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

[Grizz1963]

With stuff happening it was just a matter of time before I got back to the Astro van.

Well, John my old lodger and driving school instructor got going. I don’t know much about electronics and he loves it.

His driving instruction car was lightly damaged recently when someone cut across and pushed him off the road.

He was quoted £100 for a “repair” which took me about 10 minutes to do with some G3 compound and polish. I touched up a few other marks too.

Because he had cancelled his lessons he spent part of the day here and we started to look at and mess with the Astro’s 1.5 DIN radio that I always disliked, along with the dash that had been cut.

So he/we started to disassemble and try figuring out what the two amplifiers and speakers were doing.

Currently only the 6x9’s in the door work.



Of course because the radio hole is so shallow, one cannot fit a standard sized radio in there so I will have to go to Halfords to see if there is a suitable replacement for it.




The other thing that became apparent was that the replacement is a different colour.

But I will live with that.

I could repaint it like the lower sections that I did before.




So hopefully tomorrow is an easy day for the electrical stuff.

Fingers crossed again.

[Grizz1963]

So with starting on the Astro van radio @sparkplug and mate Martin in different ways immediately sprang into action finding me sources of short radios.

Some are crazy expensive and some are not.

Martin found a like new Pioneer radio with a load of auxiliary functions for £30.00 about 30 miles or 50km from home. Regular advertised price is £90.00

Mate Darren had “bought” my Cortina steering wheel from the Rezin Rockit that was advertised for £25.00 and was going to come collect it next week. His workshop is a mile from the radio seller so John and I decided to buy the radio for £30.00 and save £60.00 plus deliver the steering to Darren for free, though he absolutely insisted on giving me £10.00 for the “Free Cash” savings kitty. I then got into his skip and rescued a wheel clamp with two keys that I have given to mate Martin for his trailer as well as some solid wheels and an axle, plus some scrap steel for my stash, all free.

So a good day in the end, despite not making a load of progress on decluttering.

It was also miserable with the temperatures around 6’C and a nasty cold breeze cutting through our bones.

Called it a day by 4.45

Today John is back and trying to figure out the total clusterf#€k of duplicate and dead end wiring in the van.

I am at the garage, continuing the clean up.







More later.

Its 12.45 already.

[Grizz1963]

Saturday was a good day.

Not warm but the cutting breeze reduced to something more tolerable.

No rain.

John was back by 10.00 in the morning to carry on with deciphering the archaeological history and crap of 33 years of each new owner adding their stamp to the sound system.

This includes two amplifiers, a 720 and 360 Watt units. Presumably forva sub woofer and the rest of the system.
They both power up.
I do not have any need for a Sub. So bypassed that.

The rear door speakers have never worked since I bought the van.
Front door speakers were and still do but not great quality. So I will go get some subtle 6x9’s for the front doors and a pair of new 6’s for the rear doors, which work but I think replacing the whole system makes sense.

Once all the chaos was sorted, John started the van with a jump pack as ignition had been on all day and the van not driven for 3-4 weeks, only to find that on starting the van, the radio stopped working. Buggerrr.
So back to tracing wires and then all fixed.

It sounds brilliant with the four speakers all working and set to the way my ears like them.









Next job for me, will be to make a U-Shaped radio surround blanking plate to close in the 15mm gap under the radio in the replacement dash unit.

I think I have just enough of the Mazda Bongo/Friendee interior trim panel that I used for the rear door trim making left to create something that is grey and colour matching.




Video.

https://youtu.be/padjgRaJzso?si=A5We5VTZrxxACUd9

And of course it is still raining outside but I have dry jobs that can be done.

[Grizz1963]

Here’s a 7 plus day job update.

And I have only scratched the surface with this.

Too many photos of this lot but hey…… you can scroll faster ehh??

As mentioned before, a wise man once said that doing one thing every day is progress. Even if you just touched something that made you think about how you should proceed with it.

So the last 19 days, starting on 20 February I have been spending time in the garage sorting, clearing, cleaning, planning on how to take control of my life back.

As there is not much happening in the job market, partly because companies seem to wait for the end of financial year before they start spending money on new team builds etc. I know that when I am back in the daily slog and have limited time for hobbies etc. this job will be a nightmare to try achieve.
So getting my **** in order now while I have loads of time will make life easier.

Who remembers what they did at Christmas 2014 ?
That was 9 years ago.
The world was a different place back then.
Facebook remembers.
It also remembered that in March 2015 the Chevy was being torn down for a 6 month rebuild over summer.

