GRIZZ’s English 2001 S10 Extra Cab 4.3 V6 Truck

[Grizz1963]

A few bits done and completed today.

Those side badges that so divide.

Out in the snow.



And inside the bed, the offending holes, if only the fitter had thought it through.



And finally completed,,thanks to @peteh1969 designing and @craigrk printing.

Two different styles, side badges, and a grille badge.

Painting them, still to be researched.



Also completed today, side repeaters.



And the clear glue all darkened with a black Sharpie.

Should work well, once I figure the passenger light bulb out.



.

[Grizz1963]

Wrap up for the weekend.

Snow made everything a bit indoorsy, unless you went skiing.

So I traded Steve in a straight swap for my Lexus style rear lights to go on his GMC Sonoma Flareside trailer build as I was trying to get this truck the way I wanted it, and ORM does feature in my vision.

22 year old lenses from a well used truck are far from new, but I was happy to risk it to get toward my picture.

So the lights brought home by Mate Martin last week have been waiting for their turn to get some attention.

Tired, scratched, faded,Matheus were well beyond their best before date.

As delivered.



So first step was to take a deep breath, decide that if my attempt at a ham fisted refresh were to fail, then I was up for finding or buying a new set, not cheap at around £130.00 landed, without handling costs locally.

Thought I would try out my method on one of the side repeaters I removed yesterday.

Came up OK and boosted my confidence



Back with my lenses, the first thing was to mask off the black edges. In order not to sand them as well when bringing the 1000 grit wet and dry paper, which I decided to do dry.



With trepidation I sanded the lens in a straight pattern, rather than circular which in my screwup way would make sense too.

At this point I did panic a bit, thinking that I should maybe have gone the wet route or even up to 1500grit.

After wiping it all down I realised it was too late for tears.



Next up, the flannel sleeve off a pair of pink pyjamas and some G3 compound,

Rubbing, rubbing, rubbing.

Firstly just following the sanded groove, then breaking out to a circular motion and keeping on at it, three times, followed by a dry bi[uff, then one more pass with the compound just to ensure I had not missed anywhere.



Last thing was to grab some furniture polish after removing the masking ta-e to clean the black border.

And a photo in the snow.

Though the lenses seem to have chips away, there is actually no damage or chips, just an illusion of the light outside.



After this I came in and made dinner.

Chuffed to bits I took a chance on these tired lights.

Maybe fit them tomorrow after my 1:1 consultation interview at 11.30

Fingers crossed. I have a mortgage to pay .

[Grizz1963]

Woke to this.



Later in the day after that phone call, which was just a bloody script being read out to me and letting me know that we will only know by around 25th February, I needed a bit of head space.

Out into the cold, extra jacket on.

And fitted the rear lenses.



Tested.



Also found out that these rear lenses were made and available for Brazilian models, where ambler indicator lenses are the law, like here.



Then back to some more work stuff.

By 4.30 I went out again, to fit the new clear side repeaters, each made off two different ones cut and glued together

Remember this.



Tested, colour looks fine to me.



So now with clear lenses up front, down the side and original rear lenses.



For the Eagle eyed readers, I did not force or set the repeaters as it was so cold, even the cables resisted me and were stiff as any -2’C day could induce.

Anyway, another small mod that has delivered and changed the look just a little bit.

Roll on summertime.

[Grizz1963]

So.

Weirdly, no comments from you guys tonight.

And tonight I am as chuffed as a chuffed thing could ever be.

So yesterday at 4.00pm I got to meet Thomasz at Kerbed Wheels for the first time.

My £200.00 and £10.00 for stripping the tyres, wheels were in the back of the car when I spoke to him, after watching him incognito for at least 5 minutes, without him knowing I was watching.

This guy was hitting about 4 work stations, including the powder coating room, wheel machining mill, chemical stripping tank and a mug of certainly cold tea with an amazing ease.

Stuff like this buoys my confidence.

So I asked for advice, recommendations on how to manage my wheels.

He suggested dark anthracite, based on my love of the colour, and wanting to play with the trucks colours as a match.

I spoke to him about machine faces wheels, and the varied opinions, and he made a very valid point in pointing out that the durability is often associated with wheels being damaged.

He sold the idea to me, and at £15.00 extra per wheel, compared to £30.00 per wheel elsewhere, it seemed more viable.

It’s not always about the actual money, but rather the principle.


