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

[Paul Y]

Know what you mean about the expense of the odds and ends. Just spend nearly £100 on battery cables and connectors.

Coming along nicely.

P.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Paul Y

Know what you mean about the expense of the odds and ends. Just spend nearly £100 on battery cables and connectors.

Coming along nicely.

P.

Thanks Paul,

Your build is flying along too.

I have made peace with the prices of stuff.






Post Man Pat delivered today……..


And it is already on my toolbox.


Thank you @mr2fc






And from Siberia, Stas suggested `I build my Rezin Rockit over one of these.







Maybe not.



Friday tomorrow.


Can’t wait.

[Grizz1963]

Well,

Speaking of madness.

Another week done, and it was tough, but I delivered in excess of my expectations, so a reward was in order.

Extended lunch break….?

Popped the garage open.

Then opened the air box and removed the air filter.

DIRTY……..



This was the problem to be addressed.



With moving the air-box about 600mm or 24” back in the engine bay the sensor wire ended up too short.

Easy to extend the wires.

Easier to remove the sensor……..



Block to hole with a bit of colourful plastic from a laundry detergent bottle cap.



Then set the step drill to the right size to replicate the hole for the grommet…….

Drill the hole.



Grommet in.

Sensor in.

Refit pipe.



Easy fix then.

Little wins that steal time.

One less job for tomorrow or Sunday.

Friday night.

Drinks?

[Grizz1963]

Bonus Ball for Saturday.





Not what I want, but guess it shows what a big check book and a lot of work can deliver.


Back to reality………

[Grizz1963]

Yesterday afternoon @nickwheeler and I went to Car Builder Solutions to pick up a few parts that were needed for some of the progress.

When I got to his place 10 miles from here, to pick him up, he was “not ready” yet.

Well, all it would take was a pair of shoes tbh. The benefit of having your machine shop under your home.

But, he was busy……..

Fine tuning some bits on the lathe.



Leaving this.



Resulting in this.



To be added to these throttle and clutch parts he had already made up.




This build certainly is becoming more and more “Hotrod” as it goes along with all the custom bits made for it so far. .

Liking it.


Once Nick had his shoes on, we headed over to Staplehurst to get the parts list filled out.

This included a massive box of waterproof electrical fittings, wiring loom tape, battery terminal protectors, cabling,sheaths, stainless braided hose, clips, bulkhead fittings and a 90’ connector for the new clutch line that needs to be made up to clean up part of the engine bay.




I had a 4.00pm day job Teams meeting to attend, so dropped Nick off at 3.55 sharply and headed home with the meeting strapped safely into the passenger seat next to me, and me on mute, camera off.

Traffic meant it took me exactly an hour to ger the 10 miles or 16km trip done.

I do dislike traffic.


Today I was awake by 03.20 and that was my night over.

A very wet George the cat came in by 04.45 for some ham and is now tucked up somewhere as I have not heard the catflap again.

It is raining outside, but hopefully once daylight comes etc, I will be able to to get down to the garage and get some stuff done.

Time marches on regardless of the weather.

Onwards in the words of @pauly




.

[Grizz1963]

Day started with me waking at 03.18

No sleep after that, not ideal.

But once I got started, some housekeeping, and in the 5’C temperature outside, I decided to use my paint stripping heat gun to warm the battery bridge before giving it some satin black



Once that was done I started on some CAD to create the insert for the transmission tunnel to make space for the heater/blower unit.



Once transferred and cut out of a sheet of Dexian cabinet backing I folded it ……….



More to be done, grinding back the hole in the transmission tunnel to almost perfectly square and also a couple of flanges needed cutting to weld onto the sides that can be bolted down.

@nickwheeler came around later as well, and with a coffee kickstart he was off……..

Loads of little jobs, including removing the wiring harness that had been attached to the chassis and then winding up a pair of wires we still have no idea of what they do……

Could be a reverse light.

Any ideas?





Another job Nick had been wanting to do for a few weeks was to relay the loom into the rear of the car, a few more holes are needed to get the fuel system wiring in under rhe rear bed.



Also prepared was the earth cable and live wires to get them connected to the battery.

Nick soldered the lugs together as well, kinda impatient jobs.



The day turned out to be one of those that showed little, but a ton of stuff got done.

Progressing the build quite a lot more.

