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

[Grizz1963]

My good friend CraigRK is in the USA at the moment.

He already has these two cars with another truck headed out here.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...an-inspiration

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...0-pickup-donor

San Francisco to be precise, for work.

Sadly, he is experiencing all the pleasures of being a guest in that great country.

He has been sharing photos and observations.

This one yesterday made me smile. Just how mad has the world become??

At least I never saw any of this sort of madness when I traveled mid-America.



Sadly, he is stuck in San Francisco over the weekend and only has a Credit cards, SatNav and a Harley.

My heart bleeds for the man........

Maybe he will find another truck to buy while riding out.





And in my own life, a small change of fortune........

After a couple of years of my employers not getting it right, it seems they screwed up my taxes again, but this time in my favour.

So what to do with the windfall... we'll, it was my money in the first place.

Addit to Prozac and buy a truck, or just leave it to earn zero percent interest.




Almost the weekend.

Going to look if I can find a small treasure that I was informed about yesterday...... thanks to MercDan.

[ibrown50]

Add it to Prozac and buy a truck

[Palf70Step]

That Big Red 66 needs some lovin' too!

[aggie91]

Why not put that windfall into the '66?

Just say'in...

[mjh1965]

I would use the money to get the cab of the 66 sand blasted and in primer.

[Bomp]

I'd buy a Nitrous Oxide System to put on your daily so you can stop driving like a girly man and live up to those stickers.

[Palf70Step]

When the bomp speaks,

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Add it to Prozac and buy a truck

That was close.........

See report below.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That Big Red 66 needs some lovin' too!

It certainly does, but all in good time, when my life and head are aligned

Originally Posted by aggie91

Why not put that windfall into the '66?

Just say'in...

'66 has it's own bank account for its resto costs etc.

It's the owners head that needs sorting out.

Originally Posted by Bomp

I'd buy a Nitrous Oxide System to put on your daily so you can stop driving like a girly man and live up to those stickers.

Yes Boss

Originally Posted by mjh1965

I would use the money to get the cab of the 66 sand blasted and in primer.

Not a bloody chance.

It may be way off my original schedule but it is mine to do.

It will get done, when I'm ready.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

When the bomp speaks,

Indeed........

[Grizz1963]

Thanks to MercDan keeping his eyes peeled, I was off on a small cross country trip in Prozac yesterday.

He has spotted a pre-60 Chevy 3100 and a Powerstroke F350 Diesel Dually on one of his backroad shortcuts and let me know about it, well, anyone who was interested.

I thought that if I sell Prozac and add some savings and the Tax mans cheque this could go into storage for another day.

So dressed in one of my Lucky T-Shirts, I set off in Prozac to do the quick 28 miles to where it was.



One of the lanes........ we know a Martin, don't we.



Yes.......

This is England for sure.

Some of the lanes were the width of the car, with passing places randomly along the way.



Got to the place, found the house and went in to knock at the front door, twice, no reply.

So I walked around both trucks once, and realised they were not for me.

The red truck has not been taxed since 2008, and the tax disc in the front window showed 2006.

So something catastrophic may have happened.
The Powerstroke had flat wheels and has clearly not moved for a long time either.



So I got back in the Berlingo and drove home via my local village and got a haircut, then home to pick Katy up who had arrived in the mean time.

We went to Bunny Bend, one of the roundabouts a mile from where I live known for its massive populations of bunnies, and picked about 8kg of yellow hedgerow plums, really good to eat fresh, but I wanted to cook some jam/jelly
After that I drove to another spot where I knew of two different red plum trees, where I had eaten fruit in previous years (yes, I do love fruit, especially stolen or wild growing)
There I picked about 2kg as well.

This meant we would have around 8kg in fruit once all the seeds/stones were removed.

From there back to the village to buy 8kg of sugar and a small bottle of lime juice.

I will just show the results on here and do a separate thread for those interested in giving it a go.

And No....... I have never made jam before that I can recall, we just made it up as we went along.



Cooked, just ready to bottle.



Yellow plum jam.

Made 14 bottles.



Today was a mix of red and yellow plums.



Great taste and colour.



Total 26 bottles.



Weekend still not over.

PS. Bootfair sucked big time today, spent only £3.00 or $4.00

Later.

