Hey it's Trevor and Rob here today with QA1 and we
are going to take a look at this awesome 56 Chevy truck.
Looking today at your awesome 56 Chevy Apache and I want to hear the story behind it. All
right thanks so yeah I had a big black Chevy engine in my garage and was looking for a project
so I found this on craigslist. It was down by La Crosse Wisconsin and so I went and looked at it
and of course when you see an old rusty truck you know you envision how it's going to look
when you're done and so I bought it on the spot went back the next weekend picked it up. And
so this was February of 2013. So I towed it home in a snowstorm. Okay. Which was pretty fun and
stuffed it into my garage and that was basically how I got it. And then many years later I finally
got it on the road last year so. Nice. Nice. Would you say it turned out how you envisioned it or is
it always a project in process? Yeah after I got it and looked at it for a little while I
wanted to build a pro street style truck but I wanted it to be able to go through an autocross
too. So I wanted something that was reliable that I could drive as a multi-purpose truck to do a lot
of different things with but I really like the pro street look with the big tires on there and some
rake and of course a loud exhaust. Nice. Nice. You did a great job with that that's for certain.
The loud part huh? Yeah. Yeah let's get into this thing a little more in depth here.
Yeah so it's got a 496 big block Chevy that I built for it and you know the
key thing that I was trying to get some decent horsepower out of it but reliable.
So the key thing is cylinder heads. So it's got AFR 300 CNC heads on there great airflow.
I wanted to put a big camshaft in it like most guys do but I talked to Aaron at Comp
Cams and he talked some sense into me to put a reasonable hydraulic roller in it that would
last and not kill valve springs so. A litle more streetable attitude then as well. Yeah
so that's what I ended up with and so it came out nice I was really happy it made a little over 650
horsepower on the dyno so. And you built that in that engine in your garage too right? Yeah. Yeah
I built the whole truck one of the things I like doing is building and so I built the whole truck
just about every piece myself and learned a lot of new skills along the way you know employed some
of the things I knew and it was fun putting it all together. Nice. Yeah so what what transmission did
you put behind that engine then? Well I wanted something that would hold up and still have a
highway gear with with the torque that it was able to do so I put it for 4l80 and Stream Automatics
built a full manual valve body 4l80 with a 3500 stall and a trans brake and a lockup converter
so it still has all the performance for drag racing and a pretty decent overdrive for street
miles or highway cruising. Yeah. So you know that is connected to the back I've got a Dana 60 in the
rear and we put a QA1 carbon fiber driveshaft in of course and you know that thing is super smooth
and you know it might be a little overkill for the horsepower level but it's super smooth and
well balanced. So when it drives down the road this is a really smooth riding truck for as loud
noisy as the rest of it is. Yeah. And then you know one of the things with the big block engine
you know I wanted to be able to sit in traffic so I talked to the guys at Be Cool Radiator and
they built a custom radiator for me that would handle the the heat load of this engine and so
that came out really nice put that in there and you know it's got a trans cooler on it as well.
so I think I'll be set for a long stint sitting in traffic but hopefully not too long. Yeah it seems
like you did a great job with the part selections for the reliability and longevity and drivability
of course too which is so important. Yeah I think you know trying to build something that I
could drive around and have a lot of fun with and not be broken down all the time kind of tempers
some of the choices that you make so I hope that I chose the right balance in that.
All right so you told us all about the powertrain in this and I'd say it wouldn't be a QA1 video
without talking a little bit about suspension so tell me what you got suspension-wise front
and back. Well yeah when I got the truck it had a first-gen Camaro subframe on the front
and of course I took it off to relocate it to get a little bit better stance. So I stretched the
wheelbase out a little bit and lowered the front quite a bit over the way it was but.
So since it's got a Camaro subframe in the front I was able to put you know all the QA1 suspension
in it so it's got upper and lower control arms the drag race control arms that we just came out with
and you know just as a note when I first put the truck together it had different control
arms on so it took 15 pounds off the front with the new drag race control arms from QA1 and
you know weight was one of my big objectives is to keep the weight low on the truck so that
you know it would be as fast as I want it to be on the quarter mile so that was a big help
on there. So it's got a coil-over conversion I cut the spring pockets out of the subframe
and put a double shear mount on there so it's got a true coil-over that allowed me to put a
little bit longer shock so it's got you know DD501 double adjustable Proma Star shocks on the front
with 550 pound springs. You know after got the coil-overs installed in there I wanted to put
a nice sway bar on there because I'm still wanting to take this to the autocross even
though it's a pro pro street looking truck I want to be the guy that shows up at the
autocross and has everybody scratching their heads so. It's got the big first gen tubular
sway bar on the front to go with the the control arms and the double adjustable shocks. So really
the front is a full QA1 suspension setup. I did convert the steering to a rack and pinion
so it's got kind of a home brewed 1996 Grand Am rack and pinion steering that fits in there
and so it's a sport model so it's only two and a half turns lock to lock so it drives really
nice. So the front is pretty much all QA1 and it works great. The back I did a custom back half
fabricated out of two by three rectangular tubing and so it's got a drag race style four link and
you know a bit of an old-school look so I put a watts link on the back for this locating device on
the rear end. And then of course it's got double adjustable shocks in the back 130 pound springs
and so that works out really well. So QA1 double adjustables all the way around allows me to dial
in you know the shock performance for whatever I'm doing whether it's cruising or drag racing or
when I get out and on the autocross track and crank those down and get some
decent valving but it handles really well. Nice. Yeah it sounds like you built a super versatile
suspension with a lot of modern touches and a lot of great ideas incorporated into that. All right
so you told us about the suspension and how you got this awesome looking stance on this truck.
