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.

49. Six foot bed that never needs made!

My apologies to Joe Diffie and his song "Pickup Man".

October 7^th 2006  Took the long way to the Krash Lab again this morning via Fort Lauderdale Beach. Just after I got over the Deerfield Beach drawbridge, I locked the tranny linkage up between gears. I tried to go from third to first without "square-shifting". The linkage stuck between gates and the tranny was still in third. Lucky for me, the drawbridge went up just after I crossed it and there was no traffic behind me. Put on the blinkers, and parking brake, turned BillyBob off, let out the clutch, and opened the hood. Working the shift box levers by hand cleared it and I was on my way again. BillyBob ran good the rest of the trip and the ammeter was registering normally too.

I've been drivin' to the Krash Lab all week with the headlights on and BillyBob's ammeter has been steady. None of the erratic behaviour experienced in my last Fort Lauderdale beach run. Intermittant malfunctions can drive you to distraction but are the meat of embellished bar stories when you actually solve one.

After the last BillyBob log entry, Nate Hall sent me the following additional dwell/timing info via the old-chevy-trucks mailist:

Good reading as always Larry ; To set the dwell , remove the spark plugs and rotor , connect the dwell meter and switch on the ignition , crank the engine and adjust the points gap unill you get to 33° , this ensures proper coil saturation for hotter spark . the old points gap of .019" was way too wide , when you closed it down to .016" you increased the spark intensity... OBTW : changing the points gap by .001" also changes the ignition timing by 3°.... Set the " Octane Selector " to the middle of the graduations stamped in the block then loosen the pinch clamp and twist the entire dizzy to set the timing . The Octane Selector was to manually adjust for local conditions of poor quality gasoline with out being able to move it far enough to ruin your engine.... Spark plugs should always be checked and the back room boys like to toss the cases 'round and usually bang them closed a little bit , gap should be .030" to .035" , this will help improve that smoooooth idle you're looking for . What make / year / model is BettyLou ? that trailing arm looked _scary_ . -Nate

First order of bizness today then is to finetune dwell and timing. Pinch clamp? Until Nate mentioned it, I nebber even saw the pinch clamp bolt hiding under the distributor body. Damnation! It's much clearer to me now how this thing works. Thank you, Nate.

When I got to the Krash Lab, I discovered it dry and the landscaping freshly manicured. Donny, the lawn guy, had already been here and it was a good omen.

After the finetuning ops, the chassis detailing was resumed. BillyBob's battery was removed again and the battery box PRE Paint Prepped. Then the rusted areas were treated with rattlecan rust encapsulator. On to the exhaust system detailing. The muffler clamps are looking a bit worse for wear 'cept for the tailpipe clamp which just needs a paint touchup.

The clamps were removed and the fastener inventory checked for fresh nuts, bolts and washers. The clamps and straps were gone over with the wire wheel in the angle grinder, then PRE Paint Prepped and hung up in BillyBob's tree for a coat of Rust Encapsulator. After that, the exhaust system from manifold to tailpipe was PRE Paint Prepped and given an application of Eastwood's Exhaust System Paint. I'll probably put BillyBob up on jackstands the next time I do this to get a little more control over coverage and overspray. It's a little too hard when you are only six inches away from the work.

Finished up the day by spraying the battery box with Chassis Black and the muffler clamps with Detail Gray before putting away the tools and heading off fer a burger in BettyLou.

October 8^th 2006  Stopped off at the warehouse for 'nother parts box to inventory. The ground at the Krash Lab was wet from irrigation sprinklers when I arrived. I messed around relocating a computer inside while I waited for BillyBob's garage to dry up. Then, BillyBob's battery was re-installed with new hex-nuts and washers for the hold-down.

Unfortunately, BillyBob's space under the shadetree is a low spot in the parking lot and was still wet. I put BillyBob in neutral and pushed him out into the lot where it was dry. Laid down my cardboard creeper, and re-installed the muffler clamps with new hardware. The hex-nuts were installed with Threadlocker Blue.

October 14^th 2006  I've become so accustomed to grabbin' coffee at Dunkin' Donuts on saturday morning and heading to the Krash Lab roundabout via Fort Lauderdale Beach that I did it again this morning. Yesterday, Friday the 13th lived up to its hype this year and I needed the therapy of an ole truck cruise. I had a CD explode in a computer drive yesterday morning. My home DVD remote quit working last night and there are only minimum front panel controls on this Toshiba model. This is the second remote to go bad. To top it off, the Krash Pad a/c condenser is out and maintenance hasn't been around to fix it yet. I've been broiling in my own sweat every night. Yeah, I needed a truck cruise. When I got to the Krash Pad, monthly maintenance was performed on BillyBob.

