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

[realvc]

You're one hard working man. The van is working out like you wanted as a hauler of skip finds and other objects as needed for yard, home and truck updates.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by realvc

You're one hard working man. The van is working out like you wanted as a hauler of skip finds and other objects as needed for yard, home and truck updates.

Hi Vince,

Thank you for posting up.

Of course I am watching your build all the way too.

The jobs happening right now are all part of the process of my head getting back to where it needs to be.

Hard working to me is more about just needing to keep busy.

Tonight I called a halt at 7pm and came in, not a common thing, but sometmes a rest is a good thing too.

Looking forward to getting the Shed project wrapped up, and then of course the shed filled, and garage emptied so that I can start on the truck again.

[Grizz1963]

More photos of the original progress on Prozac.

Base layer mocked up.



Fitted.



Then of course came the time to start working on the final look planned for the car.



Numbers custom cut for the Berlingo doors by Dennis.

I think he had as much fun as I did up to this point.





Miss Katy had come over to help as well, one needs to have an octopus like reach, and with the wind blowing one needed reflexes of a whippet to get them down right.



At this point, I actually loved the look.

But of course we were on a mission.

To create a dummy NASCAR support vehicle.

All tongue firmly in cheek.



We then had lunch while the wind pumped away.

The next session would be easier, but also challenging as I needed to get the look right, using real trucks to get the placement right.

More in a bit.

[Grizz1963]

Once all the grafix and stickers were stuck, it was out to the farm for some photos.









Top view



And of course the full length fabric sunroo, alwaysva joynto operate.



One of the other ballache jobs to do was to replace the broken brake bias valve spring.

At £22.00 it's a rip off but needed part.



Old vs New.



Of course to fit it you need pencil thin fingers and long too, bit like an alien, to get into the available space.



Took me an hour I guess, incl removing the spare wheel etc, and refitting.

Still, it's done.... one more box ticked for MOT time.



Also finally finished the rear end.




May be almost up to date on the van.

But more to go.

Thanks Photophukkit.

[ibrown50]

Read this again, that little van still makes me chuckle

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Read this again, that little van still makes me chuckle

And that's what it's all about.

Well, that and doing all sorts of odd jobs Ian, along with getting me back on track.


I mentioned Kevin coming over.

Saturday of Easter weekend, early morning with his long VW van.

Loads of reclaimed timber, 3x3 posts from crates.

Also four met posts I bought off him for the same he paid as he was not going to use them.

Kevin had also agreed to come spend a few hours here, helping me break the back on this big dig out.

So we moved a lot of soil, some for top dressing the lawn, which ultimately I reused to raise the level under the pavers that were going into the shed.

Unfortunately I took no photos through the morning we worked as time was limited.

So once he went off to rejoin his family, I carried on levelling out the soil.

Preparation is as always one of the most important things to do.



Pavers and posts in place.





Saturday morning I was up by 05.00 and in the garden moving stuff around before 06.00 got to say I love summer.

I had some bricks to lay before going over to Katy's place. And to me time is precious, so get stuff done..... soonest.



I am using a solid lower level all the way around.

Kevin was also able to get me some railway sleepers that I am planning to use as the bottom of the shed, preventing the usual rot for a few years longer than regular pine.



Once I had laid the bricks, I watered down, but added some cement powder to the left over and then spread it with a yard broom just to get all the slabs the same colour.

Happy with the result too.



Weekends away from home frustrate me as I know how much work is still there, but as usual I guess there are times when doing nothing is the right thing.

So Katy and I ended up in Eastbourne.

Fish and chips, walk on the esplanade, ice cream and of course collecting holes rocks to string up under my tree.



Happy girl, exactly the opposite to not progressing with my build.

Still.....

[Palf70Step]

The yard/shed project is moving along very nicely Rian. Yeah, every so often we need to break out and do what the lady wants. Our chores will ALWAYS be there.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

The yard/shed project is moving along very nicely Rian. Yeah, every so often we need to break out and do what the lady wants. Our chores will ALWAYS be there.

Some stuff just needs to be done.

Working solo unfortunately means progress is a bit slower.


Summer is here.

I may have mentioned it.

But that does not stop the rain from waiting to exactly the time you need to work to start opening up.

My one neighbour has a Toyota van that I have a spare set of keys to and 24/7 access and use to, as long as the diesel levels stay the same. Pretty good deal ehhh??

Anyways, last week I managed to get a day that was convenient for Andy who I bought Prozacs wheels from to pop over after work in the evening, but the Toyota was unavailable, plus the wood I was collecting for the shed build mostly was 2.4 meter lengths, so Toyota would not work.
So Stuart said take the Citroen van, long wheelbase, high roof......

Of course on the way there it started to rain, escalating while we were loading.