So we carried the wheels in at about 4.00pm


He took my details and wrote up the job order.


So at £75.00 per wheel, which includes removing existing tyres, and disposing if needed, blasting, chemical stripping, powder coating, followed by machine cutting of the faces, and then refitting the tyres or new tyres, new valves and balancing, I was into these wheels for £300.00 at Kerbed Wheels.

Being the sneaky curse word that I am, I had picked up on his accent and saying “Thank you” to him in Lithuanian surprised him, making him laugh and resulted in a voluntary 10% discount offer, so £30.00 back into my pocket.

He had also quoted £10.00 per centre cap for a paint match, which I had declined to his relief.

He reckoned the wheels would be done by Monday at the latest.

Today at. 2.00pm I called him to say the new 235/60 R16 Avon ZX7 tyres that I had ordered online from Black Circles costing £262.00 delivered, would be delivered on Monday.

He was slightly surprised and told me the last wheel had just gone into the CNC machine for cutting., I did ask him for a photo of the wheel in the machine, but did not get it.

This guy works at a crazy pace.


While the centre caps were a failure today, I will redo them tomorrow and hope they come out well.

If the DIY is a failure, I will go to plan B which is paying £100.00 or $140.00 for a set of Chinese chromed plastic centre caps.




Anyone interested in what greeted me at Kerbed Wheels when I got there at 3.00 this afternoon ??


I have never spent this much money on wheels and tyres in my life and this will actually turn at £900.00 or $1260.00 ince fitted to the truck.

The way I justify it was to say the truck is in such good condition that it deserves to be treated well.



When I got there, there was also proof that they strip more than just wheels.

Vespa scooter frame.





Then on to the wheels.

Mind blown.

STARTING WITH THIS





Dark Anthracite and silver.









And with my not so sexy centre cap fitted.





I really do live these wheels and and so pleased I did nor do this myself.


Enough??

[Grizz1963]

So I got the wheels home.

Unpacked and rolled them around back.

A few random pics and my observations.

Firstly, the need a clean to remove the “glide soap” from the tyres.

Front and back. Powder coating allround. Only mounting faces left fresh n clean out the blasting cabonet.

Thomas told me the cabinet took 14 minutes to do a complete wheel.



Front side.

Note the way the light actually plays and lightens the dark Anthracite



Rear faces. Love the dark rim, great for brake dust and road grime cammo.



Also tried it with a repainted centre cap in place.



Then mocked them next to the truck.

They are quite a lot taller than the 17” Cragars. Around 45mm so a gain of 20-ish mm





All done.

Nicely stashed indoors. You dont want them to get wet now, do you ?



I must be honest I wanted to fit them but failing daylight was my excuse.


More later.

[Grizz1963]

Man in a brown van rang the doorbell.


I was made happy.





Thanks to Robert Pilgrim for selling me an original airbag leather covered steering wheel for the truck, as a standby to replace the Grant wheel fitted, originally wanted to replace it, but have got used to it now.
So it will be stashed along with some other original parts just to keep the truck as original as possible.
At £40.00 for the steering plus airbag charge, he did me a massive favour, and courier was £15.00 so a total of £55.00



Also included in the parcel was an intact top cowl for the radiator as mine is in bits, including riveted pieces to keep it together. Chuffed to bits to be able to repair this.

When my battery started to fail, I replaced it, and on removing the old unit, I realised the tray was filled with holes.
Again, Robert found me one on his outward bound steel scrap pile. FOC
This needs to be media blasted and then primed and painted.

Most importantly.......

Alongside the new wheels I bought, there were no wheel nuts.

And these trucks use a specialised wheel nut to go with the centre caps.

Look at the detail. 20 vital parts.



So threads on the outside as well,.



The plastic caps screw onto the wheel nuts, holding the centre caps in place.








Sold the 5 Cragars to a good friend last night for his 80’s Dayvan build.

Tyres, as mentioned before were great as far as tread is concerned.

Rears are good for burnouts...... @pauly is on standby.



And fronts, not really good for a jolly to the coast, are they.



Today I wanted to tint the side glass, but between the weather and the day job, all I got done was to give the stuck a decent wash, and it does like to be clean and shiny.

While washing, I noticed the exhaust tailpipe........... made me wonder if this is all one system, recalling the video @pauly made the day I departed in it.





https://youtu.be/ZppLk-f7nBs


Also did another small job today.

More later.