Chevrolet Apache Pickup

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The Chevrolet Apache pickup is of the age of pickups that I have only known as history. Having seen less than a hundred of them in my life, and the vast majority of those having been at car shows or cruise nights, I suppose I forget that these were originally meant to be work trucks.

The main difference between the Apache and the other Chevrolet pickups around that same time is that the Apache was the first model to have the four headlight design. GM did not technically call them “Apache” until 1958, and that was when both the four headlight configuration and the fleetside beds made their debut in the Chevrolet lineup. Another interesting fact is that the Chevrolet Apache was the first Chevy pickup to have factory installed air conditioning. I guess you could say that 1958 was when Chevrolet decided that pickups were not just for the farm and ranch any more!

It seems that since the beginning of time, full size Chevys could be had with a V6 or V8, and the 50's were no exception. The V6 was hardly cutting edge technology, being the 235 that had been around since 1941, but it was one of those Chevy engines that just would not die. Even Chevrolet kept it around in brand new vehicles all the way up until 1962, and the thing was so versatile that it even saw a run in the Corvette at one point. A 21 year run for an engine nowadays would be seen as lazy designing. Back then, it was seen as bulletproof.

Two different V8s were around for this generation of the Chevy pickup – the 265 and the 283. The 265 was actually designed to be a more powerful engine for the Corvette and had only been around since 1955. The 283 – yes, that's the Ramjet – was a bored out version of the 265, and was again Chevrolet making the point that pickups can be fun.

Four wheel drive was accomplished with the NAPCO factory addon that, at $900, would nearly double the price of Apache. Although this may seem like a lot, four wheel drive was really only seen as a utility back then, and it did turn the otherwise already powerful Chevrolet into a veritable mountain climber by drilling as few as four bolts into the chassis and installing some hardware. Seriously, they called them “Mountain Goats”. For your $900, you even got a shift-on-the-fly transfer case, something that was not necessarily standard even up into the 80's.

The Chevy Apache is still, 60 years later, seen as one of the toughest pickups ever built. You can even pick one up on Ebay.