GRIZZ’s English 2001 S10 Extra Cab 4.3 V6 Truck

[Grizz1963]

Hi Bill,

We saw it from a distance iirc, but these days on road trips are so full on and busy, one cannot enjoy it all.



Day started overcast and “fresh”

By 10.45 @@forddan68 and Daughter Amy were here, bringing along @pauly ‘s vintage 20 liter “Jerry Can”

So coffee, chatting, catch up, spleen venting all done, we decided to drive a mile up the road into some farm lanes for a few Ford v Chev pics.

Random photodump.



And then we headed out.

At this point we took a couple of random pics.

As we were headed out again, it appears poor Dan had sat down on a wasp that had entered his car.

Not sure who felt it more, Dan or the Wasp.



Note the name of the lane, it is bad enough Kent is known as the capital of dogging or is that dog walking?













Lastly, Dan and son George were breaking a Mk6 Fiesta, and just happened to have a spare door rubbing strip that “went missing” when Sally’s son had his car repaired, and to this day, 6 months later the strip is missing.
Not really impressive, but thanks to Dan, there is a new one on standby.



Back home it was time to unpack the box of GMC spares that Steve had sent with Craig a few weeks ago.

Then some light woodwork.

[Grizz1963]

Very slow day at the bootfair.



Best part may have been unused, enamel lamp shade for £1.00
Another star for a newly hatched plan, 50p
Little stuffed heart, unused, £1.00
Two wind up Coke items for @craigrk for £1.50
Florida vanity plate off a 50p per item table



Also seen at the bootfair was this VW on Bentley wheels.



And a meat deterrent at a guy with a load of cammo and military stuff for sale.

I did not ask the price, as it would be expensive and of course in England every jobsworth and his aunty would poop themselves if I had it on display somewhere.

Just in case I held up a kid for his sandwiches.





And in Missouri Dennis sold the 1963 GMC Grain truck he bought as yard art 5 years ago for $800.00

He reckons he could have sold it 20 times over with the response he got, and had people offering over his asking price, just to be able to get to it.

He drove the truck there 5 years ago and only moved it when mowing the grass around the pond.

With the wet season last year, and living under a tree, it did start to grow some green algae/moss.



Loaded



Headed out of the bottom pasture.



And headed to its new home, passing the gas station and some more trucks........



Today should be a resting day for me.....

What can I go out and do?

[Grizz1963]

I trust some or most of you remember Chris “GrumpyNorthener”

He knows I am a bit of a random hoarder and collector of ****te.

And sent me a V8 hubcap he found in a hedge, years ago.

It hung inside my house on the wall for some time, then I moved it out into the garden, and hung it in a tree, just under one of my nesting boxes, with the birds often sitting there interacting with their reflection.

A week ago, the wind, or growing ivy pushed it out and I found it on the floor.



So I decided not to put it back in the tree, but rather to evolve it further.

Scavenged some old ply that had gone well past it’s “best by date”



Drew a design, then cut it out without breaking a jigsaw blade, followed by sanding the rough edges back.



Then a coat of PVA glue on all sides to help seal it and also keep the delaminating at bay.

Followed by some white paint as a background.



Next up.....

Flames





Add some gold.



And once dried, a bit of sharpie detail, which I may increase a bit more.

Keep in mind this is a rough wall hanging for the carport.



One of the recurrent flowers in the garden is this Peoni a d it only looks great for a few days, but I do love it.



One more pic sent by Dan which I actually liked too.



And just like that, back to work.......

Busy week ahead.

[Palf70Step]

Nice job on the hubcap mount. The Azaleas are the same way. They look good only for a VERY short while. Other than that, they are a pain in my backside. Wife likes them though, so oh well. We've gotten over 12-13 inches of rain in last 4-5 days. I don't feel my yard and flower beds will ever dry out to work on it again.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice job on the hubcap mount. The Azaleas are the same way. They look good only for a VERY short while. Other than that, they are a pain in my backside. Wife likes them though, so oh well. We've gotten over 12-13 inches of rain in last 4-5 days. I don't feel my yard and flower beds will ever dry out to work on it again.

