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

[Bomp]

It was awesome getting to hang out, work on projects, & interact. I feel I'm the most luckiest forum member.

You sure left your mark. Til next year.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

As long as I have had my coffee, this may remain true Rian.

Hopefully if you make a run next year, we'll get to see if that holds true.

That would be rather awesome Bill.

Originally Posted by northern 85

Awesome pictures,looks like fun,you need to come visit maine sometime.

Love the idea but need to go where I can connect enough dots over two weeks. And if Miss Katy were to travel with me (We both like the ideaof Maine but dont know a lot about the area) things may be different.

Originally Posted by Bomp

It was awesome getting to hang out, work on projects, & interact. I feel I'm the most luckiest forum member.

You sure left your mark. Til next year.

Thank you Greg

Yes, this year was even better and the time we spent with Clem and the guys from all over the USA was just brilliant.


Seems the contributions from Thomas' torn down garage "Final Liquidation Sale" don't stop.

One of the Mason jars rescued by Dennis Jones on the day for his Debbie has been cleaned up and repurposed as a liquid soap dispenser in their kitchen.

Just perfect Dennis.



I am hoping to have my baggage delivered with all my "stuff" gathered and found on the trip to start cleaning up and making space in the house by 23.00 which is when delivery is expected.

Speaking of repurposing.....

The various Southerners and other lovely people I spent time with expanded my pallate so that I now even add Hot Sauce to my scrambled egg.

Today out shopping with Miss Katy we found this 760ml glass skull bottle of hot sauce. To become a 12volt LED light on my teardrop trailer. Once the sauce is gone.



Hijack over.

Back to regular transmission.

[Grizz1963]

Sooooooooo....???

What do you do after a day at Georges place??

Really??

Of course you eat.

Driving "uptown" in Holly Springs, Mississippi we passed through every petrol heads nightmare.



Blue skies. Red lights. Great friends.



Saloon. Whore house. Restaurant. Burger joint. Fooooood !!

Phillips was a saloon in 1882 with a brothel operating above.

Right on the railroad crossing.



Steve, Larry and me.

The burgers n fries were just awesome.



Nothing new or fake in here.

Mud Island bottle made me think of England.



Once we were done and my Dr Pepper drained we headed back into Memphis, Tennissee
The day it seemed was long since not over.

There was more to come.

Steve again showed his incredible ability to navigate by the sense of a sewer rat, driving roads he had never driven to get us over to Horn Lake, Mississippi suburbs.

We were headed for Paul and Edna Kosma's place. (Google Paul's name and Bonneville salt flats racing)

Turns out Paul has an interesting history too. He and Edna met at art school and she still does metal work. He used to work for Harley Davidson and used to service the 12 HD's that Elvis kept for friends to use.

First thing we saw driving up onto his drive is this beauty.



Greeted warmly by Paul we see these jewels.
His large garage filled with machines packed in tightly, still used to make specialised parts for landspeed record cars and bikes.



Had this for years. Restored by himself.



The "World Bike" a basket case Ariel he restored with parts off Ebay from around the world.



Remember the blue first impressions roadster on the drive??



It has its own history.

Much of it also on the Salt Flats.

Want to go for a ride in it ? asked Paul

Did I mention the day was not yet over?

CLICKY LINKY:

Paul Kosma ride in his ex salt flats car. -...

Guess Karma was truely smiling on me.

After a fond farewell and an invitation to come back we all set off back to Arkansas.

You guys keeping up ??

Its still Tuesday..... WTF??

[flashed]

Im still here and loving every minute .If you could have any one car that you saw on this trip ,which one would it be ?

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Im still here and loving every minute .If you could have any one car that you saw on this trip ,which one would it be ?

Weirdly I have no idea.

Its all relative. Can I sell it to buy three other cars and pay my motgage off or just something that makes me smile and just begs to be driven.

So the most expensive car would only facilitate other actions. But for smiles per mile.........

Maybe this one??

[Grizz1963]

Locally in the UK my baggage was delivered by City Sprint just after 10pm last night. Unopened. Thankfully. So all the bits I brought back for myself and various others made it.

Back to photos and little snippets of my trip.

Leaving the Kosma's we headed back to Arkansas.
Sun setting over the Mississippi river.





And on to Trumann where Larry Henderson and his wife lives. He retired from being an agricultural representative and owns a built car and is also building another.





Steven and Larry at it in his shop.



After coffee and a chat we headed back to the motorway toward Jonesboro. Via a Chinese Eat all you want buffet and then back to Steves place and his shop.



Steve is an accomplished machinist and makes his fair share of parts and bits for his cars.





And his driver.



The man and his toys.



Eventually it was late and bed time.

Wednesday I would be off to see some more people along the way and make my way up to Fayetteville to Clem and Kim Johnsons place.