October 15^th 2006  The Ides of October. Nice weather for general vehicle work under the shadetree. A little breezy for painting ops but not so much so that they can't be attempted. Started out with monthly maintenance on BettyLou. Then spent a couple of hours on computer system work inside the Krash Lab that can't be performed when users are trying to use the network. I have to do it at those rare times when nobody else is here. Despite the nice weather, I didn't get much done outside. Finished up the weekend updating my warehouse inventory some more. I bugged out early.

October 21^st 2006  Good weather day. After a Fort Lauderdale run, I dragged the tools out and gave the rear portion of BillyBob's chassis a degreasing with the grimeblaster washer. Didn't get much else done besides more warehouse inventory updates and some parts ordering. I don't know why good working weather makes me lazy and turns me into a Corona commercial. Gonna try to muster up some work discipline by next weekend. I ordered my bed flooring boards and parts from MAR-K Quality Parts. Their policy is not to allow a different shipping address from the billing address for credit card orders so I'm stuck until my check clears 'cause I want it to come to the Krash Lab, not the Krash Pad.

October 28^th 2006  Today is punishment day for wasting the last two weekends of good weather. I got my coffee and started the Fort Lauderdale run, but ran into showers just south of Deerfield Beach (where I live). Since the Weather Channel doppler indicated the storm front rolling in from the northwest just before I left the Krash Pad, it indicated worse weather wuz comin' up behind me. I reversed course and went straight to the Krash Lab. I didn't want to fight rain with bias ply tires and drum brakes. BillyBob doesn't have windshield wipers yet and my last Rain-X application is depleted too.

October 29^th 2006  Daylight savings time - Spring ahead, Fall back. Today is fall back day. I spent the extra hour at the Krash Pad since the first stop is at the warehouse bay and they would be opening the gates an hour later. After the warehouse stop, BillyBob and I resumed yesterday's aborted Fort Lauderdale run. The beach was a bit busy due to The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, one of the biggest in the country. Yachts with helipads, 50' cigarette boats with quad engines down to Boston whalers. When I passed Bahia Mar, you could not see the water for the sea of new white fiberglas clogging the anchorage.

At the Krash Lab, I continued to detail the parking brake parts at mid-chassis. Afterwards, most of the stuff in the storage shed was moved into the Krash Lab, temporarily. The Boss's new house is finished and he needs a place to store extra roofing shingles (a pickup bed's worth). It's his shed after all. I'm grateful for having almost the full use of it for as long as I did. I'm gonna have to rearrange my stuff during the week and take whatever won't fit up to the warehouse.

November 4^th 2006  It's windy and overcast today. I got my Dunkin' Donuts joe and went straight to the Krash Lab. Weather is 'sposed to be better tomorrow and I want to spiff up BillyBob for a car show in Hollywood, Florida if the forecasters are right for a change. Started off with a monthly checkup of BillyBob's vitals. The right rear tire wuz down to fourteen psi and that did not put a smile on my face. Dragged out the air compressor and topped all road wheels off at 27 psi. I'll check the low tire again before I go home today and before heading for the show tomorrow.

Washed BillyBob, then watched Powerblock on Spike TV while I waited for the shadetree garage to dry up again. Received my first shipment from the Microbrewed Beer of the Month Clubs and I had some taste testing to do too. My brother, JR, turned me on to this when I was up to Pittsburgh to visit him in September. I pretty much depleted his supplies while he was at work and he made me drink some old Miller High Life's he had laying around as a punishment. When BillyBob was dry enuf, I went over him with Mequiar's Quik Detailer.

November 5^th 2006  The weather wuz 'sposed to be better but, when I woke up, it was about the same. Decided not to go to the car show. I went on a beach run instead on the way to the Krash Lab. Went thru Fort Lauderdale Beach this time (instead of along side of it) since most of the beach sand was on State Road A-1-A from four days of strong winds from the east. The front end loaders and sweepers were fighting the good fight trying to get the sand back on the beach. A few strong-hearted tourists were sitting at the sidewalk cafes, shielding their breakfasts from the grit as best they could.

November 11^th 2006  Armistice Day. Hug a Veteran! Except for one incident, it was a good beach run in BillyBob. I had to stop at a second Dunkin' Donuts for 'nother cup of java after the first one ended up splattered all over BillyBob's interior. I wuz doing about forty in a forty-five zone in the middle lane and coming up on a city bus stopped in the right-hand lane for passengers. A car shoots out in front of the bus across all three lanes! My Whiskey Tango Foxtrot expletive was muffled 'cause my heart was in my throat. BillyBob's new front tires at 26 psi and good brakes saved us. I could hear and smell the tires but BillyBob never went into a skid and I was able to steer around the back of the offending car. Everything that had been on the seat, 'cepting me, was now on the floor and soaked with coffee. Damnation!

