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

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

While we had been in the garage, I showed Henry various things I had for the truck, like my EZ wiring full harness and other bits. Also packed these side emblems.

I know which ones I like best, but what say the community ?

Well, I should be partial to the 64 emblems (middle ones), but the 63 (top) have always been a favorite of mine.

Sounded like a wild day Rian.

[Ta2Don]

Glad you finally announced the October trip... I was having a hard time keeping that under wraps...

For those who may wonder, I posted out the Brake parts and addressed the package as I had in the past. It was returned 7 days later with a "Return to Sender" label. The first trip to the local post office rewarded me with an unhelpful response in the form of, "For some reason it couldn't be delivered." After chatting with Rian, I made my way back another day and found someone willing to investigate a bit further. Apparently someone working international mail was unaware that U.K.stood for United Kingdom...:bang head:
Luckily the man at the counter, wrote out UNITED KINGDOM and re-date stamped the parcel and off it went… I'm glad to see it arrived safe and sound…

Looking forward to another great get-together at Clem's in October… Plans made to stay the night so I'm not running off early...

[flashed]

I do believe you done spoiled that cat and I like the top 2 emblems best ,but they all are great .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Glad you finally announced the October trip... I was having a hard time keeping that under wraps...

For those who may wonder, I posted out the Brake parts and addressed the package as I had in the past. It was returned 7 days later with a "Return to Sender" label. The first trip to the local post office rewarded me with an unhelpful response in the form of, "For some reason it couldn't be delivered." After chatting with Rian, I made my way back another day and found someone willing to investigate a bit further. Apparently someone working international mail was unaware that U.K.stood for United Kingdom...:bang head:
Luckily the man at the counter, wrote out UNITED KINGDOM and re-date stamped the parcel and off it went… I'm glad to see it arrived safe and sound…

Looking forward to another great get-together at Clem's in October… Plans made to stay the night so I'm not running off early...

Sounds great that you will be staying over Don.

Thanks again for helping us out over here.

Originally Posted by flashed

I do believe you done spoiled that cat and I like the top 2 emblems best ,but they all are great .

You got it in one mate.



So........

Side bar story number one. (The relevance will become apparent soon)


What do you do if you own your own body shop that builds some high end hot rod stuff, paints and repairs commercial vehicles etc, but you also like the shape of Chevy C10 trucks?

Nothing I Guess.

However, if you paint trucks for NASCAR Truck racing series teams, you get to know interesting and possibly important people.

Now, the next thing to consider is, what if you painted one like this and then it comes back broken, maybe more broken than is worth putting back together to be competitive?

One of these........



Suddenly at 100+ mph becomes one of these.....




And then like this....



Add in a gas axe into the mix and you end up here.......




In the mean time, due to the competitive nature of NASCAR Truck racing these parts live a life based around a date stamp and over time your pile grows bigger.









So then, if you sponsored your son in his 360 Sprint car and knew your way around them......





And the Sprint ran this little motor.........




And if you have all those bits laying about, would you not be tempted to wrap them in a fully functioning skin shaped like this with glass, working doors etc?



I think this could become a bit of a beastie. Like it?

More Side Bar notes tonight.

It's almost 1.30 in the morning and I have a garage to deal with in the morning.

[realvc]

I like the middle emblems the best.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Well, I should be partial to the 64 emblems (middle ones), but the 63 (top) have always been a favorite of mine.

Sounded like a wild day Rian.

Originally Posted by realvc

I like the middle emblems the best.

The 64's were what I wanted after removing the bottom ones from the truck and I got them one at a time about six months apart.

However, I think I will be going with the simple elegance of the 63 badges as that's my birth year too,

[Grizz1963]

Today I Planned to replace the 5 strip lights in the garage with new daylight units...... Often things do not work out that way though, do they.

I did the first one and it worked a treat.

Next one fitted..... No go, then after much faffing about and trying various things, thought I would change the whole fitting.... Nope, still both dead.
I then went to the front one, at which time Mickey from next door came around with mugs of coffee and toasted Bacon and friend egg sandwiches for us for lunch. How cool is that?



After this he left and just at the same time Paul Y arrived on the drive from collecting a massive new garage work bench in Woody his 1966 C10 which he has been threatening to take off the road as long as I can remember, but as he says, Woody is too valuable working.