So this was back then.

Of course a lot has changed since then.





Divorced
Made redundant
Travel and discovered America
Loads of car builds
Covid.
Distractions

Life goes on.

So I started by packing away and tidying the tools etc used in the Rezin Rockit build.
Changing layout and ditching stuff.
In order to make space I tried giving away some stuff.
Amazingly nobody wanted to collect anything from my house.

So I decided to put a price on stuff and suddenly up to 8 punters for a diesel space heater and yesterday 5 people wanted a £5.00 propane burner torch.

I still have way more crap than I need. 95% of my tools and junk are used but functional and not expensive but makes me happy.

The money I have made from the junk (some stuff is brand new and unused) is going into a savings kitty to possibly buy something stupid. We have to see how it unfolds.

Some of the stuff that’s gone is not represented in the pics.
But I have done a ton of preparation for when I get started with the 1966 C10 truck that has patiently waited for me.

I am still a long way from done with the tidy up, junk clearance and identification and sorting of the Chevy parts but it will happen.

One of the bigger jobs was to sort and arrange the parts that went with various builds and subjects.
Bodywork tools
Paint guns
Fillers
Paints
Rattle cans
Pneumatic tools
Electrical
Steering Wheels
And much more.

I cleared two cabinets to move a load of bodywork stuff into from inside the garage. This was two days work including regular daily stuff.

Bloody chilly at 4’C plus cutting winds.



Hard to see the changes.



Tools. Paints. Order. OCD?









One of the most daunting challenges facing me would be all the boxes of car parts etc on the shelving unit to the left of the cabinets.
During the clear out I also found 8 car and truck batteries. Two of which could be rescued. One went to John as a backup to an alarm system and the other was put on a trickle charger in my garage.
The rest went next door, along with all the wiring looms etc for Mickey to go weigh in for beer money at the scrapyard recycling plant.

And so far, excluding the stuff I have given away, sold or put on the sidewalk for recycling, I have junked about 12 double bagged 100 liter bin liners of junk for recycling.

By last night after John had done the Astro radio and sound system, this was where my tidying up was





Four more bags of heavy junk, plastic, wood, metal, three car radio/CD/tape players etc ready for next bin day.
The boxes all empty, waiting for me to arrange some of the C10 parts in there.



Not sure how much time all the junk inside the garage will take to process and sort out.
But it will get done.



Ultimately the C10 is waiting.

Yesterday it actually donated some audio plugs from what is left of its wiring loom to the Astro Van audio rescue that John was working on. @nickwheeler had come around for a coffee and a chat and moral support but was quickly roped into crawling into the C10 cab to rummage around under the dash, looking for these elusive parts that were not in my stash.
Many hands make light work and all that.



Battered and bruised but ready to be raised from the ashes.

I believe the truck will be back better than before.



Well.
With half the dy gone, I think I need to get my butt in gear and get down there and touch something.

Thanks for checking in.

[Grizz1963]

Did very little yesterday.


But still managed a couple of slow hours.


Visitors, ****ty weather and forums can easily suck up many hours.


I started on the odd little, custom radio surround plate that has to go in here.
There will still need to be some trimming to the mounting bracket that stands proud by 15mm





So I pulled out a bit of the Mazda Bongo interior trim that I had used for the rear door trim making.






Established that I had enough material to make it work.
Marked out, cut out and finished the plate.
Followed by cutting it to size to fit the radio face trim.






Cutting with a grinder is not ideal but a Dremmel was going to take too long




Some more finishing and the whole thing seems right

On the old cut up dash surround




I was pleased with it

Last job in the cold, some satin black paint






next job is to cut back the mounting bracket in the dash and to see if it all comes together



​​​​​​​Fingers crossed

[Grizz1963]

So final-ish part of Astro radio replacement.
Speakers will be done as well when I get to it.


Amazing how a little job 50 meters from the garage can take a bit longer than anticipated. This includes fetching tools, changing screws and various other things that kept reminding me that I should have reversed the van down to the garage.


I didn’t do that of course.


Another one of the jobs, after another good wash with some ammonia based cleaner (Jif, Cif, Handy Andy) to remove grime and get into grooves, was to treat the plastic plastic polish gel and wipe it down.


You can see the difference between before and after. Bringing it closer to the van’s original tone.
Keeping in mind my van is a 90 model and the donor was a 95.
GM quality control clearly could not manage their suppliers to even keep colours matched.






