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

[Grizz1963]

Now that is rather special.

You are rather talented.

[ibrown50]

Things to do when you are broke or waiting of parts arriving (or broke because you're waiting of parts arriving) part 3

Now as ignition coils go the one in that came with my dizzy isn't the worst I've ever seen, however, I couldn't really find anywhere to put it in the engine bay that looked "right". I decided to hide it and given that the distributor is right up against the firewall, inside the cab seemed an obvious place.
The firewall has two flats stamped into it just behind the distributor which are ideal to use as mounting points.

I had a piece of fairly heavy gauge poly-propylene lying around which was perfect to make a board to hold the coil and there was enough room left over for the relay and circuit breaker for my electric fan.

To mount the board to the firewall I used a couple of rubber "cotton reels". These particular ones were originally intended to for an Austin Mini exhaust and not only are they cheap (at about a $1.50 each) but they provide insulation from vibration and electricity. (the picture below should be rotated counter clockwise 90 degrees don't know why it's this way up)

The board sits up behind the dash so is barely visible and provides a single place for those odds and ends you don't want cluttering up your engine bay.

The HT lead disappears through the fire wall with a grommet to protect the wire and seal the hole. Total cost was less than $5 and kept me busy for a whole day

[ibrown50]

A few months back I dropped my hood of at MD Blast cleaning, the blasters I use for everything. Now I knew there was filler/bondo along the front but figured get it blasted and see what I'm working with. Martin (the owner of MD) rang to say before we go any further come and have a look.
Oh dear........ replacement hood required.



Now there is a silver lining to this cloud, as a result of my search for a hood I became acquainted with Martin and Rian (2 very fine gentlemen) and indeed this very forum! I also soon discovered there are exactly 2 more Giant Pandas in the UK than 64 hoods for sale (and there are only 2 giant pandas)
This is one of them, the other one looks much the same!



Well today the postman (actually Silver Sprint couriers) arrived with absolutely, definitely the biggest parcel I have ever received. my new hood



This hood was purchased from Randy (perro13) who very kindly wrapped it (very well indeed) and shipped to Florida for me, STS imports (Ron and Russell) then organised its transport to England. If Google maps is to be believed my hood has travelled just over 5200 miles.




The hood has a small amount of surface rust, a couple of small dints and absolutely ZERO rot I could not be happier with the hood and I'm very grateful to everyone who has helped me get it from California to my garage in England.

[clemdaddy]

made in america... shipped from america... to jolly ol' england.
looks like a good hood in good hands. way to go...

[Ta2Don]

Nice Score...

[markeb01]

Outstanding! Talk about a group effort. Hoods are hard enough to find here in the States, I can only imagine what an impossible task it must be in the UK.

[mjh1965]

Glad that Ron and Russell helped . I have used them lots of times over the past two years and they have always been helpful . Myself and Amanda even spent a day with Russell the last time I was in Florida . Being shown around and seeing his houses . Russell is originally from Wales . He moved over there and now restores cars buys and sells houses and runs the USA side of the shipping company . Thats the second hood that's come over here via Ron and Russell mine being the first .

[Grizz1963]

Great news Ian !!!!!

I know exactly how you feel.

I have had a few bits I bought from there delivered, and every time it's like Christmas. Add to that the gifts I have received from various places etc, and I live a life of Christmases.

Hood looks to be in great shape.

Look forward to it getting fitted.

[ibrown50]

It appears to be a good time to buy wheels in England! with both Martin and Kerry buying wheels recently.

Not wanting to be left out I thought I'd post up a couple of pictures of the ones I bought a few weeks back, also on eBay.



Un-like Martin (300 mile round trip!) mine were much closer at mere 170 mile round trip, although they were in Jedburgh which is just over the Scottish border and as anyone who has driven the roads around the borders will tell you can't get anywhere fast.
They are 20" x 9" split rim style with 275 x 45 20 tyres, it's hard to tell from the pictures but the rims are polished and the spokes are painted, I may change the colour of the spokes to a darker grey.



The rears will need spacers to get them in the right place, the pictures are with the truck lowered (on the jack) about 2 - 3" so they will sit about 2 -3" further into the fender once I'm done.



I won't know about the fronts until I finish the disc brake conversion but the spaciing is fine on the drums



Once I have the drop spindles and coils fitted the front will sit 4" lower than the picture

[mjh1965]

Nice looking wheels they are going to fill the arches really well when you lower it a little more . Ian I have sent you a PM . Speak to you soon Martin

[Ta2Don]

on the Darker Grey spokes idea...

[ibrown50]

Absolutely not a C10

My mate Nick swung by this afternoon in his 32 5 window, he's been build it for almost 5 years and only had in on the road for a couple of weeks. Now I know it's not a truck....... it's not even a Chevy.... and it doesn't even have a Chevy motor!! ( It basically has no redeeming qualities)









But it is very nice

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Absolutely not a C10

My mate Nick swung by this afternoon in his 32 5 window, he's been build it for almost 5 years and only had in on the road for a couple of weeks. Now I know it's not a truck....... it's not even a Chevy.... and it doesn't even have a Chevy motor!! ( It basically has no redeeming qualities)

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But it is very nice

Although you say no redeeming features, I think anyone who thinks that is missing the point, sure there is tongue in cheek teasing and some very serious brand loyalty out there.