Stand by for more updates.


.

[Grizz1963]

So actually a really busy day yesterday.

Many time thieves……

We were busy all day till I had to tell Nick to get out and leave at 5.15 as he had a family event.

Sure he would not mind me mentioning, his mum was having her 1 in 4 birthday dinners……

Yup, 29 February is a bit of a rare one.


I welded up the under dash extender tray adding a pair of side flanges for mounting and weather or waterproofing.



And once tidied up it looked pretty decent for the job it needs to be doing.



Heater matrix box and blower unit tidied up and cut back earlier looks tidy now.

Placed in position.

Happy with that.



Once bolted down with some sealant under it, this should be a decent dry space too.

Air blower holes still need to be created and ducted once this unit and all the wiring has been laid and secured.

ECU, Fuse box, controllers still need locating and fixung inder the scuttle once the screen frame is welded and located.




One of @nickwheelers jobs on the master list was to create new earth and power leads, relocate some and also create more decent earthing points on the chassis.

A fair chunk of time that you cannot see has been allocated to these jobs.

Resulting in this sort of tidy improvement and install.

Massive thanks again.




More invisible jobs include removing chunks of the loom, rerouted cables etc in order to gain an inch or two of movement.

On the drivers side it is now possible to mount some modules upright and in an aesthetic and safe way.

The washer bottle will probably get a hole or two in the bulkhead today.

With power leads being rerouted inside the firewall.



Actually getting tidier every day.

Also at last the airbox relocation is complete with the supports in place.

One had to be removed, cut and rewelded by Nick because I screwed up when I got the height and angle wrong by 20mm which is a lot when you try to make stuff look great.



After Nick left I finished the blower/heater tray and packed up so Patient, saintly Sally could get a bit of my time.

Today could see a few jobs progress visibly too.

[Grizz1963]

Right……..

Price me this.

Bought by my lodger and some mates to use the chassis for building a ride to be used in the Red Bull Soap Box challenge.



The wheels were sold to @craigrk, and the motor which is UNTESTED and missing part of the air filter etc is available to me for a bid.

Believed to be a 160cc Chinese copy of a Honda motor.

Wht sort of money is this worth, and also what sort of offer should I make, that is, if you believe it can be gotten to start up,again.

It is planned as part of the bar stool racer I need to build.


If it can be started.

This is it.















So there you go.



Untested motor, was ridden to destruction on a kart by traveller kids, turns over freely, wheels were knackered and indicate a hard life.



I can buy it for a sensibly stupid offer.



So do I buy, try get it to run, or run away.


Thanks.

[Grizz1963]

Sunday

I started earlier than usual with small random jobs that all needed wrapping up and doing at some point, so decided any time is a good time.

A few parts needed painting after welding, grinding, fabrication.

Including the “space maker” recessed tray on the transmission tunnel.

Keep in mind, this was made to create space for the blower unit and heater matrix and box to be fitted in a way that left space for wiring looms, switches, dash cluster, large ECU and various chunky bits of hardware, as well as the pedals and related mechanisms.



More time consumed with measure, cut, drill, fold and shaping of the side supports for the dash panel and also side panels that will see he blower exists get fitted.

Need to still get a decent piece of ply, preferably waterproof, for the dash panel and sides plus kick panels.

Job for another day.




Another job has been to make the gear stick and hole fit correctly.

Yes, it will need an extension……….

Interestingly, the thread on the stick is different to anything I have, so a quick screw on a nut and long bolt solution for mocking up, did not happen.

Still, happy so far.



With the heater box and blower fitted in place, you can see how much space it takes up.



But Nick, and others reckon I will be thankful on a chilly spring or autumn evening.




More in a bit, day job stuff to deal with.

[Grizz1963]

One more small job done.

The gear stick needed to be taller.

Outcome was buying a spare shifter for £5.00 in case it needed to be cut, extended or whatever, and no it would not get cut.

Found an engineering shop who identified/confirmed the thread and agreed to make me an 8” or 200mm threaded extension on 15.8mm rod, with a male and female end to extend the shifter.

Time frame. Less than 24 hrs.

Price. £15.00

I think that is a decent price, free is better of course, but hey, specialised engineering I cannot do.

[Grizz1963]

Struggles with Photobucket that I cannot figure out means some pics are not uploaded from the weekend.