Next up was a repaint of the plate that @Westbay had objected to. Mainly because painting at 6’C is not advisable as the paint reacts differently to a warmer day.
Which had left the satin finish a distinct variation of matte black.
I wanted satin to blend in more.


The leather texture of the Mazda Bongo plastics came through better as well.





making the dash fit back over the radio and bracket necessitates a lot of grinding back and modifying.


Thank goodness for cheap, super handy tools.





In order to get the macking plate in and also to have the radio face where it needs to be I made some high density foam packing strips and used longer screws.
This worked really well.






Finally dash returned one more time to ensure factory fit established and screws added to keep it all together.





Last job, replace all the blanking plates to the dash and try out the radio



Success!! !!




I will be putting all the four mirror, aircon etc switches up for sake on the local UK Astro group as someone is bound to need something to replace a failed unit.


​​​​​​​Today it is back to clearing out and sorting more of the shelves in the unseen part of the garage.

[Grizz1963]

I give up on editing




So final-ish part of Astro radio replacement.
Speakers will be done as well when I get to it.


Amazing how a little job 50 meters from the garage can take a bit longer than anticipated. This includes fetching tools, changing screws and various other things that kept reminding me that I should have reversed the van down to the garage.


I didn’t do that of course.


Another one of the jobs, after another good wash with some ammonia based cleaner (Jif, Cif, Handy Andy) to remove grime and get into grooves, was to treat the plastic plastic polish gel and wipe it down.


You can see the difference between before and after. Bringing it closer to the van’s original tone.
Keeping in mind my van is a 90 model and the donor was a 95.
GM quality control clearly could not manage their suppliers to even keep colours matched.





Next up was a repaint of the plate that @Westbay had objected to. Mainly because painting at 6’C is not advisable as the paint reacts differently to a warmer day.
Which had left the satin finish a distinct variation of matte black.
I wanted satin to blend in more.


The leather texture of the Mazda Bongo plastics came through better as well.





making the dash fit back over the radio and bracket necessitates a lot of grinding back and modifying.


Thank goodness for cheap, super handy tools.





In order to get the macking plate in and also to have the radio face where it needs to be I made some high density foam packing strips and used longer screws.
This worked really well.






Finally dash returned one more time to ensure factory fit established and screws added to keep it all together.





Last job, replace all the blanking plates to the dash and try out the radio



Success!! !!




I will be putting all the four mirror, aircon etc switches up for sake on the local UK Astro group as someone is bound to need something to replace a failed unit.


​​​​​​​Today it is back to clearing out and sorting more of the shelves in the unseen part of the garage.

[Grizz1963]

How well do most of you know me??

How long have I wanted a Woodie?

Happened today.

More later

[Grizz1963]

How well do most of you know me??

How long have I wanted a Woodie?

Happened today.

More later

[Grizz1963]

Always loved a Woody.

Now some of you, who, like me, love words, will know that the word has multiple meanings.

Including in no specific order: erection, place with trees, a fragrance note, a taste in many things, wine, Whiskey, mushrooms, musical tone, an automotive style enhancement, a cartoon character.
The list goes on and on.

I went out to look at a car yesterday.

Well, it was not the first or second time, I really went out to see if it had been sold yet as it was introduced to me at around midday on 10th February.

But being in the unenviable position of owning not one, two or three, but FOUR PERFECTLY CAPABLE CARS it really had to blow my mind if it were to come home with me. Rules are after all rules. And the rule is normally two cars, a ****ter/project and a Sunday toy, with a company car out front. Unexpected Redundancy saw the company car being replaced by the VW Caddy as daily, The Astro bought in August before redundancy and the Rezin Rockit being an amazing build in 2022/23 equated the project. Then came the completely unexpected arrival of the 206CC and my current in process, unearthing of my 1966 Chevy C10 stalked restoration project which now will have to go ahead, once I have cleared the rest of the garage space and done an inventory of the 100’s of new parts and to be cleaned up parts. Then the build will recommence and maybe my YouTube channel will start having a more focused if predictable content stream.

Over time this changed somewhat.

I had already introduced it to you all before when I went to look and asked 101 questions.

The last 4-5 weeks I have been driving by where the Camaro was parked a few times like a masochist. Even Sally has reported a couple of times that she had seen it was still there.

But I have not been able to get rid of any of the existing fleet.

