease makes a huge difference.

My truck broke a mans leg.
 

While working on some of the smaller bits here and there, I noticed that the axle was bent... the story started forming now.

• Axle is bent.
• Steering linkage is bent.
• frame under front passenger bump stop is bent from hitting that stop so hard
• Passenger door is dented
• Passenger mirror was ripped off
• Roof is dented

One big event happened in this truck, and I wanted to know what it was! So using the name on the title I have, I traced back to the oldest relative of the title name, and called the man.

An 85 year old kind gentleman answered and explained that it wasn't his, but he knew the owner. A gold prospector who used to sleep in the camper while he was out sniping for gold, he got run off the road one day and the truck flipped over into a river and landed on a small island, breaking his leg in the process.

And I had already named this truck Goldie.. how about that!!

So now that the dents and dings have a story, their value just increased! I asked if he had any photos of the truck in its heyday and he did, but he lost them all in a fire.