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

[Grizz1963]

So today was a rough one from a work point of view.
Busy
Started by 07.30 with online training.
Then from 09.00 more Teams based clinical trial review.
I also had a business review booked for 13.00

This stuff does my head in.

So my lunch hour was committed to my own mental health.

Based on looking under the hood on Sunday, I knew there were a few bits to be done.

K&N air cleaner, divides opinions



I discovered a long crack that had been partly repaired in the radiator cowl.



I was fortunate to be offered an upper half of one , price to be confirmed, same seller who has the steering wheel.



Screwdriver to the fore.

K&N filter undone and removed.



Can you say FILTHY DIRTY.

And rather large.



I also opened the other end to see if the throttle plate needed any attention.



Clean as a whistle.



I was also having advice from my good friend Ric Grassmick who lives in Arizona, and dailies and Autocrosses one of these trucks.
His day job is as an auto mechanic, so the right guy to speak to.

He also advised I look up the connector tube toward the MAF sensor at the divider plate, tooling for two potential caterpillars
These are a pair of very small resistor coils that may need cleaning.

He even sent a drawn diagram of what I needed to look for.

Looking up from the airflow straightener



I will get to these tomorrow in daylight,



Then back into the house.

Using Mr Muscle oven and grease cleaner to loosen the oil and grime the water ended up pretty soup-like.
Three repeats and some Fairy liquid, dishwashing soap and a couple of kettles of hot water saw it a lot cleaner and the water pretty murky.



Then put out to dry.



I got a K&N cleaning and oiling set, known as a “Recharger kit” from Euro car parts, and delivered to the local mechanics a mile from home.for £10.00 which was cheaper than anywhere else.



I will oil the filter tomorrow and reassemble the cold air induction kit.


Finally on my way home from picking up the oil, I saw a nice sunset.




More tomorrow.

[Grizz1963]

So doing stuff on your birthday that makes you happy?


In my case, today was started off with a quick 6.45 minute School of YouTube lesson on how to remove the headlights, indicators and grille on an S10 Truck in 4’C or 40’F temperature without breaking anything, especially mounting tabs.

Reflection on the iPad screen is the very rough, English style Pebble Dash plaster on my 1921 built home.



Thought I would start with the passenger headlight as its fastening tabs are stuck between the battery and radiator core support and kinda tight for my large hands.



Good start...... bodgeworks always a good place to start.

The indicators, position lights etc may have been changed when the truck had its first UK MOT road test in 2006 where I know it failed due to the lack of side repeater lamps amongst other things.

I will fix these things as I discover them.



Lights out....

Followed by indicators.





Old and new indicator lenses.



And then BURGER !!!!

Indicator bulbs are “pinch pull” or whatever they are called, so the chrome bayonet items @rich had sent were not going to get used here.

Need to get some from the local motor factors.



Grille off and headed for the garage to take apart



So with the grille removed, the next job was to disassemble it it to its final component form for cleaning and processing.



20 years of life as we know it, on the grille that was apparently originally painted body colour in a matte finish has left it looking pretty sorry for itself.

Closer up.




As I kept disassembling, I found more and more bits I did not like.

To that needed bits of attention to get to a look I preferred.

More in a bit.

[Grizz1963]

Cleaned my K&N air filter setup yesterday and oiled it today.
Made a quick random YouTube clip as I thought it may be helpful to people like me who have not done it before.

https://youtu.be/Y1MNY0ibuiY

Hope its useful to some.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by 03.

I still love those sunset pictures, the English countryside is hard to beat mate.

Thank you.

Couple more from my car. Exactly the same spot.

[Grizz1963]

Postman rang today.......

Delivery of my pair of used, £25.00 or $34.00 clear indicator lenses and bodies.

When buying, I had to choose between paying £50.00 or $68.00 for a pair, showing out of stock in many places, or buying a used pair, that nobody would care about in a day or two after I fitted them.



Into the kitchen, grab a vegetable Knife and pry apart the one lense that showed old glue on the join.



Cleaned up the body and the lense, removing the old glue and general muckyness.



Then onto some rubbing compound, just to refresh the plastics. And yes, you could see the difference between them.



One on the left was already done, one on the right, not done.



Once both are done, there is not much difference to be seen, but I know it is done, which makes me happy.

Washed them, will glue the lense in place later.

Fit them over the weekend some time.......



Happy ? Me?

Of course.

[Grizz1963]

Rain

Rain

Rain

Outside the house people continued to drive like idiots, loads of surface water.



So not much progress outside.

