Martin's mi-STRESS, 1965 Long Fleetside C10 "Rebuild in ENGLAND"

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

Once the truck was put away and Rian had gone home . I decided to finish of the car port to keep the rain out at the shelf end . I had some of the roof material left so I used it to block in above the fence panels

Mate, that looks great !!

I am impressed with your attention to detail. I would not have made up frames, just screwed it all together.

It was really cool coming over. The best part is always when we create new solutions.

I was telling Nicola about dismantling the truck. Amazing that these bolts still unscrew so easily after 50 years. Also good to learn from you.

[Ta2Don]

Great to see the ways we overcome needs...

Awesome idea getting the glass up high and safe… and the side enclosures...:go:

Thanks again for the poster…

Cheers Mate!

[Palf70Step]

Love your mini-shop build and the truck build. It is coming along great.

[mjh1965]

Well I had to move the truck out so I could get my MX5 to the front of the house , that ment I had more room out the back and didn't block the mazda in once the truck was stripped .





Some of the rust behind the front fenders







So on Saturday morning I started to strip the rest of the front of the truck



One of the previous owners had welded the right inner fender to the radiator support panel as an easy fix for the rust the inner fenders are rusty and will need some refabraction work

[mjh1965]

Here are the pictures of the radiator support panel







I looked at getting a new panel just to check rock auto do the panel and the best part about them is you can pick the part put in your post code (zip code ) to you guys and they tell you the price to ship as well the panel is $86 but shipped to the UK it was £425 about $650 so I think it's time to get the welder out

[Ta2Don]

Time to make Sparks!!!

My Radiator support was in a little better shape, and shipping to the UK is just

Making good progress on the tear down...

[mjh1965]

Well I carried on stripping the truck today . I got the motor and box out





Old engine next to the new one going in



Also made room for the doors and hood in the garage

[Grizz1963]

Red Rove. Red Rover.

Nice coverall.

Come in Red Rover.

Bloody Hell mate !!!!

You have really been getting a move on with your truck.

I am certainly impressed so far.

[Ta2Don]

Great work Mate… and FYI, if you want to see any videos on repairing the door hinges or body work on the doors or hood, check out gibson63 on Youtube… He's a member here, although his member name escapes me at the moment, I have watched a few recently...

[Palf70Step]

Good job on tear down. Man you look way to professional and clean to be working on an old truck. It's way too hot where I am at to look like a mechanic. Just a grubby t-shirt for my garage work and LOTS of grease..

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Red Rove. Red Rover.

Nice coverall.

Come in Red Rover.

Bloody Hell mate !!!!

You have really been getting a move on with your truck.

I am certainly impressed so far.

Thanks to you for the overalls it made a change from getting my clothes covered in grease and oil once again thanks Rian

[Grizz1963]

THOUGHT I MAY AS WELL POST ON HERE TOO..........


Tonight I am the proud (???) owner of £436.00's worth of 2 and 2-4 inch lowering joy for the truck.

Mate Martin has bought the same for his '65 Long Fleetside.

The original lowering was done with an Oxy-Acetelyne torch at some point, leaving the truck a bit, well a lot, wallowy. Redneck engineering at its best with the springs unevenly bunched together.

So in line with having it as a functional driver when it is done, I decided this was another item that needs doing correctly. So spent the money importing the parts.

Martin needed a full set for his truck too, so when we saw the lot on sale by Brothers, we contacted the Brothers in the USA and asked about combined shipping....... the difference was $110.00 on the parts.

Of course you cannot get away from Customs, but the barstewards charge their VAT on the US courier costs too, which I think is a bloody cheek.

Anyway, I am happy that I have nitrous filled shocks with nylon bushes.

The springs weigh a ton, and look very good.

Still need to decide if I should get the springs powder coated, or just give them a coat of gloss enamel, as they are going out of site and this is a driver truck.

Picture of Joy.




There is a lot to be said for building two trucks in parallel. Loads of sharing of cock ups and spares, as well as helping each other out with bits.

On Sunday we have a marathon session planned with my truck and two of the motorbikes in my garage, as well as a petrol electricity generator and a Briggs and Stratton 190cc lawnmower that kicks back like a mule on its pull cord. Any ideas ??

[truckswede]

Hi there. You're making great progress on your truck, aswell as entertaining us. You and Grizz together seems to be a winning team.
Keep at it boys, i'm getting another bucket of popcorn...
Great work!

