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.

46. Wheelwell Workout

April 2^nd 2006  Spring ahead sunday. Losing a hour due to the daylight savings time switchover. Had a good time at the Barrett-Jackson Auction yesterday. Wuz within hand-shakin' distance of Carroll Shelby when he rode the GT-40 number 3 up on the auction block. My boss, his son and I have been to three of these auctions in the past couple of years and his long term plan is working. His wife gets so nervous that he'll come home with something expensive when he goes to one of these things that she's told him she half wishes he would buy something so she doesn't have to endure the agony anymore.

Pretty much a lazy maintenance day, one of being "one with the truck". Started out with monthly maintenance on BillyBob, BettyLou and Renegade. Also ran the Boss's Panzerwagon for a while to get its juices flowing. Washed BillyBob again. The birds have really been giving him the bombing runs these last few weeks. This seems to happen in cycles and I hope it's over soon. It could be worse . . . at least they aren't pelicans. I'd hate to have to scrape barracuda heads off of BillyBob's hood. After the washjob, I tried a wax experiment on BillyBob. This time it was a Mequiar's spray wax and, once again, it was a disaster. All it did was turn the Rustoleum milky. I did find out that Mequiar's Quik Detailer would undo the damage. Quik Detailer isn't a wax but it will protect the finish for a short period of time. I'm pretty sure the Rustoleum could be waxed if it was color-sanded and buffed first but I'm not going to that kind of effort for a "temporary" paint job.

April 8^th 2006  Nice day but no joy under the shadetree. I'm stuck inside with the computers this weekend. We lease most of our workstations and I'm at the end of a lease of seven machines. Nine replacement machines started arriving earlier in the week. I have to configure and deploy the new machines and disk-wipe, pack and ship the old machines. This will take me some time, including the whole weekend. I did manage to meet my friend John Ray and his truck "Sherwood" for coffee this morning and he took a mug shot of BillyBob and me before we went our separate ways again.

April 15^th 2006  A good weather day. I'm still deploying new computers and packing old ones but I can devote some time to BillyBob today too. Took yesterday off and did my taxes ~!@#$%^ I yearn for a fairtax system where the politicos can't use the tax codes to buy votes and make the whole durn thing impossible for mere mortals to understand. Washed BillyBob first thing (the blackbirds have not gone away yet and my only satisfaction is spraying them with the hose). The Mequiars Quik Detailer is doing a great job of making the Rustoleum paint look better than it really is. BillyBob's passenger side front fender is flappin' like Dumbo's ear and screeching to match so one of today's tasks is a phase I repair to hold it until I rebuild the cowl area sometime down the road.

Put BillyBob's front end up on jackstands and removed the passenger side wheel. It was the hottest part of the day by that time. The computer work was givin' me fits and slowing me down considerably. The back wheelwell area is looking pretty bad but I see a few solid areas I can anchor to. This is going to be a quik-n-durty job, even for a phase one effort.

I found a suitable piece of heavy gauge sheetmetal left over from my muffler strap fabrication back in november, 2003. I brought my hydraulic ram kit that I got from Harbor Freight a long time ago down from the warehouse. I've never used it so I bought hydraulic oil too. It's a wonderful gadget and I highly reccommend it. You could also make your own with a bottle jack, pipe and a welder. I used it to jack the back of the fender back up into position against the cowl. I bent the sheetmetal "gusset" by hand and clamped it in the wheelwell with several vise-grip clamps and c-clamps. Drilled 1/8" holes with the electric drill and used medium length 1/8" steel pop rivets, four in the fender and five in the underlying support structure. More may be needed later but I'll wait and see for now.

Removed the clamps and ram, replaced the wheel and put BillyBob back on the ground again. I'm afraid that due to my setbacks, I'm gonna have to devote the rest of the weekend to the computers. I'm grateful for the good weather this weekend over Florida all the same. My favorite nephew, Sam and favorite neice Brooke are experiencing the wonders of Disneyworld for the first time with my brother JR and sister-in-law Sandy.

April 23^rd 2006  Thirty percent chance of rain today. My normal tool deployment area just inside the Krash Lab back door is occupied by boxed computers awaiting shipment back to Dell so I have to scatter my tools around the parking lot instead. Yesterday, I cleaned up BillyBob and painted some spare spring shackles, first with self-etching primer, followed by Eastwood's Detail Silver. The rest of the time was spent messin' with the new computers.

Today, I'm gonna engage in some self-indulgement. I'm gonna put the unfinished, primered splash apron back on BillyBob. Why? 'Cause I got my Stovebolt License Plate Topper from Wizzerick a few weeks ago and I just can't stand it anymore! I gotta put it on the truck! It's a "topper". Therefore it will only work (properly) on the front license plate of BillyBob. The front license plate mount is on the splash apron so, the apron has to be in place to mount the license plate.

