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

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Rian, whenever I hear the term "shift kit", it makes me smile. When I was in high school (OMG 35 years ago!) I drove a 1970 Chevy Belair with the usual... 350, mild cam, headers, etc... and TH350 with a shift kit. Every day, I'd have a full car load of my GF and buddies with me coming or going...

I didn't tell anyone that I was installing a shift kit, so on the Monday morning after picking up my bro's... I wound 'er out in first, then hand-shifted (on the column) into 2nd. When it bang shifted in to 2nd it was so funny to see all six heads snap back. My passengers were surprised, then everyone howled with laughter. Yeah, kinda dumb... but it doesn't take much to amuse me!

[Bomp]

My ex-brother in law put that kit into his Monte Carlo. Did it in the rain, sloped drive way, don't know how many beers, never cleaned his hands once while slapping all the parts in.
That thing was a neck snapping Monster.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

That is a nice bike and free makes it even nicer.

Free money is always good.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Rian, don't know if this will help or not, but instructions;

http://files.dpbrands.com/bm/instructions/30262.pdf

It wouldn't let me add them as the pdf was too large.

Thank you very much Bill.

I also,got a good link on Garage Journal.

Originally Posted by Johnny_Lamebridge

Rian, whenever I hear the term "shift kit", it makes me smile. When I was in high school (OMG 35 years ago!) I drove a 1970 Chevy Belair with the usual... 350, mild cam, headers, etc... and TH350 with a shift kit. Every day, I'd have a full car load of my GF and buddies with me coming or going...

I didn't tell anyone that I was installing a shift kit, so on the Monday morning after picking up my bro's... I wound 'er out in first, then hand-shifted (on the column) into 2nd. When it bang shifted in to 2nd it was so funny to see all six heads snap back. My passengers were surprised, then everyone howled with laughter. Yeah, kinda dumb... but it doesn't take much to amuse me!

I will never race my truck, but like the 3" pipes and electronic cutouts..... A surprise is always nice to have up your sleeve.

Originally Posted by Bomp

My ex-brother in law put that kit into his Monte Carlo. Did it in the rain, sloped drive way, don't know how many beers, never cleaned his hands once while slapping all the parts in.
That thing was a neck snapping Monster.

My kind of mechanic-ing

[Grizz1963]

Another weekend gone.

Amazing how time is just flying by at the moment. It is the middle of the year already.

I have been keeping busy with various distractions that needed doing, and continue to need doing. It has allowed me to kind of focus away from stuff that was messing with my head.That's the joy of home ownership and life in general.

This weekend was interesting, it may have no meaning to most of you, but I recently reached a pivotal point in my life, and also the ownership of this house, and one of the things to do was to remove these two hateful creepers form the garage walls, they are messy, interfere with the CCTV and alarm systems, plus they look poop. In short, I have always hated them as their leaves ended up in piles everywhere as well as inside the garage every time the door was opened.
Nicola always laid claim to them, but they now belong to me, so I decided they had to go as part of my purging, and at the same time the garage can get cleaned up, painted and the paving could get cleaned up in front of the garage like I have done to the rest of the property recently.
I had planned on going over to Craig's place in Leatherhead today to help him here: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...auty-awakening but realised my jobs would not get done by themselves. Especially after my two bootfairs that took three hours to do today. Managed to find him some great power socket extensions for his workshop for silly money.

So this was what I started with.........



Started to cut them down and it was clear the mess would be needing further attention.



Step one done........



Today's bootfair cost me around £45.00 in the end, with various items I am not going to add in here, but there were these saws, the long one, along with a very near new concrete mixing shovel cost me £10.00 of which £8.00 was for the saw.
The same seller also had the other three saws for £5.00 which I was happy to pay.



The idea is to go this route (image from Google) with the normal sized ones and then the large one, as a nod to my paternal grandfather who was a forester, may be just restored and mounted somewhere in my house to remind me of my roots.



