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

[Braunschweiger]

You are hard-working and have the right tools at hand.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

You are hard-working and have the right tools at hand.

Thank you.

I am feeling more and more like myself

I used to have so much drive and energy to get jobs done.

I am pleased to see change on my builds.

[Grizz1963]

So the Caddy continues to deliver great service both as a cheap daily (cost me £1200.00 as it stands) and as a load lugger and functional tool.


Amazingly I saw it early, and bought by it mid October.
Making it 6 months ago.
So in doing basic man maths, (which usually includes insurance and fuel) the car as it stands on the driveway cost me £200.00 per month. If you include insurance pro-rated to 6 months and diesel it probably comes to an unscientific £250.00 per month.
The longer and more it works here, the cheaper it effectively becomes.


So a tip run to dispose of my two lodger spare room double bed mattresses and two large TV’s, two TV stands, cardboard and polystyrene resulted in me scavenging out of the metal disposal bin (with permission, in the UK where I live, you can be prosecuted for removing a paperclip.) a small rotten kids size cast metal garden bench.


Bench as seen and into the Caddy before I got rid of the mattresses.





Back home I quickly unloaded my treasure and took stock of what I had.
Hmmmmmmmm……??


Why do I do this every time?








Coffee and a digestive, chat with a buddy, check email etc

Then headed out to go play

Disassembling with caution as its old and I really don’t like breaking stuff like this

Also headed into my secret wood store to find some correct wood. Something the right thickness, texture etc I love old bed frames, IKEA shelving and such as its already planed, smooth and usually good quality, so the Caddy could pick those up when you drive by







After preparing the wood I cleaned up the rest of the frame and proceeded with etch primer and then painted the parts

Originally I had some dull blue to use but the can (was 50p years ago on an end of production sale) kept failing

I eventually switched to a can of burgundy, which actually turned out to be a good choice









Overnight the paint dried nicely.

So yesterday I continued with assembly

And this was the loose assembly.






And finally completed.

Looking a lot better than 18 hours before.





Stepping back, I noticed that there was more to do.


So another piece of wood liberated from the store.


My £20.00 bootfair router from a weekend away about 10 years ago came out, along with a sander Mickey threw out years ago.


So I made and detailed a name plate for the grandkids. Sally’s, not mine.
Harry is 5 years old and Alfie 9 months old.


After a quick practice session I free handed the names.





drilled holes in the sides just for detail

Painted…….



​​​​​​​



And finally the 24 hour turn around

If I were to value my time, this becomes an extremely expensive bench for a couple of kids that are not even related to me






Delivered to Sallys place

Now she wants one in adult size as well

Looks great with the sand box I fixed last week



​​​​​​​Not sure what to do today

[Braunschweiger]

Wow, that's a real gem, you really have talented hands and imagination for what you can do with it, the Caddy is amazing, my neighbor, who is an electrician, bought a new Caddy second hand and says: he doesn't know how he ever got by without it, the car offers so much space.
So everything was done right.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

Wow, that's a real gem, you really have talented hands and imagination for what you can do with it, the Caddy is amazing, my neighbor, who is an electrician, bought a new Caddy second hand and says: he doesn't know how he ever got by without it, the car offers so much space.
So everything was done right.

You are very kind Harald.

Thank you for taking the time to write up your replies.

Many people have no clue how useful these small vans can be.

I love this Caddy.

[Grizz1963]

Cut the grass at number 1 position yesterday.


I tend to keep to setting number 2 throughout winter to keep it tidy.


I also washed and polished the Astro van as I was heading out to a late afternoon (4.30 onwards) car gathering about 30 miles from here.


I also had some multi ton lifting straps to deliver to mate Darren, so the van was being used as a van.


I keep saying it but I do love this thing



Pleasure to own, drive and look at











Got to go fill it up before leaving, despite still showing a 1/4 tank of petrol. My dad brought me up not to leave on any trip with less than 1/2 a tank and to replace a battery the first time it refused to start a car.