[Grizz1963]

Guessssss......

Who just had his first English pint of beer ??



Michael and Trish over from Spokane, Washington.



For those interested in Michaels interesting and at times challenging build: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=487100


Welcome to Mud Island.


Dinner to follow.


Great to have you here. It is great to meet up here in the U.K. After meeting up twice before in the USA at Clems charity events.

[Ta2Don]

Just a bit envious...

Enjoy Grizz's hospitality...

[Bomp]

Bloody envious.
Down a pint for me, Nah, pound 3-4 more like it.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Just a bit envious...

Enjoy Grizz's hospitality...

Originally Posted by Bomp

Bloody envious.
Down a pint for me, Nah, pound 3-4 more like it.

You guys have an open invitation.

McMurphy is just using my front door, and looking after the cats

Just joking, it's a pleasure to have them here and they are mostly on their own.

[Grizz1963]

Yesterday I took a day off work, thanks to my boss understanding and spent it with friends instead.

So I suggested Dover Castle which has from Medieval to modern roots and uses.

We were there by 10.00 am.

McMurphy and I or is it McMurphy and me?



The Castle was very interesting, as was all the secret tunnels and the tour which included displays of the Dunkirk rescue mission in WW2



Once we got out the top it was time for a drink.



From Dover we went back to Whitstable Harbour to look for Fish and Chips for dinner.



They had just closed when we got there, however, a walk into town saw us sorted soon enough.

An no, we did not go in for Pie and mash.



And we were not disappointed

Cod and chips.




It seems food is playing a big Role in this trip.

Today we had a few errands to run, but first on the agenda in Chatham high street was a real Full English Breakfast.

Again, no complaints.




Done.



After this we went to a sports shop for McMurphy and his bride to buy some,comfy trainers as they will be doing a lot of walking.

Followed by a trip up to Hempstead Valley Shopping centre for some more money spending, and a coffee.

On a serious note, it's awesome to see these two still behave like kids after being together for almost 20 years.



Eventually home by 4pm.

Had Mickey from next door around to arrange Taxi duties for tomorrow as I was headed over to Katy's place.



The cats are also very happy to have visitors to make a fuss over them.

Animals are strange........

They know a good person.

[mjh1965]

That's a shame I dropped Sally at work in Chatham this morning at 9am the popped up the high street for half an hour before driving home .

[Grizz1963]

When Mickey was obpver to arrange getting the McMurpy's to the station for their trip to London today.......

Cost me £2.00 in cookies and chocolate after being given it by Mickey next door, so not quite bootfair, but a similar trade.

He was going to take it to tip, so I rescued it out the back of his skip trailer.

For my garage to replace the dead one in there.



Suspect there are too many bits, like the DVD or CD player, just need a radio.

Just need to make space in rafters now.

Commented on elsewhere:


[quote author="@skkylinedave" source="/post/2346534/thread" timestamp="1503823487"]Someone would give you at least £50 for that on ebay . Old seperates are great , my brother has our dads old silver chrome JVC amp from about 1983 . Still going strong and no matter what speakers we have put on it , it still only ever operates at about 60% capacity .

Cant believe someone would chuck that ![/quote]

[flashed]

Very cool pics ,love the castle ,time with friends is always great .

[Bomp]

Great seeing all the adventure going on.
Nice score on the music machine. I use a tuner with speakers in the shop. Pandora on my phone, plug it into the tuner, Rock On

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Very cool pics ,love the castle ,time with friends is always great .

Absolutely.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Great seeing all the adventure going on.
Nice score on the music machine. I use a tuner with speakers in the shop. Pandora on my phone, plug it into the tuner, Rock On

I just need BBC Radio 2 in the garage, but the existing machine upsets its stations and then you,cannot get it reset some days.




Thought I would just bang this lot up here as well, in the interest of continuity.

I said I would post up a bunch of food centred photos.

Monday we went into Rochester for the afternoon.

Another good day.

McMurphy outside my place, over the road.



In town.



Leaning shop.



Lunch.......





Renault 4



Still on Honeymoon 20 years later.



Rochester Cathedral. Seen from the Castle.



Medway River and Rochester Bridge.