Anyway.

It was cold out.

@nickwheeler sat on his butt most of the day (and that is a bad thing in the cold as moving about generates heat)

He started by deleting a couple of wires from the loom…….



Not long before this was the situation.

Airbag loom removed along with plugs.



And then it just got worse as we decided that cleaning it up would mean tidy space and less wires to bend and force under the dash.

It also released a few inches of wiring to enable placement of certain parts like fusebox just that much better.



Looser fit with the new position of heater motor and the box I welded up for the matrix.



Another job I got on with was removing the headlights and buckets, which were also rotten beyond recovery, so the grinder was called into service, again.

The placement of the radiator means the original buckets really are in the way, so a bit of clever thinking once I get a new set of buckets, will be needed, as well as some trimming.

Different sizes.



Originals.

Beyond salvation really.



We eventually closed shop around 6.00pm as I had offered Nick and Sally dinner.

Leaving the car looking worse for wear, but actually we knew that a load of invisible work had been done over the weekend.



After dinner Nick took the wiring loom with him to go remove the door plugs and most of that part of the loom as well.

A few loose tasks set aside for this week, like getting the gear shifter extension made up.

Day job is a bit busy, and evenings are cold.

Another small job I need to get to is making a dual bracket for these guys to mont over the fender.



Roll on the weekend.


Progress….?

[Grizz1963]

Trying to figure out how to copy the link from the web based app.photobucket sire.

This pic is from the app.

[Grizz1963]

Photobucket continues to frustrate me, but at least I seem to have found a way to support my random rambling with phots, using the web based home, vs a mobile app.

Money seems to continue to haemorrhage from my wallet.

Important stuff, current and earthing.

@nickwheeler said so. 😉



Various nuts n bolts, think sheet metal, firewall, trays etc.

Gloopy silicone, gutter sealant etc for various sealing and joining jobs.



‘The last few weeks have been quite full on with day job work keeping me busy and away from home (Covid home working was good) and knackered at night.

Tuesday evening I was angry about some dumb stuff at work (seems it makes me more productive to go unwind a bit) so an hour in the garage gave me progress.

Shelving offcut.




Bit of measuring, cutting.

John, the short term lodger is a biker, car guy and driving instructor, and enjoys coming to the garage.

I did not realise he had taken some photos while I was busy focussing.

David the other lodger (Electrician contractor manager at Grain power station) who has been here a year also came down to check if I had lost any limbs yet, and promptly proposed to close down my site for all sorts of H&S infringements.

So different these two guys.



Bit of folding,



Some holes drilled, bolted to the fender, and we will have the mounting bracket for fuse box and relay as illustrated before.



This was one of those jobs that the wiring loom unpicking has made easier by adding maybe 50mm of play to it.

Small steps, all take time.

I look at this bracket and kinda wish I had some record of time spent overall like @blackpopracing has on his build.

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...glia-shinyness

That is the way to do it.

My Teardrop trailer build was about 360 hours all told, years ago.

Crazy how time adds up.

[Grizz1963]

One other job I got done this week was to find out the thread pitch of the MX5.

Then tracked down a Mazda specialist 10 miles from home, who sile me a soare shifter for £5.00 (plan B would be cut and weld)

He then introduced me to an engineering shop aro8nd the corner from where his workshop is.

So we started with this…….




Guy was the guy I spoke to, and he measured the thread and pitch, said they had the correct tap and die to make a male and female extension.

Using 15.9mm steel stock, and set as 200mm or 8 inches he offered to do the job for £15.00 or about $20.00

@nickwheeler and I had agreed that there was no way I could buy materials and produce for that sort of money afterwards when we chatted.

Order placed late afternoon, and collection arranged for the next day.

They are open for small challenging jobs, interestingly, Guy has built a kitcar before, so understands the challenges.



While waiting for him to confirm the job, I saw this………….

Evidence of an engineering shop that has been there a while, despite being clean and very modern.

Made me smile.



Yesterday morning I had a hospital appointment for myself at 09.00 and afterwards before 10.00 I stopped by at the engineering shop to collect my stick.

Lovely finish.







Back home in the evening I had to go test it out.

REMEMBER……. There is a rubber fitting to go around it, bolted into the yellow piece of MX5 tunnel, and then a leather boot, sheath, or whatever you want to call it.