However, I did go digging for something, and ended up with some other things



Also discovered that this will be the right product for resealing the lense to the body of the indicator.



Lunch was a cuppa soup and some of my home made Beef Biltong (not quite Jerky)



Doorbell rang, postman with a hand full of small parcels

Included were these from @rich Thank you.

Chromed light bulbs to go into the new indicator lenses in order for them not to look like fried eggs with the yellow regular bulbs.



Also included were the clear side repeaters and a third parcel with flea poison, I did not realise it was not for me, just opened it, then realised I did not have a dog, not had one for 25 years.



Lastly, had to go grab some food and came upon these guys........



Hopefully there will be a break in the weather by the weekend so that I can refit the air intake, and change out the lights.

Easy peasy.

[Grizz1963]

Rain seems to have dried up overnight, with much more predicted along with possibly some snow and cold for the weekend.

So this morning it was dry and not too cold, so by 07.30 I was outside to grab the opportunity to refit the air filter and check a few more bits out.

I was also chatting with Dennis in Missouri as he could not sleep, getting tips on the things to look out for and little things to touch on while getting this truck to an even better place than it already is.

Big old hole where the filter and ducting goes, it is also isolated to keep the truck getting cold air, rather than warm air from the engines heat.



Refitted and mounted in a way that has it hanging loose, rather than chafing against any of the body or engine parts.

Looks better, hopefully the clean will benefit the engine.



While I was there, I thought getting a record of these stickers that do not come off, would be sensible, as I will be fitting a replacement radiator cowl.





And identified another weekend job........

Can you guess.





Yup, drain the radiator, flush it well, and refill with fresh green stuff.

Along with the other jobs lined up for it, as long as I get some gaps in the weather.

PS. It is Friday after all.

[Grizz1963]

So the rain has set in for the weekend it seems.

I had hoped to get some jobs done today and tomorrow, but that’s not happening.

So I reassembled the drivers indicator lense using this claimed to be special, adhesive.



Assembled, cleaned and put aside to dry.



Then went out to try get the side repeaters fitted.....

Very different, went to motor factors, no luck in finding amber bayonet fitting type bulbs as the fittings are not pinch type.

Also the actual stalk fitting on the new oval ones are thicker, and on receiving them I realised I don’t really like them, neither size nor design.

So ordered a new set of fittings for pinch type bulbs to be soldered in place next week........



And once I got home, sitting chatting with @craigrk decided to get a different set of lenses as I preferred these much more, they also suit the crystal style of the front end more.



While in the parts store, also bought 5 liters of concentrated antifreeze, as I am going to drain the cooling system and the heater channels and refresh all of the fluids.

Did I mention the truck was a keeper?

Bought the long life stuff.



Waiting for the weather to change.



Lastly..........

Question time:

16” wheels fitted with 195/55 tyres.

Any ideas as to what they are etc.

Terrible advertising on FB marketplace gives no more information.

Not on this BMW wheels site afaik http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/



Thanks.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@tineca" source="/post/2653307/thread" timestamp="1610753749"]Just for interest
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DROF-JEEP...edirect=mobile
[/quote]

Made me chuckle.

Ever seen a Ford reverse really fast?

Becomes a DROF





This is less finessed and refined than the Jago or Eagle though.

Will be a bargain for someone.

[Grizz1963]

So today was my birthday

Yesterday was Sally’s and my 100 weeks anniversary

How this girl has not killed me, nobody knows

She had to work from 07.00 which meant being up by 05.00

It may not be apparent, but we do live separately in different homes.

What this meant though, was that I got to spend my day in a way that I really love to spend special days.......

Alone, at home, and working on something I either want to or love to work on.

Sally came around after work at about 5.00pm so I cooked us a quick butter chicken curry on 2 minute rice.

Desert was a 1/4 of a magnificent Maltese’s chocolate cake, and a nice cuppa coffee.

A good day indeed.

[Grizz1963]

After removing the grille, I noticed just how grubby and greasy the centre support was.



The bonnet/hood release cable looked like a challenge for about 15 seconds.



A 13mm socket and 3 bolts later......



Wire brush, white spirit wipe down, two coats of black primer, two coats of Stealth Black Wheel paint, JOB DONE.



Once the paint had dried, I generously applied some spray on White Lithium grease, which once reassembled clearly made the hood release work much more smoothly.
I also put some on the threads of the bolts before returning them to where they came from.



Refitted, release cable reconnected, looked loads better.

You will also notice just how clean the front slam panel actually is, almost no rust, just a bit of staining which could be polished away.



