SkinnyG's '61 Chevy Apache 10

And we're naked.

Spent a bit of time trying to get the rest of the U-bolts and spring bolts out of the trailing arms.  Lots of penetrant, and the French Wrench, plus judicious application of the air hammer (much to the chagrin of my neighbours), and they're out.  There will PLENTY of Never-Sieze going back in, let me tell you!

Who likes pancakes?

Two inches removed from the crossmember.

This took all day. Not my best welding, but I also welded it as far as I could reach on the back side as well. There is so much surface area of weld, and each half is bolted in its own way to the frame, there should not be a problem no matter how drumk my welds are.

Tomorrow, I will be going through ALL of my grinding discs and flapper wheels making it pretty.

Oh, and fit the steering rack, if my tie rod ends come in for measurement....

Half a grinding disc, one flapper disc, four surfacing discs, and I did not destroy my zip disc.

Life is good.

For future reference: you can fit a 73-87 crossmember into a 60-62 frame, but only the top rear bolts on the sides will line up, and only the front two (four) bolts on the bottom of the frame will line up.

So I'm making a drilling jig that will reference two of the existing '61 holes, and provide a pilot hole guide for the '84 holes, moving the crossmember forward 3/4". This movement, coupled with moving the lower control arms 3/4", should position the wheels about 1" to 1-1/8" forward in the fender. The control arms are moved forward for more caster, which works -wonderfully- on my '77 Silverado, but really only moves the wheels forward about 3/8" of an inch because of where the spindle sits.

The bottom two holes don't quite line up with anything useful.

I lied. I moved the crossmember forward 1". I also drilled the sides for the lower two bolt holes. I may or may not do anything about the top two bolts. Depends on what gets in the way.

Cut the bump stop mounts off the control arms. Machined new 5/8" located holes to move the control arms 3/4" forward for better caster. I clearanced the crossmember as needed with an FBH (Fairly Big Hammer) to get the bushings to clear. There may have been some grinding too.

I trial-fit the front suspension. This is with 88-98 spindles sitting on 73-87 ball joints (no, it doesn't fit like that), and at what should be ride height, which, by my math, should be 5.3" ground clearance. The control arms are still 1" below the bottom of the frame, but that's a whole lot better than 3" below the frame (grin).

GREAT NEWS EVERYBODY!!

I know you've all been on the edge of your seat over this....

I slipped rotors on and and measured the wheel mount to wheel mount width, and HOORAY! It measures 65-3/4"!

My preliminary measurements had me very worried - if the old HO32 axle was only 62" wide, things weren't adding up well to match the 65" Ford 9" for the back, using the 18" Jeep steelies I want to run.  I was figuring I'd have to do some funky fabrication to move the ball joints 3/4" further outside the control arm.  But NO!  It's going to work!  Yay!!!!

I fabricated some height-adjustable "legs" which I welded to the frame, so I could set the frame absolutely level. Or, at least as level as a 1961 stick-welded truck chassis is going to let me.

I removed the four forward bed mounts because the 12" chop doesn't coincide with any of the bed frame placements (I'll be drilling a couple new holes), and I cut 12" out of the frame sides (vertical cut because that's all the room I have), measured from 7" behind the cab mount. 

The trailing arm crossmember pieces were cut free, as were the forward legs of the X (I mis-measured though, and had to add some metal back. By my new measurements it looks like you'd need to cut out 11.25" here, but I might be wrong); Pythagorus failed me. 

I tried to heat the X to bend it to where the stubs needed to line up, but it was taking forever and in the end I just sliced them with a cutting disc and welded them back up as needed.

8" was cut off the end of the frame.

Clamped it securely, checked for square (+/- 1/32"), and tacked it thoroughly. I'll weld it up when my arms and shoulders are cooperating with me again.

My buddy Mustang Pete is building the same Cab right down to the red primer on the back. His plan is a Dakota chassis with an LS.

Pete

Obviously all this hackingpiecuttingxframeyaddaydda will result in said bed sheet metal massaging EH??  

Ohyesfersure!

I'm in it for the challenge of it!

That's a fox body rack, as mentioned earlier, right?

I'm very much into the build, and await further awesomeness patiently.

Yes, Fox body.  Curious to see how wretched the geometry is in making it work.

I inquired at two different machine shops about getting the 9" axles re-drilled to Chevy 5x5 bolt pattern and hub diameter. 

One shop (in business for 75 years) had no idea if it could be done.

The other shop (45 years) said worst case (having to weld the old holes closed), it would be $300 per axle. That's $600CDN, or about $450US.  I can get Moser to MAKE me new axles for that.....

Prepped for fishplates this evening. Lots of grinding.

And I have a full box of 5" discs.  I only have 4-1/2" grinders.....

Okay. It's shortened. That was a LOT of work.

Also, my CPP 5" drop coils arrived, along with Summit Brand polyurethane bushings (re-labeled Energy Suspension? They have ES part numbers cast in the bushing....). Stock coil for comparison:

And I'm not sure what to do with this bed mount. If I attach it with the rear hole (right) and drill a new front hole (left), the bed might be too close to the cab. If I attach it with the front hole (left), the bed cross pieces might not line up.  Having never done this before, I'm not sure.....

Awesome truck project! May I ask why are you using or "mocking up" the front suspension with the 88-98 spindles? Ive been around all the Chevy trucks for years but I have never heard of someone using the newer GMT400 spindle on a C10 chassis. Is this some new idea to gain some caster and camber gains? Also with the rack conversion, What rack are you using? I know Rob at No Limit was using the a newer Silverado rack I believe.  I have a 67' C10 that I'm building (which is essentially the same chassis from 63-87) so I'm gleaning information from your build. Keep up the work!

The 88-98 spindles fell into my lap for cheap, and I knew I was going to move the spindles further outboard so I can fit a modern steel wheel and run better scrub radius. Turned out, for whatever reason, they are not bad where they are (though I will still move the lower ball joint 3/8" outboard).

It's a Fox-body rack. It looks like it's close. Any idea what a newer silverado rack width is?

In reply to SkinnyG :

Makes sense on the spindles. I did see you were going to run newer jeep steel wheels. Sounds like a cool idea.

I'll see what I can find out for you tomorrow

I want to run 18", -maybe- 20" steel wheels.  Jeep Grand Cherokee have those, are 5x5, and can be had super cheap. There are a few guys around who run them with spacers, but I want to do it better.

I like the look (though it's 20's):

My preliminary calculations suggest a rack around 25-3/8" inner-to-inner would be grand.

Fox Mustang is about 24-1/4"

In reply to SkinnyG :

That looks good, but a little more sidewall might not hurt. 

Yeah.  Those are 20's, and too big.  I think 18's are a good balance between Resto and Mod.  Resto18Mod, if you will.