BillyBob Pre-Restoration Log

TRUCK LINKS including vendor sites for old parts, custom parts, and tools as well as sites for classic car and truck organizations

STORE Operating in association with Amazon.com, books, recordings and tools can be purchased.

PLANNING for the restoration including project schedule and cost estimates.

TRAVELS WITH BILLYBOB With apologies to Steinbeck, this area of BillyBob's Garage will be used to log the trips BillyBob and I make together.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS was the restoration of parts of BillyBob that I could accomplish without a garage up until the summer of 2010 when I finally got enough warehouse space to work in. Now, it also includes the continuing work on BillyBob in the shop.

PRE-RESTORATION includes log entries of minor repairs and and adventures between time of purchase and the time when I started restoration, a piece at a time.

JR'S KORNER JR's Korner is the history of BillyBob before I got him authored by my brother, Wm. C. Kephart.

BILLYBOB MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for BillyBob, including required tools, materials and procedures.

STEALTH SHOP Urban residence design with large integrated shop and separate living quarters for a relative or renter.

8. BillyBob Kidnapped!

Herein begins a tale that many of you will find hard to believe, but which many of those who own antique vehicles that not yet fully restored, are all too familiar with. I started to pen this sad tale sitting here in the Krash Lab at work waiting for the pending attack of Hurricane Floyd a few hundred miles off the Florida Gold Coast and finished the following Saturday morning. This is as good as a time as any to record my thoughts on this incident. I need to get this down while it's fresh in case legal council is needed before we're done.

I've currently been taking BillyBob to work once a week to keep his battery charged and the fluids moving. I'm trying to slow down his deterioration as much as possible while waiting for that day when the full restoration can start.

A little background information is necessary here. A few months ago, the apartment complex I have lived in for twelve or thirteen-odd years, "The Courtyards of Tivoli" in Deerfield Beach, Florida, changed owners. All the tenants received nice "feel-good" letters about how tenant-friendly the new owner was.

On August 31^st, I took an Amtrak train trip to Johnstown, Pennsylvania for a ten-day vacation and family reunion. Despite the constant threat of Hurricane Dennis, a good time was had. The day before I left, Monday, August 30^th, I took BillyBob to work. When I got home that night, I parked him in the end space in the parking lot in front of my apartment building, a space I usually choose if it's available. I put BillyBob's custom-fitted $200 "California Car Cover" on, a ritual I hadn't been performing as a habit, but that I decided to do this time since I would be gone for ten days.

When I arrived back in Deerfield Beach, Thursday Night, September the 9^th, I couldn't get a taxi at the Amtrak station. It's only a mile and a half, I thought. Just walk it. Luggage made the trek into a breathless ordeal. The first thing out-of-place I detected as I careened into the Courtyards and huffed and puffed my way through the parking lot was that BillyBob . . . WAS MISSING!

Renegade, my Jeep was still where he was supposed to be, right next to where I had parked Billybob ten days earlier. I like Renegade, and although he is worth five or six times as much as BillyBob on the current market, I wouldn't trade BillyBob for Bill Gate's fortune. It boils down to family and the memorable experiences my brother (Bill) had with my father (Bob) working together on this old truck. I was crestfallen. On the door to my apartment was posted a flyer dated September 6^th that the management was resurfacing and re-stripping the parking lot beginning on the 9^th. Maybe BillyBob was somewhere else in the lot, I would check in the morning.

I made two laps around the parking lot on the way to work . . . No sign of BillyBob. I returned to the Courtyards leasing office at 9:00 AM, but the staff didn't start to trickle in until 9:30 when I managed to corner a leasing agent by the name of Peter. I thought BillyBob had been towed because of the parking lot resurfacing project, so I didn't understand when Peter asked me if the truck was registered and had tags (which it did). Peter also told me they had knocked on my door and received no answer. Well, DUH! Wasn't the resurfacing notice they had pasted on the door three days earlier an indication that no one was home? I responded that both my home and office telephone numbers were on file and no calls had been made to my office or answering machine. Both Peter and the maintenance manager who had joined him mentioned a fellow named Levon at this point and how they had told him it was a bad idea to tow BillyBob and five other vehicles. I told the two of them that my property had been wrongfully removed and I wanted it back! Peter said he would track it down and call me later in the day. I went back to work.

Peter called me back at 5 PM. He said he had found the towing company and was in negotiations with them. A figure of over $300+ was mentioned to get BillyBob back to the Courtyards. I restated that BillBob had been wrongfully removed and the details were their responsibility. Peter asked where he could contact me on Saturday and I told him at work.