What a great van to drive, it really shunts.



Photos need to be taken.

Andy thankfully helped, so it went quite fast.



I suspect he was happy for the wood to leave his property after languishing in a corner for years.
He had planned on building a shed from these recycled 1 inch planks, but he ended up buying a large built shed and having it installed as workshop.



Loaded.

Deceptively large interior on the van, and full 8 foot plus flooor.



Headed home and was back home by 7pm

Reversed down my drive, mirrors tucked in and actually had to weave the van around the concrete fence posts as it would not go straight through.


Down to the bottom of the garden to unload and create even more of a hoard pile.



Unpacking on my own, the keen of eye amongst you will see if you look carefully....... Imhad a helper. Can you see her yet?

Yup...... HARLEY.




Some more of the loose planks on the other side, and the upright posts were some of what Kevin had brought over at Easter.

And of course the pile of stuff behind it, part of the reason I am building this shed.

The £40.00 caravan/shed also filled with "stuff"

I do pity the person who has to sort out my estate.



Once unloaded I really did worry about getting the van out again, it was a very tight fit coming in, and getting out is more difficult in my book.

Remembered to stop and take a pic of the gap.

The Citroen is certainly wider than the Sprinter vans I have reversed down there, and the car trailer and Teardrop previously.

Still, made it out and returned the van to Stuart.

Cost formdiese, well what I put in for the 30 mile trip was £30.00 so wood still a bargain, and Andy threw in some left over roofing felt, you know, to cover that last 18 inches you do not want to go buy a whole new roll for.


Photo is slightly confusing, but you can see the gap down the side of the van.



Other than the short pieces, these planks are attached to each other in 3 or 4 plank strips with pallet nails, hit in from both sides at angles, so not fun to dismantle.



When unpacked I thought I would just measure up and mock up the roof frame to see what I had to work with.

Of course the tools came out and I ended up adding a bit more to the frame.




More later on further progress.


It's also weekend...... well, after work today.

[Grizz1963]

Insomnia sucks, as does snoring, especially when it is not you snoring..... cue 04.15

Followed by a cat in bed around the same time, looking for a cuddle, while purring loudly, so snores one side, and Harley the other, so cuppa tea, feed cat and surf web downstairs.

At 05.15 on cue the lodgers came in from their night shift, a pair of brothers, twins and at age 68 they look more like 58 and behave like men much younger than that. Geordies...... so great to have booked into Casa Grizz for three days, money to the mortgage again. Quiet as mice, they along with the previous two, have been an absolute pleasure to have around. Long may it continue.

Back to the shed build.

I have tried to just get a couple of hours in every night after work till dark, so averaged around 2 hrs a night.

Having bought a few boxes of "50mm and 100mm length quick screws, and some new driver bits the costs of the project were still silly low. I may do an inventory of costs later.

I have to say, the right tools and equipment makes a big difference on progress, and being a solo job, it helps for sure.



After that main framework was up, I decided to continue with the roof.

With all of Andy's planks, it also meant I had enough planks to create the roof, and save a further £66.00 that two sheets of decent ply would cost me, as I could not find used hoarding to buy anywhere.

Laid them out.



My last circular saw had eventually given up the ghost the night I did the framework for the roof and I completed the cuts with a handsaw and my trusty B&Q cheapest brand jigsaw, which I have managed to now drop on its face, bending its foot to the extent that corrective surgery was needed with a large garage ball pein hammer, accuracy now certainly not guaranteed, but it cuts.

So I popped into Screwfix for a second time to get more screws to replace the ones I stole off Mickeys work bench and bought a cheap circular saw. At £55.00 it was bought purely on spec, decent power, a soft start trigger and 190mm adjustable blade.



So on Wednesday evening after work I fitted the roof and also painted the rough cut timber inside of it.......

You may ask me why, and hopefully the reply will make sense.

Light reflection.



Keep in mind that the roof is getting felted in the end when you notice the gaps.



Who remembers the size of the footprint of the shed??

Remember the reasons for it being weird shaped?

Yes, my tree had a lotto dowith it, as did the free door I found in the GP surgery skip, and then of course the fact I am greedy and thought a couple of extra square feet in space sounded good.

I had not considered for a moment that all this would result in nothing being straight.

This included the roof.

BUGGGERRRRRRR...!!!!!!!!!!

Can you see the mistake?

Well, not a mistake, because any way you cut it, there would be an odd shaped wall or roof angle.



But by the time I realised it, it was too late and almost dark.

So I showered and went to bed, having shared a few pics with the likes of mates Martin, Kevin, CraigRK and Ta2Don and Dennis in Saint Louis.

