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

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

Thanks for Sharing Ian . What an awesome trip made even better by a chance meeting . I like you grew up with the songs of thin lizzy playing on a tape cassette in my first car . Glad you had a great time .

Thanks Martin, I had "Live and Dangerous" on cassette tape in my first car, played until it snapped!

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Chance meetings, being what they are, are often so much more than that.

Which is why my motto is always "Be Nice"

You are an awesome guy yourself, and here "Chance" paid you back double.

Like Martin and I meeting a whole raft of amazing people on our road trip, and one of them being Mike and Sarah Losh, through Clem, which culminated in us getting to meet some of the Gas Monkey guys, your world is a whole lot better for a chance meeting.

Thanks for sharing, at our age, the trucks we drive and music we like means this is totally appropriate.

For those who do not know Thin Lizzy...........

Click Links below.

The Boys are back in town.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JG3UiGHv0FU

Still in love with you.

http://youtu.be/261uidoVOVk

Whiskey in the jar.

http://youtu.be/wyQ-tScuzwM

I do not want to apologise for hijacking your thread Ian, as I grew up on a diet that included Thin Lizzy too.

Links for those who never knew them.

Thanks Rian and thanks for posting the links, excellent choices three of my favourites

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Very Cool story!!! Bucket list addition

Thanx Rian for the links... Whiskey in the Jar is one of my all time favorite songs...

Bucket list indeed, if I live until I'm 100 it's a day I won't forget. The two surviving members from the "Whiskey in the jar" video played together on stage on Monday, they've both got a lot less hair but for two guys well into their 60's they can still rock

[ibrown50]

I finally got a top coat on my hood this weekend. As I have limited space, painting anything in my garage is a challenge, painting something the size of a 64 C10 hood more so. I have two problems, first is space, I need to be able to get around it to paint it and second I need to keep the paint clean. Getting the hood as near vertical as possible was the best solution.

To achieve this I "knocked up" a frame (don't laugh) ,



Not my finest carpentry but it certainly did the job



Before and after




Next job to get it fitted

[[JP]]

damn, that looks awesome!!!!

[mjh1965]

Looking good Ian . I know what it's like to have no room . I think we are all heading for the same finish line . Who is going to get there first, I wouldn't like to bet on it . I think you may be ahead of me and Rian . So I better get my finger out .

[ibrown50]

A quick update, I managed to get the hood fitted this weekend, so my truck doesn't look like Mater anymore, it needs a tweak to get the gaps and fit a little better but the colour match is very good.





I'm now going to get cracking on the rear suspension, I'm fitting 4" lowered springs and 1" lowering blocks with matching shocks, I've also got poly bushes, an adjustable panhard bar and a shock mount relocation kit, all from POL. if it fits as good as the other stuff I've had from them it should be fine.
However before I fit these new components I want to strengthen the trailing arms. So I've been doing a bit of "research" on this forum

Welding the trailing arms up seems a popular solution, the amount of weld seems to be proportionate to the horsepower of the truck. This was posted by Fldawg, I know many of you looking at this picture will have the same reaction I had ( no not the trailing arms they're great)...............what's Rian doing in Florida!!



Also fitting strengthening plates as the factory did (I think these are C20?) seems to be a good option too.



So my intention (unless anyone tells me different) is to weld the 2 halves of the trailing arm together with (approximately) a 1" weld every 6" plus fully weld the ends and then fit strengthening plates top and bottom as per GM. I am going to drill and plug weld the plates, rather than fillet weld the edges to get a spot weld /rivet effect, I'm hoping it will look more "factory". Here's my starting point, I'll post updates as I go.

[mjh1965]

It's starting to take shape at the front . Like you , everything I have had from POL has fitted nicely . It won't be long before you are driving it Ian

[DPowers]

Love the color. Very nice work.

[clemdaddy]

nice work on the hood… you seem to be a man thats on a mission. keep after it, you'll be driving her soon.

looks good.

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

It's starting to take shape at the front . Like you , everything I have had from POL has fitted nicely . It won't be long before you are driving it Ian

Thanks Martin, wonder who will be driving first

Originally Posted by DPowers

Love the color. Very nice work.

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

nice work on the hood… you seem to be a man thats on a mission. keep after it, you'll be driving her soon.

looks good.

Dwane, Clem thank you, your comments are much appreciated


Made a little more progress today, I've got the trailing arms welded up,





As planned I've welded about 1" in 6" top and bottom plus fully welded the ends. I'm amazed at how much stiffer they are and how much more solid they feel. I'm now debating whether to add the strengthening plates or not, I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

I also removed the old bushes, the new poly bushes use the outer tube from the original bushes so I had to remove the old rubbers and inner sleeves without damaging them. To do this I ran a drill through the old rubber, it was so hard and perished it drilled great.



Then pulled out the centre tube with a pair of vice grips.



Once this was removed the remains of the old rubber pushed out easily leaving a nice clean tube for the new bushes.

[Grizz1963]

Looking good Ian.

A lot more finesse than me burning mine out.

[Palf70Step]

Nice work!

