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

[Grizz1963]

Worked in Central London today, so when I got home eventually I had a cuppa tea, and Google'd setting the handbrake on one of these. FAIL.

So I referred to the Haynes book Paul the seller had given me, and managed to figure it out.

You can either do some setting on the handbrake lever or you have a proper adjustment screw on the rear hub area.

Once I had the car high on a jack, I did the two sides and believe we now have a handbrake worthy of an MOT.

I also removed the rear Fog light ( and hope it does not constitute a fail)

Some spares landed today as well, and will get fitted next weekend.




Fingers crossed for the MOT test tomorrow.

[Grizz1963]

MOT Fail on both track rod ball joint dust covers excessively deteriorated. Upper suspension arm ball joint excessively deteriorated. Offside drop lonk snapped.

Easy fixes once I get parts ordered.

Now onto web to order
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[markeb01]

Wow your inspectors are really serious. Most States in the US only care about smog equipment functioning, although there are a few that are more stringent.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Wow your inspectors are really serious. Most States in the US only care about smog equipment functioning, although there are a few that are more stringent.

Yup. Serious alright.
Weird country this.
Car passed its smog test.
Funny enough, trailers wear the cars registration.
You could have cardboard box with wheelbarrow wheels as lobg as it has a reg plate.
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[Grizz1963]

Couple of catch up pics

New fog light early this morning.



Fitting it a few minutes before test out in the street



Big scary test centre....



And then got home to find these delivered from MX5 parts.

[Grizz1963]

Truck filled up.
About to hook up and pack Grizz-Pod caravan.
Tomorrow I am off on an 800km weekend with 300 hungry horses.
Here's to everything staying together.

And at $2.18 per liter I will be hurting.
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[Ta2Don]

Rock on Grizz!!!

Lookin forward to the photo essay that is sure to follow...
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[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Rock on Grizz!!!

Lookin forward to the photo essay that is sure to follow...
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Whooooopps!!!

You just reminded me to put my camera batteries on charge.
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[Grizz1963]

Back from about 350 mile trip. Used 97 liters of fuel at £1.40/liter. Truck is thirsty with a load.

Report later when I get a chance v

In the mean time.

Spent litteraly hours today fighting rust, locked nuts and broken split pins but think I have now got the car ready for its repeat MOT on Wednesday afternoon.
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[Grizz1963]

Been busy with a few things yesterday, after returning from the Gathering.

Got given some dark fabric seats by a MX5nutz-er in Scotland for Nicola's car as the leather ones added to the blandness of the interior and were scuffed etc. They were driven down by Bill in his yellow Escort 1600 Sport.

So then traveled part of the trip back in the rear of the Chevy, and at Buckingham where I collected a pillar drill, they were moved into the Grizz-Pod trailer.



Cleaned and serviced.....



£80.00 well spent on the garage.





Back home I cleaned them up, though they were clean already.

Also needed to re-assemble them.



Before the show I had managed to buy some spares from Mystery Machine who had brought them along, saving the postage. Thanks Bruce.




Needs resto.







I had also bought a stainless "radiator protector" from MX5nutz last week, another completely pointless bit of shiny add on for the car.



New tonneau cover tested..... Old seats in place.



Then Post Man Pat arrived and I had a dressed up wife come down the garden, wearing this....



As I was busy prepping the car for its retest for the MOT, I told her to unpack the item, soon she was back.



10 minutes was all it took to fit the new seats, which may be a bit of a "Marmite" option for some.....lucky they do not have to live with it.



One of the failures at MOT test was a snapped drop link.
On inspection, it seemed the other was fractured as well, so I replaced both while I was at it.



I had also replaced the indicators as both on the care had cracks, one of the replacements was not perfect, but still is better than the original.



Then the fun started.

I had to split the tie rod ends etc, my tools were not up to it and rust had had a good time over the last 21 years.

Fortunately the local garage had the right tool, making splitting them, to replace the rubber dust caps a lot easier.









I eventually finished the job at 20.45 last night.

Today after work I fitted a load of bits to the car, including the lather gaiters, and a new gearbox rubber tunnel cover\gaiter.



Chrome style bar fitted tonight as well.

Tomorrow afternoon is retest time and also two new tyres to get fitted.

Then tax and hopefully Nicola can start using the car.

[Ta2Don]

Nice Score on the Drill!!!

Like the Black Seats better...

[Grizz1963]

Short report.


