GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[bennylava]

I can tell from that pic, there will soon be a birth.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by bennylava

I can tell from that pic, there will soon be a birth.

LOL.

I really hope so buddy, I really am ready for it to happen.

[Grizz1963]

Made a small handle last night from some climbing rope I had stashed away.

Started with a hangmans noose to create the handle and locking it in place.

John the lodger was down here too.

Celebrating their team “My Left Foot” coming 4th out of 70 teams at the Red Bull Soapbox race on Sunday.

Certainly does not fit the bill for “disabled”

He is always game for doing stuff, the riskier the better.















Mocked up.

I am sure a passenger, if I have any, will appreciate it.



Walking back from the house after fetching us a drink, I noticed again how much I like this profile, and though the camera loses some of it, just how low this thing came out.



Washed the webbing and hung it out to dry as the Ebay seller is certainly a d!ck who wont replace the incorrect order he sent.

[Grizz1963]

Finished the pump and hose tonight.

I think I do like that.



Completely useless bit of furniture that looks better than it functions.

[Grizz1963]

.

BAI-JEEZUS Handle.







Next job, rear cross bar.

Padded.



Then wrapped.

I used contact adhesive spray on both lengths of foam to help the webbing grip and not shift.

Once I made it to the last 300mm I added a narrow webbing loop into the wrap to aid pulling the end through and locking it in place once cut back.

John the lodger suggested it as the most secure way to actually ensure it did not come unstuck.



Use the narrow webbing to pull the wide stuff through under the wrap.

I adde a small length of masking tape over the contact glue to ensure the pull through was easier and did not get stuck halfway.



And pulled through.



Cut off, and wrap pulled back, allowing me to tuck it in and pull the wrap over the end with long nosed pliers.



Harnesses refitted over the padding and seems to fit well.



Job done.



Really pleased with that result.

Friday.

[Grizz1963]

Remember last year, dismantling the Horse stables with Craig, his son Kyle and Fil?

Well, the new concrete floor and a 4 brick foundation wall are all up now.

Two extra brick courses will give some more headroom than the stables did already.

Last night, this was the state of play for Craig and Kyle on their own.

The next big job once the rest of the walls are up, will be to get those super sized roof panels up and screwed together.

Certainly a job for four or more guys.








Bootfair today:

Slim pickings.

VW Golf stepdown pipe unused £2.00
“Axe” £1.00
Single hinge £1.00
3/4 box screws 50p
10 flap wheels for £8.00 normal price £1.00 each.

[Grizz1963]

Always said I was not going to do this job.

Getting it done by a refurbishment specialist would be £300.00 or more.

But 5 plus hours of therapy, cleaning, prepping, masking repeatedly, followed by two cans of a louder Gold than was on there, and two large cans of Satin Black to cover the rear inside bands and front hub faces, re-inflating, detailing the axle hubs and drums in black made me very happy, despite the very hot day out there.

Rears cleaned, prepped and painted.



Front side masked.



Painted



Before and after.



Painting



Both Golds done.



Black centres prepped, masked



And a pic of them before and after paint.







So different from where I started.


Side



Rear



Front



Low-ish.




Closed shop, showered by 3.30 as too hot really to have fun.

Cold Beer time I think.

[Grizz1963]

Bit of a story on this one.

Bonnie the rescue dog loves water.

On Sunday it was really hot and Sally put out a washing up bowl filled with water for her. Twice.
Played it dry both times.

https://youtu.be/hLiilwSEKd8

So I said a Little Tikes kids sandpit/splash pool would be ideal.

Tonight after work I stopped in the village to get bread and then headed home.

Saw a skip. Full. And on top was the lid.

U-Turn and knock on the door, ask if I can have it, body was there too.

Loaded.



Unpack

Mucky



Price Check

Thank You



Pressure Cleaner

Plus Rag and Amonia cleaner.

Result



Off to Sally

Greeted with a WTF ? (Where That Found)

Water + Dog added.



Toys brought into pool by Bonnie.



I think you can call that a result.

Half an hour and she has not got out of it. Still playing.

[Grizz1963]

Bought some relays for the headlights.

Seems I bought the wrong ones.

Need the other type.

Bugggerr.



