BillyBob Work-in-Progress 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.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS is the restoration of parts of BillyBob that I can accomplish without a garage.

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.

2. Wheels Refurb

February 24^th 2000  When BillyBob was being painted (see Slight Facelift), refurbishing the wheels appeared to be the next project in a natural progression. In the meantime, the malfunctioning gearshift linkage moved restoration of the gearshift mechanicals to the top of the project list. I was getting tired of crawling under the truck every few miles to tap the linkage with a rubber mallet. I decided to work on the wheels and the shift linkage at the same time.

I started to prepare for the wheels refurbishing project while still working on the "facelift" job. A week or so back, I ordered "Wheel Tire Masks" and "Painted Wheel Clear" from the Eastwood Company. The items arrived this week. Yeh, yeh, I hear what yer sayin'. Why not mask the wheels with cardboard? (or "pasteboard" as my grandparents used to call it) The reason is that I'm over fifty and time is more important than money in this case. I put every decision I make through the "time vs money" calculator in my head and quality time allways wins. It's a simple fact, given the current limits of science, that you have a finite quantity of time to pass through in a lifetime. I spend it doing things I like as much as possible. Time is one of those things like "honor" and "integrity" that you can lose or waste, but are impossible to get back. Enuf, I've careened off on a tangent again.

March 11^th 2000  About two weeks ago, I ordered some tools for undercarriage work on both BillyBob and my Jeep, Renegade. The first shipment arrived from Northern Tool and Equipment Company on Tuesday. It included the floor jack, jack stands, and wheel chocks. The remaining part of the shipment, a creeper, arrived yesterday. The UPS delivery guy has been good-naturedly complaining about all my recent purchases to the front desk girl. I'm just gonna have to buy some UPS stock in the near future and give him a red-butt chewing out over his attitude.

There's a cold front comin' thru, so I'm dodging raindrops today off and on. I suspect the wheels have not been off BillyBob in several years so yesterday I removed the new hubcaps up at the warehouse and sprayed each rusty lug nut with WD-40. This morning when I got to the Krash Lab, I tried the lugs on the front wheels with the small cross-shaped lug wrench that came with BillyBob . . . No joy. Over the next half-hour I tried two applications of Liquid Wrench on each lug nut. Earlier in the week I picked up a 3/4", 6-sided, deep socket for 1/2" drive and a short extension at the local Discount Auto Parts store. This was purchased for Renegade, the Jeep, because his stock lug wrench is not a good fit for the custom aluminium wheels that came with the renegade package. Also, lug nuts should be properly torqued on vehicles with disk brakes to avoid warping the rotors. My good luck here is that Billybob's lug nuts are the same size as the renegade, so I abandoned the small lug wrench and tackled the lugs with the new socket, extension, and an eighteen inch breaker bar (one of the few tools I moved to Florida with twenty-eight years ago).

All the lugs broke loose at this point without too much effort. I breathed a sigh of relief at having gotten this far without breaking off one of BillyBob's wheel studs or initiating a cardiac arrest. After placing wheel chocks, jacking BillyBob's front end up and putting jack stands in place, I pulled the front wheels. I was right about the wheels not having been off in a long time. There were several insect cocoons from Pennslyvania between each wheel and its brake drum. I gave each wheel a light wire-brushing for this session and washed them with soap and water before re-mounting. The lug nuts were snugged tight before lowering BillyBob off the jack stands. Finally all lug nuts were torgued to eighty footpounds in a criss-cross pattern. I didn't look up the torgue settings for the lugs before coming to the Krash Lab today so I guessed by using the settings for Renegade which I had memorized earlier in the week. I'll look up BillyBob's settings before the next session.

The same process was performed with the back wheels. I just ordered some metal wash / metal prep products from The Eastwood Company this week. The wheels will have to be wire-brushed in greater detail and cleaned to remove the last of the penetrating oil residue. before the Corroless Rust Stabilizer treatment. The brake drums will also get the Corroless treatment before being finished with "Chassis Black" paint also from Eastwood. I also think a tap and die set are in my future to clean up the lugs and lug nuts.

March 18^th 2000  There was supposed to be rain but, so far, it's a great day to work outside. I don't have all the tools I need to get the wheels prepped for painting yet, so today I'm working on the front brake drums. I had recently received shipments from Eastwood of Corroless Rust Stabilizer in aerosol form (catalog #16015Z), PRE Painting Prep Cleaner (#10041Z), Cleaning Wheel (#31095) and Drill Mandrel (#13064) to add to my existing cordless drill and wire brushes.