Admittedly I have not been trying very hard.

Yesterday I posted off a parcel and went home via a 5 mile detour to see if the car in question, the Camaro, was still there.

It was.

As was the son of the owner, and his sister in a big Range Rover Overfinch V8 Twin Turbo diesel.

So I reversed onto the drive.

Spent some time with them indoors being offered furniture and crockery etc.

We ended up speaking about the blue elephant in the room.

A Woody that the sisters kids used to ride in, her son is 21 years old now.
I showed interest and asked if the woody would be available for rehoming.

They agreed that if I was that interested it could go with me.

So I then got the owner to start up and show me the Camaro.

Took some videos and photos and found out one injector on the motorway is dead. It is accessible. And that the waterpump is leaking. Add to that, the four cracked up dead tyres that need replacing and I was feeling more and more that I needed an unloved model Camaro in my life.

Once done, the owner drove off to the council tip with his Overfinch loaded with the result of breaking up his parents’ furniture and throwing it away. Sad really.

And I got going with unearthing my yard find Woody.

As found.



Took a few minutes to unearth and remove the garden bed in the trunk. also many many snails.

At this point I did wonder if this pic was indicative of what the Camaro represents.



But of course being the man I am, I don’t shy away from a fight…..

Managed to load it into the Caddy and headed West.



Once back home it was unload and get it into the back yard.
Hosepipe in the rain and give it a quick wash and hose down

I was really happy.

These are rare AFAIK.

Love it.

I took it down to the carport and parked it next to the Rezin Rockit.




As for the CAMARO……

I did make a quick short video of it starting and running.

The exhaust note is really subtle and pleasant.

My Astro van is a bit more of a thug.

It also sports a 4.3 V6 compared to the Camaro’s 3.4 V6.

Getting into and sitting in the Camaro is akin to sitting down on a skateboard.
And I possibly felt like a tank commander when he directs his machine down the road.
I had no clue where to front and rear of the car started or ended.

Like sitting in a blacked out fishbowl.


VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/NRFCKsfUCiM?si=42L5YAnBfr7mcclY


And I still don’t know.

[Grizz1963]

This morning I got up, fed George and took a walk down the garden to my carport.

What greeted me brought a great smile to my heart and face.

I love the stance on the woody.



The rest of the day was spent running around, post office, phone calls and cleaning the floor in the second half of the garage

Unpacking the first shelf, I found new parts for the C10 bought in 2015 from amongst others LMC in Kansas City and other places, never unpacked.

Loads more to get done, cleaning, sorting, mental inventory.

More later.

Feeling like the Mojo is returning at last.

[Grizz1963]

So another

So another day of being kept busy by loads of things.
Post office runs, hour long phone calls with friends about how quiet the job market is in our industry. Listing more stuff on Marketplace and responding to dumbass questions.

So I really only got going after lunch sometime.
First job was clearing and cleaning the floor in the other part of the garage. That part nobody sees. The 5’ Drill press table and surrounding floor took quite some time as the garage vacuum hose (retired 20 years ago from household tasks) kept getting blocked at various junctions by the challenge of swarf and junk going up it.
Next job was to start cleaning shelves on more of my storage.
I have brand new truck parts, bought and collected from LMC in Kansas City, Oklahoma City and other places across the USA that are still as I had unpacked them from my baggage in 2015
Some of the biodegradable plastic bags had completely decomposed leaving piles of parts that needed vacuum cleaning. Sorting them at the same time.
This all takes time.

But I have found a lot of treasures.
I never completed the unpacking and mental inventory but it feels good, seeing stuff that will be drawn into service as the C10 restoration starts to take off again.

I am not sure which set of badges I will be using in this build.
Being a 1966 C10, Custom Cab V8 there are obviously the original versions but this is no true 100 point restoration, rather an aesthetically pleasing (TO ME, FOR MY PLEASURE ) rebuild with custom touches that appeal to me.

As always, all input, comments, advice, donations, parts, cash, drugs, help, visits to Grizz’s Garage where Grizz’s Sh17s happens are welcome and encouraged. It gets lonely down there.

Speaking of lonely……

Sally had eventually capitulated and bought herself the largest twin port Air Frier ( I still have no clue how they actually work) So she offered to do marinated chicken skewers/kebabs for us and brought them over with Pita Pockets. A bit like Meals on Wheels. Food was good and she left by 18.45 which saw me headed down to the garage again.
Having been indoors for a bit, I didn’t enjoy the cold of the garage and decided not to carry on with cleaning up.
Rather to reward myself with some “Hobby Time”
So I went to the wood store and found a 800mm length of oak.
Brought it back in and got going making another name plate or board for my shop. I had collected the parts a few years ago. Lack of mojo precluded completion. Now it felt good.
Small rewards.