Interesting way the light and house shadow fell at the drivers door. Making the rear look distinctly grey and insipid



Another job that I decided to do today was to “FIX” the front grille badge, at least until I get around to ordering one from the USA or if I can get @craigrk to do a clever 3D print for me.

It had delamination of the gold leaf in the badge, as well as a crack.

Any fix would be an improvement imho.





Final result after about 5 coats.



Happy so far.


It is way past my bedtime.

A few more bits tomorrow for those following closely.

Weekend over too, thanks for checking in.

Later.

[Grizz1963]

Final post for yesterdays work done.

When I bought the truck, the bonnet/hood was standing proud on the passenger side by about 8-10mm

The previous owner had told me he had repainted the drivers fender and hood, due to some paint damage and lacquer peeling.

This was not a problem for me, at 20 years old, the truck still looks better than may 3 year olds.

Dennis who has his body shop in St Louis, Missouri has worked on many of these S10 trucks back in the day, had told me these trucks had very little room for adjustment of panel gaps if disassembled or found not to be aligned.

So it was with trepidation I decided to give it a go, to see if I could improve the alignment.

Started with this.



Played with these.



You can see this side fender has been loosened and refitted.



This side got to go down a bit.



And this side keeps me happy for now......



Result.



Happy with that for now.


While cleaning up the stainless steel front grille embellishers I saw these markings on the rear.

The other one showed “top” to define which one fits where.

I am guessing an enthusiast at some point made these up for the truck.

They came up lovely with steel polish as well.



And finally, I had a few challenges from various people about the position of the K&N filter, with people freaking out that it was going to suck up tons of surface water.

So overdrawn on the pic, is where the filter actually sits inside the engine bay.





Not sure if I mentioned, the grille was delivered in a carpark last night, socially distanced and all that.

More as it happens.

[Grizz1963]

Right UK based American car/truck owners etc.

Switching to clear lenses on the S10 poses this problem.

I need some AMBER, Push fit, dual filament bulbs.
My truck runs its clearance and indicator in the same space so needs dual filaments.
Advice and pointers if you know where I can order, buy, find some please.
Plan B would be to get some amber glass paint.
Ideal would be chrome finish amber bulbs.
Thanks.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313299916081

This is what I have fitted at the moment.




Any pointers appreciated.

[Grizz1963]

Thank you @PhilA for grabbing these Chrome Amber bulbs in Louisiana, USA.

Looking forward to getting them into the truck too.



Was in the garage today because I needed a bit of time after they announced redundancies to be effective mid February, and get is a waste of energy, so I went to remove some lights from the wall that will go into the carport until I get the planned LED units up.

Found this claxon style hooter in one of the C10 parts boxes. It may be fun in the S10




I also reassembled the front grille badge.

Looks OK like this.



Closer up.



Absolutely pleased with the outcome so far.

[realvc]

Grille looks great as per usual for the work from your shed.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by realvc

Grille looks great as per usual for the work from your shed.

Thank you very much Vince, I am very pleased with it.



Only one small thing done to the truck today.

It will split opinions, do I care??

Errrrmmm..... Nope.

Proud.

[Grizz1963]

Love the little parcels.

New side repeater lenses landed.

Too big again, do I drill the holes bigger or modify the lenses......




Indicator light bulbs landed too.

These amber units were ordered before @phila got me the chrome ones for the truck.

Can you see what is wrong.





Currently a big thing....

Showing asss.



Another thing I have looked forward to for over a year was to fit one of my custom cast gas pedals.

These will possibly split opinion.

50 years ago guys made these in shop, they were everywhere.

I always loved them, and to me this one, custom cast by my good friend Andy Martin in Terlton near Tulsa Oklahoma is even more valued as it reminds me of my road trips, friends here in theUK and also in America.

A certain nod to great memories.



Life is good, remember that gang.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@mk3rob" source="/post/2650641/thread" timestamp="1609660940"]Definitely get some rust protection on the underside. You can pretty much watch S10s rust!
Mine had 2 rear seats and I have to say you can ride with 3 people in proper comfort! I rode in the rear seat a couple of times after concerts etc when our lass drove and it was really comfy!
The ZQ8 stuff is really sought after and at times not so easy to get hold of so hold onto that! [/quote]


This is the trucks “build sheet” showing its whole DNA. What was put together to create it.

It seems to be pretty special, and I am both pleased and thankful to have been able to tick a box on my lust list.



