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 is the restoration of parts of BillyBob that I can accomplish without a garage.

PRE-RESTORATION includes log entries of minor repairs 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.

You will need the Adobe Acrobat browser plugin to view these wiring diagrams which are in the PDF file format. This format allows zooming and panning. If you don't have this plugin, it can be downloaded and installed (free) from the Adobe site. The button below will take you there.

BILLYBOB WIRING DIAGRAM Here's the wiring diagram updated with BillyBob's current state 'cepting the third-party strap-on turn-signal director.

STRAP-ON TURN-SIGNAL DIRECTOR/BRAKE LIGHT CIRCUIT This turn signal and brake light circuit diagram shows the current state of the third-party turn-signal director wiring, which will remain in place until I figure out the problems with the OEM turn-signal director. It also shows the OEM headlight switch.

40. All that glitters

June 26^th 2005  It was time for an oil change so I used that as an excuse this morning to make a Fort Lauderdale beach run to warm up BillyBob's engine. After the oil change, I went back to my charging problem. Installing a new alternator didn't effect any differences. The ammeter needle is still active all the time as the engine speeds up and slows down and discharges slightly at idle when the lights are on. The battery tends to stay between 12.40v and 12.75v Decided to do the same voltage test on the new alternator that I did on the old one before I switched them. I removed and taped the "Field" and "Relay" leads and connected a jumper wire between the Field terminal and Bat terminal as indicated in the diagram. Got in the cab and connected the battery in preparation to start the engine. SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! . . . SMOKE! Hit the battery kill switch and went to see the damage. My jumper had lost all its smoke. It was melted. I removed the jumper remains, re-connected the alternator, crossed my fingers and started the engine. Appears to be the same as before. I don't know wot happened but I think that the alligator clip on the Field terminal was grounded to the alternator case. That's probably why they use plastic plugs in these sockets in the first place. I wuz sufficently discouraged by this incident to give up on this problem for now.

June 27^th 2005  While twiddling my thumbs in electrical konfusion, I got two responses from the last log entry regarding disconnecting the battery while the engine is running that I want to put into the record for later recall. The first came from Nate Hall, a real-time mechanic who often helps me with BillyBob.

Good morning Larry ; Great stuff as always . A word about testing alternator by disconnecting the battery cables : It's not the _disconnecting_ that can damage the alternator diodes , it's when you _re-connect_ the cable , that forces the alternator to ' spike ' EG : go to maximum output for an instant and that's what pops the diodes so if you remember to only disconnect the _ground_ cable and then , if the engine continues to run , carefully tuck the ground cable down behind the battery where it cannot touch the battery post (doesn't matter if the ground cable touches the frame etc.) and then go shut off the engine before re-connecting it , or use a helper to shut it off whilst you hold the cable in midair , you can safely test the alternator this way and never damage anything . For those of you who are reading this and grumbling " I've been popping battery cables for 20 years to test alternators and never blew a diode" Yes but the chance is there and often one diode blows in the diode triode and reduces the charging rate even though it'll still charge . Lastly , if you just go to Kragen , Shuck's or wherever , (FLAPS) and ask for an '82 Camaro with V-ate engine alternator , you'll get the nifty internal regulator alternator and it'll bolt right into place and you can then toss out that nasty old regulator and Delcotron , forget about your charging troubles forver , all for a measly $35.00 . -Nate

I may eventually go the alternator with internal regulator route if my growing pile of Delcrotrons and voltage regulators frustrates me enuf to overcome my stubborn streak that makes me want to make this thing work the way it is.

JR responded with an engineering dissertation on the subject but couched in terms even I can follow.

