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

[Grizz1963]

So Miss Katy was spending the weekend getting her youngest chicken off to and settled in Bournemouth University, so it meant a weekend to myself to get a load of stuff sorted at home.
The plan did actually include some truck time, which ultimately did not happen.

Still, the hedges and shrubs plus garden beds are ready for winter.

So this morning was my first bootfair in 4 weeks.

I found a few bits and this treasure......

No idea what it's worth to someone who wants it, but interestingly, there is no dialling code on the phone number.






Also found this cactus had delivered its 3rd flower ever after being put outside for being ill.



Then got started building, prepping the parts of the water feature and raised flower bed that Katy wants in her back yard.

Decided to recess the water pipe and electrical feed, so created a groove.



Decided to put my special number mark on it too.



Tap fitted.



Eventually filled the groove with sawdust and wood glue mix..



Then created the sides and rear of the raised sleeper bed Katy wants.



Followed by a thick coat of shed paint.



Next update in a while.

[Chevy Apache]

Great work Rian love that specially adapted spanner

[Grizz1963]

Today ****e got real......

International driving permit means Dodge Hemi Challenger will be my preferred transport.



This.....



Will be a joy.

[Grizz1963]

An awesome day altogether

Only got home around 13.00 and then had a light lunch before starting on Katy's flower bed and water feature.


More planning, changing the structure a bit etc.



Eventually got to this point.



The reservoir is also dug in and filled back in.

Much more to be done, including getting soil to fill the bed.

Short video for your pleasure.

Miss Katy's water feature. Its a...

After all this, and a visit from Katy's parents in the afternoon, she made us a rather awesome dinner of Tagliatelle with bacon, pan fried chicken, roasted pine kernels with green pesto.
Washed down wit rum and Pepsi Max.
Been a great day.

Time to relax now.

[Grizz1963]

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Right all you clever people..........

I am wanting to add a "clever looking light" on top of the post of the water feature.

I thought old soda syphon bottle with bottom cut away or an old Kilner jar of something vintage looking.

Then realised there is a mass of brains out there, and maybe even another clever hoarder who has something like a traditional metal bulkhead light that we can add.

It just needs to add some light to the garden path and also look like it belongs there.


This is the post, note power exit on top.




Thank you as always for the advice and input.


Some ideas of what I am looking for.

[Palf70Step]

Nice. Rian, be careful with the dryer setting after washing your truck, they do SHRINK! Although, how it changed from red to yellar in the wash?.?

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Nice. Rian, be careful with the dryer setting after washing your truck, they do SHRINK! Although, how it changed from red to yellar in the wash?.?

A lot to be said about hot water Bill.

But yes, it's always good to be alert.


Funny weekend, not the ha ha type.

Just that I was busy from Friday night till 7.30 tonight with stuff.

It's that time of year where the hedges, shrubs etc all get their final cut, well, it was a few weeks early, but the USA calls......

Yesterday mate Kevin came over for a chat and to supervise and make tea while I was in the garden, then he raked up al the pine needles, leaves and most of the fluffy moss that grows on the lawn. After which I cut the grass.

Harley clearly showing him who the beach is in this story.



We followed this with a ride on the bikes, except that it lasted about three miles.......

Petrol, dripping at quite a rate directly off the leading edge of the tank, onto the headers. So we turned around and came home, after which Kevin left as I was going over to his place for a take out curry later with some more bike mates.

Can you tell what it is yet?





Yup, that will be petrol/gas under the quick release for the fuel pump....... This may still turn into an expensive fix.
I undid everything, and it could be a simple O-Ring in the quick release, or there is a factory fault that had a recall at some point on the fuel pump flange.

Needless to say, a 23k mile, 11 year old bike probably will not get much sympathy from the dealers, so it may cost me.



After putting the bike away, I pottered around and did more odd jobs as there is nobody else to do it.

