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

[Grizz1963]

So between meetings and work yesterday, I sneaked out and started to scratch another itch.

Started to paint the rear of the green beams white, and the rest of what is grey now, will become white.

If I can beat the weather today.





In other GALAXY NEWS

I ordered some Mercedes Benz alloy wheel centre caps.......

Total cost, £6.95 delivered.

Plan is to remove the stars to de-brand the wheels before fitting them to the Galaxy.

I was originally waiting to do the MoT on standard wheels before swapping out the wheels.

Then Corona happened, giving me another 6 months MOT time.



Remember the spider caps I bought last year?

[url href="https://s294.photobucket.com/user/niknakpix/media/France-Grizz-Goose/A89C0CBD-0BFD-4480-A22D-C462F178A94A_zpshopkps6j.jpg.html"][img src="https://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/France-Grizz-Goose/A89C0CBD-0BFD-4480-A22D-C462F178A94A_zpshopkps6j.jpg"][/url]

Compared to the Benz item, which is 70mm this 57 mm spider ended up too small.

[url href="https://s294.photobucket.com/user/niknakpix/media/France-Grizz-Goose/4719B5E6-6335-4CAC-8F97-84F22CF50E67_zpsblv1hxqh.jpg.html"][img src="https://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/France-Grizz-Goose/4719B5E6-6335-4CAC-8F97-84F22CF50E67_zpsblv1hxqh.jpg"][/url]



And from America.....



Remember Dennis’ NASCAR themed 66 Chevy C10 build.


He bought a cool transporter to go with it this week.


Excited to see how that ends up looking.


Oklahoma truck, no nasty rust to repair.










Paintbrush and roller awaits.

[Grizz1963]

Thanks to Ben, it was fidly but actually straight forward after retrieving my Torx bit with some BluTac on a stick. I broke the magnet version years ago.

Four Torx bolts. One 180mm deep in the dark undone.
Remove top two but only loosen bottom two that hold slide in tabs.



I undid top gour screws on grille and spaced it away with screwdriver handle.

Move light out like this to get to modified bayonet type fixings.



I bought a replacement bulb, except the pins are offset but it needs directly opposed pins.

Thankfully I had some in my toolbox I made in 1981 for my first car.
When pliers and two screwdrivers plus a plug spanner fixed everything at the roadside.
Good old days.

Bulb fits in stalk.

Stalk is bayonet fitting too, only one way to fit it.




Of course Galaxy failed on a sidelight as well

I got a replacement. Regular type.

BUT it had LED types fitted.

So same process to remove headlight.



This was removed.



So now I have two different looking but working lights.


Could this be a fail again? I dont care at this point.







Only a rusty brake line left to be fixed or replaced by a real mechanic.

Then retest.

[Grizz1963]

Fitted a regular side light bulb after work.

Happy with it now.

[Grizz1963]

Busy with a planning meeting today, doorbell goes.

Get to open it and DHL guy waves from his van, and points.

Parcel !!

Contents.



Could not wait for the meeting to be over.

So thought I would just try it on a wheel.



OK..... that worked, easy.

Down to the garage and pull out the big jack, roll the Rockit back, chock the front wheel.

Up in the air, off with the 16” alloy to just try the adapter on the 4x108 studs.

Yup. Fits. 20mm added



Spacers that came with the wheels are another 5mm. So total 25mm



So of course I needed to see if the new wheel fitted on the adapter.

Keep in mind, the tyres on them are 175/15’s that are silly stretched.



Yes, it does.

I liked it.


QUESTION: How wide can I go on tyres on there rims, they are 8J or 8” wide.


More in a bit, need to deal with something.

[Grizz1963]

As is often the case.....

Once I got started, I needed to carry on.



Looking down the length of the car, the steels hit the edge so perfectly, it just put a massive grin on my face.



Looking down on it.



Following this, it was front wheel off too.







And lastly.



I think the front can do with a 30mm push outward vs the rear that was right with a 25mm spacing.

Wider tyres will complete the look a bit more, along with a hard slam

[LT7A]

I'm enjoying your whimsical approach to the RR. I also really enjoyed that logo inspired shopping list. Any closer up pictures of that? Good work on the matter of fact handling of the underbody damage brought to light during MOT. Noted, cut out, fixed.

[Grizz1963]

Mickey had asked me if I would paint the outer edge, facing his property green, kind of to blend with the hedge a bit, and the green roof sheets I had ordered.