Good entry. You can get a voltage transient disconnecting the battery while running because of the energy trapped in the magnetic field around the battery cable assuming there is current flowing into or out of the battery. Current flow is necessary to generate the magnetic field (a review of electro-magnetics is left to the reader). When you interrupt the current the magnetic field around the conductor collapses causing a voltage transient to appear across the wire. This is controlled by the formula: V=L(di/dt) Where L is the inductance of the wire in henries(no relation to Mr. Ford) and di/dt is the time rate of change of current. In the case of a switch the time is governed by how long it takes for the switch contacts to open (somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 milliseconds the 100 milliseconds). The value of L depends on the wire itself and its environment including its proximity to ferrous metal (acts like a magnetic core). You can use Dad's oscilloscope to see the transient by connecting the probe ground (the short wire with an alligator clip) to the battery terminal and the probe to the battery side of the switch. You'll need the single sweep mode and the trigger should be set for slightly more the, say 14 volts. The hole event will be over in a few milliseconds as set the horizontal for 1ms/div. Opening the switch should cause the sweep to appear. You could install a 0.1uf cap across the switch contacts. This will give a path for the current to flow while the magnetic field collapses and thus reduce the amplitude of the transient to a safe level. Regards, Bill Kephart Application Engineer Powerex, Inc.

Tho' I probably won't be playing around with the cap he mentions, JR's e-mail serves the purpose of giving me something useful to do with Dad's oscilloscope, which I haven't messed with up to this point since I don't know anything about oscilloscopes.

July 2^nd 2005  Second month of hurricane season started yesterday. It's hot and muggy with a thirty percent chance of rain. Dragged out the tools and started by putting Renegade's repaired tire back on. Boca Tire had been able to plug it on tuesday.

After that was out of the way, I turned to trim detailing. Bought and installed a re-pop driver side exterior mirror back after the windshield job. Went for the xtra cost stainless steel mounting fasteners at the time and they're doin' fine. The stock fasteners that mount the mirror head to the bracket are a different story. The mounting stud, washers and nuts are rusting away and beginning to stain the chrome. The adjusting screws have turned into brown nubs, all in less than a year!

Pulled the mirror head off and went after it and the bracket arm with chrome polish. Removed the adjuster screws (one at a time so the adjuster didn't shift down in the mirror head), cleaned and polished under them and replaced them with stainless steel #6 x 1/2" round head slotted screws from a fastener assortment purchased from Harbor Freight some time back. The mounting stud was rusting too and after spinnin' my wheels some trying to figure out how to git rid of the rust, I ended up masking off the rest of the mirror head and using a mini radial bristle brush with embedded 36 grit abrasive in my Dremel motor tool. I got these things from Eastwood a couple of years ago. They are about an inch in diameter and they made short work of the rust on the mounting stud. I couldn't find them in the current catalog so I don't know if they're still offered.

PRE Paint Prepped the mounting stud and applied a coat of Eastwood's Self-Etching Primer. Started documenting a new exterior trim fasteners group while that was setting up. Finished up the mounting stud with a coat of Eastwood's Detail Silver. While the paint was drying, the exposed edge of the rubber mounting gasket between mirror bracket and body was dressed with protectant on a Q-Tip.

When the paint was dry, the mirror head was re-mounted. The original rusted fasteners were replaced with stainless steel 1/4" - 20 hex nuts and stainless steel 1/4" flat washers from the Harbor Freight assortment and McMaster-Carr. These fasteners were installed with Threadlocker Blue and the adjusting screws were installed with anti-seize compound instead of the threadlocker since they have to move for adjustment. I don't know how much better this solution will weather but I think it will be an improvement over the out-of-the-box re-pop hardware.

July 4^th 2005 Independence Day #229  Yesterday, BillyBob and I went to the 1st Annual NAPA Auto Parts "Super Summer Show" at Crabby Jacks in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It started rainin' hard at 3:30 PM so BillyBob and I pulled out and went home before the awards ceremony. Started out today with another Fort Lauderdale Beach run, this time to warm up Renegade's engine for an oil and filter change. I took the top down on the Jeep and it's been so long that I fergot how. After the oil change, the rest of the day was spent working on BillyBob's windshield - Dug out more of the bad silicone seal and replaced it with new silicone, this time under the gasket where it belongs.

July 9^th 2005  Dawn broke to squall conditions. Hung around the Krash Pad until it slacked off and I could make my way up to the Krash Lab during a lull. We are in the outer bands of Hurricane Dennis as he makes his way into the gulf. Fortified with my first cigar and cuppa joe, I got the tools out.

