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Honda Renovates a Chevrolet Pickup Truck

Don’t let anyone tell you that companies loathe to put other brands forward. In honor of its American origins and to celebrate its 60^th anniversary of U.S. operations, Honda renovated a 1961 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck it once used for motorcycle deliveries.

When Honda’s American division first opened for business in 1959, the company purchased a small fleet of Chevy pickup trucks to bring motorcycles to dealerships across Southern California. Only six years later, Honda was the best-selling motorcycle brand in America with a 72 percent market share, and the company says Chevy’s trucks were invaluable in helping them establish a foothold.

One of these trucks can be seen in an iconic 1961 photo, parked in front of American Honda Motor Company’s original office at 4077 Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles. To honor these humble beginnings, Honda restored the truck it found to match the one in the photo with factory-correct white paint and hand-painted graphics. It also gave the truck a “mild mechanical freshening” and put two vintage motorcycles in the bed — a Honda 50 and CB160, the same the truck would have originally carried in the early 60s.

The restored package is currently on display in the lobby of American Honda’s headquarters in Torrance, California, and will be put on public display at the 2019 SEMA Show and other events around the country. Honda says the renovated truck will eventually be put in the American Honda Collection Hall in Torrance, where it will be staged in front of a replica of the aforementioned original Los Angeles office.

The News Wheel

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