After installing the splash apron, the topper was mounted on the "Let's Roll" Flight 93 memorial plate and OldGMCTrucks.com frame (sent to me by Rob English as a dubious achievement award for identifying a rogues gallery of long motor enthusiasts). Fasteners at this time are a bit of a hodgepodge (whatever was at hand). I will refine the installation down the road. For now it's protected by enuf anti-theft license plate fasteners and clutchhead capscrews to deter petty crooks and unhinged vandals.

Originally, I wanted to use a different "Let's Roll" graphic but it would have to be laminated to protect it. I didn't want to get into a hassle with Kinko's over copyrighted material and I'm not ready to buy a lamination machine just for one item. This will do for now.

April 29^th 2006  The old computers were shipped out via UPS on wednesday and I finally have my weekend workarea available inside the Krash Lab again to spread out my tools. I'm getting behind on periodic maintenance so I want to get back on an even keel with that. Jacked BillyBob's front end up for quarterly maintenance tasks and more wheelwell work. After quarterly maintenance, the front wheels were removed and the wheelwells treated to a degreasing session with the Eastwood "grimeblaster" washer and a 25/75 purple degreaser/water mix. I switched the wheels from left-to-right before reinstalling to keep the wear pattern as even as possible (even tho' no wear is discernible yet on the new tires).

May 6^th 2006  Beautiful weather today. It will be a bit warm. Time for monthly maintenance again and I did that first. I shure haven't gotten much done since the last monthly maintenance period. I hope to correct that situation today. Put BillyBob's front end up on jackstands again, this time with the jackstands placed under the frame south of the spring mounts because I'm removing the shocks.

Online-ordered one rear shock and two front shocks from American Classic Truck Parts a few weeks ago as well as one each, front and rear shackle kits. This will complete the second set of hardware needed for my fastener inventory. The shocks can go into storage until I need them. I only needed one rear shock because I had one extra rear shock from an order glitch with Chevy Duty a few years ago. I mention this because a nice young lady from American Classic Trucks called me up to make sure the order was correct and I like that kind of attention to detail from a vendor.

I was prepared to replace the front shackles with newly painted ones but the degreasing last week revealed that the shackle paint is still holding up well and I've decided to leave them alone this detailing cycle. The shocks and their hardware are a different matter. Removed the front shocks, then went over the wheelwell sides of the inner fenders, that were degreased last week, with a wire cup in the electric angle grinder. I managed to snag the passenger side headlight feed with the wire cup. That required some cussin' and wire-splicing to resolve.

I got pretty dirty in the confined spaces of the wheelwells and I can reasonably put off any computer work today. Continued on the driver side wheelwell with Eastwood's Undergone Heavy Residue Remover. I've got lubricant leaks on this side of the engine bay that haven't been resolved yet and this area is always greasy a week or two after it's been cleaned. PRE Paint Prepped the inner fenders next and laid down a coat of Rust Encapsulator on the exposed, rusted areas.

Ran the wire cup down to nubs next by cleaning the shocks for new paint. Hung the shocks up in BillyBob's tree and PRE Paint Prepped them, followed by a coat of Eastwood's gray Self-Etching Primer. While waiting for the primers to dry, I set up for a tin-zinc plating session and proceeded to plate the new shock washers and hex nuts.

After the tin-zinc plating, the shocks were sprayed with Eastwood's SEM Trim Black and the wheelwell side of the inner fenders with a coat of Chassis Black. Lucky for me I had two cans of Chassis Black as the first one wouldn't spray even after changing out nozzles. By the time that was done, the shadows were getting long and I closed up shop fer the day.

May 7^th 2006  In the morning light of another good weather day, I noticed I did not get complete paint coverage on the shocks yesterday. The first order of business was to hang the shocks up in the tree again and spray another coat of SEM Trim Black. The shock hardware from yesterday's plating session was put in the tumbler with the dry shine media for a polishing session.

While waiting on drying paint and polishing ops, I rebalanced the front wheels. I don't have the static balance procedure down pat yet but practice makes perfect, I guess. Put the shocks back on. There are some minor differences in the shock hardware between the shocks from Chevy Duty and the ones from American Classic Truck Parts (fine thread vs course thread, thicker rubber bushings, etc.) so I had to mix and match to get the shocks back on.

