Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Glad you finally announced the October trip...:metal: I was having a hard time keeping that under wraps...:lol:

For those who may wonder, I posted out the Brake parts and addressed the package as I had in the past. It was returned 7 days later with a "Return to Sender" label. The first trip to the local post office rewarded me with an unhelpful response in the form of, "For some reason it couldn't be delivered." After chatting with Rian, I made my way back another day and found someone willing to investigate a bit further. Apparently someone working international mail was unaware that U.K.stood for United Kingdom...:bang head:
Luckily the man at the counter, wrote out UNITED KINGDOM and re-date stamped the parcel and off it went…;) I'm glad to see it arrived safe and sound…

Looking forward to another great get-together at Clem's in October… Plans made to stay the night so I'm not running off early...:chevy:

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I do believe you done spoiled that cat and I like the top 2 emblems best ,but they all are great .

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Sounds great that you will be staying over Don.

Thanks again for helping us out over here.

You got it in one mate.



So........

Side bar story number one. (The relevance will become apparent soon)


What do you do if you own your own body shop that builds some high end hot rod stuff, paints and repairs commercial vehicles etc, but you also like the shape of Chevy C10 trucks?

Nothing I Guess.

However, if you paint trucks for NASCAR Truck racing series teams, you get to know interesting and possibly important people.

Now, the next thing to consider is, what if you painted one like this and then it comes back broken, maybe more broken than is worth putting back together to be competitive?

One of these........

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pslvdw25fm.jpg

Suddenly at 100+ mph becomes one of these.....


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psayrachxj.jpg

And then like this....

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscv9s5osm.jpg

Add in a gas axe into the mix and you end up here.......

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps1eedbfwc.jpg


In the mean time, due to the competitive nature of NASCAR Truck racing these parts live a life based around a date stamp and over time your pile grows bigger.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psdclooh0k.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pswd1gf9cc.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps6emov0hz.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pshlrefevp.jpg

So then, if you sponsored your son in his 360 Sprint car and knew your way around them......

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps0ufvasjq.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszf8a9wmy.jpg

And the Sprint ran this little motor.........

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psxlfc5nxj.jpg


And if you have all those bits laying about, would you not be tempted to wrap them in a fully functioning skin shaped like this with glass, working doors etc?

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psa1r378ti.jpg

I think this could become a bit of a beastie. Like it?

More Side Bar notes tonight.

It's almost 1.30 in the morning and I have a garage to deal with in the morning.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Well, I should be partial to the 64 emblems (middle ones), but the 63 (top) have always been a favorite of mine.

Sounded like a wild day Rian.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I like the middle emblems the best.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

The 64's were what I wanted after removing the bottom ones from the truck and I got them one at a time about six months apart.

However, I think I will be going with the simple elegance of the 63 badges as that's my birth year too,

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I also like the 64 emblems Rian (my Birth year!) but I think the 63's work just fine. Good to see you today and thanks for the tea.

P. :D

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Today I Planned to replace the 5 strip lights in the garage with new daylight units...... Often things do not work out that way though, do they.

I did the first one and it worked a treat.

Next one fitted..... No go, then after much faffing about and trying various things, thought I would change the whole fitting.... Nope, still both dead.
I then went to the front one, at which time Mickey from next door came around with mugs of coffee and toasted Bacon and friend egg sandwiches for us for lunch. How cool is that?

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psi0cxr88d.jpg

After this he left and just at the same time Paul Y arrived on the drive from collecting a massive new garage work bench in Woody his 1966 C10 which he has been threatening to take off the road as long as I can remember, but as he says, Woody is too valuable working.

So his morning he woke Woody up and then set off on his chores collecting stuff. I stole the photo from his thread.


http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/t...155D6828CB.jpg

Eventually after much chatting, tea, biscuits and looking at my progress which he thankfully approved, he also offered to help me look at my motor when the time comes, I managed to convince him to drive up to the farm for a few photos of Woody.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4wbidkmp.jpg


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbtgqkzr5.jpg


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszcvyp1gr.jpg


We then drove back home, loaded the work bench back onto the truck,making with a rather large steel cabinet and strapped it all down, said our good byes and then he and Woody were off like a donkey with turpentine under its tail.....

CLICKY LINKY VIDEO:
This put a huge grin on my face.

And an opportunity to take a really moody, Johnny Cash album cover type photo with a shadow looking in.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psu0fya8yc.jpg

As far as the garage lights are concerned........

No bloody idea, will look again tomorrow.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Woody is a fine looking old truck and the burnout was cool too ,even my wife liked it .Love the pics .

