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

[Grizz1963]

Facebook just reminded me this morning.


It was a year ago that mate Fil collected this “car” for me in Scotland.


So Bill shot over to the body shop where the Rezin Rockit was stored along with mate Gordon




Finding the Eagle in the back of the yard.




Lots of green and garden











Moving it included a dead lift by Bill and Gordon to get it away from the wall.



Gordon Man-Legend




Car ready

[Grizz1963]

So today I created about 75 minutes early morning……

Followed by stealing some time this afternoon from work, clocking out at 4.00pm

So I painted the once side, then the other, taking one wheel off at a time to create easier access.

At this point I ran out of paint this morning…….

I sis not paint the springs or shocks as I am planning to add shorter springs and shocks, if I can find them, or else follow the teachings of the master @pauly and call in Mr Grinder for a loop or two.



So at lunchtime, taken at 4.00pm I ran into the village and got lucky, the local hardware guy, normally overpriced, had 1 liter of smooth Black Hammerite for £20.00 which is what B&Q charge for 750ml

Then back home and straight into finishing off the painting, and adding touch up and a second coat on parts of the structure.

Done.

Top side.



Bottom view.



I am contemplating going for vented Ford Capri 2.8 front discs and callipers.

And then of course my good mate JB Mathews in Oklahoma challenged me today, asking if the MX5 brakes and discs could not be transfered.

So there is tonights challenge question.


Ready for me to buy the Poly Bushes needed for the rebushing.




Looking for something else for work today, I found this little rocket pic.

Reminded me that I still want or need to create a logo for the Rezin Rockit



Original




One year later this is getting better every day for me.

Lockdown and working from home is not ideal.

Therapy I guess.

[Grizz1963]

So the Rezin Rockit is due for a full Polybush makeover.

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...in-rockit-year

So this is a kit available from floflex https://floflex.co.uk/product/cortin...set-inc-x-mem/

Cost is £152.00 plus shipping, probably £160.00 landed.

I have looked at the parts and tried to identify and align the various bushes with parts of the front and rear suspensions and crossmember

I have failed……

Has anyone done this swap before and used these products?

If so, based on this photo from the advertising online, can you identify where they,go ?



And related to this as far as I can see, the rear has a 16mm Anti Roll Bar which I do not believe has bushes in the kit.







So question no 2 for anyone who knows their Fords……….

Is there a bush kit, or way to replace these bushes?

The one is a double with the one side having a 12mm bolt keeping it in place, the outer diameters are 25 and 30mm for the two ends where they are bushed.


Any advice, thank you.

[Grizz1963]

In other news

Dennis’ birthday today.

Not the best of dates since 9/11

Today is his best mate Roger’s (since age 5 years old) Burnout party.

So the truck which he got back out this week after the last catastrophic self destruction was tested this week and held together.



Love the helmet and cup holders in a race truck.

800 plus horsepower from a Hendricks NASCAR motor.



So last night it was loaded for the 30 mile trip down i70 to Rogers place as it has not yet been inspected and registered or insured.




Looking forward to reports later from Dennis.


His comment after his local test drive to Mittler Brothers.

The truck is a tribute to the late Mike Mittler, a good friend, whose NASCAR trucks Dennis did all the bodywork for over the years.

They all came out and took a bunch of pictures of it. Mike's brother even came out and shook my hand
It's not a very street friendly truck. It does not want to go slow.
It doesn't like low speed and low rpm's as long as you are giving it gas and driving it hard it drives fine. Deb said I guess we can't take it on a Sunday afternoon drive. Well that depends on how fast of a Sunday afternoon drive you want.

So lets see if the truck survived today.

.

[Grizz1963]

Today I really did not want to go to the bootfair, as I only got about 4 hrs sleep in broken episodes, and was tired from the time on the chassis yesterday.

But a 4.30 am alarm had me awake, and up just after 5.00

So I went anyway.

First blood to @Craigrk wife, and second blood too.

