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

[Grizz1963]

Well guys.

Life moves on.

Quickest Real Time update.

Dennis and Adam offered us literally anyting to drive on part two of this trip.

From a very large 5th wheel Chevy Dually to GMC Cabalero, 80’s Chevy truck, Hellcat or Challenger.

We selected in stead the short Chevy Silverado.

After all, its a road trip.

So headed out in 10 minutes in this truck, headed to www.kelderman.com in Oskaloosa for a factory tour and also to pick up some stuff for Dennis’ Shell gas station before heading up to Ray in Monroe Iowa.





Later guys.

Will try post more tonight.

[Palf70Step]

Good Choice!!

Watch out for dem blue lights!

[Indian113]

Our Troopers don't say Youall Up Here unless they want Everybody out of the Vehicle!

[CraigRK]

Thanks all for stopping by. I said to Grizz last night that I can now really appreciate why it took him some time to catch up on posting about the trip last year. Paraphrasing Indian113 who kindly put us up overnight: "We're squeezing 10 pounds of 'fun' into a 5 pound bag!"

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That is a N-I-C-E 50's Ford ramp truck!

It is really nice. It's on a later model dually frame and with the fuel tank under the bed, the seat is placed further back for a more comfortable cab experience as well.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Good Choice!!

Watch out for dem blue lights!

Absolutely! I'm in love with it. I drove it about 300 miles yesterday and feel as fresh (or not) as when I started. I'd happily have one of these back home.

As for blue lights. We did encounter an Iowa state trooper, but it was all civilised and on the right side of the law at a gas station. More on that later from Rian (no pictures or flashing blue lights though!!).

Originally Posted by Indian113

Our Troopers don't say Youall Up Here unless they want Everybody out of the Vehicle!

Thanks for the headsup!!

Stay tuned and we'll look to get the full updates through to you guys as soon as time allows...

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@smokeem" source="/post/2446102/thread" timestamp="1536674647"]Is it time yet......[/quote]

Really sorry guys (girls)

We have been running non stop the whole time.

Sleep, Wake up, shower, brekkie and activities and then repeat

I hate being behind as it takes a lot of time upload all of thos stuff on the run.


Slept over in Monroe, Iowa last night after a grand BBQ dinner with Ray and Eve.

This morning Eve made us Cinnamon cake and a pot of coffee for breakfast as we declined a full cooked breakfast. The girl knows how to treat a man or tourist.

Today we were off early to Des Moines, Iowa 30 miles away for some random shopping.

Ray volunteered his 1966 Cadillac Coupe De Ville for the trip. 429 ci and around 350 eager horses.

He had insisted on both of taking it for a decent drive around town yesterday.

On the way home we stopped for a quick coffee at a service station.



Coffee time with Ray and Eve.

Thank you.



Headed down to Le Claire, Iowa on the Mississippi river later to get to the American Pickers’Antique Archeology store.

Later guys.

[Grizz1963]

Real time update.

10.30pm and we are in McComb, Illinois having beers, wings to be followed by ice cream and coffees.




Made it to Le Claire, Iowa at 17.30 before the American Pickers shop shut at 18.00





After this we mixed with the local Police department

Officer Tony Thomas assured me I would not be tazzered, despite Craig offering my substantial chest as a target.

So I tried to provoke him.

The guy outcooled Chuck Norris.

Trust me.




Headed back to our last hotel for the road trip later.


Off to Hannibal tomorrow via a few other stops then back to Wentzville and O’Fallon near Dennis’ place

[Grizz1963]

Back to the actual photodump and minimal reportage.......


After breakfast, the four of us bundled into the rental car V6 Impala which over the more than two thousand miles in our hands, had done exceptionally well.

We headed out to the town of Pairie Grove to hunting for various items in their antiques shops.

Sheriffs in town...



Like many places, the economy died years ago, and a few businesses have kept them afloat.

Looking for Zombies.



Found me some protection.



And bought it.



We all had a great time.

Multiple shops, many items.







Then out into the streets again and further down, Pawn shops.

Love them.



Guns.




Many.



Not keen on wearing it, but great to wind his wife and son up with.





Loads of these Antique stores have classics, and retro cars parked outside.



Found this fully functional, running C60 Recovery truck, with clean title for $2300.00

Absolutely worth it.

Craig was tempted.



Lovely plasma cut Shovel.



Semi Steampunk inspired, repurposed lamps.

Not cheap at all.



This was really cheap, but too bulky for the car.

So we eventually decided to call it a day and go find a Mexican Cantina as it was Taco Tuesday throughout Arkansas and Clem needed a Margarita

Two Tacos each and a large Margarita........


Pics to follow

[Grizz1963]

So to carry on with Tuesday

We went to Gabriellas for TacoTuesday. My first.