So today in my “Lunch Hour” I quickly mixed some green and black enamel paints to get a darker colour.

Maybe a tad dark, but I don't care as I won’t be seeing it.



Resulting in this.



Once the gutters are fitted, they are some dark colour, it should be OK for him.

Still waiting for the roof sheets to be delivered.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by LT7A

I'm enjoying your whimsical approach to the RR. I also really enjoyed that logo inspired shopping list. Any closer up pictures of that? Good work on the matter of fact handling of the underbody damage brought to light during MOT. Noted, cut out, fixed.

Thanks, I think whimsical is the right way to go about it for the RR

I do not have a closer pic of the shopping list.

BUT, here it is on EBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174135513399

Yes, the car is 20 years old, England salts its roads, to be expected.

I could lose $1600.00 by scrapping it, which many people do in this country, or fix it for about $110.00 which includes the brake line replaced by a mechanic and some of my time, and carry on using it as a van and utilitarian tool, as intended.

I think that the fact that it is a relatively zero maintenance vehicle, and that it has saved and brought home free stuff worth a lot more than I have invested in it, kinda answers it all.

[Grizz1963]

Feels like a PS

Fil sent this through late afternoon.

Green needs to be darker I think.



And more detail added.

Got a message from roofing company, expected delivery date for sheets and fixings, 18 November, thats a long wait then.

[Grizz1963]

Photoshopped by mate Fil who fetched it in Scotland for me.

If we can get it this low, and a slightly shorter, tilted back screen, I will be super chuffed.



Just need some drum working space now.

[Grizz1963]

Good news.

PASS



Also, back to some pretty random randomness.

I do not get Zombies and related issues.

But a colleague has his birthday, loves zombies, we have to bake a competitive cookie as a work challenge.



Baked and finished



Just hope they get my attempt.



.

[Grizz1963]

Last few days have been very full of day job stuff.
Yesterday saw meetings start at 8.30 and last one end around 4.45 so not even a lunch break to carry on with the bits of prep I am doing.

Today, weather permitting, mix some green up to get close to but a touch darker than Sinclair green and then post the one front line and posts green

Plus do the skinny board in Red.

It should work to form a basis for the fake gas station colours and make it easier than painting once the roof is up.






Something like this.

[Grizz1963]

SomI started early today, and donated my lunch and tea times to painting.

It did end up getting done in three phases, as the third one took some Hummming and ha-ing as to whether I would paint the front steel green.

Masking off takes time, but keeps it tidy.







Red added.





That was meant to be how far I go.

Typically, after work I went back and painted the front steel too.

This way, once the roof is on, when you come down there, it will present nicely.



Happy so far.

[flashed]

Your paint work looks great , cant wait to see the roof complete . That hauler truck Dennis found looks great .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Your paint work looks great , cant wait to see the roof complete . That hauler truck Dennis found looks great .

I think it will be good, thanks.

Dennis is a sensible, patient man.

So, when you have over 800bhp on tap, what do you do to maximise it....?


Lighten it of course.





Before.



After



This build keeps moving forward

[Grizz1963]

I saw some of the wheels I had found for the Rezin Rockit on sale on FB Marketplace for £350.00

So feel pretty pleased that I paid £100.00 plus collection for mine.

I need to find some kind of centre caps, or a programme to 3D print a set for my wheels.



Looking at wheel,adapters, I found these reasonably locally, about 20 miles from home.

No idea on what they will be like, but the centre bore seems to be wrong at 55mm vs 63 on the hubs. But shows some are about if one looks.



I am assuming one needs to still assemble them, fit studs to the adapters and then fit to the car.



.

[Grizz1963]

So yesterday morning, I started to paint all the greys , into white....

Within 15 minutes of starting, Mickey was here too, and straight up onto the shed roof.





First coat on.





So today started wet and windy, so I went to get some loo paper for lockdown and some food, in case I got hungry.

Back home, it was still wet.

By 2.00pm it had dried up, sun out......

So I decided to go do the second coat.........

FAAAAAAIIIILLLL...!!


It started to rain and with the wind howling an hour after I started, so I shut shop.

Really pi553d OFF.

What a mess.

Oh, and of course I do dislike water based paints.





Hopefully get it done before Wednesday, and have it dry before the roof sheets arrive.