May 13^th 2006  Good working weather again today under BillyBob's tree. Continued with the wheelwell detailing work. Jacked up BillyBob's rear end with the jackstands just forward of the rear spring pivots this time. Removed the wheels and degreased the rear wheelwells with the grimeblaster. While the wheelwells were drying out, I removed the front bumper and splash apron. When I installed this a few weeks ago, the splash apron only had a coat of self-etching primer on it. The primer is not waterproof and surface rust is beginning to show. Gonna take care of that before it gets any worse.

Hung the splash apron up in the tree and PRE Paint Prepped it. Gave the areas starting to show rust a shot of Rust Encapsulator and left it to cure. Then I came to a fork in the road. I could do a quik-n-durty job on the rear wheelwells and see how that holds up until the next time I get back to them in the detailing cycle or, I could invest another weekend and do a better job that I'm sure will last a bit longer. I opted for the second choice. I used up my wire cup last week and I really like it for chassis cleanup prior to paintwork. I'm planning on getting a couple more of 'em before next weekend.

May 14^th 2006  Happy Mother's Day, Mom. We miss you every day. Got up to the Krash Lab early before the wind started kicking up and hauled the splash apron out of the shed to finish the paint job. Hung it up in the tree to give it a few coats of Eastwood's SEM Trim Black paint. I had been planning my "fifty dollar paint job" experiments with tractor paint on this piece, But several of my co-workers at the Krash Lab and my boss commented on how good the flat black primer looked in contrast to the white grille and chrome bumper. After some reflection, I agree and will stick with the non-stock black for awhile, anyway.

May 20^th 2006  Good weather again. We had two days of deluge like they're having non-stop in New England but were lucky that it happened during the working week for a change here in South Florida. My wire cups have arrived from McMaster-Carr too. Jacked Billybob's rear end up again and removed the wheels, rear shocks and axle bumpers. Went over both wheelwells with the wire cup in the electric angle grinder next, then PRE Paint Prepped the wheelwells. Exposed areas were given a coat of Rust Encapsulator including the bed sides.

The rear shocks were gone over with the wire cup and the rubber bushings in the lower ends were masked off. The shocks were then hung in BillyBob's tree and PRE Paint Prepped. Then they were given a coat of Self-Etching Primer. While the primer and encapsulator were curing, the tin-zinc plating materials were set up for a session to plate the new shock hardware items that weren't already plated.

I think I'm having problems with the plating process again but I'm not shure. I left the new items in solution longer and they didn't come out as dull as usual and I'm not positive that they've been plated. They don't need a polishing session and they will go right back on BillyBob. Some of the flat washers that I'm re-using did not appear to take to the re-plating at all. Among these are the big washers for the lower shock mounts. I cleaned these up and painted them with Eastwood's Detail Grey. The others were the flat washers used with the axle bumper fasteners. These were cleaned only. In the meantime stainless steel washers will be ordered as replacements from McMaster-Carr.

Mid-afernoon arrived and I was ready to paint. The wheelwells were given a coat of rattlecan Chassis Black and the shocks were given a couple of coats of SEM Trim Black. I managed to get the "clogged" can of Chassis Black from a few weeks back to spray with a new nozzle. I'm glad I didn't toss it away.

While I putting the second coat of black on the shocks, three wild parrots showed up to pick at spanish moss in BillyBob's tree. The flocks of wild parrots in South Florida are real party animals. They are always making noise, even when flying, even when it's raining. When they fly, they flap their stubby wings all the time. They never glide. They are like little boxcars. I stopped to smoke a cigar and watch them and their antics.

By then it was late afternoon and time to start putting things back together for the ride home. I grabbed my tube of Threadlocker Blue and had at it. Washed the axle bumpers and treated them with protectant before bolting them back in place. Ran into the same fine thread/course thread mismatch that I did with the front shocks but persevered and got it back together again with new or replated hex nuts.

May 21^st 2006  Good working weather again today but I'm taking it easy. Gonna cleanup BillyBob a bit and clean fasteners. Yesterday, I kept wondering why I didn't have all the hardware for the rear shocks that I thought I had and, as a result, had to mix and match so much. On the ride up here this morning, it dawned on me that the new rear shock hardware was still taped to the new rear shock I purchased from American Classic and that it was still setting in BettyLou's trunk for inventory up at the warehouse. ~!@#$%^ Another senior moment!

It's been seven weeks since I've posted a log entry. I haven't gotten much done this time but it'll be a couple of weeks before I get back to BillyBob again so I better post it now. Hurricane season is almost here and I haven't gotten Renegade fixed yet. I have to turn my attention to that. Next weekend is Decoration Day and I'll be remembering my Uncle Dutch. Have a peaceful Memorial Day and remember the fallen who are still out on patrol.

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Issued Sunday May 21, 2006

Updated Tuesday March 20, 2018

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