Nick suggested….. They need to be double 'make or break' and not 'changeover' like a lot of 5 post relays,

But I still managed to get it wrong.

Seems the MX5 has some or other positive earth or whatever, I don’t understand.

So the LED headlights need some cleverness.


Grrrrrrr.

[Grizz1963]

Taken the day off tomorrow to spend some time on myself.

Yesterday a major cluster**** of a redundancy was announced, it will be swift and brutal it seems, wrapped up by end July, and nobody knows yet.

It will be a surprise it seems.

Nobody knows.

So I raised the car once again on axle stands.

And strung an old bedsheet in place as a dummy sun screen roof.





Spoke to a sailmaker today who is also prepared to look at the S10 bed cover.

Maybe get two birds with one stone.

Tomorrow, depending on how it unfolds, I want to go through all fasteners and ensure they are tight and right.

[Grizz1963]

I think there is a lot more progress here, even if not visible.

Problem now for Craig is that there is only he and his wife to try get the roof panels up.



Maybe I should try figure a way to go up next weekend, amd step away from the Rezin Rockit again.

Will give it a think.

[Grizz1963]

Walking past a skip, my eyes are drawn in there.

Walking the dog yesterday, the farm house had a new skip outside…….

Unused, like new….. phone holder, that will work for the Rezin Rockit and my mobile phone when I need a Satnav.



Free really is good.

[Grizz1963]

Carrying on with small jobs that are within my abilities had me check and mark off all underbody fasteners yesterday, my usual Red marking nail varnish seems to have disappeared, so,I opted for white, which does look rather rubbish on the black paint everywhere.

Still, another important job ticked off the list.



My good friend Kevin popped around for a progress check,,chat and coffee in the afternoon, so I used him to give opinion and comments too.

Also finalised the gearshift extension position and lock nut @nickwheeler had made and bolted the covering plate down for hopefully the last time.



Last late afternoon job was to final fix the modified fresh air intake inside the wheel arch, up high, facing back and out of harms way.



Shop shut early and then a drive and walk to go see how much hedgerow plums I could find for a batch of planned plum jam

Yield is down this year, the fruit is a lot smaller and certainly a lot less than previously.

So I may have to go search further afield.

[Grizz1963]

Filed under Random rambling.

The extreme heat is driving the farmers to harvest fast.

And the new guy, despite being it seems quite unfriendly, is driving his whole business with an extreme financial eye.

Long days and working to late, after dark that is around 10.00pm

He has also changed his tractors from John Deere to Fendt this year.,





Took Bonnie for a walk in the cut fields.

She absolutely loved it.

Must have been so much overload for her olfactory senses.



Back home, George, the cat I don’t have, has now trained me to feed him,wet,food,twice a,day.

It is cheaper than chicken or ham.

He is a pleasant chap to have around.





.

[Grizz1963]

Dry summer.

Hot days, relative to monsoon weather, has made the yield of wild fruit less than usual as @kevins and I both realised.

So this year my fruit collection was in three different places.

Near the vets was good for about 1.5kg and one of Sally, Bonnie and my walks has a few trees, of which only three had any accessible, usable fruit, it gave about 2.5kg as well, so I had 4kg by Saturday afternoon, stashed in the fridge.

Perfect dog walking paths.

Finding the fruiting trees becomes a game too.





Sunday I went looking about 7 miles from home on the isle of grain down the road my electrician lodger goes to,work, I recalled there was fruit when he came here last year……



Booooom as @pauly says.

Jackpot.



Of course I had to share with this girl, I thought she was a boy……..



Friendly.

https://youtu.be/qZoM5jUZAsE

About 6 varieties of plums all told in my collection that made up 12kg raw with stones.



Back home I cleaned them all, and weighed up the lot.

8kg from the trees in the lane, of course minus what the horses had.

So a total of 12kg in fruit.

I went to the village and bought 10kg of sugar as I use less than the traditional 1 to 1 mix of fruit, sugar and a cup of water per kilogram.

Split the lot into 2 and 4 kilo and cooked them in two pots, with the stones in.





MISTAKE.

But I got the stones out when halfway through.

Will do the second 6kg tonight after work.

And will remove all the stones before cooking, another spectacularly shiite job, but has to be done.

By 8.00pm I had bottled and cleaned up the kitchen.