Chicken Fajitas for dinner, Sallys treat.

.

[Grizz1963]

This morning I was out by 7.45 to go start and finish the paint before my day job started.




Finished.



I can honestly say, I am pleased that I did not stay with the industrial grey as planned.

The white, green and red are a good, crisp combination, and once I have lights in under the roof sheets, it should work well.



Weather and delivery permitting, I plan on taking Thursday and Friday off to get this done.


In the mean time, I need to start looking at lighting options.

I will go with new materials for this one, rather than old recycled school lights or similar.

Sounds like people are getting good results with LED lights too.

[Grizz1963]

This is the carport I am about to roof.

It is 6x6 meters.

BUT.....

Let’s work on 5x5 meters, so 25 square meters to be lit up from about 2.2 plus meters up.

The floor is paved with block paving, mostly a mottled grey colour.

So, what is the concensus on what light design and size, output etc to go for?


I do not think I will light up between the front red strip and the first green, but possibly the first green and second beam which is the steel. Then more toward the rear.

Thanks for the input.

[Grizz1963]

So today started with this view.

7 contrails, one out of shot.

I would love this to be an indication of things being headed in the right direction, allowing us to do what we used to do.



At 2,00pm as one meeting came to an end, the doorbell rang.

Roof sheets and materials had landed.

Interesting experience, the driver refused to help me carry the 5.5 meter sheets onto the drive, as he was not insured, and would have to sue me if he got injured.

First time I have ever had such a ****ty experience.

As he said, he is paid to do sidewalk delivery....... not impressed.

But in the end I asked nicely after explaining there was nobody to help me move them onto the driveway, he drudgingly helped me carry them off the sidewalk.





Later on, Mickey got home from town and helped me carry them down to the garage.

One of the nice things is that the underside, being grey, is not too dark, should work well for winter work.



I after 5 weeks wait, we have sheets.

I have taken tomorrow and Friday off to get the sheets up.

So tonight it was oven grilled lamb ribs and vegetables

And just because I am off tomorrow



Roll on Thursday.

[Grizz1963]

By way of partial apology I will post up a PM received from Rasputin on another forum.

He explained in a clear, non emotive way, what they are up against.

I was aware when the driver refused to help me get the sheets off the sidewalk that he probably had rules to follow.
BUT
His attitude was filled with anger and possibly even petulance.
HOWEVER
My day job is in part working with really awkward, some rude and difficult customers and as much as some of you can fine tune a turbo, prune a Bonzai or bake a cake, my forté is managing conflicts.


Anyway, posted purely in case any of us can learn from the info below and understand our delivery driver, team etc.


Hope you won't mind a PM Grizz; no need to reply if you wish.

I deliver pallets of goods to high street stores, often through the front door early in the mornings.

Our strict instructions are to tail-lift them out of the truck onto the ground next to the tail lift, and the store staff are to take over from there, dragging pallets across uneven pavements.

But it rarely works out like that. Some of the pallets weigh roughly a ton and need a helping shove, especially up slopes and over bumps. On the other hand, at some stores it works out best for me to stay in the truck and just lower the pallets down - the store staff are waiting to take them by the time I get that far and have an easy trundle into the store, and if I were to take them off the tail-lift the delivery would take a lot longer.

So it all depends. I try to help out where I can, but it's really a case of finding the most efficient handover in each situation. I do hear a lot of stories of drivers who have got too used to standing about on the back of the truck though!

Your driver couldn't sue you of course - you only asked him, didn't order him. He would have to sue his employer for putting him in that situation, but that might mean no more job; his employer might try suing you but if you only asked for help and the driver agreed, it wouldn't be clear-cut.

Since your roof sheets are so long, the supplier would have to send a driver's mate or a truck with a hiab crane if they offered an unloading service officially, but I bet they tell their drivers not to touch the panels at all, and let the clients arrange unloading. Cost-cutting.

If there's nothing to that effect in the small print of your order, or nothing about an optional extra fee for an unloading service, then the supplier may be just fudging it and you may have scope for redress. What if you got injured because the driver would not help if he didn't? Who would be liable? Their small print might be an interesting read.

I suspect the supplier relies on the same tactic as my employer - the stores have to take the pallets in however it can be done because they need the goods. They could refuse to accept them given good grounds, but they can't ever afford to.