And then off to dinner at 7pm, with the whole gang asking about Miss Katy and why I had not brought her along.

Would you trust a gang of bikers with this....?



Especially if it is still a "Nomance"

[flashed]

Looks great ,cant wait to see the finished product .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks great ,cant wait to see the finished product .

Trust me John, at this joint I have no idea what it will look like, but also looking forward to it.

Thanks for checking in.




Quick and Dirty post alert.


Been chatting to Dennis in St Louis inbetween doing my yard jobs here.
He is a bit of an insomniac too, so we cross paths ot texts all day and night most days of the week.

He was spending some time on his 1966 NASCAR C10 build this weekend, wanting to get the panels mocked up and the doors back on once he had cleaned up his shop as the messy fairies had been there.



So yesterday at 16.45 UK time which is 10.45am in the US, he sent this pic, with the caption "I will give you one guess what happened here"



Seems the Nut Plate fell inside the cowl for the door hinge. And the only way to retrieve it, was to cut the cowl open.
Dennis hates welding.

Along with the comment, asking why one needed so many tools to just get one little job like that done.



Later I got this see photos from him, as the day progressed.





Progress, eventually......





Loving the look of this truck.......and we don't even have a roaring race motor in there.



And of course late afternoon he went back to the race shop and race truck as it helps pay the bills.

[Palf70Step]

Some neat side projects!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Some neat side projects!

Side projects are what keeps me sane Bill.

I had planned to do the four corners this weekend, but yard work comes first and Miss Katy is rather lovely, so takes a position above the truck and below Harley

[Palf70Step]

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Absolutely.



Quick bit of work on the water feature again after work.

Went to the farm on the way home and asked Charlie for some bits, all he had was an old tap.

So came home, dinner, then got chains from old hanging baskets which will be used to suspend the watering can in top position.



Followed by welding a nail to this spanner. Me and I can nail it to the post as a hook for a hanging basket.



Using an open flame, I had to heat this lot that was one piece to make it into a workable pile of bits.



Put a 13mm drill through this lot as there was no flow.



Followed by one of the cone drills mate Don gave me last year, though the mop bucket.



Now comes the time to be impressed, very impressed.

This is the thread screwing straight into the bucket




So the overflow via the long tap into the reservoir and back up the back of the post, into the watering can and back down to the mop bucket.



Then shut shop.

[flashed]

Rian, it's looking great .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Rian, it's looking great .

Thank you mate.


Quick n Dirty


Took a half day leave.

Packed the car........




Drove the hour over to Katy's place.

Nearly there....


Love this old skool garage. Nearly there.



Funny how small it all looks at this angle.



Katy cooked us an awesome dinner, and poured the drink.

Gotta love a good woman.



Tomorrow we start building and digging to assemble the bed and water feature.

In the mean time we can all drool about Clems shindig.




Bedtime now.

[Palf70Step]

I like the crusty wall mount or the old lantern

[Grizz1963]

February 2016.........,,

Time flies. Had 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.




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.


More recently Dennis has kept me interested by shooting over pics as has been keeping "my car ready"



While he builds a lot of these....




So in a week from now, I will be waking up in St Louis, Missouri.

On Saturday we will be off on a 3 hour or more, possibly a lot less......trip to the Centre of the Universe in Philo, Illinois.

To meet Thomas and Chris........
This is his Garage thread.......http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=51567
Possibly the most read thread on the Internet with over 4.7 million views.


So I hope that some of you are interested in this years road trip, to ride shotgun with me in the Purple Passion Punisher Hemi Challenger.



As a last morsel for today, I will just leave the name GEORGE POTEET on here.

If you have no clue, then go GOOGLE it and see what may well be part of my 2016 Wet dream.


New 2016 Roadtrip thread here:

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thre...riding-shotgun

I will start a separate thread on the forums I go on and just copy and paste updates on there when this kicks off.


Later guys/girls.