[Grizz1963]

Wednesday morning I was up early again. Not slept much so far on this trip. Fortunately LuLu the dog did not care and tucked down with me.

When Steve and wife Belinda got up we had tea, showered etc then I packed the Challenger and followed him out to Presleys for a breakfast with extra bacon.then to Harbour Freight to get some mini welding magnets and a few other bits.




After our good byes I went to McDonalds for WiFi and Steve set off into the sunset or was it sunrise ??

I was headed to Searcy to see Ta2Don and deliver some things I had brought over for him.



Lunch was great in the back office of O'Reillys.

Donz truck he had finished for Clems shindig this year. Unfortunately his wife had gotten ill. So he had to stay home.



Always liked me a short bus.








Made it to Fayetteville in late afternoon to Clem and Kims.

Bomp (Greg) had arrived a few days before from Oregon

Kim had made a real home cooked dinner with the most deliriously awesome beef briskett I have ever tasted.
Southern hospitality.
She is after all a Texan.

After dinner we just sat and shot the breeze in the alcove.



Then a little drink or two and into the lazy lounge with at least three of the cats.
Clem and Bomps company soon had me relaxing to the point where I was told to go to bed.........



Last year I slept downstairs. This year upstairs.



A pair of rooms with 360' views that are Kims painting studion.



Of course I was awake by 03.00 again.

[flashed]

Rian ,thanks for sharing your trip with us here .One day we will meet ,may even be next year .I will have some vacation time to burn by then.Reading about your adventures help me to not think about my life right now .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Rian ,thanks for sharing your trip with us here .One day we will meet ,may even be next year .I will have some vacation time to burn by then.Reading about your adventures help me to not think about my life right now .

John. Its an absolute pleasure sharing.
I hope that you are not the only guy looking.

And I do wish I was nearer so I could buy you a coffee and a chat.

Georgia is a long way for me now but I am sure you could do with some company.

In the mean time, have a few more pics.

Next morning it was up early and fown to the shop to feed Fritz and Gus. Set out work for the day followed by a hearty American breakfast.



"Pepper" this year with a sick fuel injection system.

Still a lovely truck, one Clem never plans on selling.



Although you primarily see 60-66 Chevy C10's of all shapes here, Tubatrucks.com will restore or build anything to your specification.
So this Ford should be no surprise.

Patina look outside but chassis, running gear, firewall and cab floor etc all fully restored and repainted. Waiting its turn.



Imported "Dog Bomb" specialist Bomp imported from Oregon. On duty.





SEMA 2017 we are led to belive. Knowing the builder, I have no doubt it will be great.





Stocks for future use.

[67cheby]

love following your adventure! we are all Jealous!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

love following your adventure! we are all Jealous!

Cool. We be waiting.

So after shop duties etc, it was breakfast at The Rolling pin.

Then off to pick up the 4x4 GMC that had been used by a turkey farm in a television ad.

So after shop duties etc, it was breakfast at The Rolling pin.

Then off to pick up the 4x4 GMC that had been used by a turkey farm in a television ad.

This was taken to the compound Clem uses to for some of his future restoration stock. He has a schedule of restorations and builds stretching into the future.
Looking at the trucks he and his small team turn out its no wonder there's a waiting list.

Some random pics from there.









My favourite...... Plymouth Fury drag car.






One of Clems Corvette's, for sale. Enquirers to contact him direct.

[Grizz1963]

More random awesomeness (in my opionion) from Clems shop.



In Clems corner where the fire pit and chairs live and Dog Bombs are frowned upon, the man created his own manly string of fairy lights using Impala tail light lenses.



Mark of quality.



Toy Drive got newspaper coverage too.



New Blue almost ready for its maiden trip straight back to Austin Texas.



Gangster Dan the new man having a moment of distraction on final prep.





Even Friday night at the "Pre-Party" the attention continued to be firmly focussed on New Blue.



Bomp and Daniel moving the Ford cab after the firewall paint.



Ready for patina style reassembly.

[Grizz1963]

Inbetween doing various little yard jobs and getting under Clems feet, there were also meals to be had

Clem showed us various places.

My favourite had a "Liars table" where all the regulars eat.

This was lunch at Bears place.





Some interesting hand made musical instruments.





Then after lunch it was back to work or play.

Clem had some cool old garden furniture in need of repairs.

We got to raid his yard for repair pieces.

Bomp (Greg) from Oregon getting on with some work.




One of the best jobs he did was to turn the backrest of a truck seat into a gate for Clems corner to prevent the Dog Bombs being deposited.

This was an amazing cut n shut job.



Even signed off.



And working on a chair repair.



More in a bit.

[dwcardfan]

Oh yea!!!!!!

[northern 85]

Cool stuff!!!