So his morning he woke Woody up and then set off on his chores collecting stuff. I stole the photo from his thread.




Eventually after much chatting, tea, biscuits and looking at my progress which he thankfully approved, he also offered to help me look at my motor when the time comes, I managed to convince him to drive up to the farm for a few photos of Woody.










We then drove back home, loaded the work bench back onto the truck,making with a rather large steel cabinet and strapped it all down, said our good byes and then he and Woody were off like a donkey with turpentine under its tail.....

CLICKY LINKY VIDEO:

Woody off in a puff of smoke. - YouTube

This put a huge grin on my face.

And an opportunity to take a really moody, Johnny Cash album cover type photo with a shadow looking in.



As far as the garage lights are concerned........

No bloody idea, will look again tomorrow.

[Paul Y]

I also like the 64 emblems Rian (my Birth year!) but I think the 63's work just fine. Good to see you today and thanks for the tea.

P.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Paul Y

I also like the 64 emblems Rian (my Birth year!) but I think the 63's work just fine. Good to see you today and thanks for the tea.

P.

Pleasure Paul, and even better when I got to film your departure.





So, you remember the 2015 Road Trip http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...chevy-roadtrip

You now know that Nicola has insisted I go on the trip again as she is off to backpack around parts of Thailand with an old friend.

Some of you on various forums are also "Friends" with me on Farcebook. Often you get random requests from the weirdest people, and in my case I have had some gorgeous girls with very short profiles but exotic pics come up wanting to be friends or people with unpronounceable names etc. Often they are just trawling, and others like former school and work friends really just want to dig around in your photo albums to see what you have been up to in your life. Never actually chatting or communicating or in one case recently asking me loan them a lot of money because they had got into trouble.
Another of my favourite pet hates is the "Like" button on various places, and you see people actually "like" a death or divorce notice WTF???? Just make the effort to write something or keep quiet. ( I may be becoming a Grumpy Old Man )

My way is to disregard most strangers but I usually look to see if we have friends in common or if their photo album shows some sort of common interest with me. And even these can be deceiving as you can suddenly get bombarded with requests to play Candy Crush or some other carp.

So in August last year before going to the U.S. with mate Martin, I had such a request and looking at the profile of the guy I saw Motorsport and trucks as a shared interest, he was also friends with my good friend Ta2Don in Arkansas and had a Chevy C10 truck. So I accepted the request.
Over time we have chatted a lot, on Messenger and on the phone and a nice friendship has developed with a guy I never even met before.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when I got the new job offer and Dennis asked me if I was going to come to the U.S. In October again like last year. At that point I said it would be nice, but my budget and new job would probably not allow it as this becomes expensive once you add up all the costs, hotels, plane tickets and the rest. At that point he asked if the use of his 2009 GMC Dually below, along with a car trailer in case I found an old car stashed in a barn that needed exporting to England FREE AND FULLY INSURED would make a difference to my budget and planning............ Now he had my attention for starters.

"This is my truck and you can have it for as long as you like and drive it anywhere you want while you are over here, just fly into and out of St Louis, Missouri "



Of course I said to him that he was being very generous (I had previously let friends use cars and motorbikes like that as well in the past ) but said what if I trashed his truck along the way, it was after all a big rig with a trailer behind, should I decide to accept and take the trailer and actually find something interesting in an old barn to buy and send home. "Well, we can just fix it if you break it badly" was his casual reply, they had already dealt with one Bambi before.



I still dithered and said that it was a big truck to do quite a few thousand miles with if I went down as far as Oklahoma City and other places inbetween, because I had missed out of some people last year, Martin and I just did not have enough hours in our 16 days. To which Dennis replied with "My son and I have a bunch of cars and trucks between us that you can choose from, you could also take my 2013 Hemi Challenger if you want but it would not take as many spares and does not have a tow hitch, however you will get you there pretty quickly "

He then shot this photo of it over while we were chatting on FB Messenger.............

I KID YOU NOT....!!!!



So now I had the dilemma of choosing between the GMC Truck or a Hemi Challenger.

And I had not yet discussed this with either Nicola or Myself at this point.

When Nicola came home we chatted about her trip to Thailand and then I mentioned Dennis' offer and the discussion we had earlier the day. Saying I was not sure that it was a good idea.