Took the Truck and Grizz-Pod to the Retro Rides Gathering '13 the past weekend.

Left by 09.00 on Friday morning, got there by 14.00 which included about an hours stpping along the way for coffee and relaxing.



At the show, Tim my mate who also drives a '74 Chevy camper truck gave me this rev counter for the truck.



Friday night after BBQ this was the view in the camping field.



On Saturday Tim was off to do some shopping, on his return he did some maintenance, almost disappearing into the engine bay.




I left the show before 2pm on Sunday as I had to detour to pick up a pillar drill I had bought a couple of weeks ago in Buckingham.
I had collected some spare seats for Nicola's MX5 which moved into the teardrop once I collected the drill.



Who said this truck should not work ?



Assembled, cleaned and serviced. Good value at £80.00





I will do a more complete write up with pics when I get time.

In the mean time the truck still pleases me.

Thanks for checking in.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Short report.


Took the Truck and Grizz-Pod to the Retro Rides Gathering '13 the past weekend.

Left by 09.00 on Friday morning, got there by 14.00 which included about an hours stpping along the way for coffee and relaxing.



I will do a more complete write up with pics when I get time.

In the mean time the truck still pleases me.

Thanks for checking in.

Like the look of the pod with the truck

[Grizz1963]

Thanks Don,

Once I get the adapters made for the Teardrop and add smoothies with white band tyres it will look even better.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Thanks Don,

Once I get the adapters made for the Teardrop and add smoothies with white band tyres it will look even better.

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[Ta2Don]

MOT results???
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[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

MOT results???
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I screwed up.

Did not fit the dust covers correctly so he refused to check it.

Booked in at a local garage to redo on 3rd Sept and also fit new brake discs and pads all the way around.

Gutted but was gping to get the brakes done anyway.
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[Grizz1963]

Not much to report back other than the smiles per mile continue to add up to more than the smiles per cost per liter to run this beast.

Weather forecast is rubbish with intermittent rain and possibly storms, not that it should stop me really, there is always something that needs doing.

Have I mentioned that I really do like (that's better than love) my wife Nicola??

This week they started doing some remodeling at her work, clearing out a lot of old equipment and stuff that is no longer fit for purpose.

They had an 8 meter deep skip that was filled with chairs, furniture and much much more.

At some point she went outside and got a bollocking from the judges of the County Court who they share a car park with for firstly having a large skip on site and secondly....... the local jobless alcoholics had removed all the chairs from the skip and taken them down to the "beach" on the River Medway to have a party..... OOOOPPPss?

Well, in pursuit of the chairs some steel cabinets had been dragged out of the skip and set down next to it..... when the chairs were returned and the skip collected, the steel cabinets had not been returned to the skip.

Nicola saw them, and immediately took a couple of pics she texted to me with just one word : "WANT??" Of course I said yes as I still have some old wooden bedroom wardrobes in the garage to replace with steel cabinets. She then got some of the funeral directors and bearers to drag them back indoors for me to collect later.

Did I mention I liked my wife ??

Went to fetch them the next evening at about 7pm with Mickey riding shotgun to help me load them.....

Today I will unload them and empty one more wardrobe and replace it with a steel cabinet.

Garage is getting there.





Last night after work I popped over to my mate Martin who had bought a 1965 LWB Fleetside C10 truck about the same time as we got ours. He works in the "Disability motor vehicle conversion business" Interestingly, he and his wife have two Mazda MX5's as well, so we seem to have a fair amount in common. He had managed to get some brand new loose car mats for my truck and Nicola's MX5 from dealers who remove them prior to conversion to hand control etc. So I popped over to look at what his cars looked like etc.

While chatting about various things including the last weekend towing the Grizz-Pod with the truck I mentioned I was going to remove the small but ineffective round mirrors and replace them with the slightly larger (unattractive to me) rectangular ones. He offered to pick me up a pair of heads when he is in the USA later in the year (so I get to keep my stalks and mountings) as they are only $10.00 each. He also showed me the mirrors that had been on his truck when he got it, I suspect they are moderns, ugly but functional.
Later in our discussions it turned out that his glove box was missing its "liner" so I offered him some 1.2mm ally plate to make one, in the end he suggested that if I made him a new liner, he would trade me for the mirrors if I was interested...... Typically I agreed. He also offered to fit Rivnuts to my door once I have done the paint and repairs as part of the deal.





