grizz

Back from my little trip today. Collected my latest Little Tikes car, a truck this time. On the way home I Also stopped at my friend Kevin to see his new DB12 He had it completely wrapped in clear and you could not tell it had been done. Wheels…… 325/30ZR21 Absolutely beautiful. He is letting me use his 1972 Winget dumper truck with Petter engine. I grew up with these things around on building sites. Video. https://youtu.be/tsvgyXDxKUc?si=DoPhF5sDDD2WDlE0 Back in a bit for the Serendipity story.

Yes I like that.

Free cash. Who doesn’t like to find R100/€50/£20/$20¥1000 behind the couch or in a pocket of a jacket you were taking out for dry cleaning. So this week I was going to spend some cash in part preparation for the new driveway that will be happening. Free Cash is good. Riagh? More in a bit when you guys have shouted enough to make me feed wanted. Got a truck to go collect.

In other news. I spent two days detailing the paint on the Astro van Crazy?? Absolutely But you can see and feel the difference. I used Zymöl polish after a decent wax wash, and then wiping down panel by panel, a section at a time. Small circular waxing and doing 3-4 passes back and forth plus more concentrated waxing on any scuffs or areas that looked less than good. Very few people waste time like this these days. Beading is good. Finally Yes it was even better than before. I will get to the wheels again as it’s 6 months since the last time I polished and sealed them. Back to swinging my 20 pound hammer today. Stuff happening.

Drain towards the lawn. Hopefully it’s not a problem waiting to happen.

Saw a very nice vintage pedal car for sale this week. This is unusual in that it is a pedal car. Imported I believe from America. I could be mistaken. Tell me more. Chassis Previous rider is now 21 years old. So I got onto it with G3 followed by Zymöl polish. Loads of scuffs and marks that came off. Leaving it looking better. Unfortunately the stickers that were stuck on it years ago, and possibly a smoking house means that there is discolouration around the stickers. So removing them would leave marks showing the original silver paint. After an hour or more the result was pretty decent. Next job will be getting a kid to pedal it, rather than looking for a button to posh. Why do I do this stuff? No idea.

I certainly don’t want growth on the concrete. That’s why I spend days cleaning it all every year. I may have bought a Mercedes Benz SLK 230 this week. Foolish? Maybe. Collected it on Monday morning. Giving it to Sally.

Forgot to mention https://youtu.be/aQSBAjznt58?si=eMBtjXS7XQPE1wJ-

Mate Kevin retires fully on 9th May. That means nothing. He has a ton of things to do. Last week he came to replace the front brakes on his runaround. You may remember he has a black T6 camper and helped me fetch the hateful 206 CC. Kevin is extremely methodical. First person I ever saw who actually reads the instructions. But that is how he does stuff. Having worked for railway support companies all his life. Order. Since I moved into this house in 2010 the rear driveway concrete strips have bugged me. So Kevin suggested we tear them up and move the drive over by 18 inches or 450mm at its apex. I also decided that after 13 years it was time to tear down and rebuild the BBQ. I will need help. I will need help I will need help. Did I say that clearly enough? Keep reading and you may decide you can. Along with copious amounts of strong tea with little milk, Kevin fixed the brakes. Then we measured and marked out the potential new driveway. And NO, I don’t want to remove the shrubbery on the left against the boundary hedge. There will still be a curve, but it will be a solid slab rather than two strips to balance along, reversing down the drive. So we started measuring out the job 19 meters and about 2.6 wide equals about 5.5 cubic meters of concrete cast. Checking the depth of the existing concrete test hole. Lay out. So the resulting projected outcome will look like this. I want to add an Arris rail three bar fence to the side of the small shrub bed to keep the shrubs contained. The plan is to use some large Metposts to hold the uprights. And if the grass regrows on the gap, this may be the look. I had wondered about putting a green colour into the concrete but have decided against it. And it’s still a no, no green cement. The plan is to plan and Kevin is project manager. I want to hire a mobile crusher to create all the hardcore for the foundation from the BBQ and concrete strips rather than buying in loads of the same stuff and paying for a dumpster/skip to remove all the spoil. I need to hire in a Mini Digger and then I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I NEED HELP I need a capable operator for a day to dig, scrape, create the new foundation space and also move any topsoil into a specific place in the garden. Steel reinforcing to be added. I plan on getting the new concrete mixed on site, out on the street, by a dry mix rig and then running it through to the rear and casting the new slabs. My nearby neighbor has a1972 model Winget dumper truck that he will let me use to run the concrete through from the street to the rear. This should be interesting. So…….. Needing a digger driver. Some time soon.

Peugeot is about to be weighed in. I have had zero pleasure from it. I really dislike it despite it being a nice car. Seriously.

Agreed on heat gun. And Woody plastics are brittle. I will try plastic feed some time. It could work.

Nice. Thank you. i have this vintage one. Looking for a bunch of them to use as decoration in my carport.

Totally Ahhhhh You have no idea how close to the truth you are. In the back of the van. Needs cleaning. And yes, soon I will have a fleet of them if I can find some more in different designs. They do exist, some more unusual and rare than others. Taxi ?

Medway City Estate

@Rust Collector correct. They will fail stuff. But I also like to see that they point out some fail stuff to customers.