Dennis in Missouri is having a real rain problem too.

The hubcap came out just as I wanted, a bit of folk art a bit of silliness.

Originally Posted by LT7A

Your boot fairs are neat. We don't really have the equivalent. Similar to what we call a flea market, but less structured. I like the little front garden area of your house. Good work with all the hedge trimming. That's a really neat old GMC. Looks to me like more than $800 worth of rig. Might be a giant old V6 torque monster motor in there.

Bootfairs are not everyones thing, but I love saving money. And they allow that.

I personally love the fact that there is very little space to the front, enough for three European size cars, mine is a Ford Focus Estate (not available in USA ) but VW Golf etc.
Then a narrow side entrance and all the space, private, and to the rear.

Dennis could have more a lot more from that GMC but he is a fair guy.


You would park a GMC Dually on the right side of my car, with its rear, just off the street.

A weird thing in this country, I own the sidewalk up to the kerb as well, as I have maintained it over 7 years, and the local council/municipality do zero around here.

A lot of neighbours, including Mickey next door, concrete, or block pave their sidewalk to increase hard standing parking.

I prefer green and grass.





Sally caught me extending my extension cord on Sunday.

I did try to explain that all the joins were stripped, twisted, soldered, heat shrunk, insulation taped, then folded back gently in an S and then ducktape over it all.

It was as safe and secure as I need it to be.

[Palf70Step]

The diagonal one shows up better. Normally my background would always say "full flag", but the partial tends to show up better.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

The diagonal one shows up better. Normally my background would always say "full flag", but the partial tends to show up better.

Thank you buddy


Done.





Happy

[Grizz1963]

Three parcels in the post today.

A nice Union Jack snoody thing for shopping.

A parcel from Michigan containing traded license plates and some cool stickers.



And a fascinating and ultimately mind blowing parcel addressed tus:



Contents to be revealed later.

Now to figure out who sent it.


.

[Grizz1963]

So back to the random acts of kindness that crosses our paths daily.

Once I opened the parcel, it turned out that the contents put a big grin on my face.

Made in Japan, it does need a head.

I tried fitting some new batteries, and tried the power and siren buttons, none worked.






So, who was the benefactor?

Fil who did all the hard work, driving to fetch the Rezin Rockit for me was the man.



Once again, I can say that life is good.

[Grizz1963]

Well, sweltering heat this week, followed by a lot of rain.

Woken at 2.30am on Friday with some water dripping furiously outside my bedroom……. Rain was hammering down outside.

Found this…….



Put out some plastic buckets and towels and kinda went back to sleep.


Up by 5.30 when the first lodger got up and started opening and closing doors, he is not good at just leaving his bedroom door open when he goes to pee and when in the bathroom, the door has to be shut noisily and locked every time. Seriously.

Greeted by a load of plaster on the floor and bucket half full of water.






So I cleaned up the mess as much as I could and did some day job work.

Later I called One Call Insurance (underwritten by Legal and General) and was told that there were no storms reported in the area, somI could not get any “emergency response “ to secure the roof or inspect what had caused the leak.
I was put on to hold on for a different department, eventually the phone was answered by some random person, who took my details, to be called back later.
24 hours later I am still waiting for a call back.

Later I went to ask Mickey if I could use his extending ladders, and he said no……
He would come and go up instead of me, as he did not want to call the ambulance if I landed on my head.

Typically, he came at about 1.00pm just about the time I get ready to go to my weekly osteopath appointment.

Up he went and the reply was that there were broken tiles and a load of moss in the gulley of the roof.



So he came down, we got 4 spare tiles stolen from Stuarts pile two houses down’s stock for his extension build.

Tiles went up, then a bucket, grinder extension cord and Mickey.

I had to leave, filled with fear that he was working alone up there.





When I got back the ladder and tools were gone, and Mickey was sitting inside my place, waiting for his cuppa tea.

