Restomod or keep it stock - where do you land on these old Apaches?

I'm probably in the keep it stock camp, but only because I've lived the other side of it. My dad had a '59 Fleetside back in the 90s and traded it to a guy who dropped it on air bags and shaved everything. Twenty years later he's still bitter about it, mostly because that truck had original paint, the factory 235, and the kinda patina you can't buy back once it's gone.

That said, I don't think a truck owes anyone anything. If the one you saw at the coffee meetup came to the previous owner already cut up, then the survivor argument is off the table anyway. You can't un-chop a frame or un-weld floor pans. What matters to me is whether the modification was done with care. I'd rather see a swapped SBC installed properly with good brakes and steering than a hacked job done sloppy in a carport.

If a truly solid, unmolested Apache landed in my driveway, I'd probably fix the drums, add a dual master cylinder setup, and drive it as-is. Those old sixes will cruise at 55 all day once they're tuned and the timing is set right. Slower trip, but the truck stays honest. So my line is simple: stock and solid means leave it alone. Already modified means build it right and drive the wheels off it.

I land on the build-it-and-drive-it side, and it comes from owning both kinds. My '60 F100 sat in a barn for a decade becasue I was too scared to change anything on it. Never drove it, just walked around it in the garage feeling guilty. Traded it toward a '62 that some guy had already swapped a small block into back in the 80s, and that truck has been on a thousand road trips since. Best decision I ever made.

Funny how originality only became a big deal in the last 20 years or so. Back in 1978 I bought a '57 longbed for hauling firewood and pulled the 235 for a small block the first winter I had it. Nobody at the shop batted an eye, that's just what you did when a truck needed to work. Every old truck you see stock today prolly survived because somebody parked it, not because anybody was protecting it.

That said, my rule was always fix what you break and keep the old parts in a box in the barn. Times change, and the guy who buys it after you can always put it back the hard way.

Depends what you'd actually do with it, I think. My neighbor's had a stock '58 stepside for years and drives it to the hardware store and back, maybe 3 miles a week. At that pace the drums and the six don't matter one bit. But if you're talking highway trips or hauling anything, that's a diferent story.

The one that got modified allready is the easier call for me. Someone already made thier choice, so you might as well build it the way you want and enjoy it. The clean survivor sitting in a garage for 20 years while you feel guilty about driving it seems like the worst of both worlds.