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Pleasure Paul, and even better when I got to film your departure.





So, you remember the 2015 Road Trip http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...chevy-roadtrip

You now know that Nicola has insisted I go on the trip again as she is off to backpack around parts of Thailand with an old friend.

Some of you on various forums are also "Friends" with me on Farcebook. Often you get random requests from the weirdest people, and in my case I have had some gorgeous girls with very short profiles but exotic pics come up wanting to be friends or people with unpronounceable names etc. Often they are just trawling, and others like former school and work friends really just want to dig around in your photo albums to see what you have been up to in your life. Never actually chatting or communicating or in one case recently asking me loan them a lot of money because they had got into trouble.
Another of my favourite pet hates is the "Like" button on various places, and you see people actually "like" a death or divorce notice WTF???? Just make the effort to write something or keep quiet. ( I may be becoming a Grumpy Old Man )

My way is to disregard most strangers but I usually look to see if we have friends in common or if their photo album shows some sort of common interest with me. And even these can be deceiving as you can suddenly get bombarded with requests to play Candy Crush or some other carp.

So in August last year before going to the U.S. with mate Martin, I had such a request and looking at the profile of the guy I saw Motorsport and trucks as a shared interest, he was also friends with my good friend Ta2Don in Arkansas and had a Chevy C10 truck. So I accepted the request.
Over time we have chatted a lot, on Messenger and on the phone and a nice friendship has developed with a guy I never even met before.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when I got the new job offer and Dennis asked me if I was going to come to the U.S. In October again like last year. At that point I said it would be nice, but my budget and new job would probably not allow it as this becomes expensive once you add up all the costs, hotels, plane tickets and the rest. At that point he asked if the use of his 2009 GMC Dually below, along with a car trailer in case I found an old car stashed in a barn that needed exporting to England FREE AND FULLY INSURED would make a difference to my budget and planning............ Now he had my attention for starters.

"This is my truck and you can have it for as long as you like and drive it anywhere you want while you are over here, just fly into and out of St Louis, Missouri "

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psb4tw5dcy.jpg

Of course I said to him that he was being very generous (I had previously let friends use cars and motorbikes like that as well in the past ) but said what if I trashed his truck along the way, it was after all a big rig with a trailer behind, should I decide to accept and take the trailer and actually find something interesting in an old barn to buy and send home. "Well, we can just fix it if you break it badly" was his casual reply, they had already dealt with one Bambi before.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psxp75wlri.jpg

I still dithered and said that it was a big truck to do quite a few thousand miles with if I went down as far as Oklahoma City and other places inbetween, because I had missed out of some people last year, Martin and I just did not have enough hours in our 16 days. To which Dennis replied with "My son and I have a bunch of cars and trucks between us that you can choose from, you could also take my 2013 Hemi Challenger if you want but it would not take as many spares and does not have a tow hitch, however you will get you there pretty quickly "

He then shot this photo of it over while we were chatting on FB Messenger.............

I KID YOU NOT....!!!!

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psjwcrgx1a.jpg

So now I had the dilemma of choosing between the GMC Truck or a Hemi Challenger.

And I had not yet discussed this with either Nicola or Myself at this point.

When Nicola came home we chatted about her trip to Thailand and then I mentioned Dennis' offer and the discussion we had earlier the day. Saying I was not sure that it was a good idea.

This was the point where Nicola got all forceful and told me about dead men in coffins in her chapel of rest who aged in their 50's with loads of Dreams and Bucket Lists as long as your arm, never to be ticked off, she speaks to many a widow and child. We looked at all the flight options to get to Clem's Cruise In via various airports from Oklahoma City but it turned out that St Louis was actually a good option, despite the 6 hour drive that it would take to get to Fayettevile. I could do this trip and stop over via various friends along the way who I missed out seeing last year.

So it looks like I will be doing my Road Trip in a Challenger this year.......... Life can be so unfair.

I hope that I can manage to pile my Karma bucket to the brim this year because this will again be an absolute privilege to do this trip, but Karma takes her payment as and when she wants.

So now you know where the previous posting about building a 66 Chevy C10 onto a NASCAR chassis comes from as Dennis is a HotRodder who works bloody hard 7 days a week in order for him to be able to then enjoy some toys and time with his family.

So last thing to say will be a big thank you to Dennis for making this trip more attractive and affordable.

Now it is bed time, I am knackered.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I am sure hoping my plans work out so I can meet up with you in OurKansas at the great fillin station.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

You're getting things lined out for this years road trip.

