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

[Grizz1963]

Rezin Rockit getting closer to progress.

As in carport, dry work space, and as @PaulY observed today, its almost winter.

Ordered the timber by 11.45 yesterday and delivery was by 08.45 this morning.

Here is a lesson...... the big companies, big websites etc, do not always give the best service.

I managed to save £66.00 just by looking around a bit, using my phone. Ordered C24 grade timber.

Amazing service In pouring rain



Next up, dry the timbers and then paint them all, grey.



Also ordered my roof sheeting and fixings.

Unfortunately lead time is 4-6 weeks.



Still, it will be done.

Soon enough.

[Grizz1963]

Today, before work.....





And




I also got this message from a member on here..... happy for him to expose himself.

Hi Rian,
Have you found yet if your winch is in working order ??
Only asking because I have a "girder trolley" (?? if that's what they're called lol) just wants a coat of paint,
Yours for if it's any use to you, (in the spirit of Grizz,) FOC
N*****

So I went to the garage when I got back from the hospital after this:

MRI of my lumbar and sacral spine which is a bit (lot) knackered.



And cleaned and tested the 500kg block and tackle I had rescued at some point.

Tested and found to be working perfectly well, untested on a load though.



Cleaned up



After cleaning and masking the block, I added a first coat of orange, next coat in the morning.



And lastly.........

Should, could these work on the rear end of the Rezin Rockit as a name?




.

[Grizz1963]

Got a message from @alpina99

Hi Rian,
Have you found yet if your winch is in working order ??
Only asking because I have a "girder trolley" (?? if that's what they're called lol) just wants a coat of paint,
Yours for if it's any use to you, FOC (in the spirit of Grizz,)
Nigel

Adjustable.

Perfect as the main beams are 135mm wide and the smaller ones 100mm







So it has been established that the block and tackle works well.

Gift accepted to be attached to the roof beams.

Clean up and go.

[Grizz1963]

Many coats later.

Paint is quite translucent





Happy with that.

[Grizz1963]

Today progress.

Thanks to @CraigRK and Mickey for advice, help, encouragement

Really interesting getting into it.

The I-beams are not the same On top and bottom.

The C-beam against the wall, though a 200mm beam, again has different dimensions.

So cardboard templates were made up, cut out and then copied onto the beams, all were different.

Starting on the rear, followed by the front ones.



With fine tuning needed to hammer the beams into the steel with a lump hammer.





Cutting and measuring and using Craig’s grinder with very rough steel grinding flap disc to fine tune the fit.....





Almost there.



And then done.

Caravans swapped around.

Welding caravan parked under the beams and storage van parked on the drive.



A few more jobs to do, including two 1.1 meter steels to manufacture and bolt on to the right side of the frame......



So, very happy with today’s progress, and also good to see mate Craig again, as we did not get to do a USA road trip.

More soon.

[Grizz1963]

Too many options with the Rezin Rockit already.

Mate Craig dropped these off yesterday too.

Not sure what the final look may be like in the end.



Basic was my plan.

[Grizz1963]

Can’t remember how long ago I buffed the headlights, but they needed a buff for the MOT tomorrow.

Mate Martin suggested it would be a fail, having opaque lights.

Before



After

[Grizz1963]

Though I would add this bit of a side report.

Some of you know I love a good knife, and buy them when I travel, trade some, find some etc.

A friend, Jonathan in North Carolina whom I have known for years runs Jon Hall Custom Knives for his hand made and hand forged knives and bladed tools.

He has wanted to make me a knife for a couple of years, in a style that I could use.

So this weekend he sent me some photos of what he had started on.

A full size Chef’s Knife, using Damascus steel and Buckeye Burl, stabilised with blue Resin scales





I absolutely love the detail one can get into Damascus steel.



Scales worked back.



By this morning, only final polish and finish was left to do.



Once again, feeling blessed and privileged and chuffed as hell.

I like this knife.

[Grizz1963]

A quote from Mate Fil, who had gone up to Scotland to fetch the Rezin Rockit for me, about this knife.

Originally Posted by sparkplug

The scales aren't to my personal aesthetic taste, but the blade really is!

No question that it's a special knife and has some lovely attention to detail (matching blue resin inside two of the four brass tubes that form the central pin on the handle to name just one)

You radiate good karma Rian, and it reflects back in all sorts of different ways.

Even for a pro that knife will have taken a minimum of 3 days to produce I would think.

Commercial cost? Well, it's not relevant here - but a one off custom hand forged damascus kitchen knife isn't an every day purchase for a reason.

Not one to chuck in the kitchen drawer with the rest. Well, not without a sheath of some sort to protect the edge anyway!

Lovely knife and a very usable one too - not just a show pony.

Not a great pic.