Feels good in the hand when making Brum Brum noises like @pauly

Doing the maths…….

More than 1 inch below the tunnel, and shifter knob takes up 2 inches, leaving the actual stick being about 5 inches or 150mm long.

Neutral.



First gear…….



Second gear, fourth and reverse are all the same.



Small steps, but Progress nonetheless.

Looking forward to the weekend.

Hopefully more stuff getting made, attached, tested.

Bleeding all over.

Perfect.

[Braunschweiger]

Great progress, I'm always amazed when I see TV shows (e.g. Wheeler Dealers) and your great shops that make fantastic things, the best.... you can just go there, there's no such thing in Old Germany anymore, the Maschine Shops only just work for the factories, nothing for private individuals.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

Great progress, I'm always amazed when I see TV shows (e.g. Wheeler Dealers) and your great shops that make fantastic things, the best.... you can just go there, there's no such thing in Old Germany anymore, the Maschine Shops only just work for the factories, nothing for private individuals.

You are right.

This is a big company, and they probably won’t do a lot of small jobs, but at least they are prepared to do it.

And for a sensibly cheap price.

[aggie91]

Nice progress Rian!

[Grizz1963]

Rained a bit overnight.


Nice day out now………





Should get a few bits done today.


.

[Grizz1963]

John the lodger took his V-Max trike to a friends house yesterday.


Came back in the afternoon with @craigrk ‘s wheels that will go onto a yet to be built, garden wagon that can be hand towed or behind a garden tractor.


The rims need some bashing, and they do need two hubs.





Being disabled, losing a leg etc certainly does not mean unable or unwilling


Next thing he came down with a 160cc proprietary engine that had been fitted to a kart, and abandoned by its owners.


I had offered £10.00 for it.


Worth a try at that money.


@nickwheeler had his own opinion on it, which may prove to be correct.





I have stashed it in a dry corner of the carport for now.


Future fodder for the barstool racer.


More Rezin Rockit time today.

[Grizz1963]

You know those days…..?


Loads planned, loads done, not much to see….l?


Yes, one of those.


Nick came over by midday.


During the week he had rebuilt the loom into something lighter and more flexible


With its ancillaries


Looks a lot less threatening now.





Scrap from the loom totalled up to 3kg





I had spent some time being a nice boyfriend, and then time doing little jobs like cleaning the paint off the chassis where to chassis numbers are punched in, not very clearly.


Spray painted over it in black.


Then made up a complete new plate that will be attached elsewhere too, much more legible.


After that I started working on bringing the heater matrix, box and blower fan together.


Nick carried on with the pedal box, clutch master cylinder relocation, minimal space but got it perfectly fitted. BIG FIDDLY JOB, TRUST ME.





Carrying on with the easy stuff, the heater box needed some thinking too.





Cut, fold, fit.






Starting to resemble what it will be.






Also made and welded a support and holding bracket inside.



Front strap bracket made using @nickwheeler ‘s Riv-Nut tool.

Absolute magic.



Finally did the last trimming on the blower unit and then bonded the parts together.


John the lodger was on hand to pump out the Soudal Crystal glue/sealant for me.





The actual holes for the heated air to be directed into the footwells will be made one final fitting of the blower, wiring loom, ECU etc has been decided.



More in a bit.


Coffee.

[Grizz1963]

In-between making coffee and doing cosmetic stuff, Nick was beavering away.

First big win was getting the clutch master cylinder into the bulkhead after trimming a bit from the brake system brackets, and the mc base.

Minimal when you look at it, but a ton of work to make it fit and look right.

You can see it fitted in the last photo.


Firewall clearing continues.






I hope @nickwheeler comes and describes what happened here, he is more capable than me.


Suffice it to say he hoped that this amount of adjustment would save on some fabrication…..



Errrrrrrrrrmmmmm……?



NOPE !



Buggerrr !!!





Resulting in the whole assembly coming out once more, and Nick taking it all home to remake.


Similarly for the throttle cable where the beautifully made cable ends needed to be remade possibly 0.5mm bigger holes to fit the cables.


I guess that is the kitcar boogie, two steps forward and three steps back.


I ordered a gearbox shifter boot on Friday, yesterday, less than 24 hrs later……l



DELIVERED.