Do remember that this is an American commercial vehicle that would have been destined to do loads of long distance work so a 30 liter fuel tank would not have been needed







The trip there and back was pretty good, van loving to hover right around the legal speed limit,

I have had this dancing Elvis for years and he made me chuckle when the road conditions made him move about erratically as only Elvis did

Sad reflection on the state of our roads

And also points a finger straight at local councils who continue to squander our taxes on non important things while allowing the infrastructure to fall apart





I made a short video, including some pics of the cars that came out, despite the crappy weather

There was a relatively large contingent of Toyota Celicas and Corollas. Mostly rough, but all someone’s pride and joy

VIDEO LINK


Today is Sunday, not yet decided what slow job to get going in this morning



Thanks for checking in and any comments

[Grizz1963]

Summer is coming.

Antihistamines and cutting grass.

Also parts of the garden waking up, bringing once a year beauty in the form of certain flowers and plants making their reappearance.



I just couldn’t get going yesterday.

Opened my woodwork shop and started dragging parts out to build an oil can ukelele with.

Mickey popped around, twice.

We had coffee, chatted, I enjoyed the distraction as I really wasn’t feeling the shop.
I searched for a small cheap, working ride on mower for him. Unsuccessfully.
I am sure Wolf tools used to make an extremely simple one, but finding something that works is not that easy.
Then went around to his place to help him lift some stuff in his garage.
He is 78. Years old and forgetd that he is slowly getting older.

He offered me a gazebo frame, before he scraps it.

So I now need to order a 3x3 meter canvas roof for it.

Could be useful when working on the C10 outside in the sun, if we have a summer.



Of course after all the wind and drizzling rain the van once again looks like a step child, grubby and neglected.

But I did take a few pics and took some measurements……

Based on a conversation I was having with a long time friend.

My Suburban comes in right around 80 inches to the tyres, The ##### is 79.5(ish) to the widest point on the arches and the K5 Blazer is about 79.5 too (not including mirrors on any of them!). Makes the Jag and Merc look positively skinny!

Always something brewing.



When I reverse (the only way I park cars out back) down the alley, the mirrors both have to be folded in.

You can’t get down there unless you have done that.





Measurement of the alleyway.

You need to subtract 3 inches from the 80 inches to accommodate the boiler pipe and windowsill on the one side.



Life’s challenges ehhh??

Saved by the tape measure?

Have a good week.

[shp4man]

Some of us Americans have an appreciation for British machines. This one comes to mind:

[shp4man]

Some of us Americans have an appreciation for British machines. This one two comes to mind:

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by shp4man

Some of us Americans have an appreciation for British machines. This one two comes to mind:

I will guess it’s a Spitfire?

Iconic for sure.

[Grizz1963]

Jobs that I really hate.

Pressure washing all of my concrete surfaces every year.

Then sanding in all the joints with kiln dried sand.

For those who have no idea, a lot of my hard standing surfaces have what is known as block paving.
Small individual bricks laid and compacted as driveway.
Pretty, but a bastardo to clean up yearly.
Those in sunny climates like Africa, Australia and lots of the USA will never understand.


Moss and fungus, weeds and whatever can germinate will grow there in the grooves, so you need to spray poison like Roundup or pull the weeds twice a season as well.

When you then come with the pressure cleaner, and I buy the most powerful one you can get for the money, you blast all the sand, moss, roots of weeds out.
Keep in mind that every brick has four bevelled edges to deal with plus the flat, mossy green top surface.

Yup………

I hate it.

Takes me three days to do all of it.

Keeping in mind you cover everything in a 10 meter radius in sh!t and constantly have to go back to clean where you left off. The amount of debris from the cleaning builds up so sweeping it up, collecting the dirt etc is more time consuming.


LAST THING.

I am 1.83m or 6 foot tall.

The lance or sprayer is made for a 1.65m or 5’5” short person. So you are bending over all the time to get the nozzle working 80-100mm off the ground. Don’t tell me about those sexy round brush things. THEY DON’T WORK for my application.

So I started at the garage. First job…….
Clear all my junk, left after the big clear out the last few weeks.
Clear a years worth of leaves and dirt under the hedge.

Then start the torture.

What you have after a year.

Junk moved.

​

The target.







Takes time.

The before and after images give an idea of how important this actually is.

Never looks that bad, till you start.



Two hours to do this section so far.



Next day some more.



Once it is dry, the idea is to sweep and brush kiln dried sand into the grooves.
This prevents stones moving once you drive over them.



