Levi Green's '58 Apache
The 2023 Wheel Hub Live show at the Museum of American Speed was spectacular. A handful of the world's best, nicest, and most famous hot rods, customs, and classic trucks filled the newly expanded museum for a weekend not to be forgotten. And in the middle of all this eye candy sat a little blue Chevy truck that we couldn’t get enough of. Levi Green’s ’58 Apache managed to stand out without beating you over the head with outrageous features. This truck is just so right, and there’s a great story behind it, too.
When we first met Levi, we made a joke about his truck actually running an “old school” small block Chevy, not an LS with valve cover adapters. He said “well, that engine’s been in there for a long time.” It was our first clue that this was not a fresh customer build from Levi’s shop, HammerFab in Liberty Hill, Texas, but instead something quite a bit more personal.
In fact, Levi’s had this truck since he was 14, when he rescued it from behind his uncle’s house. He and his dad got to work on it, scoring that 350 from a junkyard and treating it to a mild rebuild. They also harvested a few other pieces to update the chassis. Then, in a story familiar to many of us, Levi left for school and the truck’s trajectory changed. In most cases, this would be a change for the worse, as life and college and jobs tend to stand in the way of ever finishing that old project. But in Levi’s case, things were only getting more interesting for the old Apache. You see, Levi attended WyoTech, where he further honed the skills that he had been developing working on the old truck back home. While there, he used the truck as a class guinea pig, adapting a Camaro clip to the front and 3rd-gen F-body hardware to the rear. He also widened the rear fenders in his metal shaping class.
That shaping detail is important here. After college, Levi continued to hone his metalworking chops in some of the best hot rod shops in the country. Always dragging the Apache along with him and working on it after hours whenever possible. Ultimately, Levi opened up HammerFab and got to work building up a shop of his own, with outrageously nice fab work and sheet metal shaping as one of the shop’s trademarks. Of course, the Apache came along to Texas and work progressed whenever possible.
After a few years of getting the business up and running, Levi decided it was time to finish the Apache. Taking all he had learned over years in the industry, he pushed the old truck farther than his 14 year old self would ever have dreamed possible. There are little tricks throughout the truck, like the Impala taillights sunk into the fenders. There are rear bumpers on the front and back, both flipped upside down and sunk and reshaped to match the bodylines. It all sits just right on a set of 20” and 22” Raceline wheels.
Inside, the truck was treated to some neat details including a Corvair steering wheel with a Pontiac chief emblem, Dakota Digital gauges, and a tilt column sourced from a van. The sqaurebody bench seat is covered in leather and some just-right looking NOS ’55 Chevy material for the inserts.
The completed truck debuted at SEMA in 2019, where it won the Chevrolet Truck Design of the Year Award. Pretty prestigious stuff for an old truck rescued from the tree line by a 14-year-old.
It seems important here to talk about Levi’s dedication to this old truck project. There are so many points in this story where it would have been easy for him to walk away. To get distracted by something else or, more likely to just plain move on with his career and his life. But instead, the finished product here reads a bit like an autobiography. That old junkyard small block is right there under the hood, though now detailed to the 9’s. That chassis work from college is still there under the skin, contributing to the truck’s perfect stance and keeping that connection to all of the lives that Levi and his Apache have lived together.