GRIZZ’s English 2001 S10 Extra Cab 4.3 V6 Truck

[Grizz1963]

Had my midyear review on Tuesday.

Seems the bosses are happy with what I am doing at the moment, going by the feedback email.

Yesterday was one of those days where I had been working in the morning and by 13.00 it just felt like nothing was happening, so I called the boss and asked to sign a half day leave or just have the afternoon off, he thought about it for a moment, and said to just take the rest of the day off. I actually carried on working till 13.45 and then headed out to mate Darrens engineering shop Unit Engineering for some mental health recharging.

So I took the truck out and headed over to Sheppey.

Always good to see him, catch up with the stuff he is always doing, both cars and engineering and making a living.



Slow but constant progress on his V8 Beetle build.





After two hours of coffee and chat, both of us felt a lot better, as even the therapist sometimes needs therapy.

I scavenged some round and flat bar from the scrap bin, to be used in my driveway changes.



Headed home by 4.30 for dinner that was being made for me by Sally.

Truck making me grin all afternoon.

[Grizz1963]

Looking out the kitchen window last night as I do, often, at the truck, I noticed something was wrong.


Poop.




Mounting spot.




So the job will be to either find someone to repair it, as an autoglass company, if I can find that, or buy some specialised glue and fixing system.

Dennis uses this in the USA in his bodyshop.

May be available on Amazon though.






At least I have the day off a a vacation day, so able to do my own stuff.

Rain forecast for the weekend too.

[Grizz1963]

Bootfair today was small.

Sally panicked when we stopped and only 1/4 of the field was taken up and likewise parking are nearer 20%

I told her, often when these quiet days have happened, with less people milling around, I have had great days.

Less people also meant less pushing and shoving, and rude non English speakers, thus a chance to look and find stuff in the typical piles made up by spring cleaning or house clearances.

Mate Craig and us got lucky today, with a few great pieces from one guy, everything was £1.00 or less..

Medium sized Crowbar £1.00



Grubby, rusty hatchet, £1.00



Maybe a bargain of the day for him, glass and chrome bodied courtesy/roof/map light for his 1950 Chevy truck or the 1948 Fleetline. Coat £1.00



Sally bought 3 blue glazed garden pots, and I got a green one, you guessed it…….. £1.00 each. Go price check those.



Other items from the same seller included a weird pair of spring loaded, flat beaked pliers, a plumb line and a new padlock with 3 keys and a spring loaded metal punch, all for £1.00



Also at the same seller a small unused spirit level for £1.00 for mate Kevin who loves tape measures and instruments of accuracy.



We bought a few plants ranging between £2.00 for a nice Rosemary and £1.00 for mint and some shrubs for Sallys new pots.

Other items included a £2.00 dinner lap tray for one lodger, a hand rail £2.00 to be used as towel rail in the lodgers bathroom, a woollen floor rug to replace one I binned recently £2.00
Three Coffee mugs, 20p each, VW one for Craig, Batman for a colleague and large bunny item for my kitchen, size large for Mickey who likes a large mug of tea.
Really nice, but dirty paper towel holder to replace the hateful one I have in the kitchen.



So all in all, a decent outing today.

Clean up Craigs hatchet, put away the bits, then carry on digging the second set of holes for the archway on the drive and make up the structure, before the rain really starts to fall.

[Grizz1963]

Took Friday off as mentioned, also went out in the truck to fetch a long passage carpet runner for Craigs wife, new, unused (the carpet)

Started chatting to the sellers husband as you do, turns put he has a 1963 registered VW Beach Buggy (for sale like all things in life)

He used to be a Land Rover guy for many years, short story long, he sold me a screen for £10.00 which I gave to @glenanderson who was popping down on Sunday to drop off a windscreen for me to use on the Rezin Rockit, as well as some signs from @forkliftfred whom he bought an engine from.

Into the truck it went, along with the passage runner.



Saturday afternoon I started on another distraction that has been years in the want/planning.

An arch over the bottom of the driveway that once overgrown will help create a visual line and block the line of sight down to the garage, looking from the street.

Basic idea, just to get the feel for what it will look like.

Ot should be 8’2” tall on the underside, with a pair of 15” trellises front and rear that will be removable, either by unhooking from clips, or unscrewing if it seems to need extra stability.

Not at all like this by the way.



Measured out.



Hedge carefully cut back to create a recess, so that actual drive is not compromised for when cars or trucks come to the bottom. Also allowing the caravan to be removed.



18” deep holes dug both sides for the small holding foundations on the uprights.



After that, my back asked me to slow down, so I started a fire instead…….

You know what happened next of course.

Both current lodgers were in, So Sally and I decided a BBQ was a perfect way to spend the late afternoon.

Drinks, Pretzels, chat…….



Fire, food.



Served.



Happy, all of us, it was a good meal, music and alcohol.

David the Electrical engineering managers wife and kids are in Vietnam, last saw them February last year, that must suck.
Interestingly, he mostly works in Saudi Arabia, Emirates and other places where alcohol is less used, and as a habit does not use alcohol.

Anthony is a retired Royal Engineers RSM who runs his own training company. t2p.co.uk

David may stay a year for his full contract, or if Saudi Arabia and the rest opens up, he may go back there sooner, Anthony is sorting his life and could be here for an indeterminate time.

In the mean time, the are good company.



Sunday was Bootfair and a bit of together time with Sally, making stuff.

More later.

[Grizz1963]

So a few little things along the way.

Cleaned up Craigs hatchet a bit.

From this.



To this.


