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

[60chevyjim]

very nice work making the brake lines . that red and white truck looks great ,
I have been thinking about a weathered red and white paint job for my truck
after I do all the body work.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Again, good job Rian. Looks like your ready to start your own bendy business.

I could only wish Bill.

Trust you had a good day.

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

X2!!! I only hope I do nearly that good when I get around to plumbing mine...

You will be perfectly fine Don.

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks good ,now tell me what Tiger Bread is ,never heard of it .

Go check out Google for Tiger bread John.......

Originally Posted by 60chevyjim

very nice work making the brake lines . that red and white truck looks great ,
I have been thinking about a weathered red and white paint job for my truck
after I do all the body work.

Thank you Jim,

I would love my truck to come out even just half as nice as the red n white truck.

Glad the brake lines have come out as well as they have.

[Grizz1963]

Last bit of the new brake lines done today. The fronts including those bloody spirals I love on some other builds I see around.

So got up and out late, and started bending, copying and shaping the new pipes, using the old ones as a sample.



Finger tightened all the ends as I made them up.

The pipes can be shaped once the engine, gearbox, inner fenders etc are all back in.





Once they were all bent, etc, it was time to start on the spirals.

I had originally added an extra 500mm per upward pipe, after I had measured the circumference of the rattle can I planned to use as post for the spirals.

If you want to do it, I found using a double dose of good masking tape to hold the pipe in the start position, and then to wind the pipe tightly around the can till you have the righ spirals. After this, I used the can as a lever to twist the pipe till it was basically in the right position.



First pipe bent and ready to wait for the rebuild to complete.

They have to follow the inner fender profile and then end up under the hood next to the master cylinder.



Second one done.......



Final pic.

Whatcha think ?

Yes, I am very pleased with the results at this point.



Rest of the day given to marital and family bliss.

[ibrown50]

Looks great Rian, nice jobs, and congrats on passing 100,000 views, which you will no doubt have done by the time you read this

[Palf70Step]

That looks great Rian. And yes I had a good time yesterday, except for some traffic issues on the interstate (they decided to move Mardi Gras floats on I12, so it took me 1 hr 40 mins to go about 12 miles). Made me thing about the automatic change over in the mule.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by ibrown50

Looks great Rian, nice jobs, and congrats on passing 100,000 views, which you will no doubt have done by the time you read this

Thank you Ian.

Wow !!! I lost track of post and view counts. Saying that, my thread on Garagejournal.com has in excess of 550k views.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That looks great Rian. And yes I had a good time yesterday, except for some traffic issues on the interstate (they decided to move Mardi Gras floats on I12, so it took me 1 hr 40 mins to go about 12 miles). Made me thing about the automatic change over in the mule.

Bill, I Guess that's always a potential hazard, Clem, Martin and I got caught up in a Razorbacks home game traffic last year as well.

[Grizz1963]

Well, tomorrow is February.....

Time flies. Been three months since my first trip to the USA for the road trip of a lifetime for mate Martin's birthday last year.

Nicola and I were discussing holidays recently as she needs to go to Thailand for a month to visit one of her best friends of 20 years. I have been there before and loved it and have tried for three years to get her to visit her friend. To which she eventually agreed.

While chatting, she said...... "Are you going to Clem's again this year?"

I had never considered going again, as it is not a cheap undertaking, despite it being one of the most awesome things I ever did, and meeting some of the most incredible people you could wish to meet made it a trip of a lifetime.

I said no, as the money is better spent shoved into the bank in my opinion. And this immediately got Nicola's back up. Some of you may know that Nicola works in a funeral home. So her response to my declining a trip, was to say she sees too many people my age in her mortuary, with family members often saying they never did anything they dreamed of, so what is the use of being the richest guy in the graveyard ?

So I contacted Clem and found out the date of the Cruise In and requested an invitation, which he confirmed.

Looks like I am headed out again in October, there are a few people and places I need to get to while there. People I missed out on last year.

So I give you map one as an opener for my 2016 Road Trip.



Hope to land around the 7th and need to leave by the 20th October.

Looking forward to reconnecting with some great friends and meeting up with some I have not yet met.

[chad64chevy]

wow, Rian! I just read to Dixie what Nicola had said to you, her responds was she's got a very good point! I will see you at Clem's this yr. my friend, as I'm taking the whole weekend off for it this time NO matter what!!

progress on those brakes lines look great, I'm going to go with braided hose and -3an fittings! I have figured it to be about $30 in just 3an-to- inverted flare fittings

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Well, tomorrow is February.....

Time flies. Been three months since my first trip to the USA for the road trip of a lifetime for mate Martin's birthday last year.

Nicola and I were discussing holidays recently as she needs to go to Thailand for a month to visit one of her best friends of 20 years. I have been there before and loved it and have tried for three years to get her to visit her friend. To which she eventually agreed.

While chatting, she said...... "Are you going to Clem's again this year?"

I had never considered going again, as it is not a cheap undertaking, despite it being one of the most awesome things I ever did, and meeting some of the most incredible people you could wish to meet made it a trip of a lifetime.

