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

[Grizz1963]

Came home from London tonight, and got some post through the front door...... also a slip from the UPS guy to say there was a parcel left at the neighbors.

So I went around and fetched the parcel...... posted in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I smelled a rat.... only kmowing one person who lives in Fayetteville.

Go take a look at www.tubatrucks.com

So I opened the small parcel first, it was from Illinois, from Dan "WhippinSaw" and was the replacement panel for the radio opening in my trucks dash that had been put there by an Angry Badger on mind altering drugs.

Lovely bit of replacement metal to be welded in when I cut a huge hole in the dash. Thank you mate.



Then I got a Face Time call from Don in Arkansas to discuss posting the door replacement panels he cut out yesterday, as usual it took about 30 minutes before I got on to the next package.

Cutting the side open, it just kept on giving, and giving, and giving.

At one point I was laughing out loud in a way that would get a community psychiatric nurse worried at the contents.

So I called Clem in Fayetteville to say "Thank You Clemdaddy !! "

Clem, in his usual nonchalant way said it was all cool, and Happy Birthday.

I loved every piece, especially the blow up Sinclair Dino which has to be a bit rare, and the Thermometer, both of which along with the Heartbeat of America and plate surround are now fitted up in my study.

He also sent a rather juicy Arkansas Razorbacks T-Shirt for Nicola which she grabbed and went straight up to try on when she got home...... can you say HOOTERS !!



LIFE IS GOOD !!



Thank you guys, it just gets better and better.

[bj383ss]

Lucky Guy. Some nice stuff your scored there Rian

[Ta2Don]

Wooooo PIG!!!!

[mjh1965]

Well while doing a job at a Chrysler, Volvo , fiat and lotus dealer today I found this in there scrap metal pile . So I thought of Rian and grabbed it for him . Judging by the size I think it's more likely to have come off a Chrysler than a little fiat 500, but should be good for your truck Grizz

[Ta2Don]

Nice Score on the hitch...
Rian sent me a text with a pic of it and the lounge at the hotel where he's staying across the street from Windsor Castle… He emailed me some pics of the Castke and the changing of the guard… pretty cool! Cheers!!!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Nice Score on the hitch...
Rian sent me a text with a pic of it and the lounge at the hotel where he's staying across the street from Windsor Castle… He emailed me some pics of the Castke and the changing of the guard… pretty cool! Cheers!!!

And the there was the video, shot by a colleague.

Changing on the Guard at Windsor Castle - YouTube

Tonight after work I was in the garage when the neighbours grandson popped over to deliver a parcel...... My bumper bolts, some welding clamps and green apple liquorice for Tom, Nicola's son.

Thanks again Don. You do

[Grizz1963]

Came home Friday night and the neighbor brought around a parcel.

Contents........

Bumper bolts, welding clamps I had ordered and apple licorice from Ta2Don.




Last week Martin climbed into a large skip and like a circus monkey, hanging on one side with one hand, he managed to retrieve this heavy duty towbar, possibly Jeep Cherokee.
So last night I dismantled it, as it is a heavy old thing.

Once more the rattle gun paid for itself on all the rusted bolts and nuts.



Along with the A-Class Mercedes Benz towbar which together will be making a new removable towbar and fitting points for bumper mounts for the new rear bumper.



Next up, I bolted the side plates to the chassis, cut the end plates off both towbars and fitted the Merc one between the Jeep items.

Grinding the parts clean for welding, I set my welder on higher power and feed.



The Mercedes parts ball fitting tabs were left on till I have finished making the slip on/in removable parts, then it will be welded on to the original chassis support along with tabs to bolt it to the Merc cross bar.



Got to welding the corners to the new side tabs, but my welder melted its tips, twice...... and the thread on the tip is screwed, so I pulled the plug on the welding.

Seems I need to figure out the settings a bit more and replace the torch as it is a bit knackered.




Last thing. Today I fitted the pair of Sinclair stickers Grunty made for me years ago for the Taunus Transit, to the Caravan Shed.

Especially for ClemDaddy, who for those who do not know, lives in a 1940's Sinclair Service station.

TAKE A LOOK AT: www.tubatrucks.com to see the perfect home.

[mjh1965]

I am pleased the tow bar I risked life and limb for worked ok . As for your welder if you turn up the power you need to turn up the wire speed . That's why the tip is melting . Alternatively you can always increase the size of tip and the wire size for heavy duty welding

[Micmac]

Happy Belated Birthday Rian

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

I am pleased the tow bar I risked life and limb for worked ok . As for your welder if you turn up the power you need to turn up the wire speed . That's why the tip is melting . Alternatively you can always increase the size of tip and the wire size for heavy duty welding

New 0.8 tips delivered today from Ebay.