He said he had removed a half bucket of moss from the gulley, and replaced 4 tiles.



Wet and dirty Mickey. Also happy with some pocket money he gets to earn.




So after that it rained hard a few more times and overnight, not a drop of rain inside.


In the mean time I wonder if the insurance company will actually make contact with me……..


Or do I just get on with having the repairs done and get on with my life.

[Palf70Step]

Those will look great framed up Rian!

[Just call me Sean]

Yea those are cool.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Those will look great framed up Rian!

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

Yea those are cool.

Thanks guys.

It will be good once done.




Sunday was a good day to spend tome with wanted to make gifts for her three best friends.

Blue Tit nesting “boxes”

I have two nesting boxes that have breeding pairs returning every year.

These are obviously not boxes in the traditional sense, but they should attract birds.

I made her do some of the helping, which really did pi$$ her off a bit, especially when my camera comes out, she hates cameras.

Also she does not have the technique or force to drive those screws into the oak that I used, despite pilot holes being drilled.

So I calculated, measured and cut for three boxes and then assembled them one at a time.




The tea pots were getting glued down with some special magical glue.




Different sizes, as thats how you buy from the bootfair, they come at around £2.00 each.



Progress.



Lids glues down on the front porches.

The front doors need to be painted pastel colours after gluing into place





Sunday evening @glenanderson popped in to drop off some signs from @forkliftfred and the front screen from his Land Rover.

Glen took the screen I got last week and went home as it was raining and his day had been a long one.



Screen for the Rezin Rockit



Weekend suddenly over again.

[Palf70Step]

Never saw a teapot used as a bird house before. Kinda neat!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Never saw a teapot used as a bird house before. Kinda neat!

Thanks

Birds don’t care.




Remember that spoiler I bought a few weeks ago?

A random pic sent to my by a friend.


Tongue in cheek.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@boom666" source="/post/2685508/thread" timestamp="1625271808"]this is different . https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184915859....c101198.m1985[/quote]


Ebay seller may be hoping for a sale.

I like that.

At £2k it is a touch steep for me, but unique enough.

Chassis is a 1971 and of course being a Q plate does not bother me.

MOT expired 2006 which is a long time ago.

Mine expired at an unknown date, first registered 1991


I think this one could be a Filipino kit, imported and fitted to a Q plated chassis.

But hey….. what do I know.




.

[Grizz1963]

Well guess the date 🇺🇸

Yup 4th of July. Again.🇺🇸🇺🇸

American Birthday-ish.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

So as I have this whole American thing and a load of good friends over there…..🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸


Happy Independence Day.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸


🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

🇺🇸 Old




🇺🇸 New.




Raining here now.

Not ideal.

[Grizz1963]

Busy weekend, working on the arch over the driveway.

Because of my back, progress is slow, but amazingly, the amount of work I did on Saturday and Sunday was way more than any day in the last three months.

Osteopath and gentle exercise by walking 2km most days, seems to have allowed some recovery.

I will do the archway write up in one when it is completed. I have one more piece to build and mount, along with the day job.

Saturday Sally painted the nesting teapot doors, a nice shade of yellow.



Resulting in a nice finish after she waxed all the wood twice with a nice beeswax based wood treatment.

Her friends should be happy.

You will note that one is missing a lid.

Sunday bootfair it was on the list of stuff to find, a lid.




Sunday bootfair was minimal, possibly 15% of its usual size, due to threatening rain.


I only got to spend £2.20

20p for a broken sugar bowl, which donated its lid for box no 3

And £1.00 each for a bag of steel wire staples, and yes, we still use them.

Also a bag of random sized split pins for £1.00 which was great, gain as our older cars, especially American stuff, still uses split pins.



Happy with the result of the 20p lid.



Also went out in the truck to go looking for some cement, but two hardware stores had zero stock.

Imdid manage to spend £168.00 on a large electrical pressure cleaner.

If it lasts s well as the last one did, I will be very happy.