Six Bells Pub in Cliffe near Rochester, Kent has a Classic car and Bike Event, Meeting, Gathering once a month. During summer it gets really busy with hundreds of people attending from 4.00pm onwards. I have been there before in the S10 but yesterday I took the Astro van again. Going via the best road, still a terrible surface as low cal council continues to fail on even the most basic level, to maintain roads, it is about 10 miles or 16km So I got there early and left quite early as well, with loads of cars and bikes passing me on my way home by 7.00pm after being there 3 hours. I made up a short clip of cars attending and a few arriving. My buddy Ricky is a regular in his own built beauty. And of course the Six Bells pub on the corner. I had a £5.00 hamburger with cheese, onion and a really nice BBQ sauce. And it was absolutely delicious and worth the money. VIDEO https://youtu.be/Tu9fuJCx8dI?si=OeET7K52klpub3y7 I will certainly attend again in May, when the next meeting is, if I remember on the day. Insomnia sucks.

Here is a complete build thread of this BBQ https://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/102679/bun-oven-industries-build-kent?page=1 Click the link for flashbacks.

So. Those bricks. I fetched them in 3 and 1/2 trips. Bringing about 190 or so at a time. Uncle Peter is 86 and long since successfully retired from building houses. But he spends at least four hours a day working on things. Either at the yard or at home. Currently he is working at repairing parts of one of the barns that had been damaged years ago by a machine hitting the corner of a wall. Also repointing the cement between the bricks. The wall spans two eras. Part is built using lime mortar and parts were done with cement mortar. I love watching him work. The details in those bits of cement he is replacing. Vertical and horizontal are different. I had to figure out where to store these bricks. Ultimately I decided outside Georges door made sense. Even sense checking the way the gate opens so I could still get cars and diggers and a crusher and possibly a few other machines through there. I moved a pile of 450mm paving stones to the kitchen door as well. Hoarder central. Wood store with two cement mixers. So off to UncleBobs yard. First load in the van. And first and second loads unloaded at home. Onto a plastic pallet. Mistake. Too late. Thankfully I bought three pallet or pump trucks for either £5.00 or £15.00 each years ago. Gave two away and kept one. What a multi purpose tool this is to have in the garage and on site. Last load was smaller but included 23 dark clay bricks. And finally all of the bricks packed and sorted. I took 2/3 and 1/2 bricks as well. Total is about 623 bricks (23 clays weigh more) Approximately 1.7 ton at 2.7 kg per brick. So the question of course is WHY? Well, the BBQ that I built 13 years ago and abused over the years, including a massive fire in it mid winter a few years ago has left it significantly damaged. So it’s time to destroy it and start a rebuild. Biggest problem is actually that it needs to dovetail into a bigger job that I have wanted to get done for 14 years. What we have right now. As always, the invitation is open to anyone interested in helping me get it done. I could break it down and save the rubble before the next big job, but I am waiting for a price on some 3mm mild steel plate. I want to build a steel BBQ inner to then sheath in insulation and brickwork. Something like this. So there you go. Massive update. And invitation. Peugeot 206 CC next.

Never bad. We all learn every day.

Right A quick explanation and illustration for those who want to add all sorts of suspension modifications to the van. Some of which would double the price. I rather do four trips and spend £10.00 on fuel than modify the van. Part of its appeal lies in the stance and how low it was built. It is no longer a commercial vehicle. You cannot see it in the photo but the tank never touched the road with me driving it at up to 35mph. Limit here is 40 in parts and 30 mph. In other news. The photo and video clip will show you my little win for today. Yup…….. Sesame opened without a fight. So back up for sale, just in time for summer. Check out the short video clip. https://youtu.be/_hV8J4FBHgI?si=v1M1qpWJHrgnuw-u Right. Headed out to fetch another load in the Astro. Later.

It has a single composite rear blade spring. That is it. Also, not worth spending money on a cheap need. I just do four trips.

Van was lowered as a show van. Thats how it will stay. So the cost of air shocks etc outweigh the cost of making three or four trips to fetch stuff. The van is carpeted etc and will continue to be a “sportscar” Regarding the 206 CC It certainly is not a London bus. But I am 6’ or 1.83 m and way overweight with a tall torso and 29” inner leg and I’m comfortable in it. Being a 2.0 liter, it is a real rocket. Handling is great as well.

Evening Mark I have a load of stuff to get to including the truck. Some are reliant on friends and build teams. The amount of rain and crap weather along with still too many vehicles taking up space interfere with the progress. So today the Astro, which was professionally lowered a lot, if you look at some photos from the side etc, got to work for real for the first time. 550kg is not a lot, bug when you place it over and behind the rear wheels and diff, it certainly affects things. There is some stuff about to start happening at Grizz Towers soon, so I am getting a lot of peripheral stuff done, prepared and planned. The fuel tank was about 40mm off the drive if you zoom in under the rear. Luckily I only had about 1.5 miles or 2.5km to drive. Including a hill, two roundabouts and my crappy road outside. I have one more load to collect tomorrow morning from Uncle Bob the Hoarders yard and Uncle Peter to pay. This part of the story will unfold in a slightly different way depending on how many people complain, compliment or question. So make some noise.

I need space. If someone took the 206 CC I got from the roffle and bought my Rezin Rockit I would be back at ground zero as far as car ownership is concerned. Usually I have a company car (read VW Caddy ex- @Zelandeth ) The Astro as toy and an existing stalled project that needs building. So another big build would not be clever. I also know of an Ami without papers that could make a great body swap donor.

Collective reply. Not collecting No clue from 50 yards. Its a massive greenhouse. Covered in brambles and locked doors. Condition…..,? FK. its a WW2 iirc communications truck. So at best donor or graft the cab onto a chassis. Maybe.