Then I had to take time out to deal with a network problem in the Krash Lab. A power outage last nite had pushed a nominal UPS over the edge and, as a result, I had a hub out. Thought it was the hub at first. When I figured out it was a UPS, I had to re-route power for the hub and other devices. You've heard of "just-in-time inventory"? I use "out-of-time inventory". I keep very few replacement parts on-site because the technology moves too fast for a small office. If you are blessed with few breakdowns, you are cursed with out-of-date inventory. When something breaks, I make do with scavenged parts from my elephant's graveyard of old equipment until I can get a replacement.

Back to BillyBob. Since I'm in the glass and trim detailing cycle, I decided to restore the hood emblem and replace the side designation plates. There is some rust corrosion bubbling out from under the emblem and the driver side designation plate and I want to stop that before it gets any farther. I grunted around in an awkward position underneath the hood with a variety of 3/8" wrenches and pliers to wrest the speed-nuts off the four studs holding on the emblem. A little Kroil penetrating oil and a few foul words were enuf to get the job done.

Worst than I thought or hoped for underneath the emblem - The backing plate is pretty well gone along with the brackets for the center two mounting studs. Ran a wire brush over the newly exposed hood areas to get the loose stuff off. Can't do much more today on the hood due to the hostile weather.

Turned to the re-pop exterior passenger door handle. This was installed back in August of 2002. The push button is all rusted now. While stewing over how to fix this, I thought about the old handle I had taken off. Went up to the warehouse at lunchtime last week and found it. The push button on the original handle is not rusted even after forty years of bad roads. My brainstorm is just to replace the re-pop push button housing with the original housing. I got the new handle off and both handles disassembled . . . ~!@#$%^ The re-pop housing is 1/16" longer and it's mounting latches 1/16" farther down the lock cylinder than original! The original housing will not fit over the re-pop lock cylinder because of this difference. In the name of Murphy, what was the re-pop manufacturer's reasoning behind this dubious engineering achievement? OK. That's enuf setbacks fer one day.

July 10^th 2005  Still unsavory weather today but not as bad as yesterday and I am really, really glad I don't live in Mobile where Hurricane Dennis is heading. My prayers are with those people in its path. Took another dawn run to Fort Lauderdale Beach, this time in BettyLou to warm her engine up for a oil change.

Then I went back to my rusty door handle push button problem. At the end of yesterday, I put the old door handle back on BillyBob while I dealt with this problem. I can't just put the whole original push button assembly in the re-pop handle because I don't have a key for the original lock. I'm stuck trying to refinish the re-pop pushbutton housing. You know the saying "When you get a new hammer, everything looks like a nail". I went after the push button rust with the 36 grit mini radial bristle brush in my Dremel motor tool again. It did a good job on the mirror mounting stud. It should do a good job here.

Next, the push button housing was submerged in a solution of Eastwood's Metal Wash for a half hour and then dried with a hair dryer. The wind had died down pretty much so I decided on a powdercoating attempt. Gave the button housing a Picklex treatment. Then cooked off the chemicals for about twenty minutes. Applied Columbia Coatings Chrome powder and cured for fifteen minutes. It looks like real chrome again! Decided to dispense with the clear topcoat this time. I'll see how well this weathers by itself. Eastwood is now offering a single coat chrome powder and I'm thinkin' about getting some of that stuff.

Put the handle back together, polished the chrome of the handle itself, and re-installed the handle. The next time thru the detailing cycle, I will probably break out the doors into their own section. Since the interior handles and panel have to come off to get to the exterior handle fasteners, it makes sense to do interior and exterior door maintenance at the same time.

Finished up by polishing the gas cap and the stainless steel tailgate chain hooks where they were rust stained by friction with the old tailgate and bed. Stainless steel binding screws and barrels arrived from McMaster-Carr last week so I tied up a loose end by replacing the missing cowl vent pivot with the binding screw (assembled with threadlocker this time).