I will make a mounting plate for the large mirrors, which has a 4 hole mounting plate that will fit the standard 3 screw/nut fitting, and with the Rivnuts in place I will be able to remove the standard mirror when I want to to the Teardrop long distance. The Rivnuts will just mean that I can remove the mirrors without losing the thread in the door.

Martin had these mirrors on his truck when he bought them..... Soon to be mine.




This weekend I want to make two if these smoker cookers from old gas bottles.

My mate Woodsie works in demolition and a lot of the stuff they remove from sites have to go into skips and be "recycled" (read: exported to China and turned into cars)so when I showed him the pics I took at a car show a while ago, he was game for me making us each one as well. Fair trade.
He is off to fetch a new used motorbike for his wife this morning, but my drop in later to drop of the bottles he rescued.

This is what I will be aiming at.



This was just after the smoker/cooker was loaded.

[Ta2Don]

Now I'm HUNGRY!!!!

Seriously, the mirrors on your friend's truck look like the stock ones on my 90 Silverado... not exactly but close
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Nice score on the cabinets...

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Now I'm HUNGRY!!!!

Seriously, the mirrors on your friend's truck look like the stock ones on my 90 Silverado... not exactly but close
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Nice score on the cabinets...

Cabinets are good and my wife fortunately "gets it"!
I have thought that maybe one day when I have replaced all my wooden cabinets (one more to go) and if I feel brave, I will empty them all, take them outside and prep n paint the lot in one colour but it would have to be a rather special day.......
In the mean time I have swopped a roller door cabinet that was up at the house for refuse/recycling and BBQ fire lighters pesticides etc for the large one on the truck and replaced a wooden/chipboard unit in the garage. The narrow one has found a spot too.
Weather was not conducive to cutting and welding with driving rain yesterday so no smoker build.

No idea what the mirrors are off, but they are large and adjust on multiple levels. Once painted to match with black mount/arms and red bodies, they should look at home on the truck when towing.
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[Vernski]

Ryan I had those mirrors on a 77 Ferd not that that's a bad thing..Vernski

[Grizz1963]

Well, luck does favour the brave.... or am I missing something here?

Popped around to Mickey's this morning for a chat and he was cleaning up a huge pot and reviving the plant inside it, from a job he did yesterday.
His sons work rebuilding, decorating and gutting office space.
Yesterday they had to take down a load of offices, and one of the casualties ended up being a load of White Oak skirting boards.
They are 90mm wide and I am not sure how thick...... Hope you are getting my drift here.

Anyway, a load had been claimed by one of the guys on the job, buut there were still some in the back of his van he mentioned, if I was interested in them before he went to the skip.



So I cleared the lot out and brought them home in the hope I could salvage some bits for the garden furniture we have, that has seen a lot of seasons outside and are now starting to show their age.

I previously rebuilt a garden bench using offcuts of White Oak as well, which is still in use.



Once I had sorted the pile out, this is what I was left with.....

The pile to the right is all under 1.8 meters long, so only good for rebuilding the furniture.

The pile to the left though, has about 19 strips, and at 90mm wide, I need 18 strips to remake the floor of the truck which is currently plywood.





After sorting it out, stashed under the bike trailer for now.
The cleaning up of the wood to get all the glue etc off it will take some time.
Unfortunately the side I need to use is the side with the glue, the other side it grooved.

[Ta2Don]

To use the futbol venacular... SCOOOORRRE!!!
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[Grizz1963]

Saw a smoker cooker on a VW Caddy recently and thought the Redneck Express could do with one. Always useful to have a portable BBQ, but if you could use it as a smoker, then even better.





My mate Woodsie who is in demolition, saved us a couple of knackered gas bottles from the steel skip.

The valves were already missing.




As an added precaution I filled them with water before starting to cut them to prevent any ignition.



Then carried them to the garage, found some vintage heavy duty steel hinges, and used a flap wheel to grind back the paint to prep the area where the hinges were to be welded.



After which I used masking tape to lay a line for cutting the bottles.



Did the preliminary cuts, allowing the water to drain out to cut level.



Used my trusty magnets my mate Luke gave me to hold the hinges in place and tacked the corners into position.



After which I welded the hinges down completely followed by laying the bottles down and cutting almost all the way around with a 2mm cutting disc.



Next up I need to go buy some clip latches or decide if I may want to use a pair of nuts above and below the cut, to create a lock to keep the lid closed once I have completed the interior and also the chimney that still needs making.

Part two to follow soon.

[Ta2Don]

Rockin!
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