RESULT.






Part two tonight then.

[Grizz1963]

Spare refitted and I must say, I like the look of the new paint.

Looks like I cared with the finishing.

[Grizz1963]

So on Tuesday a lot of nothing happened in the extreme heat.

John the lodger had gone from 8 hours of driving instruction time to one hour during Monday afternoon, so,he rescheduled the one hour that was left in his diary to,Friday and took the day off.

I worked from home as hospitals were on high alert and on Monday I was in one and realised the heat was not a good thing at all.

Being well ahead of my targets and quotas meant mainly administrative tasks that could be done sitting under a tree, drinking Pina Colada’s (by the bucket)

Heat under the carport hovered around 39’C

The dark green roof may have something to do with it of course.



So John and I went and started on the side lights, under the carport by 09.00 ( I had been up before 06.00 and run through a load of admin before 8.30 )

It took us nearly 4 hours to find a fault in the drivers side, including disassembly and checking of the rear lights that @nickwheeler had previously sorted.



Mate Martin called around 12.30 to see how I was enjoying the heat as his company had shut for the day, speaking with John, they narrowed it down to a duff earth as the side light was acting as indicator and various tests showed passenger side was fine.



One shortcut earth and it was all good.

So wiring was soldered in place and I bonded both the side lights into the fenders for the final/first time.



Once these were done, it was time for a cold celebratory beer for John, water had been flowing all day.

Using 4 different sets of instructions and Google, replacing one blown 15 amp fuse (possibly just a wire touching and shorting at some point) we proceeded to decipher and get the relays I had bought previously to work.

At some point the one side tested like this……..

https://youtu.be/UnYritotCCA

A few hours of work found both headlights, the halo’s and side lights all working.

A lot of forward and reverse went on through the day, neither of us are electricians, and Martin’s advice helped John understand the intricacies more clearly.



While he was on the lights, I did various little jobs of tidying up and getting things together.

One was to drag the bits for the pretend”Race car doors” out of hibernation……..

Laying it all out and trying to recall what the original plans were for their assembly.

In the end after some mocking up around 18.30 and swearing a bit, I put them aside.



In stead, I started to wrap all the exposed wiring and looms, right down to 2 wire,sections, in self amalgamating tape.

Doing it all in black and removing and untangling parts then anchoring them in the engine bay has transformed the space as well.

I am really really pleased with the result as it came out better than expected.

I guess making the extra effort does pay off.



In the mean time, John whom I had dismissed after a long day, as it was now 8.00pm and he had been down there all day, except for going to pee once, insisted on figuring out how we could have the ring halo lights run separately on an ignition live.

We still need to find one in the power distribution box or somewhere, it is out there.

But then they will act as DRL’s which looks pretty cool.

Lastly……….


For everyone’s pleasure.

Angle of the camera makes it look like they are not both working, trust me….. ZOOMERS, they all work fine and are actually the same.

VIDEO OF FULL LIGHT TEST.

https://youtu.be/gSJhOtB89L4


Next jobs include the rear fog light, which iirc is an LED and may also require a relay if wired into the loom, alternately just a live off a switch in the cab for testing time.

Hooter needs to be fitted and made to work, I was looking for something interesting and obnoxious to fit but have pretty much failed to find anything, same as an MX5 service manual to have on standby.

Then the elephant in the room…….

Fuel pump wire to be reinstated in the loom and maybe………. Crank over and start.


Thanks for checking in.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@westbay" source="/post/2741305/thread" timestamp="1658394188"]What no CROWN dust cap ?

not my capitals ...[/quote]






Still need to figure centre caps.


Supersized CROWNs would be great.

[Grizz1963]

As I stopped at home on Wednesday evening from work, @nickwheeler pulled up and parked as well.

Hot and sticky outside……

Indoors, cold drink, chat, catch up.

Nick had come bearing gifts that had been burning a hole in his pocket for a while, but with,certain situations out of his control, it was the first chance to get over.

Remember the clutch actuator he took away a few weeks ago?



Replacement made with offset lever, and paint….😉

Also some custom nuts for the brake light switch and a spacer for the handbrake on the rear axle.

Christmasses all in one…..



Looking forward to fitting these parts of the puzzle.

Thanks a lot Nick.