[ibrown50]

I've been speaking to Rian this afternoon, he has been busy making brake pipe flares and I have been busy drilling holes. Oh the joys of truck building

So by way of a quick up-date, I have made the first of the strengthening plates for the trailing arms, as mentioned above I wanted to avoid seam welding the sides and try to create a more factory spot weld / rivet look.

Even with simple jobs such as this the marking out is all important. The U-bolt holes are 7/8" giving me 1/8 clearance, the spring cup hole is 5/8" giving me about 1/16 clearance. The weld holes are just over 3/8" (actually 11mm) at 4" centres, the idea is to plug weld these in place giving a spot weld / rivet appearence (I'll let you know how that works out ).

Below is a picture of the first one, it needs a little more fettling and then it should be good to weld in place. The 2 lower ones will be longer, about 28", upper ones will be about 24"

[[JP]]

damn... that is looking good!!
looking forward to the photos of those welds

[ibrown50]

I spoke (text) Rian earlier and we agreed it was too cold and wet (and windy) to venture out into the garage. But patience is a virtue that I don't do well at (and most of the others come to think of it ) so I found myself in the garage welding.

My welder was playing up a bit, I had trouble getting a consistent wire feed, I'll try cleaning the liner but may need a new one. Consequently the welds are not quite as even as I would have liked, but the "riveted" effect is exactly what I wanted. I reckon by the time they are painted they'll look OK

[mjh1965]

Looks good Ian . So with all this bracing when are the twin turbo's or big block going in

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

I spoke (text) Rian earlier and we agreed it was too cold and wet (and windy) to venture out into the garage. But patience is a virtue that I don't do well at (and most of the others come to think of it ) so I found myself in the garage welding.

My welder was playing up a bit, I had trouble getting a consistent wire feed, I'll try cleaning the liner but may need a new one. Consequently the welds are not quite as even as I would have liked, but the "riveted" effect is exactly what I wanted. I reckon by the time they are painted they'll look OK

Attachment 1493030

Attachment 1493031

Well, to be honest, it often goes this way for me too.

I come indoors, get out of my garage clothes, then just as I am about to go shower, something springs to mind or a solution presents itself (it's happened while speaking to Nicola in the kitchen) and I go back and start again or finish a job.

I so wanted to finish the front line as well yesterday, but darkness is no friend as the trucks front end is under the open door.

Your progress is steady but very sure.

Not sure if I missed it, but why are you doing all this work? 710bhp ?

[clemdaddy]

good job Ian. like your persistence even in inclement weather, you get the job done. i always wondered why i was named after bad weather... thanks mom, dad...

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Well, to be honest, it often goes this way for me too.

I come indoors, get out of my garage clothes, then just as I am about to go shower, something springs to mind or a solution presents itself (it's happened while speaking to Nicola in the kitchen) and I go back and start again or finish a job.

I so wanted to finish the front line as well yesterday, but darkness is no friend as the trucks front end is under the open door.

Your progress is steady but very sure.

Not sure if I missed it, but why are you doing all this work? 710bhp ?

Originally Posted by mjh1965

Looks good Ian . So with all this bracing when are the twin turbo's or big block going in

Thank you gentlemen. It's going to be a ZZ572



I reckon if I sell the truck I can just about afford one

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

good job Ian. like your persistence even in inclement weather, you get the job done. i always wondered why i was named after bad weather... thanks mom, dad...

Thanks Clem, as always your comments are appreciated

[ibrown50]

Between work, tiling my daughters bathroom and starting to move my parents (yes at 81 and 76 my mum and dad are moving house!) I've still managed to finish the upper strengthening plates for the trailing arms.
They are a little shorter so a little quicker to make,



I clamped and welded one hole at a time to ensure the tightest fit possible



All done and ready for paint which I'll hopefully get done this weekend

[ibrown50]

Any progress is progress I suppose, so after getting my new compressor wired up I finished up the trailing arms and got them painted.






I then set about the "fun" task of cleaning the axle,




The numbers on the axle are



If anyone can point me a site to help me de-code this I would be grateful, I found one site but according to that the axle is from a 1965 C15.

[ibrown50]

On a positive note the axle is a posi (although it doesn't look like a 64 GM unit) and the ring gear and pinion are more recent Richmond items.



If I understand things correctly, (divide the big number by the little number 274 / 82) it's a 3.34:1.???



Axle is painted now, I'll get the pan fitted and some fresh oil in once it dries and then it'll be time to put the rear suspension back together

[Paul Y]

Ian,

Very timely as I am about to commence the same operation on my trailing arms.

Quick question, what gauge did you use for your strengthening plates, difficult to see from the pictures.

P.

[Palf70Step]

Richmond sometimes has some odd numbers, just a bit off. You calculated correctly. I would assume that is supposed to be a 3.42 (or close enuff) posi.

[Grizz1963]

Good looking compressor Ian.

Progress as you say, is progress..

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Ian, have a look here:

http://www.richmondgear.com/partsearch/search.php

It appears that you have a 4.10 ratio. Lucky you!