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

On Sunday we have a marathon session planned with my truck and two of the motorbikes in my garage, as well as a petrol electricity generator and a Briggs and Stratton 190cc lawnmower that kicks back like a mule on its pull cord. Any ideas ??

Sounds Like a Great Day!!!

[Grizz1963]

JUST TO SHOW THAT MARTIN STILL HAD A LOAD OF TRUCK TIME.

Even if it was not his own truck

As a follow on to last nights report on getting all the recycled skirting boards planed and thicknessed I thought I would unpack them this morning before packing them away in their spot under my motorbike trailer which just happened to be out over the weekend delivering a bike for a friend of mate Martin's

The shortest three to the right are the exact length of the truck bed, and the width they make up is again the exact width I need.

Clearly they need to be processed and cut etc when the time comes.




Today was time to attack some of the trucks wiring that must have been done by a blind badger with a crooked walking stick on a night with not much moon shining.

Mate martin had to return my trailer, and also wanted to join Nicola and I on our weekly bootfair trip. But of course we usually leave home between 06.00 and 06.15 as the first one is about 12 miles from home.
Martin was unhooking the trailer by 06.15 and I pushed it though to the garage while he reversed his tool laden car down to the garage.
By 06.25 we had a quick cuppa tea and then went to three bootfairs, getting home by 10.30 for a quick breakfast, an then down to the garage.
Martin managed a nice little haul, including an unused gravity feed spray gun for his primer work @ £5.00 and a complete, unused Airbrush kit for £4.00
We each also bought two 500ml cans of red gloss enamel spray paint for our truck springs, the result below.



The main reason for Martin coming over was to help me identify why my passenger indicator had gone on the blink again (well, it did not blink anymore)

While he was at that job, I did a load of other odd jobs in the garage.

It soon became clear that the truck did not have side lights, which in the case of my truck are both in the bonnet.

So after a load of testing, breaking old oxidized wires and also finding the one fitting was useless, Martin went home to take Amanda, his other half out grocery shopping etc, returning three hours later with his spare fitting to use so that we could get a bi-filament globe fitted.
Unfortunately, both fittings were so buggered that he had to solder small tabs onto the bulbs so that they would make sufficient contact to be functional. After which he renewed some of the wiring which was broken.

This left us at 19.30 with working indicators, side lights etc.

Through the day we also solved another few problems of my and his rebuilds.

These are the fittings we now need to find replacements for from the USA.






And so a greatly productive weekend came to and end.

Next weekend is MOT time, and I do hope the truck will pass its test.


SO A MASSIVE THANK YOU MATE !!!!!

[Grizz1963]

Looks like you and I are goong to spend more time together this weekend than Nicola and I

She has said I can go to your place on Sunday to build a boom extension and see if we can get your cab off without killing ourselves.

Look out for me in safety boots.

[mjh1965]

Thanks mate . Hope to get the cab off. Pictures to follow if we do
Here are some pictures of a local show well it's more of a cruise night






















And the best picture of all my bike and Rian's truck

[markeb01]

There are so many interesting builds on here it’s hard to keep up with them all. So being alone today I spent a couple of hours going through your entire build. It’s very impressive seeing the amount of difficulties and hardships that must be overcome to rebuild these American classics in another country. It just goes to show what enthusiasm and teamwork can accomplish. Love the build so far. I’ll be checking in more often now.

The previous owner must have really had a thing for yellow!

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by markeb01

There are so many interesting builds on here it’s hard to keep up with them all. So being alone today I spent a couple of hours going through your entire build. It’s very impressive seeing the amount of difficulties and hardships that must be overcome to rebuild these American classics in another country. It just goes to show what enthusiasm and teamwork can accomplish. Love the build so far. I’ll be checking in more often now.

The previous owner must have really had a thing for yellow!