The front drums were wire-brushed by hand and drill. The cleaning wheel was also used on the passenger side drum to remove some hardened grease the wire brushes couldn't get off. These tools were also used on the front wheels until the drill batteries ran down and I got tired of the hand brush. The Eastwood PRE Painting Prep Cleaner was applied to the drums, wiped off and allowed to dry. Two applications of this stuff were used for good measure. This photo was taken before the wire-brush and cleaning operations.

I'm "In the mood" for this work, literally. I've got a CD of The Andrews Sisters with the Glenn Miller Orchestra playin' and I'm wearing my WWII Army Air Corps Mechanics Cap. In case none of you have ever seen one, this is what a retired architect looks like. Another reason I'm happy is that I've obtained new insurance for BillyBob this week. I was arrested for DUI at the end of May 1992. It was my second one and I haven't had a drink since that night. You can imagine what that did to my insurance. For three years I was charged $4,200 a year for the Jeep alone. After that, my insurance company for the Renegade (Progressive) dropped it down to $2,100 a year. At seven years, you're supposed to be clear. My new quote from Progressive for renewal was still at $2,100 and they won't touch BillyBob. BillyBob's insurance (Dairyland Insurance Company) is the minimum PIP only and that costs me about $500 a year so I'm paying almost $2,600! This week my Renter's insurance agent, Trisha Tenbroeck of Allstate, called me and asked if she could quote me auto insurance. I said sure and she came back with a little over $1,300 a year for both vehicles with the same full coverage on both . . . Allstate wins!

The drums were sprayed with compressed air from a can for good measure and masking tape was applied to the lug threads to keep the Corroless away from them. The Corroless is "thick" and I found out the hard way that I wasn't shaking the can long enuf before trying to spray. I eventually got it right tho' and the drums were finished with an even coat of the stuff. Rain threatened after all while I waited for the Corroless to dry. I didn't want to put the wheels back on until just before BillyBob's trip back home to his "barn".

March 25^th 2000  Started today by finishing BillyBob's front brake drums with Eastwood's "Chassis Black" (catalog #10025Z) after masking off the lug threads. The extreme rust alternating with heavy road muck buildup you see in this photo is pretty much typical for BillyBob's whole undercarriage . . . depressing, to say the least.

Next, I went over the "front" sides of each front wheel with coarse 60 grit sand paper. I kept at this until I was sure my fingerprints were eradicated but short of bleeding. I can see I'm gonna need a dremel or some other type of motorized tool to get in the tight areas. The back sides of the wheels being solid rust, the same level of finish is not even being attempted. They were both wire-brushed again thoroughly and prepped with Eastwood's PRE Painting Prep Cleaner. After drying, I got my first chance to use the Eastwood Wheel Tire Masks. These things work just dandy. The back sides were sprayed with the Corroless Rust Stabilizer.

April 1^st 2000  I ordered Eastwood's "Tight Spot Grinding kit, 80 assorted rolls with two mandrels" (catalog #13098) early in the week and it arrived yesterday (at bottom in photo). I also picked up 3M's "2" Grinding/ Sanding/ Finishing Kit" at the local Discount Auto Parts store (at top in photo). These two items helped get the major flotsam and jetsam out of the front wheels' nooks and crannies.

After another round of sanding with the above items and by hand, and two applications of Eastwood's PRE Painting Prep Cleaner, the front sides of the wheels were ready for the Corroless. The Corroless aerosol was nearly out of propellant and I was barely able to coax enough out of the can to finish the job. It's a shame 'cause this stuff is fairly expensive and by the feel of the can I judged it to be only about two-thirds empty.

April 8^th 2000  Another beautiful Florida day. Re-ordered another aerosol can of Corroless early in the week and had it in my hot little hands by Friday. Jacked up the rear end this week and wire-brushed the rear brake drums and back sides of the rear wheels. The wire-brushing was both by hand and drill and by the time I was done I was singing an old Frank Zappa song to myself . . . "I stroked and I stroked 'til my wrist got numb, but I still couldn't make that dynamo hum". The back sides of the rear wheels and brake drums were sprayed with Corroless.

April 15^th 2000  It rained cats and dogs in South Florida yesterday and the predictions are for more of the same today. I went and got BillyBob from his warehouse bay under overcast skies. Roughed-up and painted the rear brake drums with Eastwood's "Chassis Black" first. Hand and drill-sanded the front sides of the rear wheels next. partly due to the weather conditions, I decided the wheels could use another sanding session next week before the Corroless treatment.

April 22^nd 2000  Back to sunny skies on this Easter weekend. After some additional sanding and wire-brushing, the front sides of the rear wheels were treated with Corroless. I finished off the second aerosol can. This time, however, there was still propellant after the paint had run out. I doubt if I'll buy many more of these spray cans 'cause they're pretty expensive and, except for the smallest jobs, not very cost-effective.

