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

[Grizz1963]

Monday 26th October.

Martin's 50th Birthday. The primary reason for this trip.

We both woke quite early, as usual.

I gave him his birthday card that I had designed and made up via FunkyPigeon.com (unfortunately no pic of that) also got him another T-Shirt with snarling Rottweilers as a reminder of his dog Bow in the UK.

Breakfast, then check out and pack up the car (with all the spares we had, we unpacked the car every night) after which we decided to go to a local Walmart down the road to pick up some provisions and for me to look for a nice hoody for Nicola. Nothing found, but we did see Gas Monkey garage T-Shirts for $7.50 and long sleeve sweatshirts for $10.00 Unfortunately not in my size. I did manage to buy Nicola a couple of Day of the Dead shirts though.

As always, Walmart was interesting, with sights you can never clear from your mind.



So this was foremost in my head as we left the car park........



Heading down the i30 toward Dallas, we had a mission........

It was after all Martin's Birthday !!!!

Some of you will know the whole story, some of you part of it and some of you may now be surprised.

When Clem took us over to Mike and Sarah Losh's place on the Sunday after his Big Party the Saturday to give a hand and generally be amazed by Boosted Bertha a few things transpired.

Remember the Pink "I Love London" hoody we gave to Sarah? Well, it turned out she is a bit of a fan of all things British, including Downton Abbey. So the hoody was immediately seconded to Downton Abbey couch wear......... For her to watch her episodes in as she is so little that even the size Large was massive on her.
Martin's was clearly taken with this tiny little fireball who is the light of Mike's life and he quickly established just how much she loved Downton Abbey.
Sneaky guy that he is, he then slipped away for a bit and called a friend in England on the mobile and found out that he could get hold of a very limited edition book for Sarah.
This was all done on the spur of the moment, and at that time with no further expectation.
While talking to her we mentioned going to Gas Monkey Garage where "Fast and Loud" is filmed to see what we could maybe see and the possibility of buying a T-Shirt, followed by an over priced burger or sandwich at the GMG Restaurant for Martin's birthday the following week on Monday.
Mike and Sarah then asked if we would like for her to see if she could us in behind the scenes, as it is actually a closed film set now, with tall fences, barbed wire and large gates...... Hell yeahhhh !!!
Later she came back and said that she had spoken to her friend who happens to be the Public Relations guy for the Fast and Loud franchise.

Were we excited...?? Stupid question really.

So we had a week to wait after leaving Slosh Tubz and Boosted Bertha, which saw us do all the stuff reported so far.

So back to the Monday morning.

We left Walmart, drove down the motorway and eventually got to Gas Monkey Garage at about 10.30am.

Parked up in the car park, wandered in, browsed the merchandise after seeing all the tall fencing outside and clearly no way of getting in.

Martin found a nice shirt to buy. (He does like a nice T-Shirt) and I saw nothing that appealed to my simple tastes.

I then went up to the pretty girls (yes, they have to be in that job) at the counter, feeling like a prize sized knob, to ask if Jonathan was there, we were expected after all.

Errrrrmmmmm,..... I will go see if he is in said the girl, disappearing into the back offices behind the merchandise shop.

She came back about 5 uncomfortable minutes later to say "Sorry, Jonathan is not here, he went out earlier to drop off some chroming that needed doing at one of our suppliers"

I WAS GUTTED !!

I think Martin standing just behind me may have peed in his pants too, I wanted to. His face was a picture of extreme pain and dejection.

So in my best pretend it is not a big thing, voice, I asked her when he would be back, and if there would be a chance we could speak to him later??

She did not know.

Then disappeared again into the back office and came back, saying she had called him on his mobile phone and that he had forgotten about us altogether.

Keep in mind, this is a business, so making money comes first.

She said that he should be back around 1.30-ish and if we wanted to come back then he would speak to us.

At this point I felt like a total idiot for thinking we would even have a chance to meet these people, especially Aaron who Martin and I both were interested in meeting, given any chance as he is a real thinking mechanic.

Yes of course we will come back later I heard myself say.

So we went out to the car park, took a couple of pics.

Note the fences and gates.....