But we all know that ultimately, he BUILT IT HIMSELF and that is the most important thing.

Also, most of us are not one dimensional, we need and like a bit of variety.

Imagine a world where we all drive a brown UPS van........?? (Unless its filled with spares for a C10 custom build)

Lovely looking car.

[ibrown50]

Definitely only teasing, this is one of the nicest rods you'll find in the UK

[ibrown50]

A week or two back Martin (mjh1965) bought a new cab for his C10 leaving the repair panels he had bought for his old cab "surplus to requirements". I know there are some repairs in my doors and one rocker panel which are going to have to be looked at. After the horror story that was my hood this was an opportunity too good to miss and given the (un)-availability of parts in the UK very lucky for me!

Now as Martin lives a good 300 miles from me, he kindly packed everything ready for a courier, however, before I could arrange collection a work colleague of Martins landed a job in Bentley Newcastle, which is about 15 minutes from where I work. He brought the parts with him today and I collected them from him, more good luck!....................and some great panels.

[mjh1965]

Glad to help , and waiting in anticipation to see the installation pictures of the panels .

[Grizz1963]

This sort of chain of events really does give one faith in humanity as well as a warm fuzzy feeling.

Nice one Martin and Duncan (another South African on "Mud Island")

[uber cool]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

This sort of chain of events really does give one faith in humanity as well as a warm fuzzy feeling.

Nice one Martin and Duncan (another South African on "Mud Island")

If we carry on part swapping at this rate this time next year we will all have someone else's truck in our garage.

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by uber cool

If we carry on part swapping at this rate this time next year we will all have someone else's truck in our garage.

That did make me laugh , but look on the bright side, we should get all the trucks on the road with all the parts swopping .

[ibrown50]

This week is has been a great week for parcels, at the beginning of the week the stuff from Martin arrived and at the end of the week the suspension kit I ordered through Langys Rod Shop arrived



I now only need a lower control arm for the passenger side and I'll have everything I need to finish the suspension drop and overhaul, including a disc brake conversion
While I have the front end stripped, the other job I have planned is a power steering conversion, I'm using this kit from POL.



If you live in the UK any parts can be hard to come by so often buying a kit is the safest option. This one has everything except the power steering pulley and is very reasonably priced. June is going to be a busy month for me, it has five birthdays, including my mate Phil's 50th (yes he who named the truck!) a wedding, a charity run for cancer, my middle daughters prom and a ton of other stuff! I am however, determined to keep making progress, so I've started with the steering kit.

With the old box removed and the rag joint end trimmed off the installation begins. The plates supplied with the kit locate using the old mounting holes, allowing the new holes to be marked and drilled. I went slightly oversize on the holes through the original chassis to give a little wriggle room for alignment. I do intend to weld the plates to the rails once everything is complete.





Before the new steering box can be mounted one of the holes has to be drilled out to convert it to a through hole.

[ibrown50]

The new gearbox was then mounted to check alignment. It was probably as good as the factory box, but I loosened all of the fasteners that hold the steering column in place so that I could get the alignment perfect.



The new rag joint to steering shaft coupler is a tube that slides over the original steering shaft, so again there is a little "tolerance" on the length you cut the shaft to. I pre-drilled the coupler before final assembly.



Once everything was assembled and aligned I drilled the shaft and installed a roll-pin, I also drilled a small dimple into the shaft at the bottom of each of the holes to get better penetration for the puddle welds,


The coupler was welded in place and then given a quick coat of paint to tidy it up, next job is to fit the pump to the engine.

[mjh1965]

Thanks for Sharing . I have the same kits to do on mine so good to see the install pictures .
Looking good and you are making good progress

[uber cool]

Nice collection of new parts.........................So nice fitting new parts

[ibrown50]

This weekend has been hectic, Friday was a 50th Birthday "party" (read a pub crawl around Newcastle city centre with involving un-healthy quantities of beer, tequila and whisky), Saturday a 51st birthday party (much the same but in fancy dress, I was Captain Kirk ) and Sunday was an afternoon barbeque at another friends, for no reason, other than the weather was nice (I was so grateful to be the designated driver!)

Time on the truck has therefore been a bit limited, however, I have managed to fit the power steering pump part of the kit.



The kit comes with the brackets in bare steel so earlier in the week I shot a coat of black on them, it was a sunny evening (yes we get the odd one up here in the frozen north!) so I hung the painted parts on the shed to dry



What I had not realised that the kit was supplied with brackets for a short water pump, luckily these Saginaw type pumps have numerous bolts and threaded holes. I was able to use a threaded hole on the front of the pump,

However to use this hole I had to modify the adjuster bracket, I cut approx an inch from the bracket, I clamped it in a vice to check the alignment , before welding it, this process was not terribly kind to the new paint.

[ibrown50]

I ground back the weld I test fitted the bracket. If I say so myself it worked out very well,




I had to shim the mounting bracket off the engine block by approx 1/8" to get the pulley alignment right.

I also managed to get the plumbing done, the kit comes with both hoses I thought the neatest route between the gearbox and the pump was through the inner wing. I had to use an 1 1/8" hole saw to clear the swaged ends but the end result is quite neat. I'll need to sort out some grommets to put in the holes to protect the hoses.