Clem getting on with it.





Tried this stuff.....

Phewww.



Some of the art in the place.









After a great break, we dragged ourselves away, and headed back to Fayetteville to Kim and Clems place.

I had been volunteered to cook dinner on the BBQ.

[flashed]

Great road trip ,thanks for taking us along

[aggie91]

Nice trip so far, keep the pics coming. Love me some tacos...

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Great road trip ,thanks for taking us along

Originally Posted by aggie91

Nice trip so far, keep the pics coming. Love me some tacos...

Thanks guys.

Yes, it’s good.

Last day today...



After Taco Tuesday we headed back to the shop at wwww.tubatrucks.com for Clem to deliver some beers and he and Dennis to thresh out the details of the garage forecourt lamp shades they were dealing on for Dennis’ Shell gas station
As well as for him and Craig to do a deal on some very rare to us, parts for Craig’s fleet of Chevys and for Craig to find them in Clems stock inventory.
Because Craig is going original paint and patina with his cars, it’s not as easy as buying a bunch of reproduction parts as they are just too shiny.



While Craig was looking through his search inventory, I saw a random, unusual set of side trim that I personally have never seen before, I asked Clem about them, what they were from, and he had no idea.
The next day, before we left, he told me back at the shop, to go find them again in the store and take them, I tried to decline and also offer payment, both of which he declined.
So I now have a set of side badges that I have never seen before (clearly someone will know what it is from) that will be fitted to my fenders as I like stuff just a bit different.
Thank you Clem !!



After this we left the shop and headed home to do laundry, get dinner sorted.

Remember that Clem and Kim are on Airbnb with the shop and a large self contained unit at the house all being available for short of longer lease in Fayetteville, Arkansas

I was volunteered to do the steaks that Kim had been marinading for 24hours in good Texan/Cajun style.


Our BBQ area.





Dinner was absolutely perfect and as it done in the Johnson home, after dinner we sat at the kitchen table, talking, drinking and feeling good.

Especially when the Reverend joined the table.




Our Bounty from the day out......


Craig:





Grizz:




Next morning we were up early, said our goodbyes to Kim and all the cats at the house, then headed down to the shop to sort out Gus and Hugo and for Clem to set the guys up for their day tasks.

After which we headed to the Rolling Pin for a last breakfast before heading for Oklahoma



Selection was easy.






And then we were off.

It’s always bitter sweet leaving Clem and Kim as they are the most incredible hosts, as are everyone we meet on our travels, but I do feel a special kinship or brotherhood with Clem, he is a quiet soul who is always good for my head when I am back in England at my day job.

Next stop at Mike Losh for a quick drink and catch up.

[Palf70Step]

Great coffee cup! Good looking haul you 2 are picking up.

[aggie91]

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszxobh80z.jpg

Rian, I believe those to be the cowl extension or fender emblems for a '62 Chevy C10. I believe that the '62 was the first year for the C10 designation, the '60 & '61 models where called Apache trucks.

Reproductions can be had here...
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cbe/full.aspx?Page=71


Steaks look good, and done right over a hot set of coals!

[realvc]

Yes 1962 C10 badges on the cowl.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Great coffee cup! Good looking haul you 2 are picking up.

Always the case on these trips.

Loads of what you see as trash, normal, for us is a treasure or unusual.

Originally Posted by aggie91

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...pszxobh80z.jpg

Rian, I believe those to be the cowl extension or fender emblems for a '62 Chevy C10. I believe that the '62 was the first year for the C10 designation, the '60 & '61 models where called Apache trucks.

Reproductions can be had here...
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cbe/full.aspx?Page=71


Steaks look good, and done right over a hot set of coals!

Hey Karl,

Thank you for the info.

Clem could not tell me where they were from, but I liked them a lot.

They are nicer than my 66 emblems.

Originally Posted by realvc

Yes 1962 C10 badges on the cowl.

Thank you Vince.

I do love this forum.

So much knowledge and friendship.

[Grizz1963]

Headed toward Oklahoma via Siloam Springs where we briefly stopped in to see Mike Losh of Slosh Tubz fame, having touched and cleaned under his last SEMA build truck “Boosted Bertha” we needed to at least go mess with him.





His front reception area has mellons growing and some of these too.



While we were there we forced Dennis to sit in a Right hand drive car.......

All part of the road trip experience.

It may have made him feel a bit seasick.





Back in the shop with Mike.



Drinks for the road.



Then we were all out and the post man took a photo for us.

Thanks for the license plates Mike, good to see you again.

Back on the road we looked out for junk or antique stores as we all had agendas for stuff to find.

So we stopped at a few shops, including this one.



I have been looking for a pair or a single genuine, not reproduction horse riding spur for years to hang on my mantle piece above my fire place.

