Ian's Tennessee Honey '64 Short Box Step-side - England

[ibrown50]

Ian's Tennessee Honey '64 Short Box Step-side - England

Well after following Rian (Grizz1963) and Martins (mjh1965) build threads for several weeks, I have been inspired to start my own. I bought the truck in September (no not the last one, the one before.......... or was it the one before that??) for this reason the first part of this build thread is going to be "historic" with less pictures than I would like. Work on the the "honey" has progressed as time and funds have allowed and sadly not at the pace I would have liked, that said I have really enjoyed taking my time on the jobs I have done so far and getting things just the way I want them.

So what about the truck. I had just sold my model A to a guy in Germany and had money "burning a hole in my pocket". I wanted an early coil sprung C10, short box step side, ideally a 1963 as I love the wrap around windscreen and I was born in 1963! I began searching the usual web-sites. Living in the (far) North of England I was expecting to have to travel great distances and look at many lemons before finding what I wanted.

To my great surprise a C10 came up for sale about 25 miles from me, although it was a 1964, it was a short box, step side. Figuring that two out of three ain't bad (sing it brother!) I went for a look. The guy who owned it had bought it as a promotional vehicle for his daughters bar (called Whiskey River). The truck had spun a bearing, I know Chevy's are good but they do need some oil in them!! and he just wanted rid of it. So quick haggle and I was the proud owner of my first C10.


First on the list remove the "sign writing" , luckily it was only vinyl so I enlisted the help of my two youngest kids, gave them a hair dryer each and an hour later we were sticker-less.



The next job was to pull the engine, I enlisted the help of my mate Phil to help me remove the bonnet, sorry hood. Now at this point a few of my mates had seen the truck and made various comments like, it needs lowering or it needs 20" wheels. Phil's first comment was "Jack Daniels - Tennessee Honey, it's the same colour". That probably tells you more about Phil than my truck, however, the name stuck, hence the title of my thread.

Now my plan was simple..fix the motor and use the truck. But as my mum would say, "the best laid plans of mice and men". (although I have no idea what that means!)

Half a day of removing "stuff" and the engine was ready to pull




The engine, which I was told was a 327 turned out to be a '78 305, out of something like a Monte Carlo with a TH350c behind it. This was the point at which the "mice and men" thing happened. I'll need a 350 for it (ithought)and the engine bay is "ugging", this (for people not from the North East of England) is even dirtier than "manky" and "minging", so while the engine is out I'll "quickly" paint the engine bay. While thinking about this my mate David showed up " I love the truck" he said "but I couldn't live with that master cylinder, you'll have to fit a dual circuit one" ..... Oh Dear

[disasterbus]

Very cool truck, great to see yet another in the UK. Looking forward to seeing more pics and hearing more about it, and I have to say you can't get much cooler that a '64 short bed side step C-10 (but then I am a little biased )

[mjh1965]

Glad you made a start on your build thread . Great to have another build thread from the UK on the board , looking forward to the updates

[DPowers]

Welcome from East Tennessee. Nice truck and great name.

[Larry64]

Welcome from lower middle Tennessee. Nice 64.

[Joe Pass]

Cool find.....I am partial to the "knee knocker" but I'm a truck whore anyway ...

[Grizz1963]

Good morning Ian !!

Welcome to the board.

Good to read what you have written so far, reminds me of Paul Y's writing.

Looking forward to the rest of your story as I know it has been going for a while.

And most importantly, LOVELY TRUCK.

[ibrown50]

Guys thanks for the kind words. DP & Larry, I have to say I envy you guys living in Tennessee at this time of year. I worked in the Nissan Plant in Smryna a few year ago, I was there February and March, then in Memphis May and June, Tennessee in the spring time must be one of the pretty places on earth

[clemdaddy]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Guys thanks for the kind words. DP & Larry, I have to say I envy you guys living in Tennessee at this time of year. I worked in the Nissan Plant in Smryna a few year ago, I was there February and March, then in Memphis May and June, Tennessee in the spring time must be one of the pretty places on earth

yep, second only to Arkansas... sorry its my sports competition showing.
welcome and you've got a very nice truck.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

I bet the Whiskey River over there is cooler than the one here in Charlotte

Neat truck!

[joedoh]

25 miles away? thats kismet!

usually when I think something is going to be further away and I find it in the backyard, I drive around a couple hours to make it seem like it was still all that trouble. keeps the wife happy to know I am having a hard time.

what a great looking truck, good luck to you

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by joedoh

25 miles away? thats kismet!

usually when I think something is going to be further away and I find it in the backyard, I drive around a couple hours to make it seem like it was still all that trouble. keeps the wife happy to know I am having a hard time.

what a great looking truck, good luck to you

Interestingly, our truck was found 45 miles from home, and we were looking at importing one.

[ibrown50]

Prepping the engine bay before paint turned out to be "loads of fun". There was about a 1/4" of crud and mank (that's a technical term) coating the inner fenders and firewall. I used a combination of kerosene and diesel (sprayed on) and various scrapers to remove it. (I wish I'd took pictures) I was left with a very hard "stippled" coating on the inner fenders, I don't know if this is factory but it would budge, not even with laquer thinners, so I left it on.

Once all the crud had been scraped off I washed the inner fenders with a rag soaked in gasoline. This was followed by a good sanding. I used a Mipa self etching primer which is also a filler/surfacer, it has great adhesion, leaves a nice smooth surface and can be painted over without additional prep. I used my touch-up gun as it's easier to use in confined spaces and being HVLP you get very little overspray.