There were no communications from the Courtyards staff on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. On Monday night after work I visited the leasing office again. I collared the first leasing agent I saw and began telling the story again. He led the way to my first meeting with the infamous Levon Agasyan, the fellow who made the decision to tow. When I asked why he didn't just move BillyBob to another part of the lot for the resurfacing project, Levon responded that BillyBob had not been removed for that reason. He had removed it because it was a "derelict vehicle". I went ballistic. You don't put expensive car covers on derelict vehicles or drive them as I do BillyBob. Levon wasn't budging. He was the perfect picture of the career bureaucrat. Levon said there was no mention of BillyBob in my file to advise him the truck belonged to me. Well, hell. Files can be misplaced and why did they knock on my door as Peter let slip. Maybe BillyBob's missing documentation is in Hillary's closet. I lost control at this point (conceding this particular skirmish to Levon) and exploded in a barely coherent verbal lashing wherein I referred to Levon as an ~!@#HOLE in front of everybody present in the leasing office, including two prospective tenants. My parting comments were to advise them to reconsider any decisions they were about to make regarding living at the Courtyards.

Tuesday, I had to suspend BillyBob's recovery operations to prepare for the approaching Hurricane Floyd. I still didn't know where BillyBob was, but I was sure he wasn't under cover and all I could do was hope for the best. I've developed a gut feeling for storms. If my gut feels bad when a storm is still days away from us, I head for the hills. I ran from hurricanes Andrew and Erin. Unfortunately, Erin followed me like the Pied Piper and ran me down in Melbourne. My gut told me Floyd would miss us here in South Florida. It did.

By Wednesday morning, Floyd had passed us on its way up the coast to devastate the eastern seaboard and my relatives in Melbourne, Raleigh, Cary and Moorhead City. I had weathered out the storm at my office with my employer and his family. It's built like a bunker. I returned to the Courtyards for a shower and another visit to the leasing office. There was Levon again. My threats to visit his boss and take him to court personally must have worked some magic, because he was finally apologetic. He said I had a reason to be upset and he got on the telephone with the towing company. He was still on the phone with them when I left. He kept talking about a trade with the towing company which I didn't understand or care about. Levon said BillyBob would be back at the Courtyards that night or the next morning and that he would call me.

Thursday morning and no phone calls or sign of BillyBob. Mid-morning I placed my now daily call to the leasing office. I got the same speech that it would be that night or the next morning. Additionally, I was told I might have to authorize the towing company by fax to allow the Courtyards to have BillyBob brought back there. Well, nobody asked me my opinion when they stole the truck in the first place! I also reported a bedroom window that had fallen out of my apartment the day after the storm while I was at work (glad I didn't stay there during the blow). I blocked up the window opening best I could and isolated the room from the air conditioning system.

Friday morning . . . Same story. BillyBob is still missing, no calls, no evidence that the broken window was investigated by the maintenance staff. I called Levon again at 10:45 AM. Levon said he had called my office after I left, then called my home, but didn't leave a message on the machine. He told me I would have to make that Fax authorization. He gave me the towing company phone number (for the first time) and told me I needed to talk to either Bill or Connie. I got Connie on the line. She informed me Levon was wrong regarding the "authorization". Levon was trying to set up a trade with the towing company wherein he would give them someone else's corvette to tow and they would bring BillyBob back at no cost to the Courtyards or me. Connie told me they don't do that and somebody would have to pay to get the truck back. Storage charges were accruing at $22 per day and the ransom was now up to $516. This was Friday, September 17^th and I found out from Connie that Levon had them tow the truck on September 3^rd, only four days after I had last driven Billybob and put the cover on him! I decided to pay the ransom before it got any bigger. I instructed Connie to tow BillyBob to my office. He arrived via flatbed tow truck at 5 PM. I haven't started him yet but he looks OK.

It's Saturday morning now and my bedroom window is still broken. Maintenance hasn't even cleaned up the broken glass outside. Now some people might start smelling a conspiracy here, but Jerry Pournelle is fond of quoting Napoleon "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."  I think we have a little of both here. Incompetence alone cannot explain towing BillyBob in the first place, only everything that has followed the towing. I will call the leasing office again about my window after I post this misadventure to the Web site. My attorney will contact them regarding BillyBob.

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Saturday September 18, 1999

Updated Wednesday April 18, 2018

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