Via some of this.



Also added a 50p bootfair handle to the cast aluminium head mate Andy cast two years ago.





Done.



In other news, my local village has a secret person who is crocheting toppers for post boxes and bollards.

It is proving really popular, and people are leaving them in place, which is great to see.



Anthony my one current lodger has a business to print stuff, like emergency bags, T-shirts etc.

He offered to print me a pic of the S10 on canvas.

Brought these samples back Monday night.

I need to frame the canvas next.



Last night he brought home an even bigger print.



Pretty chuffed with these.

Just need to frame and stretch them now.

[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.

[Grizz1963]

So a quick photodump.

The idea was to create a arch for the garden to the right to grow into and over so that it partly camouflages and draws attention away from the garden.

Recycled timber was free.

Screws expensive, cement overpriced, and paint paid for before.

The rest mostly labour and using stuff paid for before.

Total cost, probably under £80.00


You saw the 450mm deep holes go down before.




I decided to sandwich two beams per post. Cut to length and screwed securely.



Test fit.





I also used some of the blackened sections to create a ladder for each side.



Painted, thanks to Sally carrying on with the paint while I built no 2.



On Sunday Sally worked, so I placed the uprights in the holes, alone, my back is recovering its strength, though the damage is permanent, I am moving easier and better every day compared to three months ago.



NextI made a set of cross beams up. The front gets a wide one tomcreate the illusion of size and sheer bulk, spindly would not work.



Next up , squaring and levelling it all out, then anchoring in position.



Followed by cross beams.



This was followed by screwing into position the individual cross pieces, as the whole lot would have been to big, heavy and unwieldy to put up alone.



I knew I wanted to have a front section hanging down, but removable for when the welding caravan gets removed finally.

So mocked up with a piece of trellis fencing, just to help visualisation.

Realised it needed to be a bit shorter.



Final height.



I tried to get some cement to mix for the foundations and neither B&Q, nor Wickes or Homebase had any.

Went to my local village hardware store on Monday afternoon………

No cement, but had some bags of “Post Mix” at £10.00 per 20kg bag.

Trust me, not impressed, but little choice, so I paid my £40.00 for the convenience.



Tuesday afternoon I also decided to try out my new pressure cleaner.

NVH is bad, trigger is stiff, no lock on it, oscillating head does a weird thing where it goes through frequencies that seem to change the effect.

Not sure it is worth the money at £168.00 vs the £110.00 model.





My fig tree, propagated last year has produced one fig, pretty chuffed with that.

[Grizz1963]

Next job was to make the lower valence up.

Again, made as I went along.

Cut first, measure second.



All of this has been a pain to do solo, as it is high, the ladder is uninspiring, and I worry about my back letting me down, well crashing me to thw floor really.



The whole morning there was a Robin keeping me company, chatting and making an angry noise, I guess he has a nest somewhere nearby.



These should ensure I can dismantle the valence later, to remove the caravan with ease.



Once squared up and screwed together, it was time for the post-crete to -be added to the holes, along with a load of water to set it off.



Done.



Followed by some decorations





I also cleared the excess wood off the drive, in under the carport.

And put up some road signs, andmy battle weary Stars n Stripes.




Later on the Robin was sitting atop the structure, singing away merrily.



Went to bed at 12,30 and by 04.10 the night was over.

Not ideal, but at least I took yesterday and today off work.

Sunrise was nice.





My weekend is here, loads of clearing up to do today, and maybe mounting the dentists light under the carport too.

[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.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 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.

Thank you Bill.

A lot of it will allow work to happen.

The garden takes a load of time, as does the day job, so I Really love the hobby stuff.






So after clearing the carport, I also removed the solid wrought iron gate that had been there since 2011 between my and Mickeys yards and the shared alley storage.

This left a large hole, 6x4 foot, to be dealt with, mainly to slow the wind down when one works there in winter.



Looking from Mickeys side after I cut the hedge on his side you can see the odd shaped hole. Nothing is straight as it was never planned to be a doorway.



When I gathered the wood there were four plywood shelves, all 9 inches wide. Adding them to another sliver of ply have me the width needed.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the hole differs by 50mm top to bottom as the post originally fitted to create the end of the roofing sheets that hang down from the top of the structure was a twisted piece of lumber.
So that means I needed to create a door which fitted the hole, and the post will be modified to compensate for the pi$$ed post.

So Monday evening after work I quickly slapped a door together.



Mickey cannot resist the noise of a circular saw or power drill.

So fresh from a shave and shower, smelling like a teenager out to score first base, he was straight aroundf after he had had his dinner.

Supervising as always.



Screws penetrated by about 3mm so I had to cut them all back with the grinder.



After that I fitted it in the triangulated hole, and realised it needed a bit more work to fit, and with the weight, it needs a small jockey wheel.



So once that was done I shut shop, made a pizza (disappointing) and a shower.

Plans were to get back to it today after work.

[Just call me Sean]

Saw this today and thought of you. It's the garage door guys work truck.

[Grizz1963]

Went out for a haircut yesterday early. Our local-ish guy is there from 07.00 for people who need to come and go early.

Walking back to the truck I was again struck by the fact that it always makes me grin.

I like this thing.



Last night late I got a message from a South African expatriate living in Rhode Island that he had got me one of the hardest USA state plates to get. Posting it out to me this week for my collection.

Pretty pleased to say the least.





Removed the tape from the red bands and masked the blue panel for the stars.

It may take a while to get the stars to use on it but pleased so far.



Last sunny day before the weather swings back to a load of rain.