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

[Grizz1963]

You should always name and shame publicly if there is a real case, saves others the pain.

Still, looked good.

[ibrown50]

The engine went back in without any drama,



I set the engine down forward of its final position so that I could bolt up the headers which I had wrapped in exhaust wrap. Now I could waffle on about how it directs heat out of the engine bay blah blah , but honestly! it tidied up my headers which were a bit scruffy, certainly cheaper than new ones


I don't know how you guys manage but I found with a standard HEI dizzy there was zero room between the fire wall and the cap. I bought one of these (again supplied courtesy of Langys rod shop). Its an HEI but the coil is separate so it's much smaller. They have an old school style female cap that looks like a points type and gives more clearance.

I dropped it in before pushing the engine back to its final resting place

[Ta2Don]

Looks Great!!!
Especially the engine sitting in it's final resting place...

[ibrown50]

TeeHee should I change the trucks name to the "undertaker"

[JamieGallien]

Sweet truck! I love the short steps myself.

[1963c-10]

Engine, trans and engine bay look great!!

[uber cool]

Cool another truck in the UK. You can stop off at mine for a brew on the way down south.

[ibrown50]

I'll finish off the engine install and then go back over the "other stuff" later. There's probably about 12 months between the previous pictures and the final ones in this post. This time was taken up with finding, ordering and waiting for parts (and sometimes waiting for money to enable the ordering of parts) I am a big fan of clean engine bays so jobs such as, sorting out the (oh so ugly) heater matrix "box", hiding the separate coil and relocating the battery all needed to be done. Sourcing an oversize radiator, fabricating the fan shroud and plumbing in the remote trans cooler also took time.
I finally got it running about 2 months ago with the assistance of my mate (and all-round electrical whizz) Paul. It's always a relief when you fire up an engine for the first time.

[DPowers]

Wow nice

[Ta2Don]

Very Nice!!!
Diggin' the pin striping on the heater box cover...

[uber cool]

Ay up Fella, I've just had a thought ........................I bought a C10 radiator from a chap via a contact on rods n sods, packed the radiator lovely, nicely protected, just opened it tonight to fit to my C10 and realized return address same as your location. Its from you aint it? small world hey!

[ibrown50]

If you're from Chorley it was indeed me, good job it's a good rad eh!

[Grizz1963]

I am loving your truck more and more Ian.

No wonder you took your time starting a thread.

Where did your battery go then?

Ohh, and I do not have the huge heater box, but the pin striping looks great.

[ibrown50]

Thanks Rian,
The battery is mounted under the passenger side floor in a frame I knocked up and mounted on the chassis rail. I'll post some pictures over the weekend. I had to use a side terminal battery.

[4mulaSvaliant]

Beautiful build man! Great looking truck. Love me a short bed stepside too!
Subscribed!

[uber cool]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

If you're from Chorley it was indeed me, good job it's a good rad eh!

Yep spot on , thanks

[ibrown50]

I didn't really fancy an ugly old battery in my clean engine bay, I'd considered putting it under the cab floor or pick-up bed, but I want carpets and a polished wood floor so I decided against that. To find somewhere the battery would fit the first job was to make a cardboard "battery",


By making it the same size as my battery I could work out where it would best fit. So much easier to try in different locations than a real (heavy) battery.


The best fit was under the cab floor towards the back of the cab. I put it on the passenger side because the original battery cable was long enough to reach which made the job a bit easier. I made a battery box out of some angle and flat bar I had lying around. This was bolted to the frame with stainless fasteners, I used button heads as they are nearly flat.



By using a side terminal battery I could mount the box higher for extra ground clearance.





I still need to make a cover for the box but for now that's on the "to do" list

[Ta2Don]

New Battery box and location... Well Done!

[mjh1965]

Looking really good Ian I see a show truck in the making

[ibrown50]

Things to do when you are broke or waiting of parts arriving (or broke because you're waiting of parts arriving)

One of my (many) secret hobbies is pin striping. A few years ago the British magazine Custom Car ran a competition, the prize was one days tuition pin-striping and one days tuition air-brush, both delivered by professionals, I entered and a to my amazement won (it's the only thing I've ever won in my life!).
The following Christmas Santa Claus (or was it my wife Shelly) brought me a beginners striping kit from Puk Johnson. The kit isn't actually that expensive and you can start with a very basic Kit and add to it.

There were a couple of bits on the truck that thought would benefit from some additional "decoration" and having time on my hands and nothing better to do I tried out my Christmas prezzie.
The first up was the glove box lid with my first ever free hand "squiggle" in the corner.

Next I did the heater box lid, driven by the desire to brighten up the ugliest thing in the engine bay. Even some pros draw out their designs, with my skill level its essential if I'm doing something symmetrical. The following pictures show how I built up the design in stages



It's not perfect but I was chuffed with it.

[Ta2Don]

Awesome!!!

[mjh1965]

Really nice work very impressed Ian
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[uber cool]

Great work on the pinstriping, would love to have a go at that myself

[ibrown50]

Things to do when you are broke or waiting of parts arriving (or broke because you're waiting of parts arriving) part 2

The other piece to get this treatment was the steering wheel, unfortunately dropping my iPhone in the kitchen sink means I lost the pictures I took during the 3 weeks it took to restore it. The steering wheel had a few cracks and the paint was peeling but I was determined to save it. It's the thing that connects me to every owner and driver of my truck for the past 50 years.

The cracks were ground out and repaired with a 2 pack epoxy resin. Being made of an old plastic material I didn't want to chance paint stripper so the paint was (carefully) scraped off using the edge of a craft knife blade. It was then etch primed and painted in a 2-tone black and body colour finish. I then laid the pin-stripe design over the top. This was done free hand and didn't end up symmetrical (as I had intended) but sometimes it's better to pull a good stripe even if it is in the wrong place!

[mjh1965]

Why do you have to live so far away
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