So I ordered the parts from the truckandcarshop.com and received an email that tells me I will receive another email that will give me the finial price with shipping etc. As of today I still have not received that email...so I call to make sure they received my order. The phone was answered and I was put on hold. I waited 11 minutes and 10 seconds (my phone keeps track of these times that is how I know) and finally spoke with someone who could help me. They could not find my order via my name or phone number. But they did find it. They could not tell me how much the total bill would be and they said it would ship out in 5-7 days. Now I ordered from this place because they were just south of me in the LA area and shipping would be cheap and fast. But they won't ship for 5 to 7 days and they have the items in stock (I asked)? I canceled my order...I hope it was canceled

Now they might be a great place...but I felt really uneasy dealing with them. They had the best price but questionable service....... I think I will stick with companies I have dealt with.

Gator sorry to here the local campany doesn't have their ******* together.If they don't fix the customer service they wont last long.What companies do you get most of your parts from?I have been price shopping for the windows and other parts for my 58.LMC and Classic parts seem to have the best price.I have never dealt with LMC before but I am going to give them a try.LMC has a great price on a cab seal set for $75.I am looking forward to having the green glass again.I had the green glass in my 59 apache and I really liked it.

Hi Guys, I have a few questions if you don't mind me popping in. I just wanted to post this to other apache owners.
I have a 59 stepside small window. I recently stopped driving it every day so I could have time to work on it. It stinks when you start a repair and have to be sure it's done by sunday night so you can drive it to work on monday morning .

1. I want to lower the front. I have been looking at the brothers mono leaf springs. They say it will lower the front by 4 inches. I really don't have the money to waste if this is a bad move.

2. I put a Nova rear in and it has 5 4-3/4 lugs. It works great. The stock front drums have 6 lug. I want to put 5 lug on the front. Is there a 5-4/34 hub and drum that will work? I have seen some 5 lug drum kits with bearing collars or something but they want you to pay out of the nose for it. Kind of like the rear end conversion kit. for $124.00. I got the same parts at the local truck shop for $22.00.

Any help on this would be great. Thanks!

I lost some respect for LMC a couple months ago. We bought a set of windshield wipers along with the electric wiper motor conversion from them. The wiper motor conversion does fine, but the wipers themselves were junk. The blades would break off of the wiper arms and either lay on the hood or just fall out on the street. They were replaced with a set from Brothers and they are of much better quality. My dad and I got the Muncie trans in the truck earlier tonight fairly easily. I used a Hurst Indy universal 4-speed shifter. Because of where the shifter mounts on the transmission, I'll have to make my own shifter handle to go around the bench seat. I take Metals at school so i should be able to make one in the shop.
Good luck with the trucks everybody
-Matt

DD..I use Brothers. LMC and Chevy Duty...or as they are called now Classic. All three of them have been great to deal with. A few years ago I had spent a couple thousand bucks between them and they all had great service. I ended up ordering the tranny crossmember and the mount from LMC. By the way I have one of the sway bar mounts fabed up. I am going to take some more pics as I do the other one and do a good write up on it in my journal so others can do the same..thanks again for your help on that.

Across the driveway at my work is a public paint booth. The guy who owns it is quite the artist. I have been admiring his work on a daily base now. He just finished a truck with ble realistic flames......hes going to be my best friend come paint time.

Creepy...I know what ya mean about working on your daily driver and having it all together to run the next day. I finally am out of that phase in my life...its great to be able to tear the truck down and work on it at will. As far as the springs I am not sure about how far they will drop the front. But be sure and ask that same question in the suspension forum. As far as the front bolt pattern..I have front disk on the front with 5 on 4 3/4 due to the kit having that pattern which I wanted. If you don't have disk on the front I highly recommend it along with power brakes. Once you have it you will question why you waited so long. The stopping power is incredible with disk and easier on the leg...no more standing on the brakes. By the way did I say welcome...

Bad Company....I have found that all of the venders carry some crappy truck parts. It is just like any parts store you have to shop around and find the ones that do the best job and carry mostly quality parts. Cool about getting the tranny in. That is going to be one sweet ride to have in high school! Post some pics so we can see what you and your Dad are doing to it.....we love pics!

I Have A 55 2nd Ser Truck You Said You Found A Rear End Conversion Kit For Your Truck At A Local Truck Shop. Is That Kind Of Truck Shop Local To Texas Maybe? I Need A Conversion Kit For A 12-bolt In My Truck.thanks Jfk 55 Boy

The place is called Blue Hen Spring works in Milford De. I went to them with what I needed to make my own kit. They gave me all the parts and made the u bolts to fit. They had no idea what i was doing. They specialize in dump truck and tractor trailers. I also went to them for the front mono springs but they did not want to sell them to me unless they install them.

http://www.bluehensprings.com/

Give them a call. If they have an issue shipping to you then just email me and I will ship it to you.

Let me know if I can help. Good luck!

Creepy I know what you mean about work on it on Saturday and drive it to work on Monday.I drive my 58 every day.I have a 97 astro van but my wife has to have it so she can get to work.I am not in to that lowering the truck thing.I need the ground clearance to get out to these rural job sites and have to drive through the sage brush from time to time.I haul a bit of weight at times too so I stayed with the 6 lug set up and used a 87 4x4 rearend under my truck.Sorry I can't help you in that area.Keep us posted and let us know what you did.Chevapache59 how about a picture of your truck and the work you are doing to it.The 4 speed sounds like fun.I would like to see what you come up with for a shifter.Gator don't forget to set the front sway bar ends level and cut the spacer to the desired length and use new grade 8 bolts of the right length.These pictures should help

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DD...once again thanks for the tip. If all goes well I will finish fabing up the last mount this weekend and then powercoat them. I'll keep posting updates as they happen....film at 11!