But I took a day vacation yesterday and was running around town buying guttering, collecting building materials etc, and visiting a couple of friends.

Helpful staff and good prices.



Amongst the stops was one at mate Martin with whom I travelled America 5 years ago.

Amazingly, it is exactly 5 years since we stoped at and spent 3 hours in Gas Monkey garage in Texas.

He is selling his house, to move away and to a place with more space and garages for him and his lady.

Some may remember a few years ago, I modified a paralysed fireman’s furniture for him so that he could use the couches directly from his wheelchair etc.

He does track days in a somewhat modified Nissan Skyline GTR and from one of them, this seatbelt support with rose jointed supports were removed.

It ended p on Martins scrap pile, I laid claim to it when he mentioned it, so I collected it.



Plan is to add it to the new roll bar of the Rezin Rockit in order to have a decent mounting point for harnesses.



I quite like the skinny rearward supports too.

[Grizz1963]

You know that feeling before you step into the ring?

Like you know you are about to get your asss whupped.





I will pay a mechanic To replace the brake line

Light bulbs are my job, really interesting, last night I checked the lights, fluids etc, all worked.]

On the way to tha test station I heard the tone of the indicator change.

Welding.......

I will Put the car on ramps and take a look.

See where the yellow chalk of doom marked the rust, clean up, weld up, close up.

Hopefully pass the next time they see it.

[Grizz1963]

Went over to see my nearby neighbour on the way home today.

Weather sucked, and got to be pretty unpleasant. Chilly too.



Video:

https://youtu.be/rV1z1U__nNM

Kevin has been assembling the interior



We were talking about all the holes to fill on the Rezin Rockit when he pulled this stuff out.

Told me to try it on all the holes that need filling.

Anyone use it before?



Seems good on his build.

[Grizz1963]

*****ing, moaning, griping about a fail won’t fix it.

So today I took a day off work, I did need to burn off leave or lose it.

Slow start, and certainly some thinking to be done.

I had not actually seen the reason the car had failed before today.

So I lifted it up and crawled under it to see if I could find why it had failed.

And suddenly realised I owed the grumpy tester an apology







At this point I was chatting with mate @glenanderson who responded thus.

😕

Decision time then.

1) Patch it up quick and dirty to get another year’s ticket and spend the last couple of months of next summer looking for a replacement.

2) Do a proper job now, to keep it going indefinitely.

3) Walk away now before you put anything more into it.

I’d be doing 1) or 3).

So after the chat, I decided on a combination of primarily no 2.) and some of no 1.)

I never cease to be amazed at people who take all the time to bodge a job, when it takes just as long to do it right.



And started to clean up........

Loads of mastic welding under the skin.



Yellow chalk of doom evident.







Then cutting disc.



And fetched out my die grinder and it’s quick release discs.



Cleaned up.



Then used my CAD design and cut some plate, folded, prepped and fitted it.





Fine tuned.



Welded in



Other side







Looking at the amount of crud this side produced, I am amazed.



At this point I then added a bit of seam sealer, went to the house for a coffee and to check work emails, because I cannot step away.

Helped a colleague and waited the 20 minutes for he seam sealer to go off.

More in a bit.

[Grizz1963]

So after coffee, I grabbed the Wurth underseal

Sprayed it and tried to blend it with the underside.





So I was happy with the final result and needed to get the other side up







And ground back.

Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow, so I can do the rest.

Did an initial grind back, more in the morning, and also cit out the rot, followed by making up patch panels.



Hope to get this done before the weather turns nasty in the morning.

After that........

Disassemble the front end in order to fit a side light one side and indicator lamp on the other side.

[Grizz1963]

Found a set of 15” steel wheels with tyres, in a look that I like, two tone, 8.5J wide and 60 miles from here.

Collecting at 5.30 tonight.

Makes it part of the adventure.



Decided to get some adapters.

4x108 to 4x100 which means other wheels are possibly closer to use.

Need two more cheap adapters to make my piggy bank happy.



Came off this.

Like the shopping list on the door.







Happy, yes.

[Grizz1963]

So part two today.

Unfortunately the weather did screw it up a bit.



Cutting out the rust, one of the things I have learned since a long time ago, is like with cancer surgery, you need to cut deep.
So cutting into good steel is part of the deal.



Cardboard Associated. Design.....

Translated into metal.



Tucked in



Tacked and. Then welded.



Once all the seams are welded in, use the persuader to tuck the fold in closer before welding that in as well.

Small spots at a time.



Weld



Grind, finish.



Then on to preparing the next two pieces.

Rot cut out.



Next plate cut, folded, ready.



And this one.



And then came the rain.......

A fairly serious amount. Enough to decide for me.

Pack up, two plates to weld in.