Plates for their new home in Shropshire which is known as The Stables. £3.50 for the plates.



She asked me to keep an eye out for a less common item……..got lucky.



The rest of the bootfairs bounty was collected within the first half of the field.

Picture frame, unused £2.00
Socks 50p
Small yankee candle 20p
Seeing eye 50p
Pile up sanding discs (I still have the attachments) £1.00
35 foot or 10 meter rubber reinforced airline £2.00
Large wooden Buddha for Sallys garden £4.00
Ornate cat for the garden £2.00
Plastic coat hangers £1.00
Stick of rock £- Free



So ultimately not too bad.

Airline alone made it worthwhile for me.


And unfortunately I do not know how to download video from FB.

But a few pics of Dennis’ truck doing what it was built to do at Rogers garden party.

Some of you may remember that Roger built a concrete strip for burnouts and short drag launches a few years ago.

Any of his friends are allowed to pop in and burn some money (rubber)






Being 9/11 and Dennis’ birthday, the flag had to come out too of course.

Driving over Rogers pond/lake wall after the burnout.



Full Hendricks NASCAR race motor and all 2015 season truck under the skin.

Amazing build and detail.








If I can figure how to get a video saved from FB I will and load to YouTube.

Back to the Rezin Rockit today.

Hopefully get chassis painted both sides.

Later guys.

[Grizz1963]

So a load of these died yesterday,

4 in fact.

Finishing the top and drivers half of the chassis, followed by the whole of the underside.

Happy to say, two coats of primer/paint and red oxide plus that bloody underseal is all gone, leaving surprisingly unblemished steel under it all.



Then I had to carefully flip the chassis, its not light, and it’s awkward.

So did it in a weird, but successful way.





Eventually 7 hours later………

I was truly knackered at this point.

The NVH gets to you.



Cleaned up and ready for primer




I then fetched the Mx5 Canary back in and got it onto the ramps, want to take a look today at what part of the exhaust is missing, knowing the catalytic converter was removed.

David the lodger sneaks around the garden smoking, and took a nippet of a clip as I got it to the top.

https://youtu.be/3tT-bvVW1n0

I want a sports exhaust on it anyway, and saw a piece of one for £30.-00 on FB Marketplace yesterday.

May be worth having.





Remember this….?



Bodgers should have thumbs removed.

Welded up bush.

Repairing it would be more expensive in time and effort, plus swearing than replacing in this case.




Thankfully @westbay found me a replacement pair on Ebay, seller was happy to do a Buy it Now for £32.00 delivered.



After a cleanup and rebushing, we should be good to go.


Today it is chassis primer one side, then flip it over and do the other side.

[Grizz1963]

Meet George.

Presumed to be a wild, feral stray…….

He has hung around my place for a few weeks.

Turns out he is a former indoors cat belonging to the new tenants two houses down from me.

He allowed Sally to touch him last week Wednesday.

Then I tried on Friday to get close to him and made contact.

He is a pot head…… loves catnip.

So this morning when I was checking out the underside of the MX5 on the ramps, there he was.

Crusty underside, missing the catalytic converter, do I replace it with a random piece of pipe or a small resonator box?





More crustiness.



So I fetched him some catnip and he went mad for it on the rear of the car.



After bootfair, breakfast, forum write ups and check ins, I went to check the underside of the car, followed by getting the tin of primer mixed up.



Painted every nook and cranny of the underside.

Pretty pleased with that.



Then went and had a coffee and checked the internet.

Followed by fetching Mickey to help me flip it over and painting the top of the chassis.

Once done, I stood back and just grinned.

George was not too bothered, but at least he checked up on me.

It has taken a lot of time and effort to get this thing this far.



Loads more to do, but happy with it all so far.

Once again, thank you to all those who contribute in any way they choose, be it text, phone call, PM, comments or gifted parts to fit, or specialist tools like the Void Bush tool sent to me in the mail by a random stranger.

