1970 Honda

Pickup truck

2 - Cyl.

Manual

AN600-1019393

Gasoline

History of the Hondaroo In the spring of 1970, American Honda made the historic desision to enter the US automobile market. After test marketing their little 600 Sedan in Hawaii for a year they picked ten Honda motorcycle dealers in the Los Angeles area and offered them a franchise to sell the cars in Southern California. The first dealer to sign up was Bill Krause Sportcycles in Inglewood. Bill had been a Honda motorcycle dealer since 1962 following a sucessful career driving race cars for Carroll Shelby and Mickey Thompson and many others. He also won the Los Angeles Time Gran Prix in Riverside in 1961 driving a Birdcage Maserati. Bill's first demo for the fledging dealership was a little bright red sedan. He used it as a demo for the first year and during that time he couldn't help but tinker with the car. He had the service department install radial tires on alloy rims, add a Sig Erson cam and the Hawaiian 40 mm carburator. The also added the Hawaiian exhaust system which eliminated the heater unit. After a year serving as the store demo, Bill sent the car to a fabrication shop in Los Angeles to have it made into a pickup truck. Troutman and Barnes specialized in building race cars but they were willing to take on the conversion of the car for their friend, Bill. The "Hondaroo" was finished on August 15, 1971. I was Bill's service manager and I got to drive the truck back to the dealership that day. The cost of the conversion was $1600 which was $200 more than the list price of the original car! Shortly after the conversion was done Peterson Publications featured the truck in "The Complete Book of Japanese Cars". During the next 18 years we used the car around the dealership for parts deliveries and shuttling customers to work. I would occasionally drive it to and from work on the LA freeways. After a few years we started to lose interest in the truck as we became more involved with the new Civics and Accords. It started to get a little rough around the edges and we decided in the early 80's to freshen it up a bit. Gone was the gold and black paint job (which matched Bill's Ranchero) and the truck was painted white. We changed the rims to +100s and added a billet steering wheel. We also replaced much of the exterior trim items which had succumbed to the California sun. Bill sold the dealership in 1989 but the Hondaroo did not go with the new owners. He stored it away until 1992 when he offered to give me the truck. I had already moved to Northern California and started a repair shop specializing in Hondas and Toyotas. He felt that I would be the logical choice to bring some life back into "The Roo". Restoration When I picked up the truck in LA I took it home and soon had it scattered into a million pieces in my garage. I started stripping the paint to bare metal, sent all the chrome out to the plating shop and the smartest thing I ever did was order just about every trim part that was still available from Honda. I refurbished all the running gear while I was getting the body ready for paint. Then it sat there collecting dust for 16 years. I finally had to make a choice of either parting it out or finishing it. My family convinced me that this little Honda had too much history to become a donor. I got it out of storage and started back on the job. I spent many hours getting the body back in what I thought was perfect shape until I took it to Solis Collision in Cameron Park CA. Nick, the painter went over the complete car again before applying the most beautiful red paint that you could imagine. It was an exact match to the red that the car was painted at the factory. I spent the next 8 months putting the car back together. Thanks to a stockpile of NOS parts that I had stashed away, I was able to do the complete restoration without the use of aftermarket parts with the exception of the horns and the seatbelts. If you study the pictures closely you will see that virtually every little detail about the car is correct down to the last nut a bolt. Much of the hardware was rusty and corroded when I got the truck but it was either replaced with the genuine part from Honda or replated. This was not an amateur restoration by any means. I've been involved with Honda 600s since the beginning and I know them quite well. The engine and transmission are in excellent condition. There are no oil leaks and it runs perfectly. The primary drive was converted to the later style back in the 80s but everything else is unchanged. The Sig Erson cam is still there but we removed the 40mm carb because the diaphram was no longer available. It has the stock carburator now. The exhaust system is still the Hawaiian system. It is in perfect condition including a new Honda muffler. The fan belt still has the Honda part number on it. The brakes have been completely rebuilt. The rear wheel cylinders have been resleeved with new seals. The power brake system works well. The front suspension has been refurbished. The rear shocks are adjustable Konis. lt all works well. The steering rack has been rebuilt with new pinion bushings. They are very tight but should loosen up with time. The body is flawless. The truck has never been in an accident and there is no rust. The right front fender was replaced in the 80s because it had a dent in it. It was cheaper to replace it then to straighten it. It has been painted with Toyota Super Red basecoat clearcoat. Truely a show quality paint job. The glass is flawless. As I recall, we replaced the windshield back in the 80s and it is perfect. You will see in the photos that the windshield and back window have the correct Honda molding inserts and they are perfect. The only modification I did was to remove the rear ventilator louvers from the quarter panels since they were no longer necessary. All the side marker lights are new and the right taillight assembly is new. The left taillight is original but OK. The interior did not require much restoration. The seats and door panels are in great shape, the dash is excellent {including the original Hitachi AM/FM radio). The carpet is in fair condition. I have not found a replacement that did not look like some aftermarket kit. I would rather have the worn original then something that looked out of place. The dash pad is perfect. The tires are Michelin radials that are in suprisingly good shape. They have been dismounted during the wheel restoration and the interior of the tires is perfect. The outsides have very minor cracks. The center caps are in fair condition. They are original. I had replaced them with golf cart center caps but I misplaced one so I reinstalled the originals. Easily replaced. There is one important fact regarding this Honda that I did not discover until fairly recently. Honda did not use matching serial numbers for their bodies and engine numbers. When this 600 Sedan came off the assembly line the body number was 1019393 which was the 70th body built for sale in the Continental United States. The engine number that was installed in this body on the assembly line was 1017731. If you look in the Honda 600 parts book you will find that this is the very first engine destined for the US market! The body and engine number all match the data plates on the truck. This is without a doubt one of the first Honda cars to be sold in the US. I have decided, reluctantly, to sell the Hondaroo. It needs to be in a museum or on display in a dealer's showroom. I am no longer active in my shop on a day to day basis and if I leave it there it will just get neglected. I have been associated with Honda, professionally, since 1965 and the Hondaroo has been a large part of the history. If you are serious about this truck I would be glad to talk to you. There is so much more to this story than I can relate here. EMail me and I will give you my phone number.