Taking the truck and trailer in case you find another project would be way over the top for most but not for Grizz.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

:waah:You will certainly not regret it.

Clem, Kim and The Gang will make you feel right at home.

And you get to overdose on good people and trucks.

Hmmmmmmmmmm??

The thing is........ I know where this car lives :mm::mm::mm::mm:

I honestly have these images in my head a few times a week.

Of course my red truck is a long way from done, so I have to hold off on any other monkey business........


BUT..........


This is many sleepless nights worth of 1960's metal.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps3buzrhgr.jpg


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbfgl2ela.jpg


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps3f46houf.jpg


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psyxumrhbw.jpg

COMMENT FROM HERB, THE OWNER.

You look fabulous in that old Chevy. I forgot you took so many pictures. Don't know what it is about a 60 Chevy, but they just don't make a lot of parts for them. Like the ignition switch, head light buckets,and others. I had to use 61 and 58 parts, but they work OK.
You think October? not far off. Hope you can make it by again, hope to have the Chevy running by then:)


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


While doing the brake lines, esp I ally at the rear, I found the lights I had fitted overhead were not always bright enough so impulsively went and bought 5 new six foot lights with daylight tubes this week.

Had a problem getting them to work, reviewed all power lines and then all working.

Happy days.

Before:

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psacujsxqf.jpg

Remember I have a few of them fitted to the walls on the one side too, but currently obscured by many truck panels.

After:

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7jsua6dp.jpg

The other side, not replaced at this point, but it is very tempting as well.
The white light has a better feel to it.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psa9nojjoq.jpg



In other news, I have always wanted to make my trucks dash top a satin black and the rest the same red as the truck after mate Martin turned his yellow peril into a two tone and it looked great.

Got lucky when Fil "Sparkplug" on UKGSER.com offered to do some photoshopping for me.

So just an idea, but happy that it is how I will proceed.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pstzqfewr3.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7atnbrjq.jpg

A long way before I get there, but another bit of info stashed away.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I like it ,its gonna look great painted like that .
On a side note Clem's get together is on my birthday ,I wonder if he would mind a couple extra showing up ? May have to see if I can get my wife on board .

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

wow cool 60 belair .
I have a 60 brookwood 2dr wagon and a 60 impala convertible

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

You,need to speak to Clem and see what the rules are.

I like the idea of the black dash, even though I have minimal support there.

I just love that, especially as it is a bit less common.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Rian,

I know where there is a 60 impala sitting in a barn about 100miles from you....

P. :D

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I agree that is a very decent looking combo!

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

that would be great… and no way would we mind… hope your wife can join you, think road trip… pm me, maybe i can make it easier.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

PM sent to Clemdaddy.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

The two tone dash looks good Rian. And the better lighting is a good idea. It's always easier to work when you can see the job.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Aaaaaaannnnd ??

Is it for sale for a squillion dollars?

Sitting in a barn...... Barn find or waiting it's turn to be restored etc?

I loved it on Martin's truck and mine is going to be very red, so a bit of a break should be good.

Thankfully Photoshop is less permanent than paint.

Cool.

Indeed Dale, when we bought the place the whole garage at 30' x 30' had two single tube 4' lights. I left the one at the rear in place as the wall is angled.

My truck is not standards, so these little touches help to turn it into a place I will enjoy being in when it's done.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Another small job done last night.

Been wanting to get the hubs off the Grizz Pod ever since selling the Radars and buying the Chrome Smoothies for it. Then of course I sold the Chrome Smoothies off the truck and bought the Rallye wheels and powder coated them very red. I guess the ideal would be to find another pair of Rally wheels in a narrow width, so that I can get a pair of 185/15 tyres on them.

So removed the hubs..

Next job is to find someone who can turn the 4 stud hubs into 5 stud units to fit the bolt pattern of the Smoothies and also machine the edge of the nipple on the hubs so the wheel centres fit, as they do not fit right now.
Also to figure which way to fix the wheels to the hubs.

Nothing is ever really easy is it?

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psrenphidz.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbjz1wgos.jpg

After that I went up to the house to see Nicola who had just come back from seeing her kids for a couple of days.

Walking back to pack up and close shop, I took this shot in the dark.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psz43nfkrt.jpg

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Rian , love the two tone dash idea. When i get round to doing my 59 Apache interior I'll be doing the same. think it really makes the dash peak stand out

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Been busy with other stuff, so not got around to this for a while.

Chatting to Ta2Don earlier about ordering the tie rod ends so that I can get the front end tied up before starting on the brake drum rebuilds.