How many hundreds of people have stood in those positions, photographing themselves or groups? Pretty sad ehhh.
Still, we were there, and it was a bit like a pilgrimage of petrol heads, so needed to be done.



While we were there Denny Hamlin's tow truck popped in as well, he currently drives the number 11 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. So it looks like everyone wants a cut of the Gas Monkey Garage action.

This is a full size truck.



Texas is full of these trucks, especially it seems Diesel trucks that have stupidly fast acceleration and an awesome sound.

We decided when back in the car to Google where ASM upholstery and Sue Martin was, to go take a look in there, or at least drive by, and also to look for the original Gas Monkey Garage where the Fired Up Garage crew now made their home.

When we got there, Sue was not there, so I chatted to one of the upholstery guys for a while, then Sue came in and greeted us, friendly, warmly and interested in why we had come all the way from England to check in on her shop.

She is really a lovely lady and incredibly hospitable.

She took us through the shop and showed us some of her work, seriously neat stuff, and some cool cars they were working on.

Interestingly.......... She collects car number plates, now who would have thought that?



I loved this sedan delivery they had done for a customer and asked her if I could get a pic of her next to it, to which she agreed, showing her best side.



.

After this we went to Jack in a Box for lunch.

Again, fast food, but really tasty. And all the girls spoke Spanish and were friendly.



I opted for a large burger, fries and a gallon of bottomless Dr Pepper.



While eating we watched cars, trucks and other automotive craziness pass in the street.

We sooooo live in the wrong country.


After Jack in a Box we went to look for the original Gas Monkey Garage, where Fired Up Garage now gets filmed.

Martin will be along in a while to write this up.

[mjh1965]

Here are a couple I took at sue's , she really puts her self out to talk to fans of the show , and really down to earth .





This was a job in the shop having the complete interior done




Well after dinner we took a drive around to the old Gas Monkey Garage . The gates up the side were all shut and no sign of the fired up guys , but Phillips garage at the front was all open . So I walked in and had a chat with the guy working in there . I asked it I could take some pictures he replied no problem.

This is some of the pictures I took inside








I don't know if any of you watched fired up garage , but one of the episodes had a C10 cab fall of the trailer . Well at the time I thought it was all a set up , but looking at the amount of filler (bondo) in the roof and the paintwork was really good . They had gone to a lot of trouble making it look good just to drop it off a trailer .

The cab you make your own mind up





So then onto Gas Monkey Garage .

[flashed]

Wow,it just keeps getting better and better ,thanks again for taking us along.

[flashed]

Again ,cool pics and I never noticed the tattoo on Aarons arm ,have no idea what it means.

[mjh1965]

Well I better add my photos of the day .

Note the razor wire



Getting the other side of the gates was such a great way to spend my birthday . The best part was meeting Aaron , I know it's a tv show but after speaking to him in person for quite some time it's clearly obvious that he is in love with his job . I know I get a sense of satisfaction with making the things I need to do for work , but its clear that he loves a challenge .

My self and Aaron

Filming in progress



Note Mike Losh's Tubz



Aaron working on his bike



The rest of the court yard







Then I saw Christie come out of the main building so I walked over and asked if I could take a photo she said yes . Just as I was about to take the picture her phone rang . At this point I thought she would have gone back into the office . No she answered the call and told the person on the other end that she would call them back. So I got me selfie with her and said thank you .

My photo



Richards office



Yes Richard working



Best of all . After we had said our goodbyes , Aaron was riding home (note the British bike ) and I got my T-shirt I had got from the shop earlier in the day signed .



So a great day and one to remember

[mjh1965]

As Rian had said we were talking to Jonathan, after we had been speaking to Aaron. While he was back working on his bike , when heard that I was talking about my friends truck with a Mopar engine and ford axel in a Chevy truck . At this point he put down his tools walked back over to the three of us to listen . He then said if you can't impress them then shocking them is just as good .

This is the truck it's owned by Nigel who owns the motorcycle repair shop in the town I live in it took him about 4 years to build . He is putting nitrous in it over the winter as a 440 Mopar it's quick enough

[61K10]

funny, how gas-monkeys seem to think you guy's are the only ones that work on your own projects----reality at it's best.

