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

[Grizz1963]

Monday 26th October.

Martin's 50th Birthday. The primary reason for this trip.

We both woke quite early, as usual.

I gave him his birthday card that I had designed and made up via FunkyPigeon.com (unfortunately no pic of that) also got him another T-Shirt with snarling Rottweilers as a reminder of his dog Bow in the UK.

Breakfast, then check out and pack up the car (with all the spares we had, we unpacked the car every night) after which we decided to go to a local Walmart down the road to pick up some provisions and for me to look for a nice hoody for Nicola. Nothing found, but we did see Gas Monkey garage T-Shirts for $7.50 and long sleeve sweatshirts for $10.00 Unfortunately not in my size. I did manage to buy Nicola a couple of Day of the Dead shirts though.

As always, Walmart was interesting, with sights you can never clear from your mind.



So this was foremost in my head as we left the car park........



Heading down the i30 toward Dallas, we had a mission........

It was after all Martin's Birthday !!!!

Some of you will know the whole story, some of you part of it and some of you may now be surprised.

When Clem took us over to Mike and Sarah Losh's place on the Sunday after his Big Party the Saturday to give a hand and generally be amazed by Boosted Bertha a few things transpired.

Remember the Pink "I Love London" hoody we gave to Sarah? Well, it turned out she is a bit of a fan of all things British, including Downton Abbey. So the hoody was immediately seconded to Downton Abbey couch wear......... For her to watch her episodes in as she is so little that even the size Large was massive on her.
Martin's was clearly taken with this tiny little fireball who is the light of Mike's life and he quickly established just how much she loved Downton Abbey.
Sneaky guy that he is, he then slipped away for a bit and called a friend in England on the mobile and found out that he could get hold of a very limited edition book for Sarah.
This was all done on the spur of the moment, and at that time with no further expectation.
While talking to her we mentioned going to Gas Monkey Garage where "Fast and Loud" is filmed to see what we could maybe see and the possibility of buying a T-Shirt, followed by an over priced burger or sandwich at the GMG Restaurant for Martin's birthday the following week on Monday.
Mike and Sarah then asked if we would like for her to see if she could us in behind the scenes, as it is actually a closed film set now, with tall fences, barbed wire and large gates...... Hell yeahhhh !!!
Later she came back and said that she had spoken to her friend who happens to be the Public Relations guy for the Fast and Loud franchise.

Were we excited...?? Stupid question really.

So we had a week to wait after leaving Slosh Tubz and Boosted Bertha, which saw us do all the stuff reported so far.

So back to the Monday morning.

We left Walmart, drove down the motorway and eventually got to Gas Monkey Garage at about 10.30am.

Parked up in the car park, wandered in, browsed the merchandise after seeing all the tall fencing outside and clearly no way of getting in.

Martin found a nice shirt to buy. (He does like a nice T-Shirt) and I saw nothing that appealed to my simple tastes.

I then went up to the pretty girls (yes, they have to be in that job) at the counter, feeling like a prize sized knob, to ask if Jonathan was there, we were expected after all.

Errrrrmmmmm,..... I will go see if he is in said the girl, disappearing into the back offices behind the merchandise shop.

She came back about 5 uncomfortable minutes later to say "Sorry, Jonathan is not here, he went out earlier to drop off some chroming that needed doing at one of our suppliers"

I WAS GUTTED !!

I think Martin standing just behind me may have peed in his pants too, I wanted to. His face was a picture of extreme pain and dejection.

So in my best pretend it is not a big thing, voice, I asked her when he would be back, and if there would be a chance we could speak to him later??

She did not know.

Then disappeared again into the back office and came back, saying she had called him on his mobile phone and that he had forgotten about us altogether.

Keep in mind, this is a business, so making money comes first.

She said that he should be back around 1.30-ish and if we wanted to come back then he would speak to us.

At this point I felt like a total idiot for thinking we would even have a chance to meet these people, especially Aaron who Martin and I both were interested in meeting, given any chance as he is a real thinking mechanic.

Yes of course we will come back later I heard myself say.

So we went out to the car park, took a couple of pics.

Note the fences and gates.....



How many hundreds of people have stood in those positions, photographing themselves or groups? Pretty sad ehhh.
Still, we were there, and it was a bit like a pilgrimage of petrol heads, so needed to be done.



While we were there Denny Hamlin's tow truck popped in as well, he currently drives the number 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. So it looks like everyone wants a cut of the Gas Monkey Garage action.

This is a full size truck.



Texas is full of these trucks, especially it seems Diesel trucks that have stupidly fast acceleration and an awesome sound.

We decided when back in the car to Google where ASM upholstery and Sue Martin was, to go take a look in there, or at least drive by, and also to look for the original Gas Monkey Garage where the Fired Up Garage crew now made their home.

When we got there, Sue was not there, so I chatted to one of the upholstery guys for a while, then Sue came in and greeted us, friendly, warmly and interested in why we had come all the way from England to check in on her shop.

She is really a lovely lady and incredibly hospitable.

She took us through the shop and showed us some of her work, seriously neat stuff, and some cool cars they were working on.

Interestingly.......... She collects car number plates, now who would have thought that?



I loved this sedan delivery they had done for a customer and asked her if I could get a pic of her next to it, to which she agreed, showing her best side.



.

After this we went to Jack in a Box for lunch.

Again, fast food, but really tasty. And all the girls spoke Spanish and were friendly.



I opted for a large burger, fries and a gallon of bottomless Dr Pepper.



While eating we watched cars, trucks and other automotive craziness pass in the street.

We sooooo live in the wrong country.


After Jack in a Box we went to look for the original Gas Monkey Garage, where Fired Up Garage now gets filmed.

Martin will be along in a while to write this up.