He asked me to measure and check everything I needed.

So I dismantled the old steering parts and and found the reverse or Left hand threaded ends were the outer Tie rod ends.

Interestingly, unlike Ian Browns parts above which are of differing sizes, mine were the same length for inner and outer.


http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps0xfiyotd.jpg

I fitted the old outer to the new sleeves and inner tie rod ends.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psu4eim1og.jpg

My new parts are the same length at the old.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pspiwwmjmx.jpg

But the interesting thing was that the new parts have tapers that are 16mm Max on the inner and they fit perfectly.

Is there really such a small difference that matters???

The new ones have total taper depth of 1 7/8" or 47 mm

BUT...... The old outers are 1 5/8" or 42mm deep with a max collar of 15mm

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psj9tz7hl3.jpg


So that is my dilemma, but it looks like we have this one figured tonight.

Anyone else had the same experiences?

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Funny that Andy.

Had I not seem Martin's, the idea would not have occurred to me.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Spent the last week or two checking out flights on Skyscanner app, and then popped into Thomas Cook last week.

Should have bought my ticket then. Today it was £80.00 or about $120.00 up on the under £700.00 it was last week. How does that happen??

Anyway, Nicola and I bought her Thailand tickets online last night, she is flying business class, thanks to her brothers zillions of KLM air miles. I am positively jealous.

So after buying my tickets, I started to complain about wasting money and that it was best stuffed into the mortgage. To which she replied along these lines...... How often do you go to the local pub and buy three pints? £10.00 gone, buy some cigarettes at £9.55/20 and then smoke them all in a day.....?
Which means that my plane ticket is paid for in cigarettes in less than 12 weeks. Or three evenings at the pub smoking all those cigarettes brings it down to 8 weeks for the flight ticket.

I was suddenly not so upset, and I get to see amazing friends along the way and make awesome memories.

Maybe I should travel more often.

Anyway, we went to celebrate our travel plans with a Subway coffee and a shared cookie that they gave her for her birthday.

Perfect.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4kfa5awo.jpg

After shopping etc we came home and made paninis for lunch and then I went to the garage to switch bits about.

My next job, aside from the steering and brakes will be starting to figure out the engine, I also need to remove the gearbox and repair the one mounting bolt hole that was stripped out, hallo helicoil.

So I got the bike out the way, then got the chassis off the axle stands and pulled it out on the Jack.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psndokzli1.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps040czm2f.jpg

Engine out, bike stashed at the back of the garage till spring.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbjc9kyr1.jpg

Finally all switched.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psaol61xm4.jpg

I need to clean up the engine and gearbox of all the oil and muck covering it, then start on the gearbox, followed by the engine.

Fun times ahead I guess.

Speaking of which, Dennis is making things more interesting.

Last night he came up with this 2013 Harley Davidson Soft Tail as well, saying that if I wanted to hit the back roads and more of Route 66 it may be better suited to my travel plans, especially if I did not want to buy a car or truck along the way.

The guy clearly likes to "Pinch the puppy" torturing me with all sorts of crazy options.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psnynoq5hu.jpg

Of course this is my current favourite......... Has a few ponies stashed under its hood.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pswvdiecw2.jpg

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Rian, thank you thank you! the parcel came in an the kids love the stuff, an the beanies will be worn in the garage for sure!! thank you, pm me you address: the kids opened the parcel an I can't read your address on it anymore!!

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Love your workshop mate!!!

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Always a joy catching up on your progress.

Plans for the firewall?

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Chad,

When you decide to mail a package to Rian, remember to write out "United Kingdom," apparently, some of the staff at the international mail depot in Florida are unaware that the initials U.K. stand for the United Kingdom...:lol: :dohh:

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Glad the parcel got there Chad.

It really was more of a welcome to your little Star.
If you and the kids n Dixiecan use the rest of the stuff, then it's perfect.

Thank you JP, the house belonged to Nicola's best friend for 25 years and we got lucky being able to buy it directly from them.

The garage was the biggest bonus though.

Always thankful for her finding the house. Weirdly it cost as much as a decent terraced house in town at the time.

Greg, at this point, the firewall will be tidy, clean and painted red. Nothing more, I hope.

This is not the first time it has happened and interestingly, from here you have to state USA as well, not America for some silly reason.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Another day of small but necessary jobs.

Today was time to pull the engine out the garage again, remember the last time it ended up on its nose, off the pallet.

So everything done carefully.

Remember this......l

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psknfgwtwj.jpg

Spent time masking up and sealing every possible hole. Also things like the carburettor.

