BillyBob Work-in-Progress Log

WHAT'S NEW is a chronological listing of updates to the BillyBob site.

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.

PARTS SHOP The Parts Shop is a repository of How-To articles. Things that I have done over and over enough times to have developed a procedure. This gives me a checklist and saves brain cells.

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

During a train trip home to Pennsylvania in 1999, I experienced the big five-oh birthday. This is not a mid-life crisis for me like it seems to be for many men. I don't feel I'm loosin' my touch with women. The ladies I've been attracted to do not find me remarkable in any way. This has been the case with me as long as I can remember, therefore, no crisis. Not having this crisis gives me time for useful pursuits like restoring BillyBob and fighting the Clinton Bush Obama Trump Administration for my Constitutional Rights.

The shop to perform BillyBob's off-frame restoration isn't much closer than it was four years ago when I started the BillyBob part of my Website. I decided on my 50^th birthday that time was-a-wastin' and I might as well get my hands dirty restoring the portions of BillyBob that I could accomplish without a shop. As a result, I set up this area, WORK-IN-PROGESS, to chronicle the work.

By my 53^rd Birthday (2002), I began to suspect my vision of the perfect auto shop with flowerboxes and a white picket fence would always be on the far horizon. I realized I was three years into an estimated ten-year rolling rebuild and that, in all likelihood, the work will be carried out under the shadetree. The goal has matured into being ready by my 60^th birthday (2009) for cross-country trips with BillyBob on secondary highways.

By my 58^th Birthday (2007), I had one cross-country trip under my belt but BillyBob was, by no means, completely restored and we are still working on that and will be for the foreseeable future.

When my 60^th Birthday (2009) rolled around, Obamanomics (the destruction of the middle class by the political class for the benefit of the entitlements class) was in full swing. my pay had been cut by thirty percent but I still had a job and considered myself fortunate. The situation required some big lifestyle changes and, as a result, I finally ended up with warehouse/shop space to work on BillyBob and the other rides under cover out of the elements by my 61^st Birthday in 2010.

Okay, it's 2015 and my pay has been brought back five percent to seventy-five percent of what I was making in 2008. I am still underfunded but when I turn 66 in September, there will be enough additional monies to get the BillyBob work progressing again.

On my 66th Birthday, I started to receive Social Security Benefits and that, along with my salary, increases my funding enough to get my vehicles rebuilt. I am again ramping up the work on BillyBob and Deerslayer.

By the middle of 2016, all my rides were down for repair / rebuilding and I was renting an Enterprise Econobox by the month for a daily driver. This is no way to live so, after the election, I went down to the Caddilac dealership and ordered myself a new Caddy hot rod for a daily driver. This action increases my debt a lot but at least the commutes to and from the Krash Kubicle are fun again and things continue to trudge along in the BillyBob Shop

Early in 2019, A new landlord took over the BillyBob Shop complex and many changes took place including the expansion of the BillyBob Shop. The rent is ruinous and it puts the wind at my back to start working on the trucks again.

1.	A Slight Facelift	2.	Wheels Refurb
3.	Shifty Behavior	4.	Spifin' up the Steering Wheel
5.	One thing leads to another	6.	Nervous Breakdown: Research, Battery, Starter
7.	Nervous Breakdown: Taillights, Parking Lights, Turn Signals	8.	Timeout for an Oil Change
9.	Shifty Behavior Revisited	10.	Emergency Stop Mr. Scott!
11.	To Chrome or not to Chrome: Bumpers	12.	Undercover Frame Job
13.	Nervous Breakdown: It's Alive	14.	Frame Job: Reshocking
15.	WHOA! Baby: Wheel and Master Cylinders	16.	Frame Job: The beat goes on
17.	Odds n Ends	18.	Nervous Breakdown: Gas Sender, Alternator, Headlights, Light Switch and Coil
19.	Door of Perception	20.	And More Frame Work
21.	Southern Cab comfort	22.	One thing leads to another relapse
23.	WHOA! Baby: Front Wheel Rebuilds	24.	Water Pump Blues
25.	Nervous Breakdown Red Ducks	26.	Two-Forty A/C
27.	Framework - Halfway Home	28.	Cab Comfort Continued
29.	Windshield Saga - The Bad	30.	Windshield Saga - The Ugly
31.	Windshield Saga - More Ugly	32.	Windshield Epic - Almost Good
33.	Windshield Epic - A Gasket too far	34.	Windshield Epic - The Good (Fini)
35.	Aught-three Leftovers	36.	Just tryin' to Maintain
37.	Still Maintainin'	38.	Chassis Chazzmeteria
39.	Cab Doodads an' other things	40.	All that glitters
41.	Wheels of Progress	42.	The Krash Abides
43.	Makeup Makeover	44.	Paint and Wire
45.	Paint and Diversions	46.	Wheelwell Workout
47.	Them's the Brakes	48.	Status Quo
49.	Six foot bed that never needs made!	50.	Bedded down
51.	Creature Comforts	52.	Busy, Busy
53.	Getting back on track	54.	Cab Capers and the D-train
55.	More Cab and D-train Work	56.	Starting with Confidence
57.	A little of this, a little of that	58.	Summer of My Discontent
59.	More of This n That	60.	The Game is afoot
61.	How I spent my summer vacation	62.	Leadsled teardown
63.	The Big Move, Phase 2	64.	Pacing the Cage
65.	A Tale of Two Shops	66.	Still tryin' to get my groove back
67.	Here . . . We . . . Go	68.	Where the Hekawi?
69.	Slammin' the nose	70.	Summer Stagnation
71.	Out of Hibernation

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Saturday March 4, 2000

Updated Monday March 27, 2019

copyright © 1996-2019 Larry Robert Kephart all rights reserved