Read and interpreted by some clever people out there

G80 and ZQ8 are posi track rear and sport suspension
G80 is the LSD, nice.
ZQ8 is a code and a trim package, so your truck is a ‘ZQ8’
They had a factory lowering kit, around 2in or so, springs and leafs. A tighter steering box and some other nice things. The Xtremes got the same setup but got a body kit and some badges.
This is kind of an aside since you're curious about rpo codes, but the guys who have the super sport S10’s look for the B4U code. SS trucks were the first to receive the ZQ8 suspension in 96 until they stopped the SS in 98. The ZQ8 then became its own trim package so to speak
That is the rear end. I think the codes that start with G are the gears for the rear. Not 100% but I think that's what it means. And G80 is a locking or semi locking rear end if I remember right.

GU6 = 3.42 gears
G80 = POSI limited slip
L35 = v6 4.3l vortec
M30 = 4spd overdrive transmission
ZQ8 = Sports suspension package



So living here in England poses it’s own challenges when owning a 20 year old American pickup truck.

Parts for one, and even maintenance as you cannot just drop it off at a local dealer to get things serviced or repaired.

Part of the pleasure than becomes figuring stuff out, researching, asking questions or guys like @pauly over for a coffee pretending you do not need their technical or physical expertise ( just how hard to hit a control arm, or whatever with a 5 pound hammer in winter)

Finding hard to get bits, gets harder when it is a slightly less common model too.


So my truck came with a set of Cragar S/S 2 piece, 17” in 8J wheels, including a spare, 255/45 17 Nankang tyres, all with almost full tread etc.
Perfect wheels for daily use.

But I did not like them, and always coveted the LQ8 5 spoke 16” 8J alloys some trucks came fitted with.

Actually do not recall seeing any in the uK on trucks, ever.

So I was looking out for alternatives, and had kinda settle and made peace with getting thick adapters and going with a set of Range Rover Mondials in 18” or a full set of 17” 7J BMW steels.

I was on an American FB S10 group, asking about tyre choice for the 7J wheels when I got a message from a U.K. based GMC S15 Sonoma owner...... Surprise !

He had owned his for some time, but during the whole 2020 COVID-19 shut down, had stripped it down and was doing a 1939 Willys shark nose truck rebody, he had sold all the body panels except the rear bed and still had a set of 4 LQ8 wheels, with some tyres fitted, tyres could be fried though.

Would I be interested in those as an alternative to the Mondials and BMW steels?

He had not realised these were my personal Holy Grail of wheels, as I was trying to do the truck justice as it is in such good condition. Adding originality as far as I could, with a few cosmetic tweaks,

We have spent about two hours on FB Messenger video (a first for him, he is 67 and not a techie) getting to know each other.

And of course agreed to me buying the wheels from him, not cheaply, but certainly a fair price I was prepared to pay.

Collection based on current lockdown uncertainty to be in the next three years or more.


Stock photos from Google.



And what my truck would look like.

I am super pleased, yes there are other options, other lols, and prettier wheels, but it’s what I wanted.



Looking at these in the USA, even the price per one, wheel plus tax, duty, real world shipping etc makes for an expensive transaction.



Even just the centre caps would not be cheap from eBay and once you get stung with tax and import duties on top of shipping, this was not the route I planned on going.

Just to give an idea of their cost to me.





And an afterthought, speaking of COVID-19





Later guys, back to day job stuff, Friday today.....

Weekend soon.

[Grizz1963]

I asked for a few pics on one of the S10 groups, great response and chats ensued.

Wanting to see just how much dish they show.

I was not disappointed









MARMITE


See it for what it is.








And lastly, this one, I like.



Yup..... looking forward to these wheels.

[Grizz1963]

Next bit of crazy, on the back burner for the moment, but it is on simmer.



Look again.....



Horney Horney Horney



What those are attached to.

So can I make one up myself, just need 15mm rebar or solid rid and an Oxy-Acetelyne flame to warm and bend to shape, then drill, tap and fit in place of the original.



And then......

My shifter, knob is part of a cast in place plastic rubber unit.

Stanley Knife, cut off, fit the new aluminium shifter knob









Another random posting that surfaced after someone in the USA saw my dash and enquired.

Thats expensive.in my book, but personally, I like it.

[Grizz1963]

Carport news.

This morning after trying unsuccessfully to contact some clients, I put on the kettle for a coffee.

Then thought that while that came to the boil, I would take the 6 steering wheels, boss’s and a quick release that I have brought up to the house last night, for the wheels guy to look at, back to where they live,

Got there, packed them away, and then looked up......