[Grizz1963]

No car building this weekend…….

Took Friday off and was over 200 miles from home by 09.00

More later of the processes in pictures and words.

https://youtu.be/NCkz3-KbnKE


And of course it is England……


https://youtu.be/cb_5Q26Vbug

[Grizz1963]

Impulsively and on short notice I took Friday off this week.

Came up to help Craig after we got Fil “Sparkplug” and his wife to agree to come up in their campervan from Cambridge.

So up by 04.30 and by 09.00 I was here and by 10.00 Fill and Mrs Sparkplug was parked up outside too.






Uneventful trip had me stop to grab a couple of pics along the way.

Life goes on……..





Our task for the two days was this…….

Get the rest of the structure and roof up so Craig could carry on with the build on his own.





John the lodger and David the contractor lodger are looking after the house this weekend.

Yesterday I got a WhatsApp message from John.

He had been playing a bit.

Enjoy.


https://youtu.be/lcti0CSe54c


I was very thankful and pleased.


More inconvenient jobs out the way.

[Grizz1963]

Impulsively and on short notice I took Friday off this week.

Came up to Shropshire to help Craig after we got Fil “Sparkplug” and his wife to agree to come up in their campervan from Cambridge.

Craig had bought these 20 year old stables from the lady he bought his house from.

She was replacing it and rebuilding a new home on the foundation footprint (Crazy English planning permission rules)

So what he bought was this.

We dismantled it in November……….






So up by 04.30 and by 09.00 I was here and by 10.00 Fill and Mrs Sparkplug was parked up outside too.






Uneventful trip had me stop to grab a couple of pics along the way.

Life goes on……..





Our task for the two days was this…….

Get the rest of the structure and roof up so Craig could carry on with the build on his own.




So once the unpacking, unwinding and coffee was done, we went up to the workshop space and discussed, planned and double checked various parts of the planned erection.

So the main, to be exposed ridge beam was lifted into place and then with a strap we pulled it to align and drop into place as rain and being stored in kit form for 9 months had had certainly affected some of the panels.

Fil the strapping lad tidying up after the heave-ho.



Of course what does not show in all of these photos is the amount of time it takes to make small tweaks for fitting, and larger tweaks for our own health and safety.

Nobody wants to get hurt 200 miles from home, let alone at home.


Ridge beams all fitted and various extra bearers and supports added
.











Inbetween Craigs wife and Nicky made sure we were motivated with food and drinks…….

Thankfully it was overcast all day.

Next job was to start sorting through the pile of roof panels that had been packed and piled around the back of the temporary garage.

Then a decision was made

On how to raise the super sized and heavy, trust me, roof panels safely onto the structure.

The old dividing walls were laid on the floor as a stable work surface, followed by fetching the hydraulic engine hoist on the Radio Flyer wagon.



Every panel needed more denailing, and then strengthening with 100mm to 150mm screws to ensure they lasted another lifetime.

The original build was all done with nails.

You can see the size of the small panels vs the larger ones we were standing on.



Loads of lifting and shifting, and also using these low down dollies over some OSB boards to get the panels into a workable position.



Lifting these large heavy panels onto the roof is dangerous and heavy work.

So using the engine hoist to do the initial dead-lift made a load of sense.



VIDEO.

https://youtu.be/NCkz3-KbnKE

And number one up and over.



Screwed down, with more interior screwing down going on.

At this point it was around 18.30 and rain had set in earlier.



So we decided that the rain was just going to make things dangerous and slippery…….

ANOTHER LITTLE VIDEO…..

https://youtu.be/cb_5Q26Vbug

YES, IT WAS NOW WET.

At the point where we stood under the cover, looking out and feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for the work done so far.



Closing shop meant covering things over, strapping bits down and heading indoors.

Lorraine had planned it all out for us in the farm kitchen……

DIY Pizzas.

I think we were all long gone to sleep by 10.00

Both Craig and I were awake by 03.00 as we sleep less that we want to.

I chatted with Dennis for a while then dozed off again till 6.00

More in a while.

[Grizz1963]

Saturday morning broke early and we got some odd jobs done, then breakfast, after which we stormed the rest of the roof panels.