Now yeah tell me about the you know the tires and the wheels and and why you went that route
and how it's been working so far. Okay good. Yeah the the front I want I put 17x8 Billet Specialty
Street Lights on the front. I went with a little larger diameter wheel than typical pro street guys
would stick with 15-inch wheels all the way around but I want to put bigger brakes on it. It's got
11 inch oe style disc brakes all the way around which work fine but like everybody else I want
bigger brakes in the front. So I've created some room for them now I just need to get the brakes.
The tires on the front are 245 Azeni's so those are a pretty good you know summer
compound tire. So hopefully those won't let me down at the autocross. Then on the back I've
got Mickey Thompson drag radials on there they're 18.5x31 so they're pretty tall tire
and the wheels are 15x14 and a half Pro Stars so that's a pretty typical you know old school
pro street look. The main thing you have with a pro street car is you got to put big fat tires
on it if you do nothing else. That is a must yes. Mission accomplished on that part. But
it works really well with the radials all the way around you know it drives
through the twisties really nice I'm surprised at the performance of these big Mickey Thompsons
on the back the sidewalls seem like they're stiff enough to go around the turns. Nice. So
thanks for showing us around the outside of the truck here and describing your you know building
tents there I think I think it's time for you to give us a good tour of the inside of the truck.
Well the inside's pretty basic. You know it it's a simple truck I put a full cage in it you know
with anticipation of drag racing it so that was a fun project. You know the gauges are old school
or the classic style Stuart Warner gauges that I remember as a kid and then it's got an AutoMeter
tach on there but it's pretty basic. There's no frills in there I just sprayed some lizard skin
heat what is that lizard I just sprayed some lizard skin
heat barrier in there because it does get pretty hot inside and I'm hoping that'll pay off with a
little bit lower temperature on the inside. But with the you know keeping with my lightweight
theme I gutted the doors to get some of the weight out put polycarbonate side windows in with an
electric mechanism so they're pretty lightweight and then fabricated some aluminum panels for the
door panels. So the doors I took quite a bit of weight out of each door on there. So the seats
are just basic JEG seats and you know there's no frills in the interior I added air conditioning
for Power Tour and there's a couple things that wanted to do to get ready for Power Tour. One is
get a little bus cooler fan which was suggested then I made a cup holder it didn't have a place
to put a cup but on one thing on Power Tour you got to have coffee in the morning and then
water in the afternoon. So I made a little cup holder for it to go with the rest of my aluminum
themed interior. Quite the creature comforts you got. Yeah it's all ready
to go. Yeah and you did all the sheet metal work on these door skins too didn't you?
Yeah I was able to you know learn a lot of new skills building this project so one of the things
that I got from Eastwood was a bead roller and so when you get a bead roller you think you need
to put beads in everything. Right? And so I did the door panels and the transmission tunnel and a
few other little panels inside and then the whole bed is also sheet metal. So this is a pickup truck
that has a bed that's pretty useless. It's 40 000 aluminum panels and I think it looks fine but
it doesn't have any weight hauling capacity but I did put a few compartments in the back so you can
open it up and get to the battery and fuel pump and whatnot. Nice. Well Rob thanks for showing us
around your awesome truck. I think you did a great job of incorporating a lot of awesome driving
styles into it and looks great and sounds good and quite the cool truck to have so appreciate
the time. Anything else you wanted to add yet? Well thanks Trevor appreciate your time this has
been fun talking about it. I guess the one last point I wanted to make is just the color scheme.
I like black and silver so you know satin black and aluminum is the color scheme throughout the
truck and I've been asked many times if I'm going to paint the truck and no I'm not going to paint
it I kind of like you know epoxy primer on it and that's probably the way it'll stay for the while.
It's rough around the edges. So looking forward to Power Tour. Come find us on Power Tour. Come
find us at a #goDRIVEit cruise out of our facility here in Lakeville but look forward to seeing all
of you guys. Well thanks for joining us and follow us along on all of our social media pages. Keep
an eye out for this truck along with many of our other vehicles and see you around and #goDRIVEit.