It's no secret that vintage Chevy trucks are seriously the best looking of all the US made trucks. If you don't believe just ask me. Since the age of 15 I have wanted an Apache Fleetside truck. Since we don't cover Chevy trucks in Super Chevy magazine, I will post the progress of this '58 Fleetside on the website. After removing the cab from the frame last weekend, and setting the cab and bed on jackstands, it was time to build a body cart for the cab. I wanted a mobile body cart that I can wheel the cab around on and make more room in the incredibly cramped two-car garage.
A buddy of mine had a pile of steel beams sitting outside his shop. They used to be warehouse shelving, but he said they were old and flimsy when it came to holding lots of weighted pallets. I asked him if I could have a few, because I knew just what I could do with them.
Armed with my trusty Millermatic 140, a chop saw, and measuring tape I set to work with my plans. | 
Here is what the cab looked like before I started, sitting on two pairs of jackstands. I need to do floor work, replace cab corners running boards etc. I really didn't trust the jack stands. And my wife kept telling me she could not get to her washing machine with the truck cab in the way. Building a cart for a truck cab is easy. This particular cab only had four body mount positions. And a truck frame is simple. Just two parallel beams of steel. | 
It's time to go green and recycle that used steel shelving. Ahh...who am I kidding? It's not about going green--it's about going cheap. Using the steel saved me some bucks at the steel yard. |
Here is the basic frame all cut and welded and the legs on the floor ready to go. I measured from the body mount position in the back to the body mount position in the front and added a couple of extra inches, which is approximately 56-inches. Then cut two rails that fit in the exact location as the rails of the truck frame. The Apache Fleetside truck was only a two-year production truck, and this truck is the 3200 long-bed series. The frame rails I cut were approximately 57-inches and 39-inches apart | 
I put my trusty Millermatic 140 to work and continued welding on the legs. I cut the legs to be 20-inches each, when I put on the caster wheels, it will add another four inches to the overall height of the cart. There's plenty of room to work on the underside of the floors. | 
Now here is where the minimal cost came in. A trip to Harbor Freight Tools was in order where I purchased these cast iron hub wheels for $6 bucks apiece. That's a bank-breaking total of $24 dollars! |
A few hours later the cart was done. But I ran out of steel, and used some scrap for the cross bracing. Cut at 45 degree angles I welded them on all four corners where there was no cross brace. Most likely, I will make a trip to the steel yard and spend about $15 bucks picking up some box tubing to finish the bracing. | 
Here is the finished result. So for $24 bucks, plus another $20 for (a future purchase of) steel tube, a body cart that cost only $44 bucks is not a bad way to go. I didn't get the cart under the cab yet. It was 9pm when I finished and decided to call it an evening. I'll post more progress when it is made. Green truck, recycled green steel beams, Phew, that's about as green as I care to get. Stay tuned as I patch the cab corners with parts from Classic Industries. |  |