[clemdaddy]

And the saga begins…….
"Road Trip 2016"

This will be a fun read, can't wait.

[Ta2Don]

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

And the saga begins…….
"Road Trip 2016"

This will be a fun read, can't wait.

DITTO Mate!!! Looking forward to your visit!!!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by clemdaddy

And the saga begins…….
"Road Trip 2016"

This will be a fun read, can't wait.

I hope so Clem.

Counting sleeps now.

Originally Posted by flashed

Im in to see this adventure .

You will have a few.

Originally Posted by lumpy63

Grizz you need to take Nickola's advice , extend your trip a few extra days. Head west hit NHRA hot rod reunion famoso raceway bakersfield you won't regret it . We'll be guys running blown willys pick up . Just sayin one limey to another…..

Not enough time to get everywhere.

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

DITTO Mate!!! Looking forward to your visit!!!

Yup yup yup !!

[flashed]

Im in to see this adventure .

[lumpy63]

Grizz you need to take Nickola's advice , extend your trip a few extra days. Head west hit NHRA hot rod reunion famoso raceway bakersfield you won't regret it . We'll be guys running blown willys pick up . Just sayin one limey to another…..

[flashed]

You know you will find more cool stuff while on this side of the pond to take back with you .

[Palf70Step]

Keep on smiling Rian, the time is almost here!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

You know you will find more cool stuff while on this side of the pond to take back with you .

Certain I will find some stuff.

Just need ti be sensible mate.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Keep on smiling Rian, the time is almost here!

You have no idea how broadly I am smiling Bill.



Well.......

Life can get better.

It just did this morning.

Got this message from my friend Steve in Arkansas.

My friend Danny got back from the GoodGuys road trip last night and we talked a few minutes ago. Unless George sends him off with the truck unexpectedly he will be able to go down with us on Tuesday the 11th.

Looking forward to your visit. We are not formal people and neither are our friends. The operative words here are relax and enjoy.

Belinda is in Tunica, a casino location about 20 miles south of Memphis for a girl's outing with her best friend from grammar school and her daughter who is also our god daughter. Kathy, the friend, is a retired Arkansas State Police Trooper and she "packs" most of the time so I don't worry about them running around without manly me to protect them.

See you in a week!

Steve.

So it looks like George Poteet is happening. Just how good can life get??

Below, From 2010 mainly quoted as I love trucks.
And six years on, still fresh, I would love to own and drive a truck like this.
Dreams do come true. Even the fleeting thought we have reading a magazine or watching telly, internet or going to car shows.

"Early Truck of the Year award, prolific hot rod builder and financier George Poteet took this year’s award with his “Miller Hauler Special” Indy-inspired 1932 Ford pickup that debuted earlier this year at the Grand National Roadster Show. Brian Stinger designed the truck while the Rad Rides by Troy team assembled it."


Specification:

The truck has what seems to be a million thoughtfully placed louvers and mind boggling amounts of milled aluminum, chrome and custom fabbed parts and pieces. The focal point is the polished custom grill built by Steve Moal. The body features a wedge chop, stretched cowl, custom hood and hood sides by Stinger and a custom box out back. The engine is a 201 cubic inch Donavan 4 banger linked to a Tremec T5. The truck rolls on a genie deuce frame with custom front horns. A Magnum 5 inch drop tube axle insures a killer stance. The Brakes are 12-inch Bendix style with custom machined fins which stop the 19 inch gold Dayton wires. Sitting in the custom Stinger-built seats gives you a birds-eye view of the immaculate Diamond T dash featuring Classic Instruments gauges and MG steering wheel.




Other cars in George Poteets stable of over 200 turnkey cars (from what I know, and I know very little) includes "Sniper" a 1954 Plymouth Savoy built by Troy Trepanier.



And one of Georges cars out on the salt flats.






I think its needless to say, but this road trip may just have kicked into high gear.

More as I find out or do stuff.

Hang on, its going to be a good ride.