LOADS OF LUBE……..



Fitted.





Removing the brake master cylinder and trying to make its rusted, seized parts move, failed.


So now we have another brake system part to find.


But it will potentially see the whole braking system being new and rebuilt.









Eventually we ran out of jobs to do.


John caught Nick and I sitting going through next jobs and tasks.


@pedalcarjoe Ernie likes a happy photo.





Closing shop at 18.30 felt early, but was a good time.


A rubbish night, netting me 4 hours sleep in total, sucks.


Also hoping to take delivery later of Sally’s new fence panels after the storms destroyed some.


Thanks for checking in.


Breakfast next.

[Grizz1963]

Many of you will realise I am the pretty one in this build.

Nick is the brains.

But rarely, I come up with a goodererer idea.

Case in point, fabricating or making up a switch or valve for the heater to turn it off started out as a complex thing, cables, levers, brackets etc…… you know the drill.

Then I suggested why not just add a simple tap into the mix.

On/Off

£12.00 of the Queens English Pounds vs a load of faffing and fabrication.

Mounted on the side panel under the dash.

Ladies prerogative when feet are freezing.



While at Car Builder Solutions I saw this Cod-piece.

I need a used one from a scrap car, the one in the donor was completely torn and rotten.

Quite phallic in a dark dungeon kinda way.



Spent £82.00 inmthe end.

Including full,size headlight bowls and chrome trim bezels.

The ones with the cut awy backs are specific for Land Rover Discovery.


Got home and did a bit of assembly.



Later, after walking Bonnie the dog, Sally popped in to say hello before heading home.



So I showed her what it looks like, have to say it works for me.





Because there was no Sally for dinner, I managed to stay down there till 8.45 doing some little cleaning up jobs.


More about that later.

[Grizz1963]

Remember the Bead roller?

Me neither.

In the end in order to stiffen up the bottom edge of plate, Nick put a return in there.

17.15 now…… time flies.

Quick, efficient and functional.

Start with glazing pliers to pull back the planned section.



Then some supported hammer work.



And tighten it all up with some dolly work.

And just like that, no more Rolf Harris jokes.



Next up 101 holes for all the retaining bolts and Nyloc nuts.

Measure, mark, punch, drill, grind back burrs, try all holes………



Holes all holed.

Long way to go yet.



Because the sheeting was from a build 11 years ago, surfaces were damaged.

So a belt sander with used belt was run over the surface.

Followed by me on sandpaper to get even consistency, and Nick on Scotch pad duty to get it looking more brushed than scrapped.



Followed by loads of cleaning with thinners and panel wipe……. Standing back, waiting for it all to dry and the new surface to appear.

A few silly grins, a mini-high-five and then time for commitment, well, we really should have been committed a long time ago.

I opened the Polyurethane adhesive and spread it generously on the old, holed firewall.



Nick had the pleasure of slipping the new plate in place while I took a photo, unfortunately I was a tad slow, so just imagine his manic grin when laying the plate against the adhesive, never to come off again.

More holes, a ton of parts and bolts fitted.

Some clamps to reinforce some load bearing areas’ drying tightly.



And looking down, so much tidier.

A whole day spent on doing it right.



So at 19.30 we shut shop, came inside and I cooked some rather nice chicken thighs with Cajun and plum sauce on rice, along with a celebratory beer for Nick and my usual rum and Pepsi.

A long day, but great results.

Nick ticked the job list off, we are over halfway, but being held up by the fuel tank that is not yet made, and a few other issues.

But we did agree, it would have been easy to just throw this all together in a week, but at this pount, this is a great little build.

Monday morning and it is Back to reality.



Later gang.

[Grizz1963]

Having tried to make the cluster work as it is…….

A nights sleep, relook at 06.30 this morning, had me dismantle the dash again and bring the cluster indoors.

A couple of people including @kevins and @redratbike made suggestions along the same line.

I decided to dismantle it.

Will need to get some clear polycarbonate and frame it.



And thickness



I think there is a load of mileage in redesign here.

Will look again tonight after work if I get time.

Later gang.

[Grizz1963]

PS: Also made these…….

Bolted in under the hood/bonnet hinges against the firewall, under the scuttle with inverted T’s welded in place, they will be mounting points for the wiring looms.

Small jobs ehhhh??





Weekend ahead.