The paint code for my truck is 528 which is fawn.
I painted the inside of the cab at the same time (it was gold ) which is why the tag is not attached.


Like many old trucks mine has been painted in the past, so there's no guarantee it's still the correct colour. I removed the panel below the windshield and took it to my local paint suppliers and they matched it to a BS colour


No not that kind of BS, a British Standard colour, BS 08C31. The match is very good. It ended up taking 2 weekends, although most of that was prep, but I was pleased with the results, especially when compared to the earlier pictures in this thread.

[mjh1965]

Looking good . I still like the look of the inner fenders in body colour instead of black .
When is your hood landing ?
And did you use Ron at STS to import it for you ?
Look forward to more updates

[ibrown50]

Thanks Martin,
I have used STS (thanks), Russell has collected the hood from the Greyhound depot, but that was the last update I got from Ron, I'll let you know when I'm coming down to collect (600 + mile round trip), see if we can't organise a coffee somewhere.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Thanks Martin,
I have used STS (thanks), Russell has collected the hood from the Greyhound depot, but that was the last update I got from Ron, I'll let you know when I'm coming down to collect (600 + mile round trip), see if we can't organise a coffee somewhere.

Meet ups are a good thing down in the South as there are so few of us here.

Shout if you need a hand.

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Thanks Martin,
I have used STS (thanks), Russell has collected the hood from the Greyhound depot, but that was the last update I got from Ron, I'll let you know when I'm coming down to collect (600 + mile round trip), see if we can't organise a coffee somewhere.

No problem the way we are all going,Ron will be bringing a container over ,just for the C10 guys in the UK from this forum . Glad he could help, if you ever go to Florida Russel is a great bloke to meet up with and really helpful . Let us know when you are coming down to collect your hood . I am sure myself and Rian can arrange to meet you for a coffee and a chat

[ibrown50]

From the moment I had pulled the old engine I had begun looking for a new one. I was keen to get a good engine, but didn't want to have to sell a kidney if possible. As any of the UK members on here will testify, there are not hundreds of small blocks for sale in the UK and many of the ones that are, are either expensive junk or just plain expensive.
Mine showed up for sale on the NSRA web-site, it was being sold by a guy called Zane Llewellyn (he runs ZaNNetec Motorsports) it had become "surplus" to a current project and he was selling on behalf of a customer. Zane has a great reputation, especially in drag racing circles, so I knew I'd be getting what I was paying for.
The motor was a recently rebuilt 30 thou over 350 with aftermarket cam, it had been used, but very little. The heads were freshly rebuilt and never fitted, Zane kindly assembled them before shipping. It needed all ancillaries, manifolds etc, but that was not a problem
The biggest problem was geography, the engine was south west of Bristol, I am in the north east, it honestly could not have been much further away from me and still been in England! I used a company called Paisley Freight who did a door to door service for a bargain £45.

The trolley it is standing on was "cobbled" together (in a hurry) using some angle I had lying around and wheels from a supermarket trolley, it will hold a engines and trans. Non my finest piece of fabrication, but it does the job.

Do you remember my early plan fit a motor use the truck, well I clearly hadn't. As good as the engine may be, there was no way I could fit this to my newly painted engine bay. The engine was cleaned and sanded given a coat of etch primer and then painted in 2k orange. IMHO the only fitting colour for a Chevy engine.


The inlet manifold is an Edelbrock Torker 2. I picked this up for £20 needing a repair to the water inlet, the NPT fitting had been over tightened and cracked the manifold. I enlisted the help of my friend Kevin who spun up a new tube in aluminium, repaired the crack and welded in the new tube. I had it media blasted by a local company (MD Shot blasting) for a bargain £5 then shot it with a coat of coarse silver that I had lying around. For £25 I thought it turned out well.

[Ta2Don]

Late to the party...
Glad to see another British build...

[Joe Pass]

Well done....

[Ta2Don]

X2!!!

[Grizz1963]

Would love to have the skills to pull my engine and paint the engine bay as well, but for now mine will be a wash and possibly some rattle can satin black.

Your engine and bay look awesome.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Would love to have the skills to pull my engine and paint the engine bay as well, but for now mine will be a wash and possibly some rattle can satin black.

Your engine and bay look awesome.

You have the skills mate...

[Jeff La]

Truck is coming along nice, along for the ride.

[ibrown50]

Next up was the trans, I really wanted a 700R4 but just couldn't find one for sale in the UK at sensible money. I had an old TH350 that I'd used for mock up when building my A bone and the TH350C that had come with the truck, I couldn't decide which one to use, then I got an offer on the TH350 , which would cover the re-build of the 350C so that made my mind up. I know 350C's have their faults, small pump, overheating etc, but I'm not going racing and the lock-up convertor does give (a wee bit) better gas mileage.

I had the trans "freshened up" by a local firm, normally a job I would do myself, but at the time thought it would be quicker to farm it out. This turned out to be a mistake, the service was really poor and very slow, I would neither recommend them or use them again.


The new torque convertor was supplied by Steve at Langys Rod shop ( http://www.langysrodshop.co.uk ) someone I would be very happy to recommend. Although primarily a rod shop they deal with Bothers, LMC etc and are also happy to do bespoke orders. The service is always great and Steve is a really nice bloke to deal with.


While I was busy the trans was given a coat of dark metallic grey (only because I some left over from some wheels I had painted) a chrome pan and convertor shield. With combination of engine crane and engine stand the two bolted up without much fuss.