Found out one more thing from UKGSER

Originally Posted by Littledumptruck

Side light and indicator bulbs should be accessible via slide open panels inside the wheelarch Rian. No need to pull anything apart, but you might need long nose pliers to reach the bulb holders.

So that was it.

More tomorrow, weather permitting.

[Grizz1963]

Dennis in St Louis sent a pic of his NASCAR themed C10 trucks dash.

Wired up and ready to Rock n Roll.

This is the look I would love to replicate in the Rockit.

[Grizz1963]

Part two today, racing against the weather, forecast as windy with a bit of rain today.

Magic stuff this Vactan, used it before.

Getting it into spaces, may help long term to slow things down.



Plates welded in, but scruffy, and ground back.



Würth stone chip stuff added.






Tried to get my hands into the back of the lights...... via the wheel arches, failed.

Called it a day on the Galaxy, but happy so far.

Other than the poxy lockdown.

[Grizz1963]

Got these home last night.



Seller has a wing on the car he is breaking..... loved it.



So it was wheels, spacers, and a set of wheel arch brows or whatever you want to call them. Saving them for another day.



He had 175/55 15’s stretched on these 15” 8J wheels, looked fine on the Kia, but hope to make them work on the Rezin Rockit

Cleaned them up a bit.







So now the trick will be to make them fit the car.

Adapters next.

[Grizz1963]

Thanks to Ben, it was fidly but actually straight forward after retrieving my Torx bit with some BluTac on a stick. I broke the magnet version years ago.

Four Torx bolts. One 180mm deep in the dark undone.
Remove top two but only loosen bottom two that hold slide in tabs.



I undid top gour screws on grille and spaced it away with screwdriver handle.

Move light out like this to get to modified bayonet type fixings.



I bought a replacement bulb, except the pins are offset but it needs directly opposed pins.

Thankfully I had some in my toolbox I made in 1981 for my first car.
When pliers and two screwdrivers plus a plug spanner fixed everything at the roadside.
Good old days.

Bulb fits in stalk.

Stalk is bayonet fitting too, only one way to fit it.




Of course Galaxy failed on a sidelight as well

I got a replacement. Regular type.

BUT it had LED types fitted.

So same process to remove headlight.



This was removed.



So now I have two different looking but working lights.


Could this be a fail again? I dont care at this point.







Only a rusty brake line left to be fixed or replaced by a real mechanic.

Then retest.

[Grizz1963]

Fitted a regular side light bulb after work.

Happy with it now.

[Grizz1963]

Actually thought I had posted these pics up too.


Firstly as it stands...... tall.



And second as I would love to see it, and how @joem83 wanted to see it.



We know a load of stuff will need to be moved about to get this thing to run that low.

But if nothing else, we will give it a bloody good go.

PS: still like the wheels.

[Grizz1963]

Busy with a planning meeting today, doorbell goes.

Get to open it and DHL guy waves from his van, and points.

Parcel !!

Contents.



Could not wait for the meeting to be over.

So thought I would just try it on a wheel.



OK..... that worked, easy.

Down to the garage and pull out the big jack, roll the Rockit back, chock the front wheel.

Up in the air, off with the 16” alloy to just try the adapter on the 4x108 studs.

Yup. Fits. 20mm added



Spacers that came with the wheels are another 5mm. So total 25mm



So of course I needed to see if the new wheel fitted on the adapter.

Keep in mind, the tyres on them are 175/15’s that are silly stretched.



Yes, it does.

I liked it.


QUESTION: How wide can I go on tyres on there rims, they are 8J or 8” wide.


More in a bit, need to deal with something.

[Grizz1963]

As is often the case.....

Once I got started, I needed to carry on.



Looking down the length of the car, the steels hit the edge so perfectly, it just put a massive grin on my face.



Looking down on it.



Following this, it was front wheel off too.







And lastly.



I think the front can do with a 30mm push outward vs the rear that was right with a 25mm spacing.

Wider tyres will complete the look a bit more, along with a hard slam

[Indian113]

Rian, I have a 8 inch wide rear wheel on my S10 and it has a 275/60-15 tire on it . This gives me around 10 inches of rubber on the ground per wheel.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Indian113

Rian, I have a 8 inch wide rear wheel on my S10 and it has a 275/60-15 tire on it . This gives me around 10 inches of rubber on the ground per wheel.

Thats brilliant.

I think it will be overkill here so need to look at the right balance.



Mickey had asked me if I would paint the outer edge, facing his property green, kind of to blend with the hedge a bit, and the green roof sheets I had ordered.

So today in my “Lunch Hour” I quickly mixed some green and black enamel paints to get a darker colour.

Maybe a tad dark, but I don't care as I won’t be seeing it.



Resulting in this.



Once the gutters are fitted, they are some dark colour, it should be OK for him.

Still waiting for the roof sheets to be delivered.