Will try them tomorrow

Originally Posted by Micmac

Happy Belated Birthday Rian

Thank you very much Pete, it was a good one, especially as Nicola bought me the 3" cutout valves at Christmas for my birthday

[Grizz1963]

After weeks of waiting for the planets to align, today it all came together.

Ashley in Portsmouth had given me some tarpaulins he had gained a few years ago, to use for the truck and covering it etc.

So, via the power of "Pony Express" a mate of his delivered them to Bridges Auto breakers in Peas Pottage for me to collect today.

I picked Martin up early as we were going to rummage through some of the cars in the yard for bits to use in our builds. I was also hoping to find a Jeep Cherokee there as I need a pair of door stops for my doors and an aircon pipe for my buddy Maverick in South Africa who needs one. Unfortunately, it turned out they have no Cherokees at all.

When I got there, the guys had the tarps, and also a surprise from Ashley, he had had his buddy the Pony Express man, make me a massive Chevy logo sticker for my garage...... watch this space. THANKS MATE !!

USA sized plate and large fast cat for perspective.



Next up we were searched,and let loose in the yard.



Martin went straight for the Ford Mondeo's as he knew he wanted an oval dash clock to build into his truck.
Unfortunately, all the cars there were stripped of their clocks, except for one, which he managed to to get out.



Next up he showed me the very cool retractable cup holder that seems to be fitted only to the Mondeo's and three of the bodies there had them, so we took them all out. after this we walked around the yard, scavenging Jaguars, Mercedes, BMW and other brands looking for bits to remove, eventually we got back to where we started, and another scan around the outsides of the wrecks yielded a broken out dash under the snow, under the rear of another car.... JACKPOT !!!! A dash face with the clock still stuck in it with the plug and wiring attached, as well as another cup holder.
I plan on making another metal section below my dash to fit all the gauges I removed previously, and each end will get a "hidden" cup holder.



Next up it was back to the office and in anticipation for getting scapled for the parts we had picked, we put them on the counter......

£2.00 per item..... so $3.00 per item..... WTF ? Thats cheap. SCORE !!!

While out there I also kicked a Rover Grille out from under the snow. £5.00 bargain as well.

These guys really are not greedy. Which makes for a nice change.

Possibly for Clem's garage if it suits his Decor in Fayetteville. Registration plate for perspective of size.




Last thing for the day was to get a Bacon Buttie and a coffee at a service station vendor.



So all in, a short day out, but a great one.

[WhippinSaw]

Nice work on the tow bar, looks like its well engineered, When I welded my bumper up I had to take the welder of the gas and use the thickest flux core wire the machine could handle, by the time I was finished with it I was much better at laying down a bead, good place to practice on, most of the funky welds you can take a grinder to them and smooth them out. my fleet to step bumper conversion is here in murphy98's page http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=616543&page=2

[Ta2Don]

Diggin' the hidden cup holders…
Nice Score on a wintry day...

Cheers!

[disasterbus]

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Like the cup holder idea - the cup holder in mine is a bit more 'old school' witn zero moving parts

Apparently the old boy who used to own my truck made it about 30 years ago and it's been in the truck ever since.

[mjh1965]

While working on my truck today. I was looking for something in my garage ,and I came across this as you know I have purchased a new number plate surround that lights up. This is therefore surplus to requirements . Knowing you needed one with a light in it I will bring it over on Wednesday . You will need to assemble your sand blasting cabinet to clean it up







This is my one I have replaced it with I will wire it up so it turns red for a third brake light

[Ta2Don]

Here's a link to that Sweet T-Shirt you sent me a pic of...

http://www.hotrodavenue.com/product/...evy-c10-tshirt
IMG_1378 by ta2don, on Flickr
Cheers!

[mjh1965]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Here's a link to that Sweet T-Shirt you sent me a pic of...

http://www.hotrodavenue.com/product/...evy-c10-tshirt
IMG_1378 by ta2don, on Flickr
Cheers!

Hi Don I sent the picture to Grizz . I tried to order this months ago and sent them an email to ask about shipping to the UK . They never got back to me. If you follow the link most of the sizes are out of stock know

[Grizz1963]

Got home tonight and there was an envelope in the post......

Thank you Tim "Ruffgeezer" this is a very cool addition to my crazy collection.



And for those of you who like a bit of detail.......

This is the bike it came from.

[Palf70Step]

Very Cool!

[Grizz1963]

Last year, Nicola and I went out one day to just drive the truck about randomly, looking for decent places for her to photograph it.

