The appeal of an old tow rig is hard to deny, and this 1959 Chevy Apache with a wrecker body is wearing all the right kinds of patina. Said to have “rust in the usual places” and an engine that turns freely but won’t spark, this workhorse has survived rather well despite its years of service. Find it here on eBay with a $3,950 Buy-It-Now.
The bed looks more custom than most that I’ve seen, indicating a possible backyard conversion rather than something built by an OEM partner. In fact, I’m curious what our engineers in the audience think of the construction of the tow hook apparatus – does that look like it’s anywhere near sufficient to carry a wide range of vehicles of varying weights and dimensions? Regardless, it’s apparently worked well for as long as this Apache has been in service.
The interior is as roughshod as you’d expect for a truck of this vintage and use. Given the cabin’s of most commercial vehicles are littered with electronic aids, ride control, and certainly automatic transmissions, it’s hard to imagine a manual transmission in a vehicle used this way today. The seller notes the truck has lived in Texas most, if not all, of its life, which may explain why the dash is so sun-baked.
If you’re looking for a Chevy truck project of this vintage without the tow body, may I steer you to this recent Barn Finds Exclusive, a solid driver 1955 Chevy pickup? But if you’re hung up on adding a tow truck to your fleet, this one is selling cheap enough to take a chance on apparatus out back, and maybe even convert it to a modern flatbed setup. How would you use or restore it?
Go over the mechanicals then get rid of the boom junk, go over the body and paint it, new interior then use it with a fifth wheel trailer camper or car hauler.
same but move the axel back (carrier bearing’n 2nd drive shaft) extend ‘ramp back’, slide some removable ramps under to carry/extend when used, use winch to pull on cars (probably not suv/truck).
I like what I see. A tonner with some potential to be something that isn’t as formidable as a 3-ton. You could do a lot of stuff with this one, including, as Jimmy says, pulling a 5th wheel trailer. Looks like the original engine was a six; you can see the hole in the floor for the foot-starter, and the lack of V-symbols on the hood badge. I would keep the V8, probably look for a big block or to keep it period correct, a 348 or 409. That ought to whisk the RV down the road at an impressive pace. No, I wouldn’t bother with a diesel. I work on them for a living and see too many astronomical bills cross the front counter; you can guy a lot of gas for the amount of those bills…
I don’t think this was a tow truck, but as stated, an oil field truck, lifting pipe and such. There’s no sling and would be downright dangerous towing something. Those “coffin” like boxes, I’m sure, held an array of lifting devices.
On the E-Bay site visible are the sling brackets on the rear bumper, it definitely was a tow truck. The fixed position of the boom also indicates tow truck, oil field trucks would have had movable booms and extend to much longer lengths.
I would take the make shift wrecker apparatus off and put a nice hard wood flat bed and stake sides on it after I did a redo on the cab of course! I agree that this was a boom truck not a wrecker!
If they’d taken the time to take some of their oil and used it for rustproofing it would be rustfree …