Grizz’s 66 Chevy C10 Short Fleetside - BRICKIN’ IT 27/12/21

I use glass media exclusively - and silica is an issue for sand not for glass (not the dust issues)

Here is what I wear

Abrasive blasting hood: www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blasting-hood-62378.html

Gloves: www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blasting-cabinet-gloves-62436.html

and long sleeves and long pants, no mask or stuff - I suppose I could but it has not been an issue.

rather than making a box, I use this:

www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-pressurized-abrasive-blaster-68992-8608.html

actually the one I use is a bucket with a hose and gun. I spread out a tarp, use up the bucket of media on the tarp, sweep it up, pour it back in the bucket and keep going. There is a mesh filter on top of the bucket to get out the big rocks. The filter is nothing more than a piece of metal door screen,

pretty simple really

Thanks for the replies JPSmit and Darren.

It seems that the two pack I am painting with comes with its own health warnings, and one of the suggestions is to use an airfed mask.

So if I need one for the media blasting, then surely it is another way to split the costs.

So today I bought this DeVilbiss mask to use for the blasting and painting, hopefully to help me survive.

At £140.00 it should be worth having, again an unexpected expense, but I knew there were many along this journey.




Nicola came in with a parcel too.

A pair of slip on stainless reducers for the cutout pipes, taking it from 3" diameter to 2.5" exhausts.

Nice fit.

Hey Guz
Good memory. Yes I was, untill I realised it would need a hole drilled in the speedo face to get adjustment done.
The only way it could work is in the extra console I plan to mount underneath the existing dash. Possibly where the little Ford oval clock could go as well.

Looking forward to your blasting experiments!

GLWS of the MX5, onwards!

Just a quickly tonight.

Fetched the airfed mask this morning, followed by shopping and then a quick Maccy D coffee with Nicola, then home.

Got a cool toy...... Says a lot about how easy I am to please.



After lunch time, Martin came over to change the drivers door glass in the MX5 for me, took him a total of 18 minutes to remove the donor glass and fit it, and close up the cars door. WTF?? Talent or what.

Then I had planned to remove the towbar and paint it all, despite knowing it was far from right as it was mal-aligned and to pack it away before starting the blasting as I have done nothing with it the last couple of weeks.

Martin again forced me via my own vanity and realisation that geometry was not my friend to take the whole lot apart and redesign it all.

Then to cut, grind, fit and tack it all together.







Tacked the corners, then disassembled and started to weld it all up.



At this point the welded decided to go to sleep, so I shut shop and came indoors.

Tomorrow we continue.

Looking forward to wrapping up this bloody towbar and getting on with other stuff.

Today the weather turned wet and cold again, so I finished the final welding on the towbar, tried it out for fit and then removed the lot, including mounting plates, took the flap wheel to the lot and cleared the rust and tidied the welds.

Then the parts that will be sliding inside the receiver got a coat of rattle can black, just to cover the metal as well as the ball bolt heads.



I decided to hold off on the Hammerite till the weather is more conducive to drying.

Last year I bought a new triple chromed front bumper for my truck, problem was, it was a damaged item that I was prepared to take a gamble on to try to repair.

When Offering it up to the truck, it came up that the passenger side tip was bent in by 40mm meaning it could not even be fitted.

I am also painting the rear of both new bumpers as they often rust there despite the chrome, obviously because most of us do not wash, dry or polish the rears of our bumpers.

So at lunch time I contacted mate Darren who is a local rodder with a machine shop to see if I could come down to his place 30 miles from where we live, to use his 8 ton hydraulic press to try tease out the crease in the bumper, he agreed, as long as I was done before 13.30 as he still had Mother's Day to deal with.

My old and new bumper in front of the press.



When trying to determine where the energy had entered the bumpers tip when it fell from the top of a shipping container and thus how to press it to return it to shape, I realised that hooking it into Darren's forklift truck, and persuading it with a large lump hammer while putting pressure on it in the opposite direction would work.



So within 10 minutes we had the bumper straightened out and that without any damage to the chrome.

So the gamble pair off, for once.

While I was there, Darren was also busy preparing some of his cars for Easter weekends Chatham Festival of Steam show.




Before I left, I had to use the toilet (happens when you get older and it is cold) and saw this which has to be a sign of a hard core rodder.

Thanks again to Darren for the help and offer of machinery.

And a damn good one it was! As we say, "Gettin' after it". Cool!

BLUE TITS !!!


Thought that would get your attention.

Last year Harley the Thug, garage cat ate both Blue Tit babies.

So I removed the nest over winter, then put up a new nesting box on the other side of the garage, this morning I saw that they were back, and had started padding the new nesting box with poopy paper.

Where do they find clean poopy paper??

Anyway, it's good to see them back.



The towbar has it's second coat of Hammerite.

Today I bought new 8.8 high tensile bolts for all the fittings oft he towbar as well as a pair of even higher spec collared Allen head bolts to make into fixing pins, along with the R-Clips I was given on Monday by the local spares shop.

Measured, then ground flat aspects for the drill to take to, drilled through (sacrificing some bits in the process) and then tidied them up.






This means the towbar is now complete, ready to fit once the truck is ready for reassembly.

Killer ride grizz love yank trucks I'm hoping for a 50's ford f150 or a stepside shortbed chev next. watching this closely mate