I said no, as the money is better spent shoved into the bank in my opinion. And this immediately got Nicola's back up. Some of you may know that Nicola works in a funeral home. So her response to my declining a trip, was to say she sees too many people my age in her mortuary, with family members often saying they never did anything they dreamed of, so what is the use of being the richest guy in the graveyard ?

So I contacted Clem and found out the date of the Cruise In and requested an invitation, which he confirmed.

Looks like I am headed out again in October, there are a few people and places I need to get to while there. People I missed out on last year.

So I give you map one as an opener for my 2016 Road Trip.



Hope to land around the 7th and need to leave by the 20th October.

Looking forward to reconnecting with some great friends and meeting up with some I have not yet met.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I may have to see if I can arrange a trip up yonder this year then. WE have our big run Oct 2-9, maybe I can squeeze a run up to ARK.

BTW, is it the weekend of the 17th?

I wonder what 10hrs feels like in the Mule?

[clemdaddy]

this is great news… and now that its declared on the forum, to thousands of people, it must be true…

Bill, the party is the 3rd Saturday in October, the 15th this year. Too cool if you can make it also. Rian is a superstar of having a good time. Plan for the weekend if you can.

[realvc]

Epic, another Grizz invasion.

What about Martin?

[dwcardfan]

Sweet!! Another road trip. But the route on the map did not go through Strawberry AR.

[60chevyjim]

Rian take your time doing the bodywork and paint on your truck ,
and your truck will be just as nice as the red and white one !!
your doing a great job on everything else .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by chad64chevy

wow, Rian! I just read to Dixie what Nicola had said to you, her responds was she's got a very good point! I will see you at Clem's this yr. my friend, as I'm taking the whole weekend off for it this time NO matter what!!

progress on those brakes lines look great, I'm going to go with braided hose and -3an fittings! I have figured it to be about $30 in just 3an-to- inverted flare fittings

Great news Chad. Thank Dixie for letting you go too.

We are fortunate many of our girls let us get on with our toys.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....I may have to see if I can arrange a trip up yonder this year then. WE have our big run Oct 2-9, maybe I can squeeze a run up to ARK.

BTW, is it the weekend of the 17th?

I wonder what 10hrs feels like in the Mule?

10 hrs in the mule.....?

Easy for a guy like you. Get up an hour earlier than usual at 3am and hit the road by 3.30 if you prepped and packed already, and with 40 minute stops you can still be there by 4pm at 60mph and no stress.

I may have to buy you a beer or coffee

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

this is great news… and now that its declared on the forum, to thousands of people, it must be true…

Bill, the party is the 3rd Saturday in October, the 15th this year. Too cool if you can make it also. Rian is a superstar of having a good time. Plan for the weekend if you can.

Yup. Official.....

Wait till you see my next random report (it is after midnight here) on ow I plan to get there....

Originally Posted by realvc

Epic, another Grizz invasion.

What about Martin?

Martin currently has his own circus and has to manage all the monkeys.

Originally Posted by dwcardfan

Sweet!! Another road trip. But the route on the map did not go through Strawberry AR.

It did not, but if you have a spot in the shop..... It may well.

The map only shows me landing in St Louis, Missouri and then coming down to you guys. I need to get to Jonesboro to see a dear friend too.

Originally Posted by 60chevyjim

Rian take your time doing the bodywork and paint on your truck ,
and your truck will be just as nice as the red and white one !!
your doing a great job on everything else .

Thank you very much Jim.

I will do, despite the truck fighting me at times.

[Grizz1963]

Another day where I did nothing actively to the truck, but the "side bar entries" may be of interest to some of you.

I needed to get to B&Q to fetch some more black Hammerite smooth paint and a couple of light switches to replace some in the house.

While I was out, I also needed to stop by at my local electrical wholesaler TLC at the industrial estate. Another awesome supplier for customer service.
I had decided to replace all the strip lights in the garage with 6 foot daylight units. As some are very temperamental.
Recently, working on the truck later in the day etc and also on the rear of the chassis, I realised the light was not as good as it could be.

While out, I got a text from friend Henry "Rider 51" to ask if I was about and could he pop over......? Our home is always open to visitors and for guests who need a spot to crash etc, so of course I said yes.

I picked up this lot and then headed home. Will fit them tomorrow through the day as I am expecting Paul Y here in the afternoon with Woody his ex forestry dept truck.



Henry got here about 10 minutes after I got home. He brought very nice biscuits and this number plate from Australia where his sister lives, for my collection.



We spent a couple of hours like kids in the garage looking at stuff, truck, bike, tools etc ably assisted by Harley who was keeping a strict security watchdog eye on Henry..... You know she owns the garage and everything in it.



Once we made it back into the house she made sure he gave her all the attention she deserved/demanded. For some reason the other two cats kept hanging around him as well.



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 ?



After Henry left, I fetched this little parcel from the neighbours. Postage worth a lot more than the parts inside.



Thank you Ta2Don for buying these drum brake rebuild kits on behalf of Martin and I and posting them out to us. Weirdly, the postal service returned them a week after he had posted them as "undeliverable" thankfully he went back and at the second attempt they made it here within a week.



So that was today, not much done but a great day nonetheless.

[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.

[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.

[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,

[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]

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.

[flashed]

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

[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.