Just to clarify for all the wordsmiths, linguists and spelling police out there……
The name encompasses the good, bad and ugly that happens or is part of my shop.

So Dennis always brings and collects for me, license plates at his bodyshop.

Once I got to a critical mass of Missouri State plates I could go at them with tin snips and cut out letters and numbers that gave me what I needed.



I had also rediscovered some the aluminium castings from Andy near Terlton in Oklahoma, one of my favourite places to visit on road trips. They have been mounted on the archway down the drive, outside the shop.

While doing the layout I really wanted to incorporate one of my favourite brands. And a small road trip memento.



Assembly was pretty quick with one screw up ( in my mind at least, can you see it in the final product?) and I still need to decide where and how to mount it.

Hanging from a chain, rope, propped up or screwed down.

Not yet sure.



By 19.45 it was completed and I looked around, satisfied that there was actually progress again.

TOUCH SOMETHING. MOVE SOMETHING. DO SOMETHING. ITS ALL PROGRESS.

RESULT



In the end I decided not to use this piece, from Andy’s foundry yet.

Today I will look for an appropriate place for it.

Possibly on the Chevy Tailgate bench up at the house, on the deck, where friends often congregate for a BBQ in summer.

Or possibly on the wooden arch to the shop area.




This is starting to feel like progress and success to me.

Like the MoJo is coming back bit by bit.

Long may it continue.

Life is good.

[Grizz1963]

And yesterday was a great day.

I mounted my new shop sign above the small door, and mounted the Bull**** Corner sign on the tailgate bench I made.





Met a great guy who is a builder, runs a wedding car hire business on the side. Bought some traffic lights off me that I have owned 10 years. Sold the other one years ago for what both cost me. Never mounted them as they turned out to too large. He had just bought a white black cab to add to his fleet. @£350 for a days hire, it seems like good business.

Later I kept unpacking one of my tool sheds, engine stands, cherry picker, can and body mounts live in there. Discovered some road signs that I used to have up before COVID came and the carport got built.

Thought I would list them as a joblot on marketplace and see if anyone grabbed them. They were all found in ditches, roadsides and some straightened out, cleaned etc.
Now if you look closely at what they sell for (well, are advertised for) I was very low. I contacted a guy who bought a load of toolboxes and other stuff recently and said that I was listing for £25.00 I also sent a pic. He came back and took them and a load of other stuff I knew he liked, before listing them. £95.00 squeezed out of his cold dead hands.

Random ad on FB.

Check the individual prices.



Matt got these and about 10 more large safety, warning and speed restriction signs as part of the same deal.
Helps me make space and him happy.



While I was unpacking I found a load of my favourites in a cabinet. They have gone back up in various places.

I felt it was perfect as part of this purging and Mojo returning.



By 10.00pm last night another set of new, unused vintage Halogen spotlights sold, I agreed to post them to possibly the most challenging postal address I have sent anything to. But it’s another £20.00 in the kitty which has grown to beyond £1300.00
This is crazy, and a real businessman would have had £5k from the same stuff, but overall my investment was still less than the return, and most importantly, the pleasure I have had from them….. kinda priceless.

That postal address.

Jackie Chan*
Unit Rear of aspect ducting 24
Right Side Of driveway
Co154lu

Funny how weird it feels though……

Originally I thought that if my selling off stuff I had no use for brought in £500.00 toward another vehicle purchase, to reduce the self induced guilt… I would be doing well.

Last night….



So in the mean time, I do hope that the universe will come into play and stop me, but if it doesn’t, hey…..

Happy Skinned Knuckles.

I feel the guilt.




Amazingly it is 11.30 already.

Friday.

Coffee and custard creams, then garage.

I did start on the shelves of Chevy truck parts yesterday. But it is a slow, deliberate process. Sorting out so much irrelevant items into different storage spaces and trying to keep a mental track of what I see.

Mostly, I have no clue what I have in my hands.

This will be fun.

Later.

[Grizz1963]

.


DOES ANYONE STILL LOOK AT THIS THREAD?




Interested?




Do I stop the copy and paste thing here?