Created a nice obstruction to pi$$ off speeding freaks that do 50+ mph in the 30 zone in front of my place, a small win.

Before reversing the truck back down the drive.




And suddenly the weekend was over again.

But pleased with what I got done.

And driving the truck.

[Palf70Step]

The arch came out great looking Rian.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

The arch came out great looking Rian.

Thanks Bill,

It came out pretty much as I imagined it to be.




One for Craig, along with the Coke trucks and a small beach buggy.

He is a VW aircooled and Coke guy of course.



A nice carved wooden cat for mate Kevins new courtyard garden



And for myself a set of license plates for my collection.

No idea where they are from.



So total haul included.

Wooden picture frame, unused £1.00
Wooden blue star £1.00
Wooden carved cat £2.50
60’s Beach Buggy £4.00
Three toy cars £1.00
4 teapots, to be used as Blue Tit nests £1.00 each
vintage Porcelain bathroom light pull £3.00
License plates £2.00 of both.
Three Poppy scarves unused, for £1.00
Half a box of gutter bolts for a cart iron bench build £2.50




The rest of today was spent clearing out the carport, followed by sorting out Mickeys and my communal lumber into size, type and length, clearing the shared alleyway about 80%

There are still two pallets worth of aerated breeze blocks that we need to find a new home for in the alleyway though.

Once done, I want to build some decent shelving and support doe all the wood to be stored, giving me back the carport for the Rezin Rockit build.

Decent weekend, almost over.

[Grizz1963]

Some of you may remember the gokart chassis I bought a while ago.

Barstool racer is the objective

Not shortened as is traditional but full length with a small pickup bed over the motor.

So how many horses should I look for in a motor.

No need to be a rip snorting turbo NOS driven nutter mobile.

But needs to be reasonably capable of drawing around 150kg around a field.


I see Briggs and Stratton motors on rotovators with 3.5 hp and bigger on other stuff.


Go on…….


Don’t kill me.

[Just call me Sean]

If you'll be using a centrifugal clutch I would recommend at least 5 horsepower. Especially if using off pavement.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Just call me Sean

If you'll be using a centrifugal clutch I would recommend at least 5 horsepower. Especially if using off pavement.

A pitbike with auto/centrifugal clutch has now come into possible play as well.




Up at 05.00 (old age, sore body, restless mind) showered, shaved, mug of tea, quick scan of internet etc.

Down at the bootfair by 6.15 and field was already full, with the line down the side of the exit route being filled with vendors.

Actually not a lot for me, but still had a nice few hours and home before 09.00 for brekkie.



Total haul.

Smalls.



Glazed plant pot £2.00
3/4 of 12 liter fence paint £3.00 and a nice chat.
Firemans helmet, unused, with working speaker £1.00
Another teapot £1.00
Aluminium drain downpipe corner and a gate slider £2.00
King Dick 50p
Metal sign 50p for shed.
4x VW Beetle/Baja’s £1.00
Union Jack Mini - Free
Small tools all for £2.00 from nice seller with teapot.
Includes Oil filter chain spanner, vintage pliers, multi-tool for closed boxes, two very flat spanners, two beautiful vintage drill bits, rawlplug tool (punch) 3 micro drillbits, 2x tyre pressure gauges.

So that was the haul, not big but nice to be out and the fence paint alone makes up for the rest.


More random reports later.

Hot out today.

[Grizz1963]

Monday morning.

Yesterday was a hot one. I cut my one side hedge and half of Mickeys yesterday. Not clever on a hot day, but needed to get it done.


The last week had been a flurry of random, but focussed action.

Lucky the Chevy truck is patient and loyal.

Loads happening, nothing related to the C10 though.

And it may be a while still.

However, after my back really screwing my life up for a year and stopping all progress on all projects, it seems to be on the mend very slowly.

It will not heal in the conventional way, but with a bit of clever use of planning, leverage etc, it is allowing me to do some stuff.

The Rezin Rockit, GoKart and a few other things are all awaiting their turn.