[Ta2Don]

Cheers Mate!!!

[Bomp]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your incredible trip. I read along so intently.
Thank you.

[RockTonka]

What a great day for y'all...congrats on making it all happen!!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 61K10

funny, how gas-monkeys seem to think you guy's are the only ones that work on your own projects----reality at it's best.

Not sure I understand your comments.

But they know most people do their own toys.

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Cheers Mate!!!

.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Thanks for taking the time to write up your incredible trip. I read along so intently.
Thank you.

Pleasure on this forum.

You do pretty well in the writing department too Greg.

Originally Posted by RockTonka

What a great day for y'all...congrats on making it all happen!!

Thank you Phil.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Following along, glad to see your back at the build. Thanks for all the pics.
I may have missed it but what was the story on Aarons tatoo?

Martin said I needed to post the reply as I am the one with the photos and story telling.
I was also the one who asked about the tattoo and photographed it, because I am just like that

So in the simplest form of reducing a 15 minute, highly amusing story from Aaron......... Here goes.

Pitch fork Arrow.....

It was no15 on a list of things the world needs.

Aaron had received a 4 page letter with attached diagrams of 15 things the world needed, he ran through a few of them for us there in the shop.

He is a brilliant, and funny story teller.

So for instance number two on the list with engineers drawing attached was a Crystal pool ball, and a Lazer pointed pool stick. Thus you could see where your ball would hit the ball to be pocketed, making the game much more accurate.

The list went on and still he did no tell us exactly what the arrow meant.

At number 15 was this drawing of the Pitch Fork Arrow and it just got him right in the funny bone, so no real explanation, but if I recall correctly, it also featured on his Pikes Peak car. He had the tattoo done at some point and I am sure that for guys like me, it will always be another highlight of a good day spent with some amazingly nice and talented people.



I guess the final chapter of the story was when Aaron told us that the list and letter had actually been sent to to him by a registered, trained mental health nurse in the U.S.


The story was crazy but massively amusing.


Hope that helps for those who were interested.

[flashed]

Im still with you ,love the old Studebaker truck ,train and everything else .

[Palf70Step]

Waiting for moire!

[clemdaddy]

i love reading about the exploits that you guys had, mainly because it seems like you're still here.

you know, martins 51st birthday is a great excuse to come back.

till then...

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

i love reading about the exploits that you guys had, mainly because it seems like you're still here.

you know, martins 51st birthday is a great excuse to come back.

till then...

Ya know... Colorado's not that far away either once you're on the interstate. You'd be welcome here any time if you're already in the US for his 51st. I've been enjoying your updates.

Please continue...

Sparky

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Im still with you ,love the old Studebaker truck ,train and everything else .

Study alert is rather yummmm

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Waiting for moire!

In a moment.

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

i love reading about the exploits that you guys had, mainly because it seems like you're still here.

you know, martins 51st birthday is a great excuse to come back.

till then...

Interestingly, I feel this is a revisit too.

Originally Posted by 53Sparky

Ya know... Colorado's not that far away either once you're on the interstate. You'd be welcome here any time if you're already in the US for his 51st. I've been enjoying your updates.

Please continue...

Sparky

Thank you, will do.

[Grizz1963]

Last night I did not have any photos of another part of our day.

Bret had taken his day off and swapped it out to be able to spend the day with us. Nice guy ehhh?

Anyway, from his dad's place we went via their new home that is being built right now.

It will have a nice sized family garage, and space for his woodwork machines and Jennifer's truck.

So Martin and I were walking about in the house, just amazed at how much value for money homes offer in the U.S. versus the U.K.


2015-10-10 11.31.04 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

2015-10-10 11.29.10 by bjohnson388, on Flickr

After a drive through the new neighbourhood to look at all the lovely different designs available, we took off for Bret's mum in laws place via Smokey Mo's Bar-B-Q where Bret treated us to some seriously mind expanding sandwiches and those massive gallon cups of drink.
I opted for a brisket wrap, actually the smallest one I could get and it was just a perfect for me. I have never eaten brisket that good.

