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 was the restoration of parts of BillyBob that I could accomplish without a garage up until the summer of 2010 when I finally got enough warehouse space to work in. Now, it also includes the continuing work on BillyBob in the shop.

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.

PROJECT PUFFER Chronicles the rebuild of BillyBob's Stovebolt 235 including the installation of a 4-71 blower system.

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.

69. Slammin' the nose

April 9^th 2016 Started mocking up the dropped axle. Dis-assembly was pretty easy considering I've had most of these items apart before and that I'm putting a lot of new parts in so I don't have to be overly careful. The pitman arm had never been off but I have a dedicated puller so that only took a few minutes, mostly spent finding the puller.

 The new axle was not labeled and, on first notice, looked the same to me from both sides. Then, I saw the reference holes  for the castor shims and the bolt-on steering stops, both of which are on the back side of the axle. the rest of the installation went well until it was time for the '55 backing plates to go on the '48 spindles. I discovered the '55 lower bolts to be of a slightly larger diameter than the holes in the '48 spindles. I briefly entertained the notion of drilling the spindles out but discarded that idea before even checking if I, likewise, had to drill out the modified steering arms which are also attached with these bolts. Instead, I suspended operations and ruminated the rest of the afternoon with the beer of the day, Whisper Creek Farm Brewery's Surplus Honey Citrus Ale. Tasted like IPA to me but, unlike John Kerry, I'm incapable of discerning sophisticated nuance.

April 11^th 2016 Timing is everything and in the case of the air cleaner, this time I was out-of-sync. No sooner had the new Holley "hammerhead" air cleaner arrived when a more vintage B & M version of the design appeared in an eBay auction. I bid and won the auction. One of the filter elements was twisted out of shape so I replaced them with the ones from the Holley. I took this air cleaner with me to Sunday breakfast and evening cruise-ins to bounce off the old-timers to try to determine its pedigree. When did these air cleaners first hit the performance scene? One friend thought he saw one at a show in the late sixties, but the general consensus was that it appeared sometime in the eighties. At any rate, I'm going to go with this one before my air cleaner collection grows any bigger.

April 14^th 2016 Back to the dropped axle and the spindle bolt mismatch. The The upper bolts on BillyBob's '55 spindles are 7/16-20 x 2-1/2" hex head cap screws and the lower bolts are 1/2-20 x 4", all Grade 8 "armor coat" bolts that I installed years ago and they are still in good shape. All the holes in the '48 dropped axle kit from Sid's are 7/16" with the sole exception of the passenger side steering arm with has 1/2" holes. Go figure. I received 7/16-20 x 4" bolts from McMaster-Carr today, but they will only be used for mock up purposes. I am going to drill out the '48 spindles lower bolt holes and the driver side steering arm to accept the 1/2-20 x 4" bolts after all.

When I got to the shop from the Krash Lab, I put the '55 backing plates on the '48 spindles with the 7/16" bolts, a good fit. Then, the '55 bearings and drum, also a good fit. Then I hit the wall. Damnation! Neither '55 spindle nut will go onto either '48 spindle. Ain't that curious? Time for what FB friend, Don Norris terms DPM, "Deep Ponder Mood"

April 16^th 2016 So, when I go to order new spindle nuts on the Intarweb, I find that half ton Chevy truck spindle nuts are 3/4"-20 thread from 1946 thru 1996. The '55 nuts should fit the '48 spindles. Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot! I ordered new spindle nuts anyway and while I'm pondering the situation, with the assistance of the beer of the day, Sand Creek Brewing Company's American Pale Ale, Gato (GTO Auto Repair) stopped by to check his mail. After I told him about the spindle nuts, he checked the resistance and ran them down. He did not think the resistance great enough to indicate cross-threading.

After Gato departed, I put BillyBob's wheels back on and lowered the truck. The four inch drop almost levels the engine which is what I'm shooting for. I let air out of the tires until the engine was level and discovered I need two more inches to achieve my goal. The springs on BillyBob are stock "rod ride" springs from Eaton. They offer the same springs with a two inch drop so I will order a pair next week.

 Also removed BillyBob's gas tank. I drained as much as possible some time back but there is still a little bit of old gas in the tank. I don't want anything flammable in the cab when I go to work on the floor with a plasma cutter. I'm not sure but I think the last time the tank was out was when JR owned the truck back in the eighties.

 Looks like we got some fixing to do here. There's some rust damage at the bottom of the cab back as well as the floor behind the seat base. The driver side tank strap mount on the back side is almost completely gone and the passenger side is not in much better shape. I started to think about it, and while I was  in ponder mode again, an old friend showed up at the shop. I met Paul not long after I arrived in South Florida in the early seventies. We haven't seen each other for twenty years or more. Had beers and got caught up. Closed down operations after Paul left and I was sawin' logs before dark.

April 20^th 2016 A week or so back, I bid on and scored a bling item for BillyBob, the rare clock option for the '54 Chebby truck. This thing only fits '54-'55 1st Series Chevy trucks and I can't believe many were made. I really don't care about the clock but I wanted the housing as I plan to mount a tach in it. I knew about them but had never seen one before. When it arrived, I found out it was a pot metal casting, not sheet metal as I had imagined. It really fits the dash nicely.

April 27^th 2016 Cut up a stainless steel bread pan to make an enclosure for the notch I have to cut in BillyBob's seat base to clear the Hurst shifter. Cut it in half with the chop saw, then cut off rolled edge flange using an air-powered saber saw. Finally took to rough shaping with aviation snips. I have right, left and center snips but never learned the proper way to use them yet. I just grab one and if it works without deforming the piece I want to keep, then Bob's your uncle. Beer of the day was Boulder Beer Company's Emergent White IPA. Tasted like grapefruit.

