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