Then a break to sit down and relax with a premium priced tourist beer.



Eventually back home we decided to do a quick little BBQ.

My friend Kevin came over for a cuppa tea and to meet the visitors too.



Happy camper.



After dinner everyone faded and we all turned in by 10pm.

Being a tourist, or the guide is hard work.

[Grizz1963]

Tuesday night we wanted to go out for a steak, last meal together, in the end we changed our minds and went with a Chinese Buffet.

Turned out to be a good choice for us.





Back home after dinner, a,last beer, and of course Harley making herself comfortable on McMurphy.

Both cats were extremely taken with him and Trish, alwaysna great sign.



This morning it was up before 06.00 as the visitors were off on the next leg of their European tour....

Taking the Eurostar train through the Chanel tunnel to Amsterdam and onward from there.

Even this early in the day, the traffic can get to be a nightmare, thankfully we got to leave the motorway just before the actual snarl up.




Amazingly, they have been here a week already.

It was a real,pleasure sharing time and travel with them

Good byes said, it was off to get tickets to Europe.

Easy as that.





I was back home before 8.00am

Found both cats in the spare room where the McMurpys had kept their luggage while they stayed with me......



I guess they were also missing them already.

I hope we get to see more of Europe through your eyes McMurphy.

[Grizz1963]

I really do hate school holidays.

Too many bored children about.

More than that, no customers to see. Half away on holiday and the other half working twice as hard.

So last week I took Friday off to spend with friends including the weekend.
I then impulsively asked my boss for some more time off work and he agreed.

So today I spent in town dealing with some banking and other matters.
Not working tomorrow either...........

One of my favourite places on the poor side of town is a Turkish shop and associated restaurant. Great service, food and fresh fruit.

So I decided to have lunch there and watch people for an hour and a half.



Today I selected lamb and yoghurt soup, served with olives, pickled vegetables and a pile of their flat bread, freshly baked in a wood fired oven on site.
A dash of chilli oil on top and you are on your way.



After lunch I had a leisurely Nescafé coffee and watched people for an hour or so and chatted with friends around the world on messenger.

Then the bill came.

£6.00 or $7.75 incl tip.

Got to be a good thing.



Sometimes living is winning.

Now thinking about what I will get up to tomorrow.

It could be a crazy good day.

Not even the weekend.

Yet........

[87Jimmy4JP]

Hello, Grizz!

good to see ya over here, too...

how much for some of your jam????

Im taking donations from any windfalls for the Dakota, too!

JP

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 87Jimmy4JP

Hello, Grizz!

good to see ya over here, too...

how much for some of your jam????

Im taking donations from any windfalls for the Dakota, too!

JP

Hi JP.......

Free to collect over here.

I am not sure the postage costs or service would make it a good proposition.

I have to say, it has been a great success

If you are coming over here, like the McMurphy's did....... just come straight in.

[Grizz1963]

Friday morning 03.45 UK time.

Harley saying WT Actual F ??



Ooooppps.

Now is Saturday Morning 06.30 here in America.
USA 6hrs behind the UK. Managed about 6.5hrs sleep after having been awake 25 hrs straight.
Impulse buy to come surprise visit my friend Dennis for his 60th birthday.
They have a long weekend with Monday off. Labour Day.
So Saturday and Sunday night are championship V8 Sprint car races.
Then hitting road to see a few very good friends in the Dodge Hellcat, some also will be surprised.
I had 7 beers at last count last night that may have helped me sleep a bit. Coming home from airport Adam did a rolling burnout at 40mph for about 20 meters. Just mashed throttle "gently" and laid two black lines down. The car is a beast.
But 707 bhp will do that.
That's a mad mad car and I will be driving it.

Sometimes I can do spontaneous like buying the ticket. No regrets so far.
Looking forward to this trip unfolding.

I do hope that some of you guys will be along for the ride.

So after an early start yesterday I came in via





UK from the skies headed out.

Pretty.




So I guess the question is.......


Is anyone interested in more feedback and pics from this trip??

Let me know even if you are a stalker.

[Bomp]

Oh, Soooooooo want pics.
Would like to see progress on the "I think this used to be a truck build" but YES, updates on the trip to the US and Dennis.

yes
Yes
YES