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

[Grizz1963]

Another small job was to refit the hood/bonnet last night.

I am really impressed with the fit of everything as it came together.



John and I had a few good chuckles while assembling it.

Nice tight fit.





And the two of us actually gloating and wondering what else we could do.

Celebrate sounded like a good idea.




And a short video of the first time I tried the clutch and brakes out.


VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/JrLxGl6EZAs


A short road test is also planned for today over on the farm road.


More later, hopefully.


Thanks for checking in.

[Grizz1963]

FIRST SHAKEDOWN ROADTEST


Took it to the farm for a first shakedown run.

It is light, skittish and the front end tracking etc all need proper setting.

However, being as light as it is, this thing feels plenty fast, a bit of Sh!t off a shovel brisk.

VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/RXpSpILkwuU

I am really pleased with it at this point.

A few more bits to complete, then MOT

I must be honest, I would have loved to hear my dad’s comments on this, both seeing it and driving it.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by sparkplug

For those who want to follow the road trip, a reminder that it's all happening here

:popcorn

So I made it.

Knackered as the flight was long and I got stuck in a centre seat.

Made it to Chicago O’Hare airport for a 3hour lay over.

That was enough time for wings and a Dr Pepper.



Got to St Louis by 2.25 and by 2.50 Dennis and a cooler full of beer collected me.

Always great getting out on the motorway.





Passed on going yo Ethyl’s and seeing Kelly so sttaight home.


The 1966 C10 Dennis had built onto a 2015 Nascar racing truck is even better in real life.

Incredible attention to detail.


More later.

[Grizz1963]

The Rezin Rockit is so near to completion

So Jack Daniels bought a car.

I can hear you sucking through your teeths…….

If you know it already, sit on your advance knowledge please.

What’s not to love.








It reminds me a a CSI crime scene, so much DNA and chaos to deal with.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@jonny69" source="/post/2745714/thread" timestamp="1660918648"]Pretty bad dose of skin cancer on that mirror.

Zafira?[/quote]

Nope

[quote author="@creepycooper" source="/post/2745757/thread" timestamp="1660933449"]Nasty - Fiesta?[/quote]

Nope

[quote author="@maf260" source="/post/2745763/thread" timestamp="1660935430"]Micra?[/quote]

Yup

[quote author="@flingstam" source="/post/2745766/thread" timestamp="1660936050"]Looks like a facelift K11 Micra to me...[/quote]

Yup Yup YUUUP !!!!


Certainly needed a decent clean.



Imagine this…..







Certainly has its place in the history books of infectious diseases.

.

[Grizz1963]

Well then.

This mint green really is the metallic equivalent of pensioner Beige in my opinion.

So how to mess with it and use it’s disadvantage to it’s advantage?


Sally and I were driving and I saw this colour on the road, Sally managed to grab a pic for me, and the cogs started turning.





Hope you like it, because you better start to like it.


.

[Grizz1963]

So in 2008 this happened in Daytona Beach.




A dream was born.

To add one of these to what was left of the Nascar truck.




This was the result.






The rest of the story on page 6 here:

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...p-grizz-nascar


More fun than a bag full of rattle snakes.

[Grizz1963]

[Grizz1963]

So after agreeing to buy the car I had to arrange transport for it.

30 miles on a flatbed as it has no exhaust, no MOT, Tax, Insurance.

Loaded.



Unloading.




Underside is reasonable.

Needs a bit of bilateral sill welding.







Anyway

I am hoping to be able to get it fixed.

[Grizz1963]

Back to the 2022 Road trip.

Listed here:


https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...p-grizz-nascar



So JB told me he had a surprise for my visit……

And the only clue was that it has wheels, knowing him, it could be between 1 and 18 wheels.

So I drove down from Kansas to Oklahoma to visit.

Thanks for lunch and the rides JB.

I feel pretty privileged and honoured you let me in there.







Of course preceded by a long ride to the state line in this beast.

I can only say that the GODZILLA motor kicks like a mule.

And the ride is incredibly smooth for what should really shake and break the passengers.

And this is no different a smooth ride than other open tops I have driven or been in.

A job execution way beyond expectations.













And a little video.


https://youtu.be/8df0VG81INA


Yup, much horsepower on this trip.

[Grizz1963]

Soooooo.


Lunch in Oklahoma with JB.



He had told me there was some surprise with wheels.



But knowing him, it could be anything between 1 and 18 wheels.



So the video tells it all.



https://youtu.be/9_ABb3E69N0



So we went off for a Mexican lunch and the largest Margarita in history.



A very comfortable ride for sure.



Got messaged today that the rear silencers may have fallen foul of the impact wrench too.



This may be raucous.

[Grizz1963]

Having bought the Microbe completely “Sight Unseen” getting it delivered, starting it up without any silencer or exhaust was interesting.

The delivery guy is a bit (read lot) of a petrol head. @mercdan has bought from him before as well.

His tattoos made me smile.

Guess the ride.





I did a drive by after agreeing to buying the car, and kinda just shook my head.

It was a rough little thing.







Once it was home the idea was to park it up and leave it alone till the Rezin Rockit was done and MOT’d

But then I realised that MOT, Road Tax and insurance would lose me almost two months of unused time if I got it done before leaving on the USA roadtrip so plans changed.