Then started cleaning off years worth of oily residue and crud with a brush and some Gunk again.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps9zndhtre.jpg

This took quite a while to do, as it was layer upon layer.

Followed by the pressure cleaner.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscndxbzip.jpg

Resulting is a clean engine and gearbox that I can now work on.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pst7ixvlat.jpg

Lastly, I got a text from Ta2Don earlier on today to say that he had managed to take delivery of my new reverse threaded tie rod ends.

They should be in the post soon, then I can get on and finish up the front end.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psmjxjfvaw.jpg

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Looks all nice and clean now .

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

I do love it clean and tidy.

And it needs to be as I will have Paul Y over to help, supervise, laugh at or maybe cry with me. So it needs to be clean.

I hope it turns out half decent in the end.

I have put a lot of work in and a lot of times the truck has fought me, being 50 years old, nothing is straight forward.

With the looming engine tear down, and knowing one of the gearbox mounting bolt holes was stripped, I needed to get some fixings, longer bolts for the engine stand and also a Helicoil kit for the various jobs ahead.

Gearbox mount (new) and its chassis mounting bolts...... Different bolts, this is the story of this truck.

Nothing predictable, bodge upon bodge.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psrbxobw3m.jpg

And my problem. When I dismantled it, this one gearbox mount fitting almost fell out, stripped then. So I needed to fix that.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psidcspjft.jpg

So I drove the 30 minutes to MBE Fasteners in Bearstead near Maispdstone to get the various bits. What a great bunch of guys, helpful, informed and informative and with a sense of humour.
All the bolts were only £4.00 or $6.00
The Helicoil repair kit comes in Imperial, and will be around £28.00 with free home delivery. Waiting for a price right now.
So hopefully that will be an easy fix.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pscknmbvp9.jpg


In other news, a friend came around to pick up the strip lights I had removed from the garage and saw the teardrop trailer hubs and a wheel in the garage. After a short discussion, he offered to machine the hub neck so the centre of the wheel can fit and then drill and tap the hubs to take the 5x5.5 Chevy bolt pattern wheels in exchange for the free lights and a BBQ in summer. Good deal in my book, and I get to have company.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7zgnhrv0.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pseluaw7si.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psveflcbax.jpg

Remember the "Chopper Style" bicycle I bought a few weeks ago as a future project?
It needs a new front end and a lot of cleaning up.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psdhftorm8.jpg

Well, Rob, the guy I bought the truck from in June 2013 has bought a Harley to go with the other bikes he has in his garage and we were chatting about bicycles and I mentioned to him what I had bought and plans I had for it when he offered me the handlebars off his bike and he is going for a satin black and slightly different design.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...psdy6oci0c.jpg

I will need another lifetime to do all of this project stuff.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Those handlebars are going to look great on that bike and good deal on the wheel work with your friend .

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Always good to be able to share or help.

Friday night..... What a relief to be home.

Started my new job on Monday, trust me, it has been tough.

Loads of data being dumped on me, and much more still to come.

Anyway, I spoke to friend Euan "Moosevan" last week when I wanted to buy some Helicoils so that I could address the issue of stripped out threads on my gearbox. He offered to post out some of his Helicoils and the associated fitting tools.

On the way home tonight, I collected them as well.

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Planning on going to Martins tomorrow afternoon to load the engine hoist, engine stand and some other bits.
Then on Sunday he will come over , as well as Paul Y and then we will tackle the garage, moving truck chassis, motorbike and engine etc about in the garage.
Followed by getting the gearbox off, drilled and tapped with the Helicoil.

Next up will be the engine strip down...........

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Glad to hear you survived the first week Rian. Good to see headway going again on ole red.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Thanks Bill, it has been tough and this was only week one of seven in class training. There are also two weeks of shadowing and practical experience.


Trailer hubs.....

Puddle weld in old wheel nuts in place after securing new threads with the new wheel bolts.

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Then also cut off the tops to fill the original holes.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...sy6ivcaqy.jpeg

Refitted the hubs to the trailer and painted them a coat of red to cover the original burgundy.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...ssvdeyaur.jpeg

And of course the chrome smoothies refitted.

Now I would love to find a set of narrow Rallyes to go with the set I got for the truck..... Typical.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...slzzohlt0.jpeg


Next up I swapped the whole garage around again and got the other side of the garage ready for tomorrow's engine dismantling.


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Tonight, some television and a drink.

Tomorrow......

Fun.

Re: Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!
 

Make it a stiff one buddy… you've deserved it.:metal: