SkinnyG's '61 Chevy Apache 10

I put a day permit on the truck to go get the last of my dad's stuff from his place before the snow flies, and I'm on tires that don't want to see freezing.

I must have increased a whole bunch of allowable throttle (or maybe the tires are just way cold at 2°C), but OMG this thing is giggly.  A good final drive to put it away for the winter.

Started colour sanding the hood and am enjoying that about as much as I thought I would.

Middle seat back and bottom are made, I just need to finish the flip-down hinge for it.

Bought some 6x9's for back speakers, just have to build boxes.

Also pulled the plugs to have a look, and timing looks good, no debris in there.  I'm running 26° max at 100kPa, whilst the Sloppy Mechanics guys tend to run 28°.  Dropping a degree per pound of boost. I want to err on the side of conservative. We're still only about 6psi.

The WOOF on throttle lift off is AWESOME......psssst yu need a radar detector......er on second thought this sled is pretty noticeable might not be a good idea.....love it SkinnyG

"Oh, no, officer, that was someone else's lowered orange and white '61 Chevy Apache with white rimmed body-colour wheels and chrome spider caps...."

I haven't had a radar detector since 1990.

I really speed no more than 10% and/or keep up with traffic.

I am constantly trying to convert the MPH speedometer into KMH so I stay within legal limits.

My philosophy with ALL my cars: "Don't give them a reason to pull you over."

Hey have you thought of T-Shirts? Yeah like for us to buy that might be so inclined....

I've been thinking of a shirt of this truck.  I did make a shirt for the V8 Firefly.

You thinking of just the truck, or some sort of saying??

Buckets are from an '04 Honda Civic.  Center seat was made from the Civic's back seat.  I made a cup holder.

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

 

 

Started colour sanding the hood and am enjoying that about as much as I thought I would.

 

 

I have done pretty much everything that is involved in building a car. But color sanding  paint is a bridge too far. If I paint it, and it comes out of the gun as a recognizable colour, I am happy and I am  done.

But I bet it looks spectacular when you are finished, same as the rest of this ride.

I'm only going to sand the noticeable parts.  Top of the hood, tops of the rear fenders.  I'll leave the rest until it offends me.

Meanwhile....

Hung some wall art in the shop:

Added another one:

Way back, I added more slots in the dash so I could fit two 5.25 coaxials in the dash.

Not much in the way of mid/low bass there, so....

And for a bit more mid, I added some 6x9 boxes for some rear fill. Primed and ready for paint.

Waiting on speaker connections off Amazon.  Should be here by Wednesday.  Looking forward to more sound.

Got plates on the truck to haul the rest of Dad's junk that the thrift stores wouldn't take. 

FUN driving the truck around.  Holy carp this thing scoots!

Fun following this truck here now. I've kinda ghosted the Chevy truck forum after I sold my '64 C10 and started on the Capri. Mine turned out nice, but this here truck is a whole 'nuther level entirely.

Subs are in and hooked up.  Older Alpine 4x feeding Rockford 5.25" fronts and Soundstage 6x9's in the cab corners, older Kenwood Mono feeding two older JL Audio 10" in parallel.  Sounds wonderful.

Did another dump run, and the truck wouldn't re-start.  There's a click, but no cranking. 

Jumping will start it and then it's fine many times in a row.  This is the second time it's done this.  Inconsistent.  I think it's a bum solenoid. 

The alternator is pushing 13.7V at idle, the battery is seeing all of it.  Battery sits at 12.6 after shut off. 12.6 at the starter.  I'm running 2ga from the battery to the starter and 2ga for grounds.  It's been fine almost all the time, but twice now it's clicked.

Grrr.

Starter solenoids usually wear out at the contacts inside.  Sometimes you can smack it with a hammer to get them to crank once more, and if it works, you're really on borrowed time.

My '61 Apache pickup left me stranded every 1 in 100 times.  The starter would click, but no cranking.  If I got a jump off someone else, their running/charging voltage of 14.6V plus their extra amperage was enough make the connection inside the solenoid. The solenoid is not serviceable, but here is what the contacts looked like inside after I cut it open to show you:

A brand new starter was only $98 CDN

Trip to Home Depot for some garden boxes, and picked up a set of used tires to bring my son's '68 Catalina home. 

New starter hasn't failed me yet.

7psi boost.  It's silly.

SkinnyG, your truck is fantastic. One of the best executions of the "sloppy-style turbo LS in a classic truck" that i've seen.

I may have missed it in the thread, are you still using the stock 4L80 converter? any driveability issues? do you have plans to put a larger cam in the truck at some point?

I'm still using the stock converter.  It's part number indicates a 2400rpm stall.

There are zero driveability issues with this setup. One of the reasons is I've hacked the factory computer to 2-bar, thus mooching off thousands of hours of driveability tuning courtesy of GM.

I am still totally on the fence with a cam swap.  Tooling around town it's doing 1100rpm at 50km/h (30mph), and there is no need to have a cam making less power there.  On the highway it's 2200rpm at 100km/h (62mph), so there is no need for less power there.  That suggests a fairly small cam, and I don't see the cost/time/benefit to only increase 10° in duration compared to adding a few more clicks to the boost tee.

David Vizard also suggests that when you have high back pressure to boost ratio (2:1 is typical with this setup), you do not want more overlap.  The stock cam is 196°/207° 116°LSA, and adding more boost is super easy.  I don't care about winning at the drag strip, and already it's serious giggles on the street.

But still.... the hotrodder in me wants a camshaft....

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

a totally reasonable assessment of priorities. but....that lumpy idle makes me tingle!

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Great explanation.

Shavarsh said:

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Great explanation.

similar to how mke explained using 3 prop valves on his V12 308.  slope 1 covers up to peak of street tires, slope 2 covers up to peak of 200TW, and slope3 covers R-compounds.

budget_bandit said:

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

a totally reasonable assessment of priorities. but....that lumpy idle makes me tingle!

I daily drove a '77 C10 with lumpy cam (231°/231°, 108°LSA, 11:1 compression), high-stall, and deep gears, for eight years. I loved it. I hated it.  It was "potato therapy" to soothe me before and after work.

The exhaust note of the '61, through 4" stainless and a straight-through Magnaflow is impressive.  It is not "potato-potato," but it has a presence about it that denotes purpose and intent.  I love it, too. But for different reasons.