The first four panels are massive and we were thankful when the were screwed down as they also created a landing pad for the next few which we manhandled and lifted up, three of us lifting and Craig on top, pulling and positioning, along with Kyle, they did all the top fastening, leaving Fil and I to do the stuff below.





We did find some time to laugh as well.

Fil had his parole revoked.



More of the same, refitting the panels as they were marked when disassembled.





We eventually made it to the last panel……..



Tidied away tools for the night.

Started a fire for BBQ…….




Anyone who has not done one of these builds, do not be deceived into thinking its a quick job.

Very different to a team who do it for a living and have plans.

This was all re-engineered.

And if you look at the photo of what it started out as, you will notice a lot of re-engineering.

Changes in wall plans etc.

[Grizz1963]

While the fire was burning, we carried on tidying up inside the workshop.



Craig could not contain himself.



This is where the bench should go……

Outside his home office.

Which the first room will be.



Overhang is just right to keep most weather off the doors.

This side will be office, woodworking shop, and the extended section includes a double door out the further side for motorcycles and mechanical stuff.



Once we settled down next to the fire and started to chat, I suggested we could get the roof felted in the morning, as the rain had stopped again.

So at 7.00pm we raced over to B&Q to buy 13 rolls of 5 year roofing felt as a temporary measure till Craig can get up and do the shingles he has planned.



Done



When we got home, Kyle and Lorraine Had cooked dinner……

Awesome food, company and Jack Daniels Tennessee Fire……..





At around 10.00pm I was dead, and Fil always helpful, managed to help me remember the next morning.



I got up and slunk off to bed.

Sunday awaited.

[Grizz1963]

Being the restless sleeper I am, I heard the rain coming down all night, in varying degrees of intensity.

Sunday morning by 6.00am Fil and I were sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee/tea while Craig was up at the shop, already cutting, sawing, banging……

So we went to join him, but it was wet, and all we could do was move stuff about, clean up and prepare for felting the roof later.

By 10.00 we had had breakfast, in an effort to give the rain a chance to move on, and by 11.30 Fil and Nicky left for Cambridge as it had become obvious the rain was not going to stop.

Craig, Kyle and I went back and they started to strip off some of the old felt that had not come off with the disassembly….. hard work, hampered by the rain not allowing the blowtorch to heat the tar sufficiently.

I removed nails and inspected the rooftop in the mean time, waiting for the rain to go……





Eventually after a coffee and goodbyes at 12.30 we called it a day, and no felting had been done.

I headed home and Sally had promised to cook sweet n sour pork on noodles

Road conditions dried out an hour from Craigs and by the time I got home, it was sunny and 29’C

Bonnie was happy to see me too.






LAST VIDEO.

VIEW FROM THE TOP.


https://youtu.be/AVo31ICWZVg



And a final word from Fil.


Time To Sleep is directly proportional to the volume of Jack Daniels Cinnamon consumed - an experiment that was repeated to prove it wasn't just a co-incidence the first time!

It really was a great weekend and a wonderful sense of achievement when we got that last panel in.

I remember clearly when taking those roof panels down how glad I was that I wasn't going to be one of the poor sods who had to put them back up again

With Craig's thoughtful planning and having the original team who understood how the whole thing needed to be stitched back together the job was actually a lot easier than I'd feared.

As ever Craig & Lorraine's hospitality was second to none and Kyle is always a pleasure to work with. Rian, well, I don't have to say that it's always great to catch up with you and I love those little things like us living a couple of hours away from each other but meeting up four hours away for you to deliver my latest new tool! You managed to bring two different snacks which I haven't had since my childhood was also one of those quirks of fate that add an intangible and unmeasurable grin factor to what was a great couple of days.

The enjoyment to effort ratio was heavily skewed in favour of enjoyment for me.

The felting would really have been the icing on the cake, but it was not to be. We got the important work done that Craig simply could not have done without a couple of extra people and that's what counts.

The only negative was that the exact same journey cost me nearly exactly £30 more in fuel than it had 9 months ago - but there's nothing we could do about that.

I didn't partake of the Jack Daniels but don't mind admitting that I found myself nodding off on the sofa yesterday afternoon. Exercise and fresh air is great for that. Slept until about 7 this morning which is a good couple of hours later than normal for me.

We must do it again soon



Weekend over.


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