Life is good.

[Grizz1963]

A couple more found in someone’s posting.

Going……


Going…………….





GONE……..





I do love this truck a lot.

[Grizz1963]

Spotted today and post 11,000

Don't tell @Grizz !!!





Thankfully no copyrights infringed…….


REZIN ROCKIT

MUST BE RELATED.


Expecting a visit from KevinS and his wife later to collect the MX5 wind deflector.

And hopefully to cast an eye and offer further advice on the Rezin Rockit build and suspension work.

Kevin sent me the lowered rear springs for the build Before.


And a short clip of George getting stoned.

https://youtu.be/n0mWn5PbP-M


.

[Grizz1963]

So with @kevins and MrsS coming over in their MX5 with its fruity Zorst this morning to collect the wind deflector, I thought I would quickly tidy up the carport and chassis.

Moved stuff around and got the chassis on a small trolley.



Much better.

A lot of rain forecast for tomorrow.



Probably not getting much done before the weekend.

[Grizz1963]

I do hate pointless meaningless Teams meetings that leave you reaching for your mobile phone

After all, what is £30.00 when you are gathering parts for kart no2

So my meeting had me message the seller 17miles away.

When I got there it turns out we have a ton of stuff in common, except he is a DI in the Police.

So we chatted for 45 minutes before I loaded this machine that has been stood for 10 years, outside.




DM is a brand of the Flymo company.



So when I got home, ‘I left it in the car and carried on with the day job.

Later I took it out, cleaned it up a bit and then checked the oil, well…… black tar more accurately, added some fuel after checking the sparkplug that may have seen better days too.





Added fresh oil after draining the tiny bit of gloop from the crankcase.




Of course I then tried to get it started, the tines seem to want to turn every time I pulled the rip cord……

So I removed the tines/hooky things and tried to start it.

Failed, pushed it under the carport and came indoors.

So I still beed to go back to it and take a look and a tug or,two.

We may still,end up with a boat anchor or a little runner.


.

[Grizz1963]

Back to the Suspension bushes.


The company whose bushes I previously posted up has already pisssed me off as they do not reply to emails, even a simple request, after I emailed an enquiry on Friday last week.

People like that do not deserve my business as they probably see customer service as something other companies do.

So kind of back to starting out looking for a supplier who is prepared to deal with someone who is not an F1 team, or weekend warrior racer.

I had a suggestion for SuperPro bushes on Rods n Sods and looking for a supplier found someone supplying the brand about 15 miles from here.

Comments elsewhere.

[font color="e619a4"]Go to super pro web site and buy once buy quality, the images should give you an idea of what goes where, all bushes are marked up so you know where they go, ive fitted plenty of these bushes to landrover over the years, very forgiving and nearly impossible to damage when fitting.

if you can't get the rear anti roll bar bushes have someone with a lathe makes them for you. to be honest those ones never gave any problems like the fronts on cortina's. i can honestly say i've never ever had to replace them for an mot and i've had/worked on hundreds of them over time.
re the kit you list, it's all pretty self explanatory where they go once you have them in hand and offer them up. also as it'll be a toy not a daily driver i wouldn't worry too much about them wearing prematurely either.
neil.[/font]



Also, last night when I got back from work in Lewisham a parcel was propped up against my kitchen door.

My replacement leading trailing arm



Needs a good clean, Knotwheel at the ready……. And primer plus Hammerite

Probably by the weekend.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@kevins" source="/post/2697599/thread" timestamp="1631697969"]If the rubber ones are not badly cracked I would re-use everything except the top ones in the axle which as above I would replace with estate ones, it's going to be so light comparred to the cortina that the standard ones are probably a bit on the stiff side even.[/quote]


Went against advice……

Have ordered a set of polybushes, rather than original style rubber items.

£131.00 delivered.

From what I could see, the rubber bushes will total up to a bigger cost than polyurethane.

If lucky, delivery on Friday or Saturday.