In this shop there was a lovely looking pair...... there was no price, so the lady managing the shop called the seller and got a price of $50.00 and I overheard her saying to the shopkeeper that her friend had told her they were worth $500.00

This pi$$ed me off instantly as I had taken a close look and realised the leather had never worked, and they were pretty certainly lovely reproduction items.

So I walked out, still no spur(s) to hang on my wall.



Detail.




PS.

Clems garage cat.

From feral to best buddy.

[Grizz1963]

Through Tulsa we went in afternoon rush hour to Andy “Oldironfarmer” https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=334140 on his farm.

Part of the attraction was melting metal with Andy and casting hammers and trivets or other items.

We had taken some copper cable, crushed beer cans and smashed aluminium wheels for Andy to add to his stockpile of raw materials for casting.



When we got there, we were greeted by Andy, Sharon his bride and Hershey, Cali his dogs and the neighbors dog.

Then a grand tour of the treasure site.

How many people have a Caboose in their back yard.





Chevy Suburban had Craig all excited, who needs one when you can have two.





Late 1930’s Ford truck.





So many good running, original paint tractors and then some restored examples.



Then around to the forge and following that the furnace area where the melting metal and castin happens.

These two 1954 Chevys got my attention pronto.

I would be happy to have one of these in England too.




We will do a full separate, technical thread on some of Andy’s metal work as it is loaded with photos and technical data that Craig can describe more accurately


After an afternoon of Andy teaching us some of the alchemy of Sand casting and Lost Foam casting we melted loads of aluminium as well as making Alu-Bronze castings. More about this next report.

I was again volunteered to convert some of Andy’s herd of cows into 100% pure handmade beef burgers.

You really can taste the difference.






More in a while.

[Grizz1963]

So before we got to Andy, he had made up a Lost foam casting blank.

Cut out Joy’s name and added a funnel ( I am certain there is a more correct description for that)

It also gets covered in order to protect the sandy sides of the casting.



Out to the casting area.



Then into the dry sand casting bucket, covered in sand which is compacted with a pneumatic vibrator.



After preparing the foam mound, we filled the crucible with beer cans and aluminium window frame extrusions.



Using old engine oil and a leaf Blower to generate most of the heat, followed by a short blast of pure Propane gas before removing the slag and casting.





Eventually the casting is made by pouring the 1000’C red hot molten aluminium into the cast, burning away the foam, leaving only the casting.



The. Spraying it clean.



Along with some hammer heads Andy cast at the same tim.

All of these still needed trimming and cleaning up.

So all the excess material is cut off on the band daw and then hand worked and machine polished.








If you look closely, you will see the smaller indents with Joy’s name on the front face.



And another Andy Martin piece ready to be shipped out

Thank you Andy



So with the sand casting, to be discussed next, you can copy badges like these extremely closely.



Bedtime now.

Flying out of St Louis tomorrow to Philadelphia and then London.

[aggie91]

What an adventure. Safe travels home.

[Indian113]

Eve and I wish you and Craig a safe trip home and Thank You for including us in your Holiday! It was great to actually meet person to person. Later, Ray

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by aggie91

What an adventure. Safe travels home.

Thank you Karl.

The hard part will be getting back to UK time and also back to work.

Then there is the matter of gaining near 10 pounds in two weeks.......

Thanks for all the hospitality and food everywhere.

Originally Posted by Indian113

Eve and I wish you and Craig a safe trip home and Thank You for including us in your Holiday! It was great to actually meet person to person. Later, Ray

Thank you both Ray, as well as the dogs, for making us welcome and sharing your lives with us.

It was worth the travel and time to get there.

Thank you also for my sneaky gift, to be posted later.




Before we went to bed Andy and Sharon’s daughter came around with a freshly baked, still warm tray of cinnamon rolls as he expected a few more guests for the next day to cast and drool over all of his cars, tractors and trucks.
I missed out on photographing many of his various toys, both vintage and Hotrod as we were so busy in the casting and melting Department which is hugely interesting.
If you want to see more about Andy’s various toys and projects, including the cattle, animals and his Auction wins go to his thread here: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...d.php?t=334140

Unfortunately most of the guys did not make it, due to jobs, pet injuries etc.

These were exceptional



Back to casting metals.

Preparing your mould is the most important part of the job.

You build a negative of what you want, in two halves, create channels for the molten metal to run in and fill the cavity, hopefully leaving you with a final product without flaws.
Metals respond very differently to contaminants, temperature and preparation. Some take a lot more heat to get to working temperature etc.

Dennis chose to make an Alu-Bronze trivet for Deb (Debbie)

Once the negative it prepared, it goes into a half mould, gets talcum powder as releasing agent, but you have to brush the excess off to prevent dulling of the casting. It really becomes an art of preparation.
In the mean time the furnace gets fed with metal, to create the pour.