I also managed to find a load of other stuff from one vendor who does clearances in France, including this old rotary telephone in a funky colour, which will be an ornament in the house, yes I love quirky stuff like that. I had seen one for £28.00 at one traders table, and another lady had two of them in cream that she wanted £15.00 each for.......... So the £3.00 this one cost me, pahhhh..... Burger money.



By 11.30 I was up the ladder, with my trusty pressure cleaner, having removed all stuff that would get in the way.



By 16.00 the front and drive were all done, cleaned and everything packed away.

My neck had gotten a good beating from Mr Sun who had been hesitant to show his face all day.



And by 17.30 it was all dried up. And the clouds had gone mostly.



Next weekend the jobs include prepping of the walls, crack filling and then paint plus painting the wooden door frames.

I also need to replace one of the cap tiles right at the front of the roof.

Weekend over, no truck time, but loads of good stuff done, that needs to be done anyway.

Truck time will resume in all earnest very soon though. But bear with me for a while, I need to deal with ****e in the mean time.

Time for a Rum and Pepsi Max methinks.

[flashed]

Grtting all that off and pressure washing made it look great ,my house needs that too but it will be next spring before the Dr. will let me do stuff on a ladder .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Grtting all that off and pressure washing made it look great ,my house needs that too but it will be next spring before the Dr. will let me do stuff on a ladder .

Thank you. These are jobs that just need doing.

Get well first John, then take on the world.

There will always be tomorrow to sort out your place.

[Grizz1963]

Happy 4th of July !!


I will raise one to all my American friends tonight after work.




Yes, it's an old pic, but the sentiment stays the same.

[Palf70Step]

Nice, and thank you from the colonies Rian!

[clemdaddy]

Garage looks good. Amazing what a difference a little feel good change can make to your place and in your head too. Way to go Rian...

[SKT]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

So when I got there, it was the 10cent tour, then onto just cutting piles of Ivy into ton bags, and moving roots etc out to the street.

.
.

Wow, is Ivy that invasive over there or is that decades of 'neglect' to get that bad?

The 'after' pics looks great!

.
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[bj383ss]

Looks great Rian! I like the simplicity in the front of the garage now. Much better than before. Also like your saw idea. May still that one. I have been saving old dull tablesaw blades for ten years now. You have given me an idea. I think I can paint all of them various colors and designs and hang them as décor. I had planned to make one of them a clock.

Hang in there bud. Life will get better for you.

Bret

[Bomp]

I know what you mean about leaves getting piled up everywhere. Lookin good.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice, and thank you from the colonies Rian!

A pleasure Bill, I have more good friends in the US than anywhere else.
So my loyalty lies there.

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

Garage looks good. Amazing what a difference a little feel good change can make to your place and in your head too. Way to go Rian...

Thanks Clem.

Its making a big difference, staying busy.

Originally Posted by SKT

.
.

Wow, is Ivy that invasive over there or is that decades of 'neglect' to get that bad?

The 'after' pics looks great!

.
.

Agreed.

It needed doing.

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Looks great Rian! I like the simplicity in the front of the garage now. Much better than before. Also like your saw idea. May still that one. I have been saving old dull tablesaw blades for ten years now. You have given me an idea. I think I can paint all of them various colors and designs and hang them as décor. I had planned to make one of them a clock.

Hang in there bud. Life will get better for you.

Bret

Thanks Bret.

I know there are always people out there with much more poop on their plates than me.

Thankfull for what I have.

Originally Posted by Bomp

I know what you mean about leaves getting piled up everywhere. Lookin good.

Bloody hate it.

But its fixed now. Kinda.

[Grizz1963]

Well, I have had some concerned PM's in the last few days from various members as well as a couple of calls from the likes of Disasterbus and others.
I decided that as you as readers are all friends of the virtual type and many also the real type as we have met and become good friends, it is only fair to explain whats gone down the last few months.
Nicola and I are seperating, she will be moving on with her life, has already bought another house and I had to buy out her share in our house as there was no way I could move out of what I have here. Including a garage with a truck in kit form.
There has been no agression or malice to date. It is what happens in life. I still love the girl I married as much as before and dont want this divorce but its the hand I got dealt so I need to play it. There will be no reconciliation as she has long since left the building.
In the mean time I look forward to doing stuff and finishing the truck as finances allow.
I also need to find a decent lodger to help me pay the mortgage.
Ohhhhh and the good news is that Harley will be staying as my thug garage cat.