November 12^th 2006  Another good weather day. Took BettyLou past the warehouse to pick up a tire and inner tube for BillyBob. I found the cause of that slow leak. It's a small finish nail! Curses! BillyBob is never off the beaten path but, with all the new construction and hurricane remedial work in South Florida, it's easy to get a flat. Changing a tire on BillyBob always tires (no fun intended) me out considerably so I decided to get on with it right away while I still had shade and the relative coolness of the morning. I had the new tire and inner tube mounted by eleven. I inflated it to 45 psi and went into the Krash Lab to watch Powerblock on Spike TV. After the interlude and determining that the new tire was holding air without leakage, it was static balanced, deflated to 26 psi and put on BillyBob. Spent some time then trying different combinations of storing tools in the shed around the new stack of roofing shingles.

November 18^th 2006  Looks like a good weekend under the shade tree. Noticed during my daily commutes that traffic has ratcheted up a couple of notches. This year's snowbird migration mustuv' started. I don't have a problem with tourists. They help the local economy considerably. The UPS guy delivered BillyBob's bed wood and hardware from Mar-K earlier in the week and I intend to do the initial installation today. Last nite, before I left the Krash Lab, all the new parts were unboxed. I'm going to be deprived of the joys of rust removal but, just between you and me, I won't miss that part. I ordered the standard pine boards, standard cut. Hardware ordered consisted of three plain steel cross-members, plain steel bed strips and unpolished stainless steel bolt kit. Also got the stainless steel exhaust shield. This all came to around $432 and change. Shipping for free this month (timing is everything). The wood was $215. That's low but somewhere I got it into my head that the wood could be had for about $150 and that's what I told my friend John Ray at one of our morning coffee get-togethers with the trucks. He was skeptical. For good reason, it turns out.

The edge boards were placed first under the old rusty bedside angle strips. I am not replacing these strips until later when the bedsides are replaced or restored. Next, the three cross-members were placed. This took some leverage and some cussin' and, I had to back the shocks out of their top brackets for clearance to slide the middle cross-member over the frame rail. Now, we're ready to place the boards and bed strips. Then, it dawned on me that I wuz gonna hafta drop the spare tire for access to the underside of the bed boards. Darn!

After the spare was out of the way, the rest of the boards and bed strips were placed. The six long carriage bolts that go thru the offset washers were placed and, with some difficulty, were finger tightened. Trying to get washers and hexnuts threaded in a location a hand won't fit into can be frustrating. Since I'll be taking things apart again for finishing, I didn't bother with the washers in some areas.

Started with the bed strip carriage bolts next. I thought I read in the instructions that the end with the bolts close together goes at the tailgate. After putting a couple of rows of fasteners in, I realized that none of the bolts were going thru a cross-member and that I was way short of the flat fender washers I would need to complete the job. I reversed one of the bed strips with the double holes oriented towards the bed front and things made a lot more sense. Now bolts intersected all the cross-members and I had all the required hardware to complete the job. Still a lot of tight spaces and I left a few bolts out that will require imagination to get in after the finishes are applied.

Wasn't quite finished by the time darkness fell. Buttoned things up for the day and went home in BettyLou. Had a few beers and remembered one of my earliest memories. The first home I remember is a rural farmhouse on 2-1/2 acres. One day several of my paternal uncles showed up with their families and the menfolk proceeded to put a new bed in my Grandfather's one-ton stovebolt. I was too young to do anything 'cept hang around the fringes and try to stay out from underfoot. Still, it was a great excitement for me. I don't know if JR was old enuf to remember this at all. If BillyBob had been my Grandfather's truck, the bed would be finished now. As you see from the picture of his farm, he considered painting a waste of time.

November 19^th 2006  Clear dry skies today but a bit on the chilly side for thin South Florida blood. First off, tightened up the carriage bolts I missed at the end of yesterday and re-installed the spare tire in its carrier. Spent the rest of the day devising various schemes to mount the ten Swedish Army surplus wooden munitions boxes (28.5" L x 9" W x 8" H) in the bed when it's finished. I got these boxes back in aught-three to carry spare parts and tools on roadtrips.

November 24^th 2006  Planz have gone astray. Wuz gonna take the bed floor apart again and paint it. The POR-15 was scheduled by Fedex to arrive on Wednesday. I checked the Fedex tracking page in the morning which stated "Estimated Delivery" to still be 11/22/06 and that the package had made it as far as Orlando on the 20th. Checked the tracking again in late afternoon. The package was now in Lenexa, Kansas for some unknown reason and arrival to the Krash Lab had been rescheduled to 11/28/06. AARRRUUGH!