I could tell you a few stories - such as a store staff member whose official role was to replenish front-of-store display shelves, who broke her leg by falling backwards whilst dragging a pallet over a pothole - but I will stop there.

In your case, you clearly want the sheets and probably (as far as the supplier knows) have a team in place waiting to install them; therefore you are very unlikely to refuse to accept them just because you have to unload them. Chances are (the supplier is gambling) that your roofers will help out.

Likewise their driver is put in the same situation - you made it clear that the sheets couldn't be unloaded without his help, so in effect you were calling his bluff and suggesting that you would refuse them. So it was in his interests to help unload, even arguably at his own risk, rather than take them back. In my case, taking stuff back would involve (and has on occasion) unpalatable hour-long argumentative phone calls to the depot and/or other senior managers, designed to get me to make the delivery no matter what, and to get the store to accept it no matter what.

The only time I did take a whole delivery back was when it was loaded on a 16ft high trailer but the shopping centre had a 14'6" height limit!


PS. I did reply to Him

[Grizz1963]

Roof sheets are up, held down with 4 screws each, loads more pilot holes to drill, as the supposed self tappers, are certainly not self tapping.

Pretty obvious that they are a low quality product masquerading as something they are not.

So this has necessitated a pilot hole for every one of the 200 holes that may end up being drilled and screwed down, as I really do not ever want the wind tearing the sheets out and depositing them into Mickeys yard.

Rain stopped play an hour ago, so right now I had lunch, and am waiting for my garage clothes to dry in the tumble drier.

Still raining intermittently at the moment, and wet = slippery.

Then back out to continue with the screwings and doings.

Pics later when it gets too dark to play,.

[Grizz1963]

Small jobs and spending some quality time with Sally who is extremely tolerant of my time spent down the garage and carport.

When we laid out the roofing, it turned out that I had 800mm excess on the last sheet, so we blended that gain into the roof with overlaps.

However, I also allowed myself the luxury of a 300mm gain on the width of the roof.

Overlap.



So I added a bit more timber to the end, and this will allow for the extra guttering to be mounted.



Much better, dark green paint mixed and added.



Moved some shelving around.

More changes to come.



Also painted the sides of my garden tool cabinet, moved it about 150mm over to the left and under the roof.



Then gave the wall a coat of durable, washable paint.

And once done, this was the view over Mickeys hedge from under the carport.



This morning’s Facebook Flashback to 11 years ago.

Haynes Museum, RR’s Gathering




Mickey made a valid, funny comment last night, asking me what I am going to do when I run out of stuff to do, to keep me busy.


Who knows, life is good. We will keep busy.

[Grizz1963]

I know we have a fair amount of carnivores here, Fresh biltong, Collected yesterday.

Got some biltong from a local-ish maker/supplier (Biltong Cottage on FB) or contact me for details. She will ship as well at a cost, I tend to collect mine.

I still make my own as well, but know the cost in time and meat vs a good deal.

Bought a kilo of original and 500g of chilli which is really good.

As a personal gift, her husband gave me a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutley ( no, I am not going to try to explain that)




After painting the lamp shade, and leaving it down in the garage overnight, the next morning I found it super tacky and clearly not drying.

So I bought it indoors and have had it balanced in the small office oil radiator in the kitchen.

24 hrs later, it is now nice and dry, probably needs a n]bit more time to really dry and for the paint to go hard.



One other job that I have looked forward to has been getting the very large compressor from the garage and into its own space next to the carport.

The @pauly annex.

Lifted with my Jack, and wheeled in two wheels at a time.



Decided to paint the mount for the light red as well.

The white paint, though sold as gloss for metal, is water based, and not successful.

[Grizz1963]

So the lampshade seemed to respond well to the small heater under it.

Paint has dried to the point where it does not mark or dent, though I am sure you could scratch it off with your finger nail

So I fetched in the mounting bracket and a plank on which to place it for painting and drying, and proceeded to paint it red as well, despite planning white originally.



Done, mounted, now wait for it to dry over the next day or so.



Went to the garage agin, and fished out the last bit of the green and redid the edge of the shade, separating the red and white with a narrow band of green.

I do like that, and from the ground it should look good.



While at that, I mounted the Chevrolet sign I got from Darren a few years ago. It had lived indoors after being painted.



From a distance, up on the beam.



Nothing spectacular, but I certainly feel that I like it.

Bit of a theme coming out of here now.


.