Dennis sifting the green sand over the pattern before compacting it in a three step process, followed by scrapping flat, turning over and removing the negative pattern carefully.
In this process grains of sand can make a difference in outcome.



Every letter gets removed next.

Followed by making the pouring side in a separate box with a pouring channel from the outside and spruces leading in to get an even distribution of metal.



In the mean time, Craig was working in the woodworking and foam area to create some gifts for his family (details later as his is a surprise and his family may be following the thread)

Cutting foam on a hot wire for casting.



Once fully prepped they would be put in the bucket and processed like JOY was done.



While various things happen there are more jobs to do, in order to keep enjoying the hobby.

Here we are using a pneumatic trammel to separate dirt from the casting sand so it can be used again.

Another clever Andy innovation.



The rain continued, as it had all week, but we were semi indoors, so the mosquitos and rain was less of a problem.

Some more of Andys future projects.

Interestingly, rust is not much of a problem on these older vehicles.

Having been in the oil industry, many of Andy’s vehicles came from there too.









More in a while.

[CraigRK]

Originally Posted by Indian113

Eve and I wish you and Craig a safe trip home and Thank You for including us in your Holiday! It was great to actually meet person to person. Later, Ray

Ray, it was great meeting all four of you. Thanks for your hospitality & time as well as the pointers from Eve on my continuing quest to turn the rest of my family into true bikers!!

Originally Posted by aggie91

What an adventure. Safe travels home.

Thanks, we've been having a blast, the only downside being that we are struggling to keep you guys updated, but the updates will continue as we still have 100's of photo's to work through. (not to mention a Video or two)

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

While we were there we forced Dennis to sit in a Right hand drive car.......

All part of the road trip experience.

It may have made him feel a bit seasick.

A bit of trivia for those who don't know. The mailman on this route is under contract and gets paid a mileage rate. The car is his personal vehicle. He says those people who can't afford a RHD vehicle will sit on the centre console and drive with their left foot and left hand so they can reach out the window.

He also admitted that he actually finds it strange driving his normal LHD car as he does so many miles in the Jeep.

[CraigRK]

Hi again,

Quick update from the road. We’re heading from St Louis to London via Philadelphia, so currently enjoying the delights that the Philly International Airport has the offer.

All was going well on the flight from St. Louis with us sharing 3 seats between the two of us, except as usual, Grizz just wouldn’t stop talking.

https://youtu.be/Z4D18nmwTIM


​

[Grizz1963]

Thanks for helping Craig


Sitting in Philly now, 5 hour layover.

Had pizza, drinks, and actually watched people for a while.

So while we continued to feed the crucible in the furnace, Craig made more foam cutouts.



Andy cut the channels to ensure complete filling of the stars for Alu-Bronze casting, it proves to be less than easy to work with.



Temperature check.



Alu-Bronze pour.

Surface casting.



This was the result of the pour.

Will need to be worked, but remember this metal work hardens, so would prove interesting



I started a new set of stars n steers under Andy’s watchful eye.

Cast iron originals



Placement, talcum powder.



Detail preservation



Sand fill.



Then the back and filling hole and channels get made before casting.

Resulting in this



Happy with a great result, thanks to Andy ensuring it all went smoothly, very smoothly.



With Dennis as part of the production line.





And finally you have all the pieces.

Next job would be to cut them free, then to grind and machine them back to a level where you are happy and polish them up.



VIDEOS OF CASTING.

SAND CASTING.

https://youtu.be/pqOxalF_n4k


LOST FOAM CASTING. FOLLOWED BY TWO HAMMER REVEALS.

https://youtu.be/cU6K3Ns9o3U


So now Craig has a set of ally copies of the cast Iron stars and steer head I bought in Arkansas for his place.

I have a few things I would love to make as well, including an old stool hotrodder plaque and another very special trivet for a special lady (not Joy)

.

[Grizz1963]

Of course casting is a hot job.

Andy has that sorted too.

Check out the video.

https://youtu.be/OzoUZsvYT7E

After casting pieces they need to be trimmed, a hand held electric bandsaw works wonders.



One of the many toys in the barn, shed, garage.



Craig making metal.



Resulting in......







All day the dogs helped as well.

Sweet Calli.



Calli and Hershey together.



As with all fun things, it had to end.

Before we went Andy took us all for a ride in the Show Truck.

For those who missed it the first time.

CLICK LINK.

https://youtu.be/oCNH2kPzZG0










ANDY MARTIN

THE MAN

THE LEGEND.

ON THE LICENSED, INSURED AND GREAT SHOW TRUCK.




THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FROM ALL THREE OF US FOR THE MOST AWESOME TIME SOENT WITH YOU, YOUR BRIDE AND THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY.

YOU ROCK ANDY.