Wet sand is not ideal.
But I paid for it, so I would use it. Right?

Garage area done.



Concrete strips next.



Video shows it a bit weird but trust me…… horrible job.

Then area behind the kitchen, followed by alleyway and out front.

Kitchen parking done.



Front area.

Bloody storm winds were not helpful.





Almost done.

By this point, I was cold, sore and tired.

But I finished the rest of the drive.





Next job was to grab the VW Caddy and go fetch a massive wooden double bed frame.

The rest was good, but I almost couldn’t get out the van I was so stiff and sore.

Loving this van doing it’s job.





So next job is to go buy some fresh kiln dried sand for the driveway block paving.

Till next year.


Three days worth of work in 6 minutes video.


Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/-WhOu6tTYkg?si=HbIVrREXmGkTbMP4


Thanks for watching.

[Grizz1963]

Final part of the pressure cleaning job.

Wait for a sunny day, wait for pathways to be dry or even warm this time of year.

Slow, systemic and meticulous spreading of the sand, and cleaning away all the excess.

Gaps up to 7mm where heavy stuff like a loaded Transit van used to park daily for years, creating grooves and movement of the stones.



Then start high, spread the sand in a way you can push it about with the large yard broom.



Done.

Till next year.



Short video for those who like it.

https://youtu.be/mVWgthHIQdc?si=rodrWZA-pbllDy1r


Friday evening was good, typically beautiful sunset as we have this time of the year.



Perfect weather for my first BBQ or Braai of the year tonight.

Summer soon.

I hope.

[Grizz1963]

Weekend is over.

Sleep sucks.

Life is good.

I will Copy and paste a single write up.

So apologies for duplicate pics, but you love pics…… Right??


Saturday I washed the van in preparation for Sundays breakfast meeting.

Cleanliness is next to godliness I hear.







Making a fire earlier in the day to burn a load of broken furniture wood (non recyclable) it became apparent that the crack in the structure was growing.
I possibly caused this a few years ago making a massive fire in the middle of winter.

I made the decision to smash this down after 13 years of service.

That will mean another job.

More money.

Buggerr.





Dinner was good.

https://youtu.be/d2glX9aZ3KQ?si=GbrW5mmeUFxd_Bzl





Sunday I headed out in the van.

Made a video of the day.

Met some nice people.

Had an offer to buy the van.



https://youtu.be/49Tf7UnY8Pk?si=2avF4Vy002_JP3Hh



All the cars at the meeting.

https://youtu.be/iCkqrX8dV2U?si=gn5LgDBs0sP82Nr8


Afterwards I headed out to Uncle Bob’s yard to see him and Uncle Peter (86 year old retired builder) about buying some “new” recycled, cleaned bricks.

I did a rough count of the face-bricks used above the preparation area.
I plan on leaving the concrete foundation and cabinets plus cast, reinforced floor of the chimney as it all seems intact.
Approximate count is around 500 bricks to replace what is there but I am going to change the design a bit or a lot.

Smashing down the rest of it, the rubble will be processed into another job.
More about this later.

Uncle Peter was busy pointing the brickwork of one of the barns where he had rebuilt the corner that was smashed by a truck, years ago.
So I dragged him away from his mortar and we spoke bricks.
He has about 800 cement style, pressed bricks on some pallets that could be for sale.
At 50p per brick it’s not as cheap as free, but finding something where the price, look and availability cross on a sweet spot it not that easy.

So I agreed to taking the 800 and fetching and transporting them myself for £400.00 unless he changes his mind.

The excess will be used on another job which is planned for the short term future.




Lastly…….

I looked at this again, not easy to access as it is stored, if you can call it that, in the rear of a massive, disused, damaged greenhouse with loads of junk in front of it.

Uncle Bob the Hoarder owns it.

Wants very strong money for it.

But I do like it.

Think re-body.




Eventually I left them and headed home.

Moved to green 206 CC down to the workshop as I have done nothing with it and getting the roof to open since weeks ago when I walked away to get on with more important things.

Parked the van and headed to Sallys place to use her broadband to upload my YouTube videos that I can’t do at home due to Sky and Openreach’s terrible service.

Have a great week.

[Grizz1963]

So today the Astro, which was professionally lowered a lot, if you look at some photos from the side etc, got to work for real for the first time.