April 30^th 2016 I was set to order dropped front springs when I said to myself "Hold on. Back the truck up a minute." I better get new rear rubber on BillyBob first, then take new front end drop measurements. With the new forward rake, BillyBob's stock 650x16 rear tires are looking kinda lost in that rear fender. I ordered 16" x 7", six lug steel wheels, from Chevs of the Forties. They arrived on Friday.

 The original stock wheels are 4-1/2", I believe, with 3" or 3-1/2" backspacing. The new wheels have 4" backspacing. I jacked up the truck and mounted one. I have about 1-1/2" clearance between the rim and the bed side on the back and about the same between the rim and the fender on the front side. There should be enough room to fit the 890x16 Firestone dirt track tires I ordered from Coker. Coker has a checkered rep so I'm a bit wary. We will see. I went on to do some detail painting and other small jobs on both trucks until the heat overtook me. Beer of the day was nuthin' special.

May 3^rd 2016 One of the items I painted on Saturday was the new tach housing. "Detroit Diesel" Duplicolor Engine Paint is a close match to the hodge-podge of BillyBob's existing interior colors. The dash and steering column will be repainted in this color to consolidate things a bit. The engine and wheels will also be in Detroit Diesel green. I like the Duplicolor engine paints. They are pretty forgiving of idiot applicators like myself.

May 4^th 2016 The Firestone 890x16 dirt track tires arrived at the Krash Lab from Coker yesterday. Unwrapped them when I got to the BillyBob Shop and compared them to the 650x16 front tire on BillyBob. I think this is going to work.

 I needed space to set up the tire changer so Wednesday became another cleanup day. For as little actual work that I do, I can't understand how things get so cluttered. And the leaves that blow in! All the trees in the parking lot are palms. What's up with that?

 By early afternoon, I had my tire changing rig set up. I read the specs for the tires twice but somehow didn't pick up that I needed tubes. I read the specs a third time while the tires were in transit and saw the inner tube requirements, plain as day. Went back online to the Coker site and ordered the tubes. When they get here we will be ready to wrestle these things on. Beer of the day was Sweetwater Brewing Company's Extra Pale Ale 420.

May 6^th 2016 More goodies arrived at the Krash Lab on Wednesday while I was at the BillyBob Shop. Corvette C2 ('63-'67) smallblock side exhaust system. This is mufflers and pipes only. The brightwork heat shields are not included. WTF, you say. Well, I'm gonna mount these things under the running boards and I will only have to fabricate header pipes to the split headers that James Larrowe gave me.  I've never heard of anyone else doing anything like this so it might not be such a great idea. We will see.

May 7^th 2016 I danced one of the 890x16 dirt track tires onto the rim. Things were going well until I tried to fish the inner tube valve stem thru the rim hole. Tried everything I knew of including vice grip technique. All that did was mutilate a valve stem cap. Try as I might, I could only get about a half inch of valve stem through the hole.

 I aired it up to 35 lbs and mounted it on BillyBob. Looks good. Fills the wheel well better and there is still good clearance all the way around. Then, I cracked the first beer of the day, Funky Buddha Brewing Company's Hop Gun India Pale Ale, and went into DPM over the valve stem issue. I checked the other new inner tube stem against the other new wheel and found the hole to be too small for the valve stem. Damnation! It also dawned on me that I had bought a valve stem installation tool a few weeks ago when I thought these were tubeless tires and promptly forgot about it. I hate these little memory lapses that come with advancing age when finding your glasses is an epiphany. It didn't matter tho'. The installer only got me an eighth of an inch. I will have to drill out the holes.

May 12^th 2016 Back in 1997, I had just pulled into a parking space at a local auto parts store in BillyBob. The parking space was on an incline. I had my feet on the clutch and brake pedals and had just turned the engine off. The brake pedal suddenly lost all resistance and went straight to the floor! BillyBob began to drift backwards as I scrambled for the parking brake pedal. I had lost all the brakes. Timing is everything. Five minutes either way and I would have been barreling down the road. The stock master cylinder on this truck is a single chamber design. You spring a leak, you lose it all. The master cylinder is accessed thru a small round hole in the floor covered by a rubber plug.

 One of the improvements of this build is to be a double chamber master cylinder conversion to afford a higher level of safety against fluid loss. Accessing the new master cylinder thru the original inspection and fill hole would be a royal pain in the butt. I found a ready made hinged access panel at Speedway Motors for reasonable cost. It looks like it will serve my purposes well.

May 14^th 2016 Limited progress today. Went to Pompano Swap-n-Sell, a monthly car guy swap meet. It was my first time to this event. Got a long arm torque wrench (the older I get, the more leverage I need) and a catch can for good prices. Back at the BillyBob Shop, I glued my Dad's model airplane back together (knocked this off a high shelf a couple of months back).

 I've been pondering crankcase ventilation on Billybob's new blower build. Mike Cunningham doesn't think I'll have  a problem as long as I re-ring the engine and don't run high RPM. That's a relief since I was worrying about carving up the nice Thickstun valve cover to install elbow breathers. For now, I'm just going to replace the road draft tube with a breather I got from Mooneyes USA and run a PCV valve system thru the catch can I just got. The Mooneyes breather is a little tight so, I set up a hobby belt / disc sander I got a month or two back. It was my best shot at reducing the size of the breather tube without grinding any flat spots. That done, the heat of the afternoon forced my retreat into the Flamingo Room. 

Okay, this log entry is getting a little long so it's time to post. Next time, we will continue with engine, and chassis mock up tasks as well as mock up some of the brake system upgrades.

< Back to IntroSummer Stagnation  >

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Sunday May 15, 2016 

Updated Monday April 16, 2018

copyright © 1996-2018 Larry Robert Kephart all rights reserved