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

[Grizz1963]

Today the weather turned wet and cold again, so I finished the final welding on the towbar, tried it out for fit and then removed the lot, including mounting plates, took the flap wheel to the lot and cleared the rust and tidied the welds.

Then the parts that will be sliding inside the receiver got a coat of rattle can black, just to cover the metal as well as the ball bolt heads.



I decided to hold off on the Hammerite till the weather is more conducive to drying.

Last year I bought a new triple chromed front bumper for my truck, problem was, it was a damaged item that I was prepared to take a gamble on to try to repair.

When Offering it up to the truck, it came up that the passenger side tip was bent in by 40mm meaning it could not even be fitted.

I am also painting the rear of both new bumpers as they often rust there despite the chrome, obviously because most of us do not wash, dry or polish the rears of our bumpers.

So at lunch time I contacted mate Darren who is a local rodder with a machine shop to see if I could come down to his place 30 miles from where we live, to use his 8 ton hydraulic press to try tease out the crease in the bumper, he agreed, as long as I was done before 13.30 as he still had Mother's Day to deal with.

My old and new bumper in front of the press.



When trying to determine where the energy had entered the bumpers tip when it fell from the top of a shipping container and thus how to press it to return it to shape, I realised that hooking it into Darren's forklift truck, and persuading it with a large lump hammer while putting pressure on it in the opposite direction would work.



So within 10 minutes we had the bumper straightened out and that without any damage to the chrome.

So the gamble pair off, for once.

While I was there, Darren was also busy preparing some of his cars for Easter weekends Chatham Festival of Steam show.




Before I left, I had to use the toilet (happens when you get older and it is cold) and saw this which has to be a sign of a hard core rodder.

Thanks again to Darren for the help and offer of machinery.