Hey All,
My name is Keith, but allyall can call me 60short!
I have a 1960 Shortbed stepside 1/2 ton (C10) Apache, nicknamed "Rusty the Redneck Reject"
I have had this truck way longer then I should have, but its been one hell of a ride so far, and I am looking forward to kicking it into (relatively) higher gear!
I bought this truck off of EBay - at the ripe age of 14, with the idea that everyboy needs a truck.
The original plan was that me and my Pops would work on the truck and I would drive it to highschool... turns out my optimism and our lack of knowledge together wasn't enough to get it very far.
We fixed a few small things, and then started diving into wiring and that's where we got in over our head - I was having issues getting power to the ignition circut, and the headlight switch was giving me fits.
Luckily, we had a family friend who had some wiring experience that offered to help - we spent a few weekends and got it together, but just short of firing up, and it sat again... for a lonnnnng time...
This took about 10 years ( 9.5 years longer then it should have
) but brings me close to the current time frame ..
I was working, and currently living fairly cheaply, so I decided I would invest some money, and was able to find a small one man shop that would work on this beast as a side burner project ... (Rob's 4WD / Fab in Goleta, CA <highly recommended>
I installed a new fuel tank, and some sound deadening, We installed a new - simpler harness ( its a work truck, who needs 22 circuts) did an engine break in to bring it back from its 11 year slumber, including a new radiator, and HEI and fuel lines, rebuilt the carb and did new break cylinders all the way round and fixed some strut mount bolts.
I fell in love with copper so I opted for lots of copper accents - including copper sheet and copper hammer tone paint, with a mostly SW gauge set up.
Current Set Up:
smog era 350 (Pep Boys? Rebuild) seems to have somewhat of a cam in it
Aluminium Rad ( needs a shroud)
"Buddy" buckets out of 68? truck
Very old tires
Stock 3 speed
Rebuilt Manual Drum breaks
stock manual steering
Crappy (dove grey?) repaint(over at least 2 different greens)
Ideas for the future:
5 speed (s-10ish?)
Power Breaks
Radio
wheels / tires
Rub through some of this paint and get a little of the character back
61 hood inserts
new windshield
I am sure I will have lots of questions - thanks for letting me hang out here, and be a part of this great crew!
Photos below :
IMG_4179 by
Keith, on Flickr
IMG_4150 by
Keith, on Flickr
IMG_4182 by
Keith, on Flickr