[Grizz1963]

At this point the jetlag was continueing to beat me up quite badly as my biological clock had not yet flipped to US time zones.





Fortunately I had Minnie Pearl Johnson to keep me company at night for a bit.



And in the mornings this was Status normal. You count them.

Perfect world to my sleep deprived brain reaching for the kettle Clem would have boiled already and one of Mr Tetleys best builders teas.



2016 was especially spectacular as we had a load of people in the Rock house.

Mc Murphy and his lovely bride Tricia down for a second year.
Chad Grove who managed to get a few days off work.



And of course Bomp all the way from Kaiser, Oregon who I had an absolute blast with.
Here with the ever present and smiling Mrs Kim J.
She can cook. And I am sure all who stayed over or ate with us will attest to the fact that Clem is a very lucky guy.




So what was Bomp doing to his chair repair?

Remember these all were destined for the tip till Clem challenged the hoarders and artists in us.



The first two I used bits of flat bar and random steel plus a pair of Chevy wheel spanners each.

So Bomp upped his game after the cool gate he made and gifted the Johnsons (both arachnaphobes) with his first ever spiders web and resident spider.



The foot repairs done with internal pipe sleeved and welded in place followed by 66 Chevy C10 hood springs sleeved over the repairs and tacked into place.

Fully shaped arachnid in place.







]

[Grizz1963]

Once I started on chair no3 Bomp had wizened up to me and would take pics but also manage to break my stride.





Leading to my standard response.



Of course having thrown down the gauntlet firmly with his Spider chair it was up to me to respond.

Took me a day to figure out a response and to be honest, I will concede defeat in this case.

My feeble attempt was to create a V8 Chainsaw chair. Using available materials.

Amazingly its not a 5 minute job. Happy to get it done and included into Clems garden collection but the Spider chair rocks big time.





While in a creative mood I thought a GRiZZ tag for the fence was in order too.

Plasma cutter and Arkansas license plate.



Result !!



Mounted above the Impala tail light fairy lights and a collection of dead spray guns.



Made another once I found a plate to sacrifice for Katy to put on her shed as she had been in the US at the same time.



And then while on a roll made a piece for Clem.

No idea what he may do with it. But it got made.



More later.

[aggie91]

Love it. the older I get the more I want to do things like this. I just need to find the time, maybe after the last two kids get through school first...

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by aggie91

Love it. the older I get the more I want to do things like this. I just need to find the time, maybe after the last two kids get through school first...

Karl.......

Now is the time.

Baby steps.

Take yourself and one other person away for a one or two day weekend..... Longview has to be near something interesting.


PS. Yes this trip was awesome.
And my words cannot even come close to describing all the generosity and my experiences on this trip.
Go do a short one and you will be hooked.
Or...... invite a fellow texan or two to stay over a night and talk trucks for the night.

[Grizz1963]

Next day......

Saturday.

Remember why I was doing this trip?

My central anchor of course is Fayetteville Arkansas and Clems Toy Run.



Breakfast maketh man.





Eggs n Bacon??





Once the food was consumed we went back to the shop and Clem kept us busy somewhat.

He also gave Chad the truck and he, Bomp and I went shopping for booze and our contributions to tbe toy run.

Bomps suggestion was this little piece.



Eventually we got back to the shop and proceeded to get things ready, park up trucks etc.

More about that later.

Cottons truck was the first to arrive.



Ten awards in nine shows entered.

Cottons Chevy truck. - YouTube

This truck is used as a daily driver.



A few random yard shots.



Photo ucket fail tonight.

[Grizz1963]

Back to our regular transmission.

Trucks started to arrive from early on.

I do not know half the guys but some trucks n cars were subtle and some outright nasty (I mean drive em mean nasty)

Weather was great as well.



Two brothers in very different trucks.



Brother no 2

I wanted this truck. Motor and stance just did it for me.





Only car to get three photos here.



Inside









Absolutely gorgeous.



More to come.

[Grizz1963]

More and more came.

All sorts all colours all makes.

Old and young.





The usual suspects. L-R



Chad, Clem, Bomp, Neveno, Grizz, Brandon (Whiteknucklegarage)



Baby Rodders





And her daddy Nathan Spiva's truck.



Neveno's buddy.

[flashed]

Looks like a wild crew .

[Palf70Step]

Looks like lots of fun. Wish I could have made it.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks like a wild crew .

Bunch of *****cats. The lot of them.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Looks like lots of fun. Wish I could have made it.

Invite is yours.

Next year??




Boosted Bertha.





From last year. Repeat offender.

Just beautiful.



After dark thonks got more interesting.

The Silver Shakers cranked it up a notch.



Clems carburetor fuel bowls are also perfect shot glasses.



One of my favourite shots.......

Clems Impala Fairy Lights.