What’s the Point in Building a Truck if You Can’t Drive It?
Like many of us, Seth Curry dreamed of one day building his very own custom truck to share with his family and friends. Recently, Seth was looking for a clean starter truck that would make a perfect canvas to turn into a truly unique custom classic pickup. After attending several local car/truck shows, Seth liked the looks of the 55-61 GM Apache body styles. This began to turn the gears in his head. He made a deal on a ’59 Apache and his newly found truck was on his way home to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
With the truck safe at home in his garage, he began planning his vision for the build. The plan was to make a mix of modern muscle with a touch of classic styling. Before long, Seth started tearing down the truck. He first removed the body off the frame so that he could lay the rockers of the truck on the ground. A Long Shot Fab IFS front suspension setup was swapped in place of the stock unit. A set of Slam Specialties RE7 bags were chosen for all four corners of the truck to give it the maximum lift. Custom 1/2” stainless steel hard lines were fabricated to line the frame and give a clean install look. To finish up the list of items for the frame, a custom aluminum fuel tank was fitted between the rear frame rails.
While the frame was in the shop, this gave Seth the opportunity to search for his wheels. Instead of going with something modern, a classic big inch look was chosen to allow the fenders to suck up most of the rim. A set of Mobsteel 20×8 rims up front and 20×10’s out back wrapped in Nitto rubber were chosen to achieve the classic look he was after.
With the frame portion wrapped up, it was time to focus on the motor that would drive this beast. Again, Seth wanted something modern for the drivetrain and he came up with a 2013 GM LS drive train package that would make any of us gear heads grin. A set of Hooker manifolds along with a custom bent exhaust allowed the motor to give out maximum horsepower.
Now that Seth’s truck could drive on its own power, he could start in on the body work and the wood bed floor. He started in on installing the Slosh Tubz firewall panels to give his engine bay a nice clean look. Heading to the back of his Apache, he choose to install a Mar-K Zebra wood bed floor. To access the air suspension components under the wood floor, Seth hinged a door to be able to show off the Accuair suspension goodies.
Looking back at the finished product, Seth feels he achieved what he set out to accomplish with a classic truck with unique classic styled features and he would like to thank his lovely wife Katie for her support with his project. As well as Will Meadors, Eric Long and Randy Pattison with helping him on the build and helping make the journey go as smoothly as possible.