Sadly, most of them suffer from varying degrees of OCD and had to state that it was just not right........ "You gotta fix it man"

I was working in London for the day on Thursday, so by the time I was on the 07.24 train a plan had hatched, and I could address it at least partly.

I walked from Charing Cross to St Thomas' Hospital, and again felt privileged for the random stuff I get to see.





Small shipping container coffee shop.



Your doctors transport?



So Thursday evening I went back to basics, and it made me smile once I had gotten on with it.

Back in a while to update.

[flashed]

I think the shed looks fine ,I would leave it alone .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

I think the shed looks fine ,I would leave it alone .

Oooopps.....!!

So all day I walked around with the ideas spinning around in my head.

Odd curved roof ??

Or

Wall with two distinctly different heights?

Got home, did some admin, then out to the garden.

Simple solution really.......




Closer up.



So I decided to raise the roof and change the shape of the wall.

Much easier on my OCD.

There......

Much better





Next up, start making up the walls, rear wall first.



Two piles of wood became one.

Good result for after hours working.



So there you go.

Roof sorted, I could sleep a bit better.

More later for those of you following this build process.

[Grizz1963]

Friday came and went, uneventfully, except for a pair of lodgers, twins arriving to stay for a few days.

I had arranged with Kevin who had arranged for 15 railway sleepers or ties in American, to be delivered to his place to drive over at 06.45 on Saturday to help him load 5 plus two for my shed build.

When we had loaded them into his van, it seemed a great idea to cart the rest around his house by about 300 degrees, and carry them into his upper garden, remember the patio we built there last year? Same place. The old paving slabs were now being used in my shed build.

Once that was done we came back over to my place, Prozac in the lead...... filled with more wood from Kevin's place and glass.

I had already been to a local double glazing place earlier on, on my way to Kevin's place and picked up some old windows.





Five good and very solid sleepers unloaded and stacked.



Remember the plus 2

They were rotted, one was already used as a retainer, and this one will be used as a planter for alpine.



Then onto measure, cut, fit, repeat.

Getting all the sleepers cut and fitted to act as a foundation to the rest of the shed walls.



After a few hours, this was all that was left over.

The new circular saw was certainly earning its keep.



And a bucket load of sawdust and chippins and rebated bits.



I had also decided to use three courses against the soil wall Kevin and I had dug out over Easter weekend.

Happy with that result too.




Next up was coffee and digestives, the constant pace and few bad nights of little sleep plus the sheer weight of working the sleepers alone was catching up.

Still, it was progressing faster than anticipated.

More in a bit.

[Palf70Step]

You a wood workin genius in my world Rian. Nice fix on the shed and how all the pieces are blending together.

[Grizz1963]

Thanks Bill

I actually finished it yesterday afternoon by 3pm The updates are two days behind.

Tools were packed away and all the wood I still have was "repacked" on the other side of the drive, I do love like it tidy at the end of every day.

Still have to build all the shelves, hooks and storage space inside, hang the 6 foot double strip light Mickey brought around and then pack it all and clear my piles of stuff in the garage and on the drive so that I can get started on my truck.

But first the white paint on all the walls inside and wood preserver outside needs to dry and last job on the build is felting the roof of the new and old sheds, but Mickey will be helping on that as he weighs as much as a loaf of bread and can do the top section.

But today I think it's time to relax a bit.

Maybe take Katy to Whitstable in the little van.

Headed to a bootfair in 20 minutes.

[Grizz1963]

So, to carry on with this sheds build report.

After the sleepers went in, I started to measure, cut, measure cut, measure cut and repeat, repeat repeat the front wall wood.

Then prepped the windows, which meant grinder out and remove the side opening mechanisms to leave just the glass and plastic frames.

Fitted in just to get perspective.





Sides in, frames screwed down through the inside of the frames.





Plan was to work with the older shed in place, something that can be done, but it seemed easier to drop the shed on its face.

Like this.



Then I realised that the one floor support was rotten out.



Quickly did some repairs and fitted a new support, then added some skids for it to sit on top of on the paving slabs.

Did not realise that I assembled this in 2007 when I still had the Taunus Transit.



The sides went up easier, and measure, cut fit was getting on good.



This brought me to the end of Saturday, knackered too.

Shut shop around 7pm and came in to shower etc.



Small window on the side is for light and also to see up to the house if one ever made or built anything in there.



Came in and relaxed with a drink and Katy cooked us dinner as the lodgers had gone to work.


Whatcha think so far ??

More in a while.

[flashed]

Looks good .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks good .

Even had me smiling at this point.

I am a reasonably hard taskmaster on my own work.

It came together as well as I could have wished for.



Went to bed at midnight, and unfortunately up by 05.00 with a cat and a snorer.

So by 06.00 cuppa tea number two, thread updates and then out.

