JR's Korner of BillyBob's Garage

TRUCK LINKS including vendor sites for old parts, custom parts, and tools as well as sites for classic car and truck organizations

BOOKSTORE operating in association with Amazon.com Books

PLANNING for the restoration including project schedule and cost estimates.

PRE-RESTORATION includes log entries of minor repairs and and adventures between time of purchase and time of disassembly for restoration.

JR'S KORNER JR's Korner is the history of BillyBob before I got him authored by my brother, Wm. C. Kephart.

3. JR's first wild ride

I drove about four miles when I encountered a red traffic light. As I sat at the light, I casually looked down at the gauges. The oil pressure gauge indicated zero pressure! I revved the engine. The oil pressure jumped up but returned to zero when let up on the gas. "Must be low on oil" I thought as I pulled into a service station displaying the Pennsylvania Official Inspection sign. This sign showed this station owner to be a member of the conspiracy and, therefore, not to be fully trusted.

"Oil's a little low" he said "but not low enough to lose pressure at idle. How many miles on this thing?" I couldn't answer him. Yak told me the instrument cluster had been changed at least once. There was no way of knowing how many miles the truck had traveled. "Engine's probably wore out." he said. What the hell does this guy know anyway.

It was then I saw a puddle of oil forming near the right front wheel. Looking under the truck, I could see oil pouring out of the engine like piss out of a bucket! I should have realized from the size of the Stoneys bottle that Yak's interpretation of "a little" would be different from my own.

No matter. The truck is running and home is only twenty miles away. After adding a quart of the station owner's finest cheap grade oil (and an extra can for emergencies), I fired up the truck and was on my way.

Early on in my driving career I learned that I wanted the radio on and loud. The station or type of music does not matter. What's important is that the radio is loud enough to drown out all noises coming from the normal operation of the vehicle. If you actually listen to your car, you will become convinced that it will self-destruct any second! Detroit has gone to great lengths to design plush, sound-proof interiors to treat this phobia. This truck had no radio and the number and variety of sounds coming from every direction was very frightening. I speeded up under the theory that if it quit I'd have enough momentum to coast home. Home was uphill but such flaws in a plan are ignored when one is operating on the emotion of fear (the reptilian brain . . . remember?).

Just one more mile . . . temperature's OK, oil pressure's zero all the time now . . . half a mile . . . I'm home!!

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You can email JR at  jr@laroke.com

Issued Wednesday February 18, 1998

Updated Wednesday June 24, 1998

copyright © 1998 William Craig Kephart all rights reserved