Drop back and punt time. Went to the Boss's new house for Thanksgiving dinner, then down to the Orange Bowl with the Boss and his son, Max, and son's friend, Tyler, to watch the Miami/Boston College football game. It was cold. I'm a Nittany Lion so I didn't have a dog in this hunt. However, a 'canes win made the drive home more pleasant for the Boss. It's still chilly out. When it warms up a bit I'll perform quarterly maintenance on BillyBob, then paint some parts for Renegade.

December 2^nd 2006  I bought myself a Garmin Streetpilot C340 navigation system for Christmas. I got this primarily for upcoming BillyBob roadtrips on two-lane blacktop. I'll have to install BillyBob's new lighter so I can keep it charged. It arrived on Tuesday and I've been playin' around with it all week.

I had the StreetPilot along on the Fort Lauderdale run this morning to record trip stats so I could make a rough extrapolation of what I could expect on the roadtrip to Macungie in June. I had an overall average of 27.3 mph. That includes stop times (traffic lights, etc.). I am not driving the Interstates so that is probably a good baseline. It gives me 220 miles a day at eight hours on the road and about 275 miles with ten hours. I'm sure I'll make better time in less populated areas but I also want enuf slop built-in for unexpected breakdowns.

When I got back to the Krash Lab, the spare tire was dropped again and the bed bolts removed. They came out pretty quickly since I didn't use threadlocker for the initial fit up. Bed strips and center boards were removed and upper rear shock mounts disconnected again. The crossmembers were removed and then the last two bed boards at the edges. Shocks were reconnected and spare jacked back into place. Bolts were installed at the tailgate bed crossmember to keep the bed from walking while the bed boards are out.

The three new crossmembers were hung up in BillyBob's tree and PRE Paint Prepped. Then they were given a couple of coats of Eastwood's Chassis Black. Chassis Black can be applied over bare metal or Rust Encapsulator but not over self-etching primers.

December 3^rd 2006  It had rained at the Krash Lab before I got here this morning so it was a good excuse to sit on BillyBob's tailgate (redneck loveseat) and have a cigar and coffee while things dried up a bit. Jimmy Hill, who contracts for the post office on the other side of the alley stopped his semi for a few minutes to talk cars. He has a '63 Nova SS (Chevy II) that came with a six. He put a 327 fuel injected engine in it. If you knew the numbers, you could get this in '63. He's got a cover story on his car in a magazine he's bringing next week to show me. He also has a Cheyenne Chevy pickup, '72 I believe he said.

The misplaced Fedex POR-15 shipment arrived on tuesday and I've scheduled the bed boards for primer coats today. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot! Back the truck up! you say. A rust-prevention paint on wood? Weird as it sounds, Mar-K has been testing different wood finishes and the one that is doing the best is POR-15 with BEHR exterior paint topcoat. See all the tests at their website. I rounded all the edges of the boards with a foam sanding block first. Sharp edges are where the finishes are most likely to start breaking down. Went inside to get the paint materials lined up and we got a very light misting of rain. Damnation! No rain on the doppler radar, no rain in the forecast. It stopped by the time I had half the boards in the shed. Now, the back sides of all the boards are slightly damp. I put all the boards back out in the sun to dry while I ponder my next step.

After the sun dried the boards up a bit, I started to brush the POR-15 on. I am applying two coats three hours apart in lieu of the three coats in the Mar-K test because BillyBob's bed won't be exposed to the weather much. I wanted to paint all the board surfaces today but, due to the messy nature of POR-15, changed my tactics to painting the back sides and edges of the boards today and leaving the front sides until next week. Started with the first coat at 10:30 and was done by noon. Will start the second coat at 1:30 (if it's not raining again).

Well, it didn't rain anymore and I got both coats on the boards. It's not taking near as much paint as I estimated it would and I'm gonna have a lot of POR-15 left over. It was a promotional and I got four quarts slightly cheaper than they usually go for. I don't like to go much larger than quart can sizes because the shelf life of this stuff goes rapidly downhill once it's opened up.

December 4^th 2006  Pretty much lucked out in my decision to stop at two coats of POR-15 yesterday. As I left the Krash Lab, Donny, the lawn guy, was arriving. If I'd gone for three coats, I'd have just finished the third coat and set myself up for a layer of grass cuttings as Donny's machines started to fill the air with debris. The boards already have enuf dirt in the paint to give them all the old truck character they need.

OK, it's been two months since the last log entry so I'm gonna post this and finish up the bed boards installation in the next entry after the first of the year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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Issued Monday December 4, 2006

Updated Friday March 23, 2018

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