550kg is not a lot, bug when you place it over and behind the rear wheels and diff, it certainly affects things.

There is some stuff about to start happening at Grizz Towers soon, so I am getting a lot of peripheral stuff done, prepared and planned.

The fuel tank was about 40mm off the drive if you zoom in under the rear.
​Luckily I only had about 1.5 miles or 2.5km to drive.
Including a hill, two roundabouts and my crappy road outside.

I have one more load to collect tomorrow morning from Uncle Bob the Hoarders yard and Uncle Peter to pay.








This part of the story will unfold in a slightly different way depending on how many people complain, compliment or question.

So make some noise.

[Grizz1963]

Right

A quick explanation and illustration for those who want to add all sorts of suspension modifications to the van.

Some of which would double the price.

I rather do four trips and spend £10.00 on fuel than modify the van.

Part of its appeal lies in the stance and how low it was built.

It is no longer a commercial vehicle.

You cannot see it in the photo but the tank never touched the road with me driving it at up to 35mph. Limit here is 40 in parts and 30 mph.









In other news.

The photo and video clip will show you my little win for today.


Yup……..


Sesame opened without a fight.


So back up for sale, just in time for summer.


Check out the short video clip.


https://youtu.be/_hV8J4FBHgI?si=v1M1qpWJHrgnuw-u






Right.

Headed out to fetch another load in the Astro.


Later.

[Braunschweiger]

The Astro is not only beautiful, it can also work.
Great news about the convertible. Summer is coming.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

The Astro is not only beautiful, it can also work.
Great news about the convertible. Summer is coming.

Yes it works.

I use my car’s sympathetically

Getting the convertible sold is important.

I need the space.

[Grizz1963]

So.

Those bricks.

I fetched them in 3 and 1/2 trips.

Bringing about 190 or so at a time.

Uncle Peter is 86 and long since successfully retired from building houses.

But he spends at least four hours a day working on things. Either at the yard or at home. Currently he is working at repairing parts of one of the barns that had been damaged years ago by a machine hitting the corner of a wall. Also repointing the cement between the bricks. The wall spans two eras. Part is built using lime mortar and parts were done with cement mortar.

I love watching him work. The details in those bits of cement he is replacing. Vertical and horizontal are different.





I had to figure out where to store these bricks. Ultimately I decided outside Georges door made sense.
Even sense checking the way the gate opens so I could still get cars and diggers and a crusher and possibly a few other machines through there.
I moved a pile of 450mm paving stones to the kitchen door as well.
Hoarder central.



Wood store with two cement mixers.



So off to UncleBobs yard.

First load in the van.

And first and second loads unloaded at home.
Onto a plastic pallet. Mistake. Too late.
Thankfully I bought three pallet or pump trucks for either £5.00 or £15.00 each years ago. Gave two away and kept one.

What a multi purpose tool this is to have in the garage and on site.







Last load was smaller but included 23 dark clay bricks.





And finally all of the bricks packed and sorted.

I took 2/3 and 1/2 bricks as well.

Total is about 623 bricks (23 clays weigh more)

Approximately 1.7 ton at 2.7 kg per brick.






So the question of course is WHY?

Well, the BBQ that I built 13 years ago and abused over the years, including a massive fire in it mid winter a few years ago has left it significantly damaged.

So it’s time to destroy it and start a rebuild.

Biggest problem is actually that it needs to dovetail into a bigger job that I have wanted to get done for 14 years.

What we have right now.







As always, the invitation is open to anyone interested in helping me get it done.

I could break it down and save the rubble before the next big job, but I am waiting for a price on some 3mm mild steel plate.

I want to build a steel BBQ inner to then sheath in insulation and brickwork.

Something like this.



So there you go.

Massive update.

And invitation.

Peugeot 206 CC next.

[Grizz1963]

Here is a complete build thread of this BBQ


https://retrorides.proboards.com/thr...ld-kent?page=1


Click the link for flashbacks.

[Grizz1963]

Six Bells Pub in Cliffe near Rochester, Kent has a Classic car and Bike Event, Meeting, Gathering once a month.

During summer it gets really busy with hundreds of people attending from 4.00pm onwards.