July 16^th 2005  Hurricane Emily is directly to the south of us but too far away to affect South Florida weather. Here it is a typical July day. Hot and muggy. Received new hood side designation plates earlier in the week from American Classic Truck Parts. They look pretty good. I hope the chrome is up to snuff. They appear to be a single casting whereas the originals were two castings. Too bad. If they had made them like the originals it would be easy to offer the other designations. As it is, only the "3100" model is available. BTW, these things are for the '55 1st Series only. The '54's were a continuation of the '53 side designation plates.

Started cleaning hood emblem areas with wire wheel and flap disks in the electric angle grinder. Decided that this would be a stage one repair to the hood, leaving restoration for later. The hood was masked off with a couple of 1 mil plastic painter drop cloths and the emblem areas were PRE Paint prepped and given a rattlecan coat of Rust Encapsulator.

While waiting for the Rust Encapsulator to cure, I busied myself with separating the rusted backing plate from the hood emblem. Dug it out, in pieces, with pliers and gasket scraper. At one point, I fired up the air-powered three inch cutoff wheel but soon abandoned that method because I couldn't exercise enough control. I wuz 'fraid of cutting into the stainless steel of the emblem. If I put a hole in that, I'll be up the creek.

Finished off the hood emblem areas with a coat of Rustoleum Dark Hunter Green. That should hold it until I'm ready for stage two work on the hood. Continued then to play around with the hood emblem. Removed what was left of the original blue paint from the "bowtie" recess by rubbing with lacquer thinner. Then I continued to clean up the back of the emblem, first with a brass wire wheel in the angle grinder followed up with the 36 grit mini radial bristle brush in the Dremel motor tool.

July 17^th 2005  A good weather day under the shadetree this morning. I should have dragged out the sandblasting equipment but I wuz too lazy. I put the two new designation plate side emblems on first, having let the Rustoleum dry overnite. These are secured by sheetmetal push on retainers for a non-threaded 3/16" shaft. They can only be used one time so I ordered more from McMaster-Carr for future operations along with new speed nuts for the front emblem. Then it was on to monthly maintenance. Renegade and BettyLou monthly maintenance were performed at the same time. I spent the rest of the day digging the sloppy silicone job out of the windshield gasket area, this time in the driver side. I tried to inject new silicone under the gasket but it is tight on this side and I quit before I made a new mess. The "windshield sealer" silicone you can buy at the FLAPS is a pain! It comes in a small "toothpaste" tube with a round nozzle that is too thick for this work. Even if you manage to get the nozzle under the gasket, the flow is next to impossible to control. ARRUUGGGH!

July 23^rd 2005  Hot and muggy again but sunny. Tropical storm Franklin is too far to the east to cause us any problems presently. Brought my buffing gear down from the warehaouse and set up my rig to polish the hood emblem. like I did with the windshield trim back in September of last year, I started out with three passes of "black" compound on the sisal wheel, followed by three passes each of the "green" compound on spiral sewn wheel, then the loose wheel. The emblem was cleaned with lacquer thinner at each wheel change.

After the buffing, the emblem was given one more lacquer thinner cleaning. Then vinyl decals I got from American Classic Truck Parts were applied in the white striping and blue bowtie areas to substitute for the original paint. These were pealed off the backing and positioned with an X-Acto knife. A burnishing tool was used to adhere the decals and remove air bubbles. A burnishing tool has a flat flexible plastic spatula on one end and a spring-loaded smooth metal ball tip on the other. It does a good job and can be bought at any art supply store. I'm curious to see how these decals hold up over time.

During the week, I had received a McMaster-Carr shipment with new #10 - 24 flange speed nuts to install the hood emblem along with additional 3/16" push retainers for unthreaded shafts for the side designation emblems the next time I have them off. Put the hood emblem back on secured by the end studs only. Sometime down the road, I have to fabricate something to replace the rusted out center studs and backing plate. I didn't install the rubber hood emblem gasket because without the missing center fasteners, I thought it would sag.

July 24^th 2005  Good weather and low wind this morning. Dragged out the siphon blaster while it was still relatively cool and blasted the headliner bow. PRE Paint Prepped the bow and gave it a coat of Eastwood's Self-Etching Primer. Turned my attention to the passenger side of the windshield gasket again. I think I have a good bead of silicone under the gasket on this side now. The sheetmetal in this area has taken a beating during the old silicone removal. Time to clean that up a bit. Masked off the windshield and gasket, went over the affected areas with a 3M scuff pad and PRE Paint Prepped it. Gave the exposed areas a coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator and let it cure for a couple of hours.