Well, Matt (BadCo), you move way too fast for this old man; by the time I found your query about the Muncie, you had already got it done - not the way I did, but, done, none the less.

When I put the Muncie (M-21) in my '59, back in 1976, I installed it on the stock bellhousing. I used a Hurst Competition Plus shifter, and fabbed up a new mounting setup for it to locate it higher and forward of where it would be if I were using the regular mounting points. There are five mounting bosses on the tailshaft of the tranny, and if my memory is correct, the shifter could be mounted on the three forward, or three rearward bosses. I made a bracket out of 3/16 steel plate that mounts the shifter about three inches higher, on the second, third, and fourth bosses (I think that's correct); this puts it forward of the stock bench seat, and locates the shifter body right at the floor, level with the pivot point. A little cutting, bending, and re-fitting of the 1-2 and 3-4 shift rods, and a fabbed up bellcrank mounted to the rear of the shifter, with the reverse shift rod cut and re-made to work the reverse arm correctly, and it all works flawlessly. I bought a different shifter handle, selected from the dozen or so that Hurst offered, and did a very little bit of heating and re shaping to get it just right. When the tranny is in second or fourth, the shift knob is right at the front of the seat, and just above the edge of it - perfect for my likes. I guess I'm just going to have to learn how to do pictures.

Hey Creepy
I have mono leaf springs on the rear of my 57 Chevy halfton and I dont like them. They ride terrible they have a bad rebound action, I have used three different brands of shocks, the last pair of shocks are Hal QA1 adjustable , they made things better but they are still coming out soon and switching to a No Limit Fat Bar system with air bags.
Bad Co
53 / 54 Chevy and 53 / 62 Corvette front hubs and drums w/ wheel bearings and seals will bolt right on the stock pickup spindles, instant 5 lug.
These parts could be hard to find nowdays.
As for a shifter on you Muncie , Hurst makes a Competition Plus shifter for a 55 / 57 Chevy car that comes up off the brains then forward and up to clear the bench seat in the cars , it's been a long time ago but I think a little heat and some bending and this shifter great for me.
Gene

Hello Everyone
I'm going to be tearing into my truck this spring and summer , new rear suspension , gas tank in the back under the bed , new bed wood , lots of body work on my other cab , doors, fenders and hood.
Years ago I did the Mustang 2 front end , changed from the 6 and granny 4 speed to a 350 and turbo 350 trans, but i've been driving it every day and it need more work before it falls apart.
I will try to figure out how to post pics as I get things done.
Thanks , Guys
Gene

Sorry about not having any pics, I oughta take more pics of my progress. Haven't really done anything major in quite a while until recently, just enjoying it and saving money for things to do to the truck. I think for the shifter handle, I'll just make kind of an offset S-shaped extension to go between the shifter and the included Hurst stick, to move the handle toward the middle of the truck and in front of the seat. This way won't look as good, but until i have more money to buy a more closely matched shifter handle, it will have to do. I had to change the slip yoke, by the way. Apparently the Muncie takes the same yoke as a TH350. Rrumbler, sounds like you really did a lot to make it perfect! I would like to be able to do more fabrication and modification to make things work better, as you did, but we have limited means here at the house. Pretty soon we're getting an oxygen/acetylene torch setup, so after that i should be able to do a lot more. I am really looking forward to driving it with the Muncie in there (it's a professionally rebuilt M20, don't think i mentioned that). Next on the list is to redo the rearend, i guess.
-Matt

Matt A 73 to 87 Chevy or GMC truck rear end is the perfect fit on the 59.If you cut off the stock leaf mounts and shock mounts Summit and No Limit make the 2 inch leaf perches for the rear end.Set the rear end with a 2 degree up angle and the perches mount 7 and 1/8 inches in from the backing plate and the brake lines and parking brake cables swap over to the late model rearend.It gives you the bigger brakes for better stopping power and you use the same rims and tires.You can weld the perches on in metal shop class.If you decide to do that I will send you detailed pictures and measurements so you can do it your self and know it is done right.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, DD. I'm going to wait a while until i start another project on it. School ends in a couple of weeks, then i start making money again. I lose the Metals shop during the summer, but we've got some fellow hotrodder buddies around here that will let us use their welder(s). We have a pretty nice '86 chevy truck that I usually drive when the Apache is being worked on, so if anything happens to that thing I'll have an axle to use. I will probably end up keeping the original until i break it or something. One thing im not sure about that '86 axle is that it has a 2.73 ratio in it, and i dont know if i would like that. I don't know much about it but i think i like the original ratio, for the acceleration. I like how hard it pulls with that gear, I once got on it in 1st gear to shut up a "tuner enthusiast" that was riding with me at the time, he wasnt paying attention and he hit his head on the back of the cab. I didn't hear any more "my honda is better" crap for the rest of that trip. Maybe it was the low 1st gear in that 3 speed that allows for that type of thing, I don't know. Funny story though.
-Matt