One of the places we stopped was over on the road to Grain, with an industrial type backdrop, so she set her camera to pull out the red in the shot, and turn everything else to black and white, this also worked really well with the yellow of the rape seed/canola oil flower fields.

So I decided to have a canvas printed for my study using one of the high resolution images.

Today I collected it on the way home and tonight I put it up in the study...... it surprised me by its sheer size, sorry but I could not really get a decent photo of my office.




Last week I really battled with my welder and eventually after replacing some of the nozzle parts, Martin suggested I change the tips to 0.8mm to run the 0.6mm wire I weld with.

I did this tonight, and with power set high and wire feed sufficient, I am pleased to say that the towbar side mounting plates are now securely glued on.



In position.



Next up I removed the actual tow section from the cross bar.

The outer size of the towing section should just fit inside the piece of cross bar I planned to harvest from the Cherokee towbar.



YUPPP !!



Once liberated, and ground back on the bench grinder, I went to the woodwork shed and ran them both on my linisher, the belt will need replacing for woodwork, but did the job I asked it to do.



Not completely fitting in all the way, but as good as I believe I will be needing, I now need to wait till the spares I ordered in last year, including the 67-72 rear bumper gets here, then Martin and I will fetch them from Ron our importer and I can make the bumper brackets up, the fit the bumper up, followed by measuring, cutting the tow hitch, an lastly, welding it partly to the truck and bolting it to the cross bar, so that the towbar will still be removable from the rear.

This is where I stopped tonight.

[Ta2Don]

Thanks for the sneak peek mate...

Rockin' the Tuba Trucks Key chain...

[4mulaSvaliant]

Looking great!!!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Thanks for the sneak peek mate...

Rockin' the Tuba Trucks Key chain...

Was wearing my Restoration by Tuba Trucks T-Shirt tonight as well, and Nicola took a pic as she said it looked good....... I did of course do "Jazz Hands" so cannot really post the pic on here, as nobody would ever speak to me

Originally Posted by 4mulaSvaliant

Looking great!!!

Thanks a lot.

[Grizz1963]

As I drove up to my house tonight, there was a large Parcel Force van parked across my driveway.

I saw the guy walk in as I stopped over the road, so met him at the front door, it was the second time he had been here today, thankfully he had thought of trying to see if anyone had come in since he had been here earlier to deliver another parcel from Searcy, Arkansas.

My door repair panels, cut out of Ta2Don's trucks original drivers door. And a retired Tattoo gun from his collection I had wanted to buy from him, but that he refused money for.

Not a very big or heavy parcel by any means, but thought I would add a photo of the costs associated with postage/shipping.



The tattoo gun was to be included in a birthday present I wanted to male up for Nicola, who has her birthday tomorrow on the 5th Feb.

I had the artwork from one of her tattoos that we both really like, mounted it inside a box frame, then mounted the gun, for which I had made its own needle/lance out of some 0.6mm welding wire, onto the backing board next to the pic.

It may seem a weird gift, but I know just how mad my wife is...... so hopefully it will be good.

Remember the Celtic Cross I carved for her birthday last year ??



By 7pm Ian, our old lodger was around to do some computer stuff and printing, as he does not have a printer.

Then mate Martin popped in while Ian was here and all work stopped for an hour or more.

After which Martin and I went down to the garage to look at the spacing etc of the removable tow hitch I am building.

Not having the rear bumper yet, we had to guess the spacing and positioning of the sleeve, and I then cut off the last piece of the old towbar mount from under the trucks chassis and mocked up everything.

The sleeve and the slider insert can be cut to length when the bumper is fitted so that it is as far out of sight as possible.

I would love to know if anyone has a removable towbar fitted to a 60-66 C10 and what their measurements are.

Here is the mock up, if you look straight down the rear of the bed, it is 260mm



You will see the cross bar/bearer has been moved up and inward as well, as it was sitting too low and far out for when the bumper is fitted.



From the top of the bed, to the top of the sleeve is 170mm

I would again love to know what measurements anyone who has one fitted, has on their truck.



Another measurement, this time to the bottom of the sleeve, above my cross brace, at 230mm, if anyone van inform me what they have, this would be hugely helpful.



I also plan on making up a removable number plate carrier that should sit roughly like in this pic.




Lastly, sleeve without the insert, resting above the cross bar.



Any advice and info, measurements etc, greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking in.

[Ta2Don]

Sorry I can't help with Tow Bar spacing...

…but, that old Tattoo Machine sure looks better there, as it was resting in a box in a dark cabinet here…

Cheers mate!