In the meantime, I went on to finish the trim detailing for this cycle. When the Rust Encapsulator was dry, a coat of Dark Hunter Green Rustoleum was applied. Continued with trim work until Murphy interrupted me with the daily rains. After about a hour, the rain got worse - monsoon conditions. That's it for this weekend.

July 30^th 2005  Typical summer day, hot and humid, with a thirty percent chance of rain. Went about finishing the trim polishing and glass cleaning ops that last sunday's deluge had interrupted. A satisfying task of the glass detailing procedure is replacing faded window decals. The daily rains moved in about three in the afternoon and we had a power outage which screwed up the Krash Lab computer network again. We have a commercial grade printing machine that has a mind of its own. a dedicated Windows NT machine controls it and a wide format scanner located in another room. all the workstations are connected to it thru the network and proprietary software. It sometimes does strange things after a power outage. like a "ghost in the machine", a long forgotten print job from long past will somehow migrate to the active queue and start printing at some indeterminate time after the network powers back up. It doesn't happen every time but it happened today and it printed thirty sheets on expensive mylar before I realized what was happening ~!@#$%^ Oh well. It could be worse. If no one had been here, It would have run until it ran out of media.

July 31^st 2005  Today marks two months of hurricane season under our belts. Four to go. Today I tackle the next step of the wheel restoration. I've been putting this off 'til I worked up the gumption. It involves putting one coat of epoxy primer on the wheel (which has been sitting in the shed since sandblasting and a light coat of rattlecan self-etching primer was applied several weeks ago).

Brought the HVLP turbine down from the warehouse on friday. First I got out the super stand and ran a 3M scuff pad over the wheel, afterwhich it was PRE Paint Prepped. Then I played with the paint gun fer 'bout an hour. The only time I've used this thing so far was when I sprayed the upper half of the cab interior when I was doin' the windshield job last year. At the time I cleaned the gun by running lacquer thinner thru it. Not a through job. Today I wanted to install a bigger nozzle since I was spraying primer so, I had to take the gun apart. It wasn't long until I was "lost at sea". I took it apart and put it back together several times and still wasn't happy. The needle didn't seem to be seated when it was assembled. I went thru every adjustment in the manual and least once.

Oh well, maybe I do have it together right after all. Set up the turbine and hoses and went on to paint mixing. Wanted the smallest amount since the stuff won't keep and I'm only doing one wheel, one coat. It's a 2:1 mix of Omni MP170 Epoxy Primer to Omni MP175 Hardener. I mixed up three ounces using the mark on the mixing cup. Using Bob Adler's recommendation, I brushed extra primer into the seams between wheel parts before spraying the entire wheel. Then I poured the rest of the mix (thru a strainer) into the paint cup on top of the gun. Small drops began to leak out of the nozzle ~!@#$%^ Curses! There is something amiss.

No turning back now. Damn the nozzles, full speed ahead! Went outside and laid down what looks like a heavy wet coat. Everything looks good and only one drip that I can see - in the rim area where I can sand it down easily. Looks like I used about 2/3 of the paint. Two minutes of painting and several hours of prep and cleanup. Nothing for it. I ether put BillyBob up on blocks, buy a second set of wheels or do it this way. I can't tell ya how much I missed drivin' the truck during the windshield job. I'll keep doing it this way. No mercy today on the weather front - dark skys, thunder and lightning by 12:30 PM. I had just gotten tools cleaned and the wheel was dry enuf to handle so I could get it in outta the weather. Summertime blues.

OK. That's a wrap. We're at the end of the detailing cycle and next weekend will be starting back at the beginning again with the engine compartment. I am planning to put more effort into the wheel restoration project too. At the rate I've been goin' at it so far, it'll take years! An' I'm about ready to do combat with the alternator again.

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Issued Wednesday August 3, 2005

Updated Thursday March 8, 2018

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