The Cool Back Story On This Vintage Chevy Truck Restored By - Honda America?

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
6-18-2019

Shortly after American Honda Motor Co. first opened for U.S. business in 1959, the company chose Chevy pickups to deliver its motorcycles to its new dealers across Southern California. One of these trucks was captured in an iconic photo in 1961 parked in front of Honda's original office in Los Angeles. Tradition and history matter to most Asian manufacturers. Underscoring the importance of those early Chevy trucks to its success, American Honda restored a vintage Chevy truck to perfectly match the one in the old photo as part of the company's 60th-anniversary celebration.

The Chevy trucks helped Honda establish a U.S. market foothold, starting in Southern California. Six years later, Honda was the best-selling motorcycle brand in America with a market share of over 70 percent.

To prepare the Chevy truck for its debut at American Honda's 60th-anniversary celebration on June 11, it was given a mild mechanical freshening and new factory-correct white paint. Two vintage Honda motorcycles, a Honda 50 (AKA the SuperCub) and CB160, like those originally carried in the trucks, were placed in the truck bed. The completed Chevy truck package is now on display in the lobby of American Honda's Torrance, Calif. headquarters.

The Chevy truck is a half-ton chassis with an 8 ft. bed. It has a 283 cu. in. V8 engine with a whopping 160 HP coupled to a 3-speed manual transmission. Who remembers these trucks fondly from their youth?  Does anyone have a vintage one new?  Post up your pics and comments below.  

[Sierra Dan]

Great Find John.

I am sure if Honda has made a truck back in the day, this Chevy would not have been so much as an afterthought...  LOL

[Gorehamj]

I just want to hug that engine.  

[KARNUT]

I learned to drive in one on a farm. My uncle said take the trash to the burn pit. I was 12. Three on the tree 6 cylinder. Red 61 Cheyenne step side.


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[Sierra Dan]

12 minutes ago, Gorehamj said:

I just want to hug that engine.  

   Hence Hugger Orange?

[Donstar]

1 hour ago, KARNUT said:

I learned to drive in one on a farm. My uncle said take the trash to the burn pit. I was 12. Three on the tree 6 cylinder. Red 61 Cheyenne step side.
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I think such a truck would be a wonderful teaching tool for all new drivers!  

[dtnel78]

We'd still have manual transmissions a plenty if everyone had to learn to drive a stick shift to get their license. Tough luck finding them anymore new and it's getting even more rare this year. Toyota is even winding them down. Even the trucking industry is so desperate for bodies that they're mainstream autoshift transmissions anymore. Such a sad state of affairs. 

[Paintor]

Nice truck.

 

But I'd max out credit, sell kidneys, blood, and next of kin if need be for a restored Honda 250R ATC.

[Nanotech Environmental]

10 hours ago, Paintor said:

Nice truck.

 

But I'd max out credit, sell kidneys, blood, and next of kin if need be for a restored Honda 250R ATC.

Hop on the Honda Hoarders page on FB. There's still quite a few of them out there and they come up for sale from time to time, but they do command a price..........

[Sierra Dan]

15 hours ago, Paintor said:

Nice truck.

 

But I'd max out credit, sell kidneys, blood, and next of kin if need be for a restored Honda 250R ATC.

This is how i feel about the 1988 Honda 250R Four wheeler.

I had one when I was 14 and that thing was a rocket racer.

I grew up in the age of ATV's (mid to late 80s)

[MaverickZ71]

Cool.  Who knew that a Chevy was the Great-Great-Grandfather of the Ridgeline?  

[Nanotech Environmental]

This is kind of a neat story. 
 

To me it's interesting to look at the very humble beginnings of American Honda & see how far they've come since then. I also like that they have taken a (current) competitors brand and restored it back to then to show how it really was.

Here is a modern view of the the building they used back then;
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/4077+W+Pico+Blvd,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90019,+USA/@34.048023,-118.3265806,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2b8f561b6311f:0x28a61a222d2eeb2f!8m2!3d34.0480186!4d-118.3243919

[dtnel78]

19 minutes ago, Nanotech Environmental said:

This is kind of a neat story. 
 

To me it's interesting to look at the very humble beginnings of American Honda & see how far they've come since then. I also like that they have taken a (current) competitors brand and restored it back to then to show how it really was.

Here is a modern view of the the building they used back then;
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/4077+W+Pico+Blvd,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90019,+USA/@34.048023,-118.3265806,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2b8f561b6311f:0x28a61a222d2eeb2f!8m2!3d34.0480186!4d-118.3243919

The Union Entrance huh? Lol..... Probably getting fewer and fewer union entrances anymore with the bad rap that some unions have given the industry. I normally associate unions with legalized monster crime syndicates that get by for so long until they step out of check then they get smacked down. 

 

It would be interesting to see union stats from the mid 90's to current day. Detroit is a great example of what can happen to cocky unions. I also have a distaste for executives that get multimillion dollar bonuses as they've not done that without the employees that help make it happen which aren't even getting thousands let alone probably a thousand dollar a year in raises. 

 

I guess corporate America must feel that if someone makes some money that they may want some extra days off, sick time, etc. They abuse the system there's always the next guy looking for a decent job. Should be no reason even in places like automotive repair facilities that are making $100+ per hr that the employees turning the wrench on the floor who has to buy his own tools, Do extra training, get certifications sometimes at their own expense as well shouldn't be making at least $25 per billed hr + benefits as well. 

[Chevyguy85]

On 6/18/2019 at 9:29 PM, dtnel78 said:

We'd still have manual transmissions a plenty if everyone had to learn to drive a stick shift to get their license. Tough luck finding them anymore new and it's getting even more rare this year. Toyota is even winding them down. Even the trucking industry is so desperate for bodies that they're mainstream autoshift transmissions anymore. Such a sad state of affairs. 

My job doesn't even do road tests on manuals anymore.  They used to make you drive the crappiest stick we had before sending you off to driver's school.  Get there and it was the euro style gear layout with 1st being reverse and if you tried to speed shift you'd miss a gear and go into whatever it was, 5th I think.  All the new package cars and semi trucks we've gotten in the last few years that I've seen have all been autos.  Seems like we've been only getting gasser package cars too, even the big ones.  Not sure what the bulk trucks are, do F650/F750s have a gasser option?

[dtnel78]

I correct myself on the $25 per billed hour. After more thought 25% of the ticket gross should be more suitable as the employee would feel more valued and be looking for that extra work that if a good service writer does his job well should be able to sell the extra work to the customer especially if it's a safety sensitive problem and it's a win win for the employer and employee as well.
.

When I worked on trucks back in the mid 90's at Freightliner we got our pay per hour but we also go our hourly pay and a percentage of the extra work because we were looking beyond the actual work it came in for and finding other extra work.

IF anyone knows anything about spring pin suspensions, kingpins and other suspension components on semi trucks they're neglected and I'd make on average an extra $600 plus the overtime each month which was nice checks as a single guy. Yeah I'd work long days and I had 2 additional part time jobs in addition to my full time job there as a mechanic.

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