Travels with BillyBob 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 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.

7. Macungie Run

Day 8 SITREP

Despite Tim Lederman's most excellent brew the night before, A bunch of us were up early to secure the OldGMCtrucks location at the show grounds. Parked the trucks and strung some barrier tape before walking to a local greasy spoon for some breakfast. Our waitress was not in a good mood, but with Kook working on her with his charms (more like chinese water torture) throughout the meal, she was smiling by the time we left. As I trailed Tony, Rob, Bill, Bill and Pete back to the show grounds I thought someone should be queing up the Good, the Bad and the Ugly soundtrack.

After we got squared away and after a walk thru the swapmeet area, I struck out on my own and snapped some shots of rare and unusual trucks. This first one is one fella's idea of what a Divco milk truck would look like as a COE hauler. It's built on a Ford 1-ton chassis.

There were quite a few of these Model T Ford snow crawler conversions in the early years of the last century. The front wheels were replaced by skis and an additional axle and steel tracks were added at the back.

This is an early armored truck on a International chassis. Bet this thing is hot to drive in the summer! I'm sorry I didn't think to get more info about these oddball trucks. There are so many here to see in the short time available. I found John Milliman's truck and Bill Marlow's COE along with a few other stovebolter names I recognized but, timing is everything, and I mistimed my visit. None of the stovebolters were around and I didn't get back later. There's always next time.

Back on OldGMCtrucks row, I found Mike Reese explaining his "Ashton" pumper and "Lanford" rescue trucks to passersby. You can see the enormous floodlights on the Landsford in this pic. When the truck is underway, they are retracted down into the body of the truck. These lights along with the spotlight on Grigg's Ford truck were used to illuminate Andy's carb jetting and ignition timing classes later on back at the hotel when they continued on into the night.

This is OldGMCtrucks row as it existed on Saturday. Just past the Lansford is George's '60 GMC pickup, Bruce's '54 GMC Hydromatic, Phil's GMC pickup, Sweet's Chevy pickup, Pete's '46 GMC pickup, BillyBob, Tony's '37 Chevy hotrod, and Bill's '53 Hydromatic Longbed. Rob's GMC huckster is at the end of the row and a space beside it is for Tim's '54 Chevy suburban. Tim was a little late as he was suffering the effects of his own wonderful beer.

I retired to the OldGMCtrucks tent to hang out with Arlyn who was manning the tee shirt sales. I wanted to take some pics of the fellas in the tent but the camera broke when I tried to get a shot of the Kook. Actually, the batteries died and I didn't have any more with me. In late afternoon the storm clouds started to roll in and the show trucks started clearing out. We broke camp and caravan'd back to the hotel.

Pete pulled his truck in out of the rain under the porte cochere in front of the hotel and Andy started rejetting his duel carb setup while we observed and learned. Several of us walked over to a pizza hut for one last meal together. When we came out, Andy had moved his seminar to the parking lot and continued on with ignition timing as the rain had stopped. They were still at it when I went to bed. We'll all be back on the road tomorrow.

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Tuesday June 19, 2007

Updated Thursday February 2, 2017

copyright © 1996-2017 Larry Robert Kephart all rights reserved