And then the dismantling, step by step and bush replacement one at a time, depending on how easily I get to remove the old ones.

Fingers crossed.

[Grizz1963]

So I had planned on using one of the two arms bought to replace the welded up one.

So before work this morning at 07.00 I went down to the garage, pulled out the grinder and knot wheel.



Then today when ordering the bushes I realised that there are three different sizes on each end, making for a load of permutations.

So when I checked, the one end was 50mm and the new ones were 43mm but the ones fitted were 47mm so I would need to replace both arms in order to keep things uniform

Sp after work tonight I had to go do no 2 as well.



Not too bad.



Then painted them and left them hanging to dry overnight and for the next few days.



Followed by mowing the lawn.

Lets hope the bushes all come out without giving me a hernia.

[Grizz1963]

Got this to use from a friend today.



Mr Grinder on standby.

Bigger question now is how to establish whether this shock is dead.

And then, what to replace it with if the spring loses a full coil.




Advice as always, appreciated.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@glenanderson" source="/post/2697773/thread" timestamp="1631809091"]Put one end of the shock in the vice, so it’s vertical. Hold the other end and try to pull it out and push it back in again quickly. If there’s a reasonable amount of resistance, then they’re worth refitting providing they compress enough to still work with the shorter spring.

If they have no resistance, or they’re too long, then hang fire on ordering any new shocks until the car is reassembled and at its final running height and weight before you fork out for replacements. [/quote]


Well, I nearly kinda screwed up there, makes sense waiting to see final riding height…..

Was going to order a standard set to go with the ONE COIL sacrificed.

These seem to have had it, one is rusted in place pretty much, one collapses to become a dumpy.



Almost weekend, counting down.

Soon.

[Grizz1963]

Using the truck in the morning to deliver some blasting media for @pauly and also some random junk for @craigrk

Thought I would cut the flooring mate Fil dropped of before.





Once the sun warms it up a bit, it should be useable.

Looking forward to driving it again.

[Grizz1963]

So the postie delivered nothing today.

But the DPD courier made my day.





And laid out.

I do hope that I will be able to figure out what goes where.



After work I went down to the garage, decided that the gusseting was probably the more important job to get started on.

Pulled the chassis out after pushing the wheels and suspension bits out the way.



Using CAD the job was not that awkward at all.





After some cutting, shaping, grinding, I was happy.

I had also tested out my stick welder, which is part of the MIG welder that has stopped working.

The 3mm plate I have used for the gussets are probably thicker than the tubing of the frame, so the stick welder should be perfect to create deep, heavy welds.

In the morning I will use a flap wheel to grind back the primer and any residual rust etc in the spots `I need to weld.

All my gussets are ready and waiting on the chassis for the welder.



Hope it all welds and works easily.


.

[Grizz1963]

Horse trading….?

Horse play?

Horse power?





Let’s see what this looks like in the tub later.

.

[Grizz1963]

Went to collect the roll bar for the Rezin Rockit along the motorway, 25 miles from here.

Trading done.

@pauly on his way to the next stop…… Leatherhead, then back to Essex by lunchtime.



This truck continues to work and make me grin

Small jobs, big jobs, all the same.




Clean up the roll cage later and see if it fits.

After welding gussets.

[Grizz1963]

Cool tools are always useful.

Cleaned off the primer where the welds will go.





Ready.



Go……….



And David took a couple of pics and a short clip of the welding when I was not swearing.

Surprisingly easy welding when all the settings are right.

https://youtu.be/DLXXg7dA-gw


Next job, clean up welds, burned primer and paint work with primer.

Hammerite later today hopefully.

Colour…….?


.

[Grizz1963]

Half a field today.

Slim pickings.

Screwdriver 50p
Old pump 50p
Stool £4.00
Bird nest 50p
Leggings £1.00 each
Nylock nuts n bolts £3.00 the lot




Todays technical question……

What do the numbers on these signify?