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Whether good or bad, sh*t happens. I'm glad you're able to keep your home. The garage looks much better too... clean and simple... just how I like things.

[mjh1965]

As I have already said you will be ok . Having just gone through the same thing , like me you have some good friends to talk to . Sometimes moving on is better than staying together it's a hard fact but true . I can only speak for myself but I am a lot happier for it .

[White knuckle Garage]

Rian,sorry to hear about all that has happened in life. Knowing the mate you are ,you will get through it and if you need anything you know how to get me .

[Grizz1963]

GREAT NEWS......!!!

Craig posted this up in his thread.

Thought I would share.

TAKE A LOOK HERE:http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...auty-awakening


[quote/post/2223302/thread"]From the rhythm of the cranking it sounds really close to going - and to like choke

Good luck and keep us posted!

Cheers

Matt [/quote]Yep, really sounded close didn't it.  Well, as I said, having been asleep for 36 years this beauty obviously wanted some real careful handling.

I tinkered some more and managed to break one of the plug ones (I'll post some pictures of these later, they're dead on their feet), and then I called my favourite mechanic (Dad back in South Africa) and had a chat.

With dad's advice ringing in my ears I went to work, and on getting home tonight I couldn't wait to get out to the garage.  Here's a compilation of the result.

http://youtu.be/iay2dXOoVjQ

If you want to see some more, this video is a bit longer...
http://youtu.be/SOzSgo5SXcc

The story behind the above will be updated in later instalments...[/quote]

[Palf70Step]

Sorry to hear the news Rian. Things will work out and as they do you'll have you adapted dysfunctional family here for support.

[flashed]

Rian ,sorry to hear of the breakup but it will be her loss ,good guys are hard to come by and you are one of the good ones .

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

The idea is to go this route (image from Google) with the normal sized ones and then the large one, as a nod to my paternal grandfather who was a forester, may be just restored and mounted somewhere in my house to remind me of my roots.

Yes as the grandson of a forester it's important to remember your roots

On a more serious note I must echo the sentiments above, you are a good guy and good guys are hard to come by. My mum always says "when one door closes another one opens" and who knows who will be behind it.............It could be Jessica Rabbit

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Sorry to hear the news Rian. Things will work out and as they do you'll have you adapted dysfunctional family here for support.

Dysfunctional indeed Bill.

That's what I love about this place.

I did try to call you,on the phone this morning after readin your post.

Will have to keep it for another day.

Originally Posted by flashed

Rian ,sorry to hear of the breakup but it will be her loss ,good guys are hard to come by and you are one of the good ones .

Thank you very much John, much appreciated.

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Yes as the grandson of a forester it's important to remember your roots

On a more serious note I must echo the sentiments above, you are a good guy and good guys are hard to come by. My mum always says "when one door closes another one opens" and who knows who will be behind it.............It could be Jessica Rabbit

Hmmmmmmmm...... Yes please.

Jessica Rabbit indeed.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Dysfunctional indeed Bill.

That's what I love about this place.

I did try to call you,on the phone this morning after readin your post.

Will have to keep it for another day.

.

Yeah, I am on holiday as you folks say, and where I am at, there is very little to no cell reception.

[65sub]

Hi Rian. I was sorry to here about your separation but as Martin said sometimes its better to move on. For me, peace at home always makes it easier to focus on my trucks. I'm sure things will work out for you and remember you have lots of friends here.

[[JP]]

Sorry to hear the news man!

been there, but wasnt married, at the time had to sell all my tools (had a double garage, etc) move out, find a place of my own, etc... 3 years down the line and im better off now!

chin up!