This was the point where Nicola got all forceful and told me about dead men in coffins in her chapel of rest who aged in their 50's with loads of Dreams and Bucket Lists as long as your arm, never to be ticked off, she speaks to many a widow and child. We looked at all the flight options to get to Clem's Cruise In via various airports from Oklahoma City but it turned out that St Louis was actually a good option, despite the 6 hour drive that it would take to get to Fayettevile. I could do this trip and stop over via various friends along the way who I missed out seeing last year.

So it looks like I will be doing my Road Trip in a Challenger this year.......... Life can be so unfair.

I hope that I can manage to pile my Karma bucket to the brim this year because this will again be an absolute privilege to do this trip, but Karma takes her payment as and when she wants.

So now you know where the previous posting about building a 66 Chevy C10 onto a NASCAR chassis comes from as Dennis is a HotRodder who works bloody hard 7 days a week in order for him to be able to then enjoy some toys and time with his family.

So last thing to say will be a big thank you to Dennis for making this trip more attractive and affordable.

Now it is bed time, I am knackered.

[flashed]

Woody is a fine looking old truck and the burnout was cool too ,even my wife liked it .Love the pics .

[Palf70Step]

I am sure hoping my plans work out so I can meet up with you in OurKansas at the great fillin station.

[Grizz1963]

Spent the last week or two checking out flights on Skyscanner app, and then popped into Thomas Cook last week.

Should have bought my ticket then. Today it was £80.00 or about $120.00 up on the under £700.00 it was last week. How does that happen??

Anyway, Nicola and I bought her Thailand tickets online last night, she is flying business class, thanks to her brothers zillions of KLM air miles. I am positively jealous.

So after buying my tickets, I started to complain about wasting money and that it was best stuffed into the mortgage. To which she replied along these lines...... How often do you go to the local pub and buy three pints? £10.00 gone, buy some cigarettes at £9.55/20 and then smoke them all in a day.....?
Which means that my plane ticket is paid for in cigarettes in less than 12 weeks. Or three evenings at the pub smoking all those cigarettes brings it down to 8 weeks for the flight ticket.

I was suddenly not so upset, and I get to see amazing friends along the way and make awesome memories.

Maybe I should travel more often.

Anyway, we went to celebrate our travel plans with a Subway coffee and a shared cookie that they gave her for her birthday.

Perfect.



After shopping etc we came home and made paninis for lunch and then I went to the garage to switch bits about.

My next job, aside from the steering and brakes will be starting to figure out the engine, I also need to remove the gearbox and repair the one mounting bolt hole that was stripped out, hallo helicoil.

So I got the bike out the way, then got the chassis off the axle stands and pulled it out on the Jack.





Engine out, bike stashed at the back of the garage till spring.



Finally all switched.



I need to clean up the engine and gearbox of all the oil and muck covering it, then start on the gearbox, followed by the engine.

Fun times ahead I guess.

Speaking of which, Dennis is making things more interesting.

Last night he came up with this 2013 Harley Davidson Soft Tail as well, saying that if I wanted to hit the back roads and more of Route 66 it may be better suited to my travel plans, especially if I did not want to buy a car or truck along the way.

The guy clearly likes to "Pinch the puppy" torturing me with all sorts of crazy options.



Of course this is my current favourite......... Has a few ponies stashed under its hood.

[realvc]

You're getting things lined out for this years road trip.

Taking the truck and trailer in case you find another project would be way over the top for most but not for Grizz.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

I am sure hoping my plans work out so I can meet up with you in OurKansas at the great fillin station.

You will certainly not regret it.

Clem, Kim and The Gang will make you feel right at home.

And you get to overdose on good people and trucks.

Originally Posted by realvc

You're getting things lined out for this years road trip.

Taking the truck and trailer in case you find another project would be way over the top for most but not for Grizz.

Hmmmmmmmmmm??

The thing is........ I know where this car lives

I honestly have these images in my head a few times a week.

Of course my red truck is a long way from done, so I have to hold off on any other monkey business........


BUT..........


This is many sleepless nights worth of 1960's metal.












COMMENT FROM HERB, THE OWNER.