Thanks.

[Grizz1963]

Bought a few random bolts and Nyloc nuts this morning, £3.00 the lot, so replace some of the bolts on the car, may be that they are too big or thick to be honest, but then they can be added to the Quality Street tin of random fasteners.





Responses already received on application.

[quote author="@grizz" source="/post/2698096/thread" timestamp="1632044050"][quote author="@johnthesparky" source="/post/2698087/thread" timestamp="1632042539"]Not a straightforward answer to that I think. Mostly suspension uses 10.9 and 12.9 normally. This is stronger along the bolt but weaker in shear.
This is the tricky bit for me, as when I think suspension I imagine all the extra weird forces when you go through a pothole and up a kerb that would potentially add a shear force to it.

That’s why personally, because I don’t know better and am too lazy to work anything out, I’d match the original grade (but I think it would have been imperial? So the grades are different too, grade 5 and 7 normally I believe) my reasoning is that if it’s still on the road after 20 or 30 years it probably was about right. Other bolts will work but what happens when they actually fail

[/quote][quote timestamp="1632043687" source="/post/2698093/thread" author="@westbay"]No, bumpers, engine brackets (not engine mounts), seats but not seat belts, 'low' stress items ...

10.9 , steering, brakes, suspension, basically anything with a high stress rate ...[/quote]
Thanks guys.



So I restarted the Knotwheel of death….

Got spiked a couple of times, hey-ho.

It really cleaned up the welds nicely, removing flux etc too.

Plus removing all the burned, heat damaged primer.



Sacrilegious



Done, and very pleased with the finish.



Next up was a bit of playing around with @pauly ‘s roll bar from his Chevy.


Seat in place for perspective, as well as the screen.

It is clearly too wide as it is to be floor mounted, but will be once modified.

It will go 220mm don below the sill and also backwards, in line with the “B-Pillar” with a slight tilt backwards so you can get in and out of the seat without being a contortionist.

Make sense?

The top of the roll bar should be about 100mm (plus its own thickness)above the seats headrest once all are bolted down, and at the same height as the top of the windscreen.

Pics are just a basic mock up.







Last thing I checked yesterday was the width of the steel wheels planned for this car.

At 9” side to side, what is the minimum width one would start looking at, though that is not the objective.

And I certainly do not want a load of stretch like the tyres currently fitted to them.

I quite like a bit of chunky width.






Still got to decide what to do today, Sally is about to bead home, 2 miles down the road to work in her garden and cook Uncle Bobs dinners for the next couple of days.



.

[Grizz1963]

So today I took a break, doing nothing.

Well, almost nothing.

Guilt took over eventually, so I went to the garage and moved the chassis deeper into the carport, and moved the front end in next to it, and then the rear end to the front.
Intending to start working on the bushes, removing them and refitting the new ones.

Did not happen, started to look at the roll bar again.

Then texted my friend Kevin on the farm, whom I knew has a 6.5 ton pipe bender………

He was busy rebuilding his guest house bathroom, but said “Come on over” so I loaded the bar into the truck and went over.

15 minutes later, the passenger side leg was bent to fit the space on the chassis where the original fitted.

Remember this……. Horrible monstrosity of a roll cage.



Mounting points will be used.



Quick assembly and selecting the right piece.



Pumping…….



Started at 1440mm and 1330mm was the target.

And done.



I then stayed another 45 minutes while he battled a bathroom cabinet that needed to be cut and shaped around a pipe.

Then headed home to come play and see if the fit was successful.

Tilted back, rear diagonal mocked up.

It may end up a bit more upright once the seats are fitted.



Still needs to be squared up once the base plate is cut off and rewelded.

[LT7A]

I haven't been on a while. Lots of cool stuff to see. You've made great progress on the chassis of the RR. Great job getting it clean and into a heavy duty primer. A lot of work, no doubt. But nice to know that you saved it from the elements and have preserved it in a way to last for a long time.