Still need to gutter the woodwork shed.



Was given a length of rain gutter by the guy I bought the S10 from as he had a pile of offcusts and I needed a bit.

So blocked the end with half a margarine tub lid (It is going under cover completely, and also strapped it with Ducktape after glueingit in place.



Then created some pretty horrible, underslung wooden supports to rest it, and my length that I already had, glued the overlapped, down tilted join and tested it.

Works a charm.

Next job will be to create a 30th offshoot to carry the water back into the garden behind the compressor room.



More dry workspace guaranteed

[Grizz1963]

Anyone remember this....l?






Got collected in the dark two weeks ago.


Ross runs a custom/insurance repair body shop.

I had asked him how much and if he would paint the trucks grille to Cody colour for me.

When he fetched the little caravan, he said he would paint the grille for me, free of charge.

So when I had disassembled the grille, he got it and some paint and said he would get onto it ASAP.

Pretty pleased he was doing it, as he has all the kit and materials on site, and could do it on the side.

Last night a bunch of pics landed, along with a message.


Prepped it.

Primer.







Then some colour coats.







First clear coat went on.




A few more clear coats to go on and some decent drying.

Then back to me.

Reassembled and Refitted.

Looking forward to the front end coming together, cleat lenses and side repeaters included.


So what can I do today to keep busy?

[Grizz1963]

Messed around with the truck, and in the garage today

Tried to find the two original hooters so that I could reroute the power to the Klaxon.

Failed on that as it seems they are obscured behind the inner arch and wheel arch liner. I could be very wrong.

So plan B will be to find a sensible, safe, dry mounting point for the horn and to route the power into the truck.

Get a decent push button and add it to this little blanking plate.

Also move the toggle switch for the rear fog light from below the dash to this area.



So I want to find another one of these s a spare for the truck in case someone wants to -it it back to standard one day.



Fog light, works but body is rotten.





Something I was not aware of when buying the ZQ8 wheels, was that they come with locking nuts ( I hate them) and the seller wanted to keep them for himself.

Not sure Iever worked with nuts like these before. Outside thread locks the centre cap in place.



And then of course, just to make it more interesting, they have covering caps to find too.



I think I have sourced some wheel nuts from the guy selling me the airbag steering wheel.


So, bit by bit the truck is coming together.

[Grizz1963]

Chilly day outside today.

View from London this morning, photo credit to Aaron French.



Sally was working all day from 07.00 so it was up to me to entertain myself.

Had a long chat with @craigrk about travel, cars and other things including the snow that started falling, quickly adding a lovely blanket on amongst others, Lil his 47 Chevrolet



Once we were done, I showered and headed out to fill the car up and get some food.

Then home, watched a bit of recoded telly, got very bored very quickly.

Also surfed the web, and dug around on EBay.com to look for wind deflectors for the truck.

I have never had them, or wanted them on a car, but these trucks actually seem to suit them.

Got to look closely.



Hardly visible on the truck that looks like mine.



Finding some for sale, I realised that I would be doing without them for the foreseeable future, based on the price of shipping.

Take a look at the fine print.



So thought what could I do, as it was raining intermittently and playing outside was not ideal.

Ahhh yes, we have a Chevy S10 , still waiting for its front grille to be completed and returned. Patience needed there.

Truck is on the driveway, so what can be done, that won’t have me wet in a hurry.

[Grizz1963]

Cuppa coffee, cookies.

Out of the house, brrrrr... chilly fresh.

So the key to keeping busy.



Every time I look up under the truck, I am amazed at how clean it is.

Keyway.



Not too impressive



I had been warned that the underslung spare wheel on these trucks could have a failure of their wind up, hanging mechanism.

So I decided that was a dry job I could do today.

20 years under the load bed would make most of us look a bit tired.

Wonder where this gravel could be from, Missouri, Norwich......





Washed and scrubbed.

Amazing, as a 16” wheel, how tall it actually is against the wheelarch.

[

Cold and wet, carried down to the garage and used a heat gun to dry it and warm up the steel.

Quick bit of a sanding and a wipe down, followed by primer, more drying with the heat gun.



Inside of the rim painted, did not bother with masking this side.



While waiting for the paint to dry naturally, I went up and crawled around again and greased up the cable, spring and mechanism with lithium grease.



After a coffee, I went to check the pressure, certain to be low.

Correct.



Pumped up to prescribed pressure.



And back to the truck.

Much better.

Fitted.



At least this made me feel that my day was not completely wasted.

Weekend over, again.