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 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.

During a train trip home to Pennsylvania in 1999, I experienced the big five-oh birthday. This is not a mid-life crisis for me like it seems to be for many men. I don't feel I'm loosin' my touch with women. The ladies I've been attracted to do not find me remarkable in any way. This has been the case with me as long as I can remember, therefore, no crisis. Not having this crisis gives me time for useful pursuits like restoring BillyBob and fighting the Clinton Bush Administration for my Constitutional Rights.

The shop to perform BillyBob's off-frame restoration isn't much closer than it was four years ago when I started the BillyBob part of my Website. I decided on my 50^th birthday that time was-a-wastin' and I might as well get my hands dirty restoring the portions of BillyBob that I could accomplish without a shop. As a result, I set up this area, WORK-IN-PROGESS, to chronicle the work.

By my 53^rd Birthday (2002), I began to suspect my vision of the perfect auto shop with flowerboxes and a white picket fence would always be on the far horizon. I realized I was three years into an estimated ten-year rolling rebuild and that, in all likelihood, the work will be carried out under the shadetree. The goal has matured into being ready by my 60^th birthday (2009) for cross-country trips with BillyBob on secondary highways.

By my 58^th Birthday (2007), I had one cross-country trip under my belt but BillyBob was, by no means, completely restored and we are still working on that and will be for the forseable future.

1.	A Slight Facelift	2.	Wheels Refurb
3.	Shifty Behavior	4.	Spifin' up the Steering Wheel
5.	One thing leads to another	6.	Nervous Breakdown: Research, Battery, Starter
7.	Nervous Breakdown: Taillights, Parking Lights, Turn Signals	8.	Timeout for an Oil Change
9.	Shifty Behavior Revisited	10.	Emergency Stop Mr. Scott!
11.	To Chrome or not to Chrome: Bumpers	12.	Undercover Frame Job
13.	Nervous Breakdown: It's Alive	14.	Frame Job: Reshocking
15.	WHOA! Baby: Wheel and Master Cylinders	16.	Frame Job: The beat goes on
17.	Odds n Ends	18.	Nervous Breakdown: Gas Sender, Alternator, Headlights, Light Switch and Coil
19.	Door of Perception	20.	And More Frame Work
21.	Southern Cab comfort	22.	One thing leads to another relapse
23.	WHOA! Baby: Front Wheel Rebuilds	24.	Water Pump Blues
25.	Nervous Breakdown Red Ducks	26.	Two-Forty A/C
27.	Framework - Halfway Home	28.	Cab Comfort Continued
29.	Windshield Saga - The Bad	30.	Windshield Saga - The Ugly
31.	Windshield Saga - More Ugly	32.	Windshield Epic - Almost Good
33.	Windshield Epic - A Gasket too far	34.	Windshield Epic - The Good (Fini)
35.	Aught-three Leftovers	36.	Just tryin' to Maintain
37.	Still Maintainin'	38.	Chassis Chazzmeteria
39.	Cab Doodads an' other things	40.	All that glitters
41.	Wheels of Progress	42.	The Krash Abides
43.	Makeup Makeover	44.	Paint and Wire
45.	Paint and Diversions	46.	Wheelwell Workout
47.	Them's the Brakes	48.	Status Quo
49.	Six foot bed that never needs made!	50.	Bedded down
51.	Creature Comforts	52.	Busy, Busy
53.	Getting back on track	54.	Cab Capers and the D-train
55.	More Cab and D-train Work	56.	Starting with Confidence

You can email me at  webmaster@laroke.com

Issued Saturday March 4, 2000

Updated Sunday April 13, 2008

copyright © 1996-2008 Larry Robert Kephart all rights reserved