I have been there before in the S10 but yesterday I took the Astro van again.
Going via the best road, still a terrible surface as low cal council continues to fail on even the most basic level, to maintain roads, it is about 10 miles or 16km

So I got there early and left quite early as well, with loads of cars and bikes passing me on my way home by 7.00pm after being there 3 hours.

I made up a short clip of cars attending and a few arriving.



My buddy Ricky is a regular in his own built beauty.



And of course the Six Bells pub on the corner.

I had a £5.00 hamburger with cheese, onion and a really nice BBQ sauce. And it was absolutely delicious and worth the money.




VIDEO

https://youtu.be/Tu9fuJCx8dI?si=OeET7K52klpub3y7


I will certainly attend again in May, when the next meeting is, if I remember on the day.

Insomnia sucks.

[Braunschweiger]

A nice video with great cars, the Mini with Honda power is really weird, I've seen a few from Great Britain, a Smart with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine is a real weapon, it's great that you're allowed to build something like that,
here in Germany the authorities don't have a sense of humor for it, sigh!
The burger looks decent, not a cheap version.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Braunschweiger

A nice video with great cars, the Mini with Honda power is really weird, I've seen a few from Great Britain, a Smart with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine is a real weapon, it's great that you're allowed to build something like that,
here in Germany the authorities don't have a sense of humor for it, sigh!
The burger looks decent, not a cheap version.

Thank you.

Burger was very good.






I thought you bought another Canta and transported it in the GMC ;-)


Ahhhhh

You have no idea how close to the truth you are.

In the back of the van.

Needs cleaning.








And yes, soon I will have a fleet of them if I can find some more in different designs.


They do exist, some more unusual and rare than others.

Taxi ?

[Grizz1963]

Mate Kevin retires fully on 9th May.

That means nothing.

He has a ton of things to do.

Last week he came to replace the front brakes on his runaround. You may remember he has a black T6 camper and helped me fetch the hateful 206 CC.

Kevin is extremely methodical.
First person I ever saw who actually reads the instructions. But that is how he does stuff. Having worked for railway support companies all his life.

Order.




Since I moved into this house in 2010 the rear driveway concrete strips have bugged me.
So Kevin suggested we tear them up and move the drive over by 18 inches or 450mm at its apex.
I also decided that after 13 years it was time to tear down and rebuild the BBQ.

I will need help.

I will need help

I will need help.

Did I say that clearly enough?

Keep reading and you may decide you can.

Along with copious amounts of strong tea with little milk, Kevin fixed the brakes.

Then we measured and marked out the potential new driveway.

And NO, I don’t want to remove the shrubbery on the left against the boundary hedge.

There will still be a curve, but it will be a solid slab rather than two strips to balance along, reversing down the drive.

So we started measuring out the job

19 meters and about 2.6 wide equals about 5.5 cubic meters of concrete cast.

Checking the depth of the existing concrete test hole.



Lay out.



So the resulting projected outcome will look like this.

I want to add an Arris rail three bar fence to the side of the small shrub bed to keep the shrubs contained. The plan is to use some large Metposts to hold the uprights.



And if the grass regrows on the gap, this may be the look.

I had wondered about putting a green colour into the concrete but have decided against it.



And it’s still a no, no green cement.






The plan is to plan and Kevin is project manager.

I want to hire a mobile crusher to create all the hardcore for the foundation from the BBQ and concrete strips rather than buying in loads of the same stuff and paying for a dumpster/skip to remove all the spoil.
I need to hire in a Mini Digger and then I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I need a capable operator for a day to dig, scrape, create the new foundation space and also move any topsoil into a specific place in the garden.
Steel reinforcing to be added.


I plan on getting the new concrete mixed on site, out on the street, by a dry mix rig and then running it through to the rear and casting the new slabs.

My nearby neighbor has a1972 model Winget dumper truck that he will let me use to run the concrete through from the street to the rear.

This should be interesting.





So……..

Needing a digger driver.

Some time soon.

[Grizz1963]

Forgot to mention

https://youtu.be/aQSBAjznt58?si=eMBtjXS7XQPE1wJ-

[Grizz1963]

I may have bought a Mercedes Benz SLK 230 this week.

Foolish?

Maybe.

Collected it on Monday morning.

Giving it to Sally.