You look fabulous in that old Chevy. I forgot you took so many pictures. Don't know what it is about a 60 Chevy, but they just don't make a lot of parts for them. Like the ignition switch, head light buckets,and others. I had to use 61 and 58 parts, but they work OK.
You think October? not far off. Hope you can make it by again, hope to have the Chevy running by then


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


While doing the brake lines, esp I ally at the rear, I found the lights I had fitted overhead were not always bright enough so impulsively went and bought 5 new six foot lights with daylight tubes this week.

Had a problem getting them to work, reviewed all power lines and then all working.

Happy days.

Before:



Remember I have a few of them fitted to the walls on the one side too, but currently obscured by many truck panels.

After:



The other side, not replaced at this point, but it is very tempting as well.
The white light has a better feel to it.





In other news, I have always wanted to make my trucks dash top a satin black and the rest the same red as the truck after mate Martin turned his yellow peril into a two tone and it looked great.

Got lucky when Fil "Sparkplug" on UKGSER.com offered to do some photoshopping for me.

So just an idea, but happy that it is how I will proceed.





A long way before I get there, but another bit of info stashed away.

[flashed]

I like it ,its gonna look great painted like that .
On a side note Clem's get together is on my birthday ,I wonder if he would mind a couple extra showing up ? May have to see if I can get my wife on board .

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by flashed

I like it ,its gonna look great painted like that .
..........

I agree that is a very decent looking combo!

[clemdaddy]

Originally Posted by flashed

I like it ,its gonna look great painted like that .
On a side note Clem's get together is on my birthday ,I wonder if he would mind a couple extra showing up ? May have to see if I can get my wife on board .

that would be great… and no way would we mind… hope your wife can join you, think road trip… pm me, maybe i can make it easier.

[60chevyjim]

wow cool 60 belair .
I have a 60 brookwood 2dr wagon and a 60 impala convertible

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

I like it ,its gonna look great painted like that .
On a side note Clem's get together is on my birthday ,I wonder if he would mind a couple extra showing up ? May have to see if I can get my wife on board .

You,need to speak to Clem and see what the rules are.

I like the idea of the black dash, even though I have minimal support there.

Originally Posted by 60chevyjim

wow cool 60 belair .
I have a 60 brookwood 2dr wagon and a 60 impala convertible

I just love that, especially as it is a bit less common.

[Paul Y]

Rian,

I know where there is a 60 impala sitting in a barn about 100miles from you....

P.

[flashed]

PM sent to Clemdaddy.

[65sub]

The two tone dash looks good Rian. And the better lighting is a good idea. It's always easier to work when you can see the job.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Paul Y

Rian,

I know where there is a 60 impala sitting in a barn about 100miles from you....

P.

Aaaaaaannnnd ??

Is it for sale for a squillion dollars?

Sitting in a barn...... Barn find or waiting it's turn to be restored etc?

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

I agree that is a very decent looking combo!

I loved it on Martin's truck and mine is going to be very red, so a bit of a break should be good.

Thankfully Photoshop is less permanent than paint.

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

that would be great… and no way would we mind… hope your wife can join you, think road trip… pm me, maybe i can make it easier.

Cool.

Originally Posted by 65sub

The two tone dash looks good Rian. And the better lighting is a good idea. It's always easier to work when you can see the job.

Indeed Dale, when we bought the place the whole garage at 30' x 30' had two single tube 4' lights. I left the one at the rear in place as the wall is angled.

My truck is not standards, so these little touches help to turn it into a place I will enjoy being in when it's done.

[Grizz1963]

Another small job done last night.

Been wanting to get the hubs off the Grizz Pod ever since selling the Radars and buying the Chrome Smoothies for it. Then of course I sold the Chrome Smoothies off the truck and bought the Rallye wheels and powder coated them very red. I guess the ideal would be to find another pair of Rally wheels in a narrow width, so that I can get a pair of 185/15 tyres on them.

So removed the hubs..

Next job is to find someone who can turn the 4 stud hubs into 5 stud units to fit the bolt pattern of the Smoothies and also machine the edge of the nipple on the hubs so the wheel centres fit, as they do not fit right now.
Also to figure which way to fix the wheels to the hubs.

Nothing is ever really easy is it?





After that I went up to the house to see Nicola who had just come back from seeing her kids for a couple of days.

Walking back to pack up and close shop, I took this shot in the dark.

[uber cool]

Rian , love the two tone dash idea. When i get round to doing my 59 Apache interior I'll be doing the same. think it really makes the dash peak stand out