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

Well, as my buddy Martin is not as much of a reporter as I am, I think this will fit into my thread as he will ultimately be involved in my trucks bodywork as an advisor and trouble shooter (trouble maker)

He has been looking for a V8 engine to go into his truck for quite some time.

Martin's truck is going to be a lot of show and less go as he does not need a 400BHP monster.

He found a seller on Rods n Sods recently who was selling a 307ci motor with auto box for sensible money and decided to drive the 180 miles there to go look at the motor and see it all in the 57 Chevy truck it is in at the moment. The motor and box were from a Chevy Caprice wagon Roger broke a few years ago.

So on Saturday morning, armed with some wood, hammer, nails, tie down straps, overalls, gloves and a bag full of food and coffee,with my trail bike trailer behind his dog walking Mondeo ST estate we set off at 05.40 to drive up to Derbyshire......Heated seats were a bonus.

Stopped after 2 hrs for the loo....




We got to the sellers home at exactly 09.00 and found a real petrol head and his wife living there.

Roger has had some Street Machine featured cars, including a mad Orange SAAB years ago, tubbed and madly modded, which lives in Germany now. He still has a bunch of varied Saab's and is a keen old skool Scooterist with a bunch of stunning Lambretta scooters as well as some projects that are in process.

First to meet us was this Saab pickup, made from a Saab 7 seater estate that he saved years ago and uses as a general runnabout.



Front view.



Chopper in process.



Beauty.





Saab with Ford V4 power. Another one of his winners.

The guy really does love his toys to look good.



And another Saab in process, that will end up like all his other spotless examples...... Leadsled with 3500cc Rover V8 with a blower on top.

Should make for an interesting car.



Having seen and heard to motor run and move under its own power, Martin agreed to buy it.

The deal was good for Martin with the engine and gearbox being unbolted from the truck and sold as it was with all ancillaries including power steering pump etc.

Roger also threw in a pair of Kenlowe fans, a massive radiator with integrated oil cooler, a prop shaft and other bits for the build.

One of the biggest scores of the day was a pair of block hugger headers that Roger gave to Martin along with the motor they were fitted to.

Having all the bits n pieces from its original Smog control still on the carburetor etc, Roger had built from heavily layered glassfibre a nice under bonnet scoop to cover all the unsightly bits and pieces.

From the time we landed Martin could not keep his eyes or hands off this piece that bolts down over everything..... in the end he convinced Roger to sell it to him for £75.00 which I thought was a great price as you could not make it for that money.

Rogers truck.



Clean bay before removing the motor and box, and I have to say, not a mark on any of the paint after all was done and removed.






Time for a change of Face.....



Martin trying so hard not to buy the scoop.....



Ready to rock n roll....

Strapped down, one of the hooks still managed to make a bid for freedom by the time we filled the car a couple of miles later.




The rest of the road trip was filled with talk, driving and eating all the food we had brought alon.

Got to Martins place, moved the truck out the way, unhooked the trailer and stashed it behind the truck.

The engine will go into the garage once he moves his V-Rod to his mums garage and makes space to store the engine till he is ready to fit it.



That's all for now.

Hopefully Martin will pull finger and start his own build thread some time.

Thanks mate.

I am sure there are many people out there with as much and also much more enthusiasm, its just that I take pics.

Interestingly, mate Martin commented on my camera initially but also loves reading threads..... someone has to do it ehhh?

WRT Pinstriping, yes, it will happen some time.

Finally got round to reading this thread from start to finish, great stuff mate!

Hi Buddy, thanks.

Looking forward to your top secret next move........

The most irritating and (arguably) thus the most effective is the buzzer connected to the Mercedes lights switch. Models W126, W124 amongst others.

Hi Grizz,
Would appreciate your opinion/input on retrorides.proboards.com/thread/160115/diesel-engine-retrofit-considerations
Thanks!

You realy shouldn't be parking in that car park, the sign clearly states its a Blue car park not a Red pickup park. Your compressor will have an unloader valve which if I remember correctly stops the pump from pressurising, I think by keeping the inlet open so air just goes back out the way it came
Ttfn Glenn

I did wonder whether I would come back to a clamped or towed truck after parking there Glenn.

Thankfully it was still there.

I think you are right regarding the unloader valve.

Would be niie to have a compressor engineer point out what the bits all do on it's head.


On leave again today and tomorrow, and just heading for the garage to start making some wheeled base for it, so that I can move it about and into the garage over winter.

I also need to do a proper inspection of the truck's rust, like fenders etc so that I can order a few patch panels from the USA once I have made an inventory.

I am unfortunately not in the league of guys like TonyBMW and Oldbus, Totti and BiAS who are metal gods when it comes to making up patch panels and fitting them.

When I bought the truck, I knew it would need a complete resto and repaint to get it looking the way I want it to be.

I originally had a colour change in mind to a traditional mint green and white combo, or a real farmer brown green colour with off white detailing. But within a week of buying the truck, I knew it would stay the "in your face" red that it had been painted 10 years ago before leaving California.

I also knew it had some rust, and that is was very little for a 47 year old vehicle.

However, I was surprised at the rust when I started looking around under the truck.

There are a few holes that will need new metal welded in after surgery, and then some dents and scrapes to fix. All of these I am prepared to give a go, however, I will be buying and importing some steel patch panels.

I am happy to hear from anyone who has experience in using the panels that are available in the market from the likes of LMC, Top Banana and others, which are best for quality and fit.

Below are a few pics of my fenders and also the front, bottom corners of both doors.

Passenger door underside. The fender on this side seems fairly intact, but I may just bite the bullet and replace that whole side while on the metal work and paint.



Driver side fender corner...... this is bad, it is loose, and the inner support is rotten as well.
I suspect you could pull the whole bottom off without much effort.



Inside view...... made me want to cry. I will get the whole support for this side, rather than patching it up. The passenger side seems totally solid.





Drivers side lower door front corner. I am happy to make up path panels for the two doors as they are out of sight.



As mentioned above, please do add any comments and advice you may have for me regarding repairing the rust.
The trucks sills and cab corners are completely solid, and there are small bits of rust on the inner fenders just behind the grille and front support.

As can be seen in this pic.




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The other thing I looked at today was the placement of the rev counter my buddy Tim gave me in August.

I did not want to fit it till the truck was painted, but realized that placing it and wiring it up will not stop me from the paint and prep. I plan on going for a satin black dash, or satin black and red combo.

My question is this......

Where do most people place rev counters?

Sensible, practical, visible etc.....

Here is mine, just held in place or placed in position to get and idea.

Opinions, advice ??



Somewhere in the left hand corner.




Over to the right ??




Looking forward to ideas etc....

Thanks, Rian.