May 13^th 2000  I stopped working on the wheels to find a local source for the Dupont 8093S Acrylic Enamel Reducer required to mix with the "Juniper Green" paint I got from Jim Carter's. I haven't found it yet, but, in the mean time, I decided to finish the wheels with the same Rustoleum "Hunter Green" I used on the rest of BillyBob. I'll save the good paint 'til I get an air compressor and proper spray equipment. After the Rustoleum cures, I'll finish with the "Painted Wheel Clear" I got from Eastwood.

This week the front wheels were removed and painted, both sides, while I had BillyBob jacked up to lay underneath and cuss and fuss with the binding shift linkage (I'm making limited progress with that project too).

May 20^th 2000  Summertime and the livin' is easy. Ya gotta take it slow if you're a shadetree mechanic in Florida and the shadetree isn't big enuf to cover the truck. After roughing up the Corroless coat on both sides of the rear wheels and an application of Eastwood's PRE Painting Prep Cleaner, both sides of each wheel were painted with Hunter Green Rustoleum. The lug nuts (along with some transmission shift linkage parts I was also working on) were treated to a cleaning session in Eastwood's "Vibratory Tumbler System" (catalog #43204) for cleaning small parts.

May 27^th 2000  Memorial Day Weekend. As I work on BillyBob, I'm thinkin' of my Uncle "Dutch", a man I never got the chance to meet as he was KIA in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, WWII. I'm reminded of all americans who gave up their lives protecting our liberties from outside forces. Too damn bad the same liberties are being eroded from the inside and most Americans don't even know or care . . . but, I digress.

I've picked up a a bit of a tickle in my chest, hardly noticable except on a worry-wort basis. It could be just some low-level jungle-rot that plagues us here in paradise on Florida's Gold Coast. We catch things that Eskimos don't have to be concerned with. But, just to be on the safe side, I purchased a Craftsman Multi-Purpose Professional Respirator at Sears this week on the off-chance all these nasty chemicals and paint products I mess around with on the weekends are starting to have some kinda effect. I have a lot to learn about protection from toxic chemicals but I got a good start from a Chemical Hazards article in the June 2000 Issue of "AutoRestorer" Magazine.

With respirator and goggles in place I proceded to treat both sides of the front wheels with one coat of Eastwood's "Painted Wheel Clear". The directions indicated it was compatible with most enamels, so I gambled that it would be OK with the Rustoleum. Time will tell. The front wheel lug nuts were given the tumbler cleaning treatment during the painting process.

June 3^rd 2000  Treated both sides of the rear wheels with one coat of Eastwood's "Painted Wheel Clear". The aerosol can was almost empty and I finished it off. I must have been too hasty because I got wrinkling of the paint on the front sides of both wheels in some places . . . One of the causes of wrinkling is coats that are too heavy. You can barely see the wrinkling in the large pic (lower right of rim). I love these Kodak digital cameras 'cause they mask all my misteaks mistakes so well!

June 10^th 2000  Hot today, but I'll get this project finished. I've started to think of these mini-projects like the "slight facelift" and the "wheels refurb" as "Stage I" projects. When I get the shop, tools, and more expertise, I can proced to "Stage II".

Jacked up and pulled first the front wheels, then the back wheels for the last time (I'm actually listening to the early Rolling Stones tune "The Last Time" as I write this). I'm cleaning the back sides of the tires with Westley's Bleche-Wite whitewall/blackwall tire cleaner (nasty caustic stuff). Then treating them with Black Magic Tire Wet tire dressing. The wheels are then remounted to clean and treat the front sides. These are products I've been using to detail my Jeep "Renegade" and I'm happy with the results. These old Delta Hiway 6.50-16 LT tires shine like new. Lotsa tread still left on the old hard rubber tires. The sharp coral shell aggregate they use in the asphalt pavement here doesn't tear them up like it does soft compound tires . . . Just don't try to stop in a hurry!

Gave each of the lug nuts a good dose of WD-40 before tightening them down and wiped off the excess. Treated all the inner tube valve stems with Armor All Protectant and installed the hub caps. Time to move on to the next Stage I project. The shift linkage restoration is about two-thirds complete but I need two projects going at the same time so I still have something to work on if I run into a brick wall on any given project. It's time to start the re-wiring job I promised the spirit of my Dad some months ago. I ordered a wiring harness and turn signal kit from Jim Carter Antique Truck Parts this week and I should be knee-deep in confusion before long.

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Issued Saturday June 10, 2000

Updated Monday April 17, 2017

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