I purchased a 1961 apache 2 wheel drive, long bed, 3 on the tree, and inline 6 cylinder. future mods consist of: 73-87 1/2 ton p/u front suspension cradle (power steering and disc brakes), 12 bolt possi rear end, lowered 5-7, 305 out of an 85 z-28, hack into short bed. here are some pics of its current condition and a photo shopafter mods.

 

just kidding ill try again

 

progress pics, consist of 1966 chevy long bed framestripped and waiting to be cut 12 1/2" and rewelded into a short bed.
i was also aproached by a guy selling a 79 454 with 89,000 original miles on it, for a reasonable price. i think its just what i need for now until i can afford to drop in a 6.0 ltr with a 5 speed.

 

Cool project. Good luck with it.

 

heres a pic of the frame after i cut 12.5" out and rewelded it. Im going to fish plate the inside of the frame over the cut. i also got my 454 and am hooking it up to the old 4 speed top loader. the 454 came with a perfectly good T400 but i learned to drive stick in my dads 65 chevy so its gotta be a stick. i eventually would like to get a 5speed or a 4speed muncie. i am waiting on the front suspension out of a 78 chev. order drop spindles and springs and hack 8" off the back and the frame is done.

 

nice work on the frame

how did you come to figure of removing 12.5"?

 

i measured from front bed mount (for a longbed) to the 2nd bed mount (front for SHORT BED) i actually found a strait short bed for $50 so i couldnt pass it up. plus my dad needed a strait long box for his 65. ill be putting the cab on tomarrow and i got the motor in for mach up 2 days ago.
keep yah posted on bed alignment.

 

here are some pics of the work ive done in the last week. includes: boxing the frame, installing engine and tranny, making tranny crossmember, putting cab and bed on, cab is bolted down and bed doesnt line up very well. ill be doing some extensive work to the bed to get it to mount up.
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one problem is that the motor hits the fire wall, ill be moving the motor forward an inch. another problem is that headers are going to be tight but i going to get some shorty block huggers.
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i shortened the bed a little to much because i was planning on cutting the stock bed the same distance that i cut the frame but i picked up that short bed so to save me some body work, im going to try to make it work. if i would have had the bed prior to cutting the frame i could have cut it to the right size. turns out a long bed hangs less over the front bed mounts than a short bed.