Thanks Mark . Yes I think he loved yellow as well .
The hardest thing I have had to overcome is the space issue , which has then meant needing to build a mini workshop and that all Adds extra cost onto my build.
It's also got me a good friend in Rian we only met because of my trucks and we have become good friends . We both help each other with our builds and learn off each other as well . The next thing is cost this is were his friendship is good and bad I have had an MX5 for on out 10 years it's been off the road for about 4 years as I got the mercedes convertible to drive so the mx5 just sat at my mums place then over here a couple of years ago . He decided to give me a big push and stick its picture on the UK threads that he goes on with a for sale notice . Well yesterday the car went to a new home . I had restored it about 8 years ago and it was the last car I painted before the body shop I ran shut down due to the land being sold off by the local government they got.£63 million for it because it was in London . The money I got for the car will come in handy for truck parts as we get so ripped off with import tax all the parts we buy we almost have to double the cost price by the time they have landed in the Uk
This is the car going off to its new home

[Grizz1963]

Hi Martin, thought I would just copy and paste on here, as it is relevant to your build too.


I had forgotten about my MOT expiring this month, so when Nicola reminded me it was panic stations for a while.

Last weekend Martin came over and sorted out the side lights wiring etc.

This lead to me ordering in a full replacement wiring harness from the USA. £145.00 well spent I think.

So today I followed Martin who had his Mercedes booked in for MOT to a testing station, after which we were going to a spares warehouse.

Happy to say the truck passed its test (not that I had any concerns)

The tester commented that he thought it was a lovely bit of kit and he looked forward to testing it again once restored.

The station operates on a 1st come first served basis, so we were there by 08.10 for an 09.00 spot.

CHEEKY MONKEY, MARTIN suggested I just weigh in the truck for scrap as we were next to a scrapyard.



Up on the ramps and on with business.



After the test we went spares shopping, and I bought some long reach 1/2 inch sockets, a stumpy ratchet with 1/4 and 1/2 inch drive.

Then we went to Dartford to get some timber, taking a shortcut over the Woolwich Ferry. Only one ferry running, meant we had a 20 minute wait, but a chance to chat about the plan for the bits of equipment I would be building later.

Thames river in the background.




After the DIY shop, I came home with 12 meters of 6X2 inch lumber, and Martin went home to disconnect everything on the truck and remove his windscreen etc.

The design is a direct copy of a picture of one built by Pimpston65 in Corktown Misouri.

I came home to build a single handed cab lifter attachment to fit to the end of a 3 ton engine hoist which will be used tomorrow, and later possibly on my cab as well, If I do fool myself into removing my cab.

This actually fits just outside the door rubber ridges, stopping the cab from slipping off when you lift it.



This is the upside down view, imagine the diagonal timber is the boom of the engine hoist.



While I was at it, I also prepped all the wood for the cab trolley, onto which the cab will be mounted, I will also make up, or we may weld another 500mm raising table so that one can get to work on the sills.

This lot gets bolted together with 10mm coach screws. And then the wheels are mounted underneath.





Looking forward to tomorrow.

Only problem is that Marin keeps on putting Carp ideas in my head, which creates more work for me.

[mjh1965]

Well after getting back from getting my car and Rian's truck MOT done.It was a 70 mile round trip but the testers used to be in the garage next to the body shop I worked in so I have known the tester for about 20 years . The fact he opened his own garage it's nice to support a long standing friend and he wouldn't fail a vehicle just to get work , because there are garages that have been known to fail a vehicle to get themselves work
Once I got home and Rian was making the lifting jig at his home I got to work on stripping the cab

[pdxhall]

you're making great progress, man. I am getting ready to build a cab lifter like yours to put my cab back on the chassis. I had young men to help me lift it off and on to my platform. If I could offer any advice it would be to make your platform for the cab 2 or 3 feet off the ground. Mine is about the same height as the one you're building and being old and way out of shape, I still had to get down lower than I wanted to get some of the work done.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by pdxhall

you're making great progress, man. I am getting ready to build a cab lifter like yours to put my cab back on the chassis. I had young men to help me lift it off and on to my platform. If I could offer any advice it would be to make your platform for the cab 2 or 3 feet off the ground. Mine is about the same height as the one you're building and being old and way out of shape, I still had to get down lower than I wanted to get some of the work done.

Thats great advice.

The plan is to build a steel extension to go on top of that gurney for work and to keep Martins four dogs from peeing on the cab.

[mjh1965]

For those as impatient as I am..........

Here is a video link of what we got up to today.

Full write up to follow later.

Thank you to Pimpston1965 for the design idea.

http://youtu.be/LxcuePYK-8Q


This is so easy

It's untrue

GENIUS !

[Grizz1963]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=631742

In Martins truck

I was hoping some of you will know what this is from





Answers on a postcard please.