I started to clean it up, getting to know it.

Realising along the way there were going to be some serious challenges, including the broken off exhaust.

Still, as @pauly says……. Onwards.

[Grizz1963]

Thought I would share a quick, easy fix on here.

I have done it on a few cars before and it works like a charm.

Raw, unpainted plastics tend to go grey and dull over time.

Something the sun and oxidation does.

So you can use raw linseed oil, other oils, or plastic refresher in a can, elbow grease or paint the plastics…..

I found a heatgun works well, controlled and kept at a safe distance, moving constantly, you will see it change as you go along.

Door handles.

Before:



After:



Light surrounds……





After



Bumpers come up in a similar way.

Adds “value” by making cars look cared for.

Well, fixing it up is caring, Innit?

Bumpers Before the heat gun.






Halfway there.





And after, does look a lot better.




A lot of cleaning ahead still.

More later.

[Grizz1963]

Road trip update.

I got to go up for a flight with one of Adam’s buddies yesterday.

This trip keeps giving.

There’s more on the road trip thread.

Brad coming in to land.







VIDEO HERE:

https://youtu.be/JO5EADV9Fpc


Yup, life is good.

[Grizz1963]

And another reason to love ‘Merica


https://youtu.be/ZCUeeNqXVRU


And tasty too.

[Grizz1963]

Amazing what a decent scrub with some car shampoo and a rag will do.

Pic of paint before and after.
























So an improvement

I think.

[Grizz1963]

More cleaning.

Filthy to some, fine to others.

You judge.













Did I mention the upholstery took a bit of work.

From this…..



To this…..



Through this…..



Creating this….




Hubcaps….

Cleaned up, prepped, painted.







Result.




More to come.

[Grizz1963]

Ant then……

Magically we now have a baby Subaru, think how much faster go-faster stripes or a noisy exhaust makes a car.



High



Low



Ass



Nice.

Small changes, bit by bit.


Also tacked the door panels with the wet vacuum and a bottle of Cif/Jif cleaner.

Then reassembled them as they are a bit tatty.



Much better imho.




@Mercdan also came over for a couple of beers and to run his new buffer over the paint with some of the Q3 compound.





Interesting how quickly the hours add up when you play with cars.

Looks better already.





When I am working in the garage, George often joins me, finding a spot to curl up, and then at other times, he will walk around, inspecting, checking.



Bed time.

I am headed to Kentucky and Louisiana tomorrow morning, then over to Texas.

[Grizz1963]

Once I had most of the cleaning done, it started to look better.

Despite all the jobs left to do.

Steering wheel does look spectacularly sh!t from 130k miles of use.

The colour is not ideal.

A black one would have been much better.









Plans were starting to solidify in my head.


Stuff I had spinning around for years.

.

[Grizz1963]

Bought a set of wheels and tyres from @redratbike Thanks mate.

They need a bit of cleaning I guess.





More later for the interested parties.

.

[Grizz1963]

Spoke to Thomas the alloy wheel guy who did the refurbishment of the S10 wheels.

He agreed to £100.00 to remove the tyres and strip and sandblast the wheels for me.



They do all sorts and sizes, from 18 wheeler steels to 23/24.25 inch alloys and custom work.



The blasting cabinet takes multiple wheels.



Damage repair, Finishing, Priming and repainting them was up to me.

For some reason, the tyres were returned like this, not sure if they use soap to remove as well.



Washed, dried, packed away.



More to come.

Obviously.

[Grizz1963]

Satnav took me back into Oklahoma…….





Between Andy and good friend Carol, they have pretty much single handedly built this 5 floor house, with incredible 360’ views from the cupola, but also every floor.

The odd contractor came on site to deliver things like foundation concrete, foam insulation etc……

As for the rest…… pure bull headed determination and a lot of grit and sweat.











Snakes abound in this area.

I saw this one at the house Carol lives in near the building site.

Note the “mask” on it’s forehead.

Not pleasant at all.






Also, last night we went out for dinner…….

Andy’s treat. THANK YOU for not taking my money Andy 😉



Headed home, we stopped for gas as my truck was down to half a tank and next stop,is Thursday in Fayettevill, Arkansas.


The sunset was rather delicious, looked like a calendar shot.


Straight from my iPhone.









So that is your 2022 update on Andy Martin.

All is good.

[Grizz1963]

So…….?


What does £100.00 worth of wheel cleaning look like.


Imagine me sitting at home,,doing this all by hand, yup….. ain’t ever gonna happen again.


Done that before, years ago, still remember it as a sh!t job to do.


My time is worth more than the £100.00


And the results speak









Next job was to get then rims tidied up where they had kissed the kerb/curb before.


Trusty tools to the rescue.





Then set them all out and get on with the next step.


Etch primer.





Easy.

[Grizz1963]

A quick video of start up.

https://youtu.be/hDFN-09Mx4M

Lots of work ahead of course.

.

[Grizz1963]

Headed out in a bit.

Only 210 miles today.

Advertising is all around.

Some fuel pumps run there screens all the time.

https://youtu.be/mCw8R-c0-V8

Bit like being in a games arcade.

Also Dennis playing with the flame thrower……

https://youtu.be/jksGpgNz7oo

Great way to start a BBQ

Or fight wasps.