It seems Mo has built up his chain of restaurants one shop at a time. And what a great job he has done.



Interestingly, a Ford Connect van as their delivery van.



I do not have a photo of the whole front of Bret's section of the garages, but suffice it to say, it is three times the size of a typical British terrace house.

Inside. There are signs of loyalties. The sort of thing I should maybe try make some time.



Awkward to get the size of these spaces into perspective.

The more we looked, the more we saw.



This road trip has been allowing us so much incredibly good quality time to spend with and getting to know good friends, establishing friendships that should stand the test of time.



While we were out in the garages, Gladys came home in her "Little car" a VW Tiguan.

After a while we went indoors to chat to her, and I found her in the kitchen with a dismantled electric chainsaw........ What a girl !!

She needed it fixed and rather than cry about it, she just got on with it.

Her dogs were all over us as well, so again it made my day.




Jay Bird, a work in progress.

This was after all a Chevy C10 road trip, so good to see another and all the work Bret has done on his full resto of this truck for Jennifer.





Last photo for now.........

This car belongs to Gladys and she wanted me to drive it when we went out later in the afternoon for a significantly long drive around the greater Austin area.

Bret spoiled me by taking me to a real Mom n Pop's shop. Something I really appreciated.

The car had been a gift from Galdys' late husband and she rarely uses it these days, but Bret looks after it.

So the question is.........

What is it??

[Grizz1963]

Coming down the street, I noticed the fire engine before I realised where we were headed as the same place.
Says a lot for the choice of advertising vehicle.



Other side.



Once inside, we were amazed at all the interesting stuff, including a full arcade with loads of retro games.

And some of these.



Inside on one of the walls was this angry bear.



We had ordered a massive pizza, bottomless drinks, refilled before we even asked.

The pizza was thin base, but heavily loaded with toppings.



After lunch we decided to swing by some pawn shops, as they are often a good source of used and cheap tools, however, not in Waco Texas..... This shop was clearly just a massive arms shop, run by some amazingly nice Texans.

Car parked outside and then we all marched in.



The old guys in the shop seemed to like talking to me, and I was given these to take home to England.

I like them just because.



I will leave you with this as my last photo from inside the pawn shop.



.Once we ran out of pawnshop time, we drove back to Rusty's place.

Rusty had also offered to drive two hours through to Dallas to pick up my ski bag, should the airline decide it was just too big for the hold.
He would then ship it home later.
This offer was another shining example of just how unselfish Texans are.

Thank you Rusty, you are a star.

Martin and I still needed to get to Fort Worth for the evening, and wanted to be checked in by 5pm at the latest so that we could go online to pre-book our seats, in case we would get lucky like on the inbound flight and get a pair of seats side by side.

That way we could also get some dinner and go do a bit more shopping.

Once we dropped Rusty off, we set the SatNav for our next stop, the La Quenta hotel which was 15 miles from the airport.

We set off and drove on toward our last nights destination, feeling that empty lonely feeling one gets at the end of a good holiday.

I trust we have a few of you hard core readers still here.

[flashed]

Qlds Omega ?

Still enjoying the trip too.

[disasterbus]

A nice surprise in the post this morning was a package from Rian containing a sticker he picked up on his recent road trip and a cool tee shirt which was a present for me from Clem.

Another example of how cool the people are that share our interest in all things automotive when someone you've never met takes the time and trouble to send something to someone they've never met. Thanks Clem (and of course, thanks Grizz for taking care of the shipping!)

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by disasterbus

A nice surprise in the post this morning was a package from Rian containing a sticker he picked up on his recent road trip and a cool tee shirt which was a present for me from Clem.

Another example of how cool the people are that share our interest in all things automotive when someone you've never met takes the time and trouble to send something to someone they've never met. Thanks Clem (and of course, thanks Grizz for taking care of the shipping!)

An absolute pleasure Kerry.

You are a good man, easy as that.


So we had lunch at Mo's Bar-B-Q and then headed out to our next stop.

The clue to the car wheel in the last photo was in the badge on the centre cap.

So this is what I found in the garage, parked up on the one end.



