New Build Thread 82 J10 Honcho Sport Side

[FleetFox]

Hello All. New member and I wanted to go ahead and begin a thread on the rebuild of this Honcho I recently bought. I started my teens as a rabid Jeep fan building and driving multiple CJs through high school and college. Budget was always the major constraint in those days and I never really got a chance to build the jeep I really wanted. fast forward 25 years and I know have the patirnce and a little bankroll to build something the way I actually want to. Aftera few years of looking at clapped out, rusted out, cut up and hacked Jeeps; I stumbled on this Honcho in a local listing. I t was in sad shape having sat for years neglected in the seller's back yard. The truck was solid with no rot and some nice features so long and short it ended up coming home with me.
I am going to be building this truck as a resto-mod, not a restoration. It will not be a cut up rock crawler, and it will not be concours. I plan on rebuilding each component, up grading where necessary, but I am not shooting for a factory new stock truck in the end. I twill not be red. It will be lifted on larger tires, it will not have numbers matching drive train and interior options. It will be pretty, it will be capable, it will turn heads. And I will enjoy (almost) every minute of getting it there. Follow along if you're interested. I will update regularly with pics.

This isn't my first rodeo, but I know there will be questions and I will need some feedback. I value the tech in the forum, i hope I can only add as much as I take.

So, enough of that here's some pics if it arriving on the farm, and the first weekend of real work.







http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...pslbvyjg5y.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...pspuob1bjo.jpg

This is about 7 pm Friday

[FleetFox]

About 8 PM, same evening:

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...pstwh4jfjn.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...psdoapojj1.jpg

and by 6 pm sunday:

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...psfpupdigl.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...psi2ukszkw.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...psuzos86yd.jpg

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/...pstkz5sjlc.jpg

[scout4bta]

Beautiful truck. Looking forward to the progress. A renovation.

[SJTD]

A new thread using PB. Please do everyone a favor and use another site to host your pichers.

Pretty please.

This is coming from a guy who doesn't see the ads on PB but I'm in the minority.

[jeepman1]

My 83 Honcho is a slow-go... very slow. But I'll watch yours and get re-inspired! Good luck
Oh, No photobucket plz

[FleetFox]

SJTD, i agree, it's awful. Can you, or someone else recommend a better alternative please? I am going to put everything in a google drive as well. I can wrench, i can weld, I can do just about anything with my hands, but technology is a little slow for me.

FleetFox

[Achilles]

I am in the process of transferring all the photos in my build thread to Flickr. It seems to be working well!

[FleetFox]

Thank You Achilles, let us try again:

Arrival:

[FleetFox]

[FleetFox]

8pm Friday:

[FleetFox]

6pm Sunday:











There IS a learning curve!

More updates after this weekend.

FleetFox

[JPSwapMohn]

Looks like a good project. No need to worry about originality, someone already upgraded your axles to 8-lug, maybe from a J20.
The J10 came with 6-lug D44's.

[lycanthrope]

I am at the same point. I just picked up a honcho sportside(#3) that needs a complete resto.
Mine came partially disassembled . There is some rust, but the body is very straight.

[FleetFox]

More tear down. This weekend the engine was stripped and the drive train was removed. Things moved slower, but without incident. Once out of the truck the 3 units were separated. The NP208 will get rebuilt, as will the motor. I'm ditching the Torqueflite in favor of a TH400 and adaptor. Next week the cab gets stripped and likely removed from the frame.

[FleetFox]

So I'm planning out my suspension and wheel tire size choices. I'm pretty sure I want to run 33s or 35s on 16" wheels. I'm torn on lift height. 4" with BJs front shackles and rear add a leafs or the full BJ's 6". I've read through the lift threads, and viewed all of your pics and it's been helpful. I'm adding a couple of images below. These trucks all have the stance and height I'm looking for. Any idea what suspensions/ tire combos they are sporting please.

[FleetFox]

Not much exciting to report on this week. As most of you on the east coast are painfully aware of, the weather was helacious this weekend. Long and short, cab was stripped in and out, parts were inventoried, and sorted for blasting. Taking a couple days off this week, hoping to get some blasting time in and pull the cab off. Boring pics in my FLICKR .

[FleetFox]

Had to take a little time this weekend to do some farm work. But got a bunch of small parts and some body panels sandblasted. Trans rebuild parts arrived along with some other good stuff from BJ's. Thanks again Ryan. Hoping to have the cab pulled and be down to the frame in a week or two. Thanks for watching.

[FleetFox]

and for some reason the images will not load, have I exceeded some sort if max already?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/905779...posted-public/

[FleetFox]

been away for a bit, time for an update. Been rebuilding the th400 and soda blasting tons of parts. Slowly attacking the pile and moving them to a climate controlled space for now.

[FleetFox]

Been a bit since an update, but I've been keeping busy on this truck to keep momentum going. Tranny is rebuilt, working on the steering box right now, and the NP208 is next. I took a week off around the holiday to work on the farm and after chores were done spend a good deal of time burning midnight oil in the Honcho hospital. soda/ slag blasted a bunch of loose parts and started welding patches in. Skid plate for gas tank was a mess, I had two and still had to graft a lot of new metal on to make a good one.





also grafted a piece on to one of the bed skirts and filled in pin holes:



Then the fun part, pulled the truck back into the light for a bit. Lifted the cab off and put it on a nice home built dolly to move it around the shop easily.











That's all for this week, more to come in the next few weeks.