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.

9. Zo's Off the Hook
Cruise-In

A few weeks ago when the boss and I were at the Reflections in Glass XXV car show, someone handed me a CrusinSouthFlorida.com card. When I visited the website, I learned about Zo's Off the Hook Cruise Night. This is in a neighborhood in north Fort Lauderdale that I lived and worked in the early eighties. I decided to take the coast road, A-1-A, down there and check it out. I went the weekend before Superbowl and decided to make it a regular event.

SITREP

It's good weather this sunday and I decided to go to the cruise night again, this time with my camera so I can record it as a log entry. I didn't get much done on any of the vehicles in the shadetree garage this weekend. The rear door to the Krash Lab, which opens adjacent to the shade tree, has a protective roll-down storm shutter. The shutter jammed last week and we can't open the door. We are waiting on repair people. As a result, I have to hike back and forth thru the front lobby and this has been slowing me down. It's also one of those festival weekends and I've been spending too much of my time heading off people who can't read the tow-away signs at the entrance to our parking lot. I gave up by mid-afternoon and went home to the Krash Pad to get cleaned up.

PRE Check


1.	Date and Time	February 10, 2008 4:30 PM
2.	Odometer	28,035
3.	Emergency Supplies	Cellphone, AAA+ membership, reading glasses
4.	Prep	A shower

Engage

Traffic on the coast road in this neck of the woods can be heavy on the weekends but it wasn't too bad this early evening and I got to the cruise-in about a half hour after it started. I walked to the west end and started taking pics after talking trucks for a few minutes to a fella who saw me get out of BillyBob

I would rather have gotten these photos from a different angle on the cars but the sun was getting low in the sky and I had to keep it behind me. This stretch of Commercial Blvd. wuz my stompin' grounds in the early eighties. I worked in the bank building in this pic and lived in an apartment building across the street behind the convenience store (don't look for it, it's not in the pic).

The chebby truck in this shot has a 572 crate engine in it. There's a good mix of vehicles and they aren't all the same ones from two weeks ago, either. And I'm a fan of the doo wop music no matter how many times I hear it. It's not too loud, just right. You can hum along or have a conversation without raising your voice. You can't hum rap songs.

When BillyBob and I arrived, they were just starting to park the second row and we anchored the east end. When the first guy looked BillyBob over and asked if I wuz going to restore him, I replied that BillyBob was a Chick Magnet just the way he was. Homeless chicks mostly but I'm workin' on that. A nice thing about this deal is that you can buy a beer in the sports bar and wander around the cars with it. Normally, the police would cast a disparaging eye on you if you were walking in this lot with a open beverage in hand.

Starting to lose the light by the time this '47 Merc woody and '61 (route 66) Vette arrived. Several more interesting cars arrived after sundown. One of the new Ferd GT40's, a gleaming black '48 Caddy Series 62, '63 chebby Impala ragtop, '68 Plymouth GTX 440 ragtop, '46 Lincoln Continental ragtop, and more. One I especially remember was a '66 Stude with a another 572 crate motor. Just before eight o'clock, a few prizes were given out and they wrapped it up. BillyBob and I were home in time fer supper and primetime boob tube on the couch.