As is usual here, my first stop when restarting my life, is to take stock of stuff.

So a clear up and clear out was in order.

The scooter I got from Craig in 2019 found a new name on its V5c when I gave that away.

Followed by clearing out two pallets of breeze blocks, given to mate Neil. Amazing how fast stuff moves when you give it away.




So on Tuesday Neil came with his Transit van and his 13 year old grandson, to whom I had offered the Italjet Scooter. Harley had thought it over and decided he would rather build a car for when he is 17 which is a wise move. So the scooter went onto FB Marketplace and was gone, collected and ownership changed in less than an hour.

We loaded all the blocks in.

As far as it could go, so Harley and I carried the blocks through, and Neil packed them, his back is also knackered.

Nearly 150 of them.




I tried to make him take some more stuff but he declined mHarley took a very good office chair that was surplus for his own bedroom.

Walking around looking at the C10 and other stuff, Neil asked what next, so I said a new pair of fenders needed to be bought and imported……

He looked at the old ones, blasted and primed and said that if I got some patch panels, he would give them a go at repairing.

Of course I had the panels and rear supports for years.

So as a “Favour Trade” he took the fenders away and will be welding them up for me.





Pretty good result, even though not planned at all, life has it’s own way of keeping the books balanced I guess.

Next job was clearing more of the alleyway in order to build some storage space for all the lumber in the carport.

New pressure washer worked well, I cleaned the walls (they are not sealed against the garage wall, and a leak in the gutter, blus some weather and rain getting through there, plus all rain off the garage and carport actually flowing down the alleyway and out the back to the farm had left moss on the walls on both sides, of course the spray ends up on the roofing too, so I ended up cleaning all four sides of the alleyway

These plus more needed to be processed.



Before cleaning on Tuesday evening after work



After.

I also discovered 5 sheets of nasty/cheap Chinese packing crate ply, all badly rotten on the bottom edge, so stripped all the rot back with the pressure cleaner, as well as both the front and rears.

Then let it all dry, and cut the sheets down to remove the rot, as they had a job waiting too.



I took Friday as a leave day in order for Mickey and I to be able to knock out the shelving and racks.

Starting at 8.30 we worked nonstop, just grabbing tea and sodas through the day, finishing by 4.30pm

This included feeding a 45 gallon drum incinerator all day with so much of the offcast bits, and wood found to be damaged over the years.

I also have a havit of using the worst bits first and then the better. Mickey loves using the bigger longer, pretty bits, so it was bit of a job to stop him grabbing the best bits first, but he got my motivation quickly enough.

These upright posts are around £10.00 each if you buy them, they came from a deck that was lifted and you can see, undamaged, the rest if the wood, likewise.

We used a load of turbo screws, and the 120mm hex head decking screws used in the heavy stuff was all rescued from the deck that was dismantled by Mick.

So a lot of this between us, and with multiple tools, we could both measure, cut and fit.









Two cement mixers tucked into their custom space.

All the shelving was planned around the mixers that are bulky and also an aluminium table frame Mick wanted to incorporate as another dry working space outside, as it saves on getting the driveway/garage/carport full of dust and sawdust.

So this was Friday afternoon 4.30 and Mick was off to the pub for a well deserved pint.




Saturday morning by 08.00, Sally was here and the three of us started packing the wood from the carport into the racks and shelves.

I have an ability to visualise and calculate in space, which neither Mickey nor Sally can do, and in fact she was stressing.

By 11.00 all the wood, some steel etc was out of the carport.



Mick was already working at the table making a trellis for his sunny corner at the house.

Made me grin that he was straight onto using the work table, which has 45mm planks and a sheet of ply on it.

Packed.



And the carport filled with toys that all need motors and transmissions found and fitted






.

[Palf70Step]

Nice work by ya'll. That really straightened things up. I'm still trying to get things in between all the rains down here, which has not been very successful. I guess my plants and their fellow weeds have plenty of fluids to keep them going.