1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

350ci Oldsmobile engine with Edelbrock carb and intake.
Turbo 350 transmission.
Full Flowmaster exhaust system

It's an all original car 90,000 miles. Everything is stock on it.

So once I had declined to drive it, I actually wanted to sit in the rear and be driven around with the roof down, taking photos and looking at everything around me.
Thankfully Bret agreed to drive to his mum in laws disappointment.



We went for a long drive and Bret took us to a great old Skool Mom and Pop shop, selling everything from nuts n bolts to fertiliser and everything inbetween.

Parked up outside the store.

I love this view, and of course the number plate.





Coming to the store these BBQ's caught my eye.



Goods in and round the shop that caught my eyes.

Loads of ideas for stuff I can make in future.

I sooooo wanted to buy some of these signs, but of course we were overloaded with truck spares already.









We still had a dinner date with Bret's wife, Jennifer and the kids later in the day, so dragged ourselves away, back into the car and drove back, to get back into our boring rent-o-drive.

My back seat view.....

Another perfect day ???




Being in Austin, Texas, the football team choice had to be....






During the day we had started to discuss dinner, actually while eating at the Bar-B-Q restaurant.

The choice of restaurant was pretty easy........ Steak Please, I said.



We met Jennifer and the kids at Longhorn Restaurant.

Great food, beer and company.
Martin got to have his cake and eat it again..... Just how long had this birthday been going on??
I chose a T-Bone steak and fries plus a side salad that worked just right as veggies are in short supply in America.... Meat is king (not that I would complain about that) the meat in the USA is very much like that in South Africa, often free range reared and with added sunshine.
The meal was another highlight as was pretty much every meal we had had to date. Bret picked up the tab, which was nice of him, but to be honest, we were prepared to pay our way, still it again evidenced this incredible American hospitality we were experiencing daily. Thanks friend.

The kids I have to say are incredibly well behaved and were a pleasure to have with us for dinner. I do not like kids in restaurants in general, but would happily host a dinner party with these boys.

Martin, Bret and I at dinner, thanks to Jennifer for taking the photo.



After dinner we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Austin was Awesome, thanks to another great friendship and peoples absolute generosity we had just experienced another unforgettable day. A perfect foundation for an ongoing friendship that had a preamble of a few years via the Internet and shared interests.

We got to the hotel and turned in eventually, aware that this holiday was about to end, but it was continuing to peak in delivery.

Tomorrow it was back to Fort Worth, via another internet friend, Rusty Escott who works as a sound technician and roadie. He has travelled with some great bands and groups in the past.

Rock on Bucket List.

[mjh1965]

Thanks for posting Rian . I thought I'd add a photo I took of a very proud owner with her car



Once again it was great to meet up with another forum member Brett and his family . The day couldn't have been any better, great food and getting to drive around in a soft top on a warm day , with great company . This has been one of the best trips ever .

[bj383ss]

Was a fantastic day Rian. But like all great things it went by too fast. Saying goodbye to you guys was bittersweet. I hope someday to hang out with you guys again either here or possibly on your turf. Only time will tell. As you said a great friendship with you and Martin. Thank you again for the prezzies and letting me be a part of your trip.

Awesome pic Martin of Gladys and her car.

Bret

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Was a fantastic day Rian. But like all great things it went by too fast. Saying goodbye to you guys was bittersweet. I hope someday to hang out with you guys again either here or possibly on your turf. Only time will tell. As you said a great friendship with you and Martin. Thank you again for the prezzies and letting me be a part of your trip.

Awesome pic Martin of Gladys and her car.

Bret

Bret, I really trust you know that visiting you and your family was not negotiable at all.

Martin and I agreed from day one in December when we agreed to do this trip, that the non negotiables, despite distance, would be you and Clem. All the other people had to happen and unfortunately, time, distance and location meant some would not happen. But the Don's, Phil's Kieth's and others we met up with, were all penned into the planning, in fact, I had a written framework of where we wanted to or had to get to.

Thanks again. You made it worthwhile.

[flashed]

What a nice Cutlass convertible and I love the orange ,I wanted to paint our 72 Malibu that color but was overruled by the boss ,her car .Still here and wanting to see more .