By 07.00 it was onto the brushes.....

I was using anything I had on the shelf in the garage, all solvent based wood paint/preservers. And liked the darkness of it.





As usual, my helper was around my feet all the time.

I am always amazed at how she loves he garage, tools and just being right there where people are.



Masking up the windows meant I could go faster with the brush.





Gloves had worn through by now, so a pair of rubber gloves kept my hands clean.



While I painted the side and front wall, plus my door on both sides, Katy had done my ironing (Thank you very much) and then came to offer more help......

So I stuck her in an overall, beanie hat and some safety glasses joined by rubber gloves and shoved a large brush in her hands, stool to stand on and stand for the bucket of paint......

She got into it and saved me a lot of time as well.



At some point she went to make us lunch, 4 boiled eggs and toast for me and somewhat less for herself.
At the same time Mickey came around to borrow my grinder with a diamond blade to finish a job, but he also ended up with half my lunch and a cuppa tea.

After lunch I had one more wall to do, the one on the garage side of the shed.

Saved the worst one for last.

Not that clever ehhh?

[Palf70Step]

That is looking good, especially being built from leftovers.

Good job Rian!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That is looking good, especially being built from leftovers.

Good job Rian!

Thanks Bill.

That's what gives me a buzz, creating and using repurposed materials.


After lunch on Sunday, I really needed to push it as hard as I could, despite starting to feel how unfit I am.

This was the last wall to be done, with plants against it, and of course quite a lot higher than the rest of the shed.



After quite a bit of measure cut, fit it was done.



At this point the second coat on the front and one on the side went on, the door got coats number two and three.

I also then boxed in the sleeper on the side and put a shelf on top, followed by more paint, to get it all nice and reflectively white.



I had promised the twins, lodgers a good South African BBQ or Braai as we wanted to get some meat burned for dinner.
So finishing by 3pm was the target, and getting tools packed away, a shave and shower and then off to the shops to get meat......
Got there by 15.55 and of course they were closing as it was a long weekend.
So we popped over to Co-Op and got what we needed, plus a 10% staff discount. Perfect.

Back home it was action stations, fire, then sacrifice the animal products and dinner,

I popped out behind my garage to fetch some wood for the BBQ and saw that my Bootfair Fig tree planted last year or the year before, had four healthy figs. My apple and pear trees both have been yielding good volumes a few years now.

Figtree.



Then took some last photos of the shed for the day to post up.

The last job on the build to be done is the roof of the new shed, and a renewal of my 10 year old shed.

Then of course shelves etc and pack it full of stuff.



Happy with the end result.



Today was a slow day, I went to a small bootfair, bought two large boxes of 50mm and 80 mm woodscrews for £2.50 each. (Bargain) And some fruit and vegetables.

Later Katy and I were headed out to the Sweeps Festival at Rochester, but nearing it, there was a downpour, so we carried on to B&Q to get some rolls of roofing felt and two tubs of shed and wood preserver.

Good help is hard to find.



Afterwards we came home, relaxed and I had dinner made for me.

Long weekend over.......

Few more tasks, but very happy with this shed.

It turned out even better than I had planned.

[Grizz1963]

Came home and spent some time sealing the gaps between the planks, sleepers etc with £24.00's worth of Silicone in white and dark brown. That's 8 tubes

Helped by Harley as is the norm.



After that I decided to make the cap for the roof where the two levels come together.
Screwing down the donor plank onto the two sleeper offcuts and hitting the saw at 45 degrees, it makes short work of getting on with stuff.



I also started to make the scalloped facia boards that need to go on once the roofing felt is fitted.





And that is about it for today.

Other than the fact that I found a slalom ski dumped by the roadside for a friends son to fit to his car as part of the stuff that goes on a roof rack, as is de rigeur for many youngsters in the car scene. Thread here: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...ges-estate-mk6




Always nice to find stuff about.

[Grizz1963]

Had a couple of visitors after work today.

Came in this Chariot......

Build thread here: http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...ges-estate-mk6



And in the flesh I really like this car.

For a young man who has not even started to drive, he has a good vision of what he wants his car to look like.

Some of the additions are perfectly scene, but it is all subtle, and not overdone.

They also brought me a massively cool gift.

Two license plates and both rare in my book.

But the Cuba plate....... right outta the park !!

I have wanted to go to Cuba for years, so this is even more cool for that reason as it delivers.



Really good to see you Dan and George, and of course the little Rottweiler in the car ()

[flashed]

Those are cool .

[Palf70Step]

[Grizz1963]

Thanks Bill, John.

More done after work.






Mickeys side.







Facias need paint and fitting.

Later guys.

[Palf70Step]

Your fascia sorta looks like my stuff when I try and cut a straight line.

Really nice design there Rian.