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Guys,

for your concerns, although Eric's I'm not so sure about.

Al,
The Packard suffered no visible damage. And concerning "Wade's Shed" I think that's a good idea . I intend to do something along those lines although they will probably more occasional pieces rather than day by day descriptions.

Mr PB,

Sad news indeed. Keep smiling

Opportunity can often come out of adversity.

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G'day Pack120c,

to Packardinfo and the water's great in!
for putting your '53 Carib in the Registry and see you're having trouble with the pic but follow the advice given and you'll be right. Looking forward to seeing your '37 120 in there as well.

Friday 19th December 2008

What a difference a day makes, might even be the title of a song!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Diff%27rence_a_Day_Made
But in this instance it refers to yesterdays and todays events in the workshop, like chalk and cheese. Yesterday a number of tasks were completed over more than 8 hours and significant progress was made. Today after about 5 hours only one significant task, which would normally be knocked over in a fraction of that time, was almost completed.

Before we get to that, I had noticed on arrival that Kevin's '35 was not parked in or out of the workshop. Turns out Wade took it home last night, will drive it over the weekend, and deliver it to Kevin on Monday morning. It's currently parked in Wade's garage at home, and he got dropped off at the workshop this morning because of the Christmas party that's being held here in the afternoon. No spanners(wrenches) were turned by Rick or John this morning because they were preparing for the party. Rick spent a lot of the morning preparing food for the BBQ, nibblies, salads and such. Looks quite a deft hand at it too. John was preparing the party area, bringing in extra chairs and another BBQ. By the way, the whiteboard sign advertising the party since early December advises that entry is by CASES of beer only! When I left they were just getting started and by the looks of things it will be a resounding success, as it always is I believe. I would have stayed, but had other commitments, and anyway the guys wouldn't want pic's of the orgy, sorry I mean party, splashed over Packardinfo!

The significant task referred to earlier? Mounting the front bumper, over-riders, grill guard and the splash/stone shield between bumper and body. And it's still not finished! Need to find a longer bolt for the left side outer splash/stone mount. The bracket there is a home made one and to get the right fit the mounting bolt needs to be longer than normal. Seems from this and other indications that the '41 has had a significant bingle in it's past. I started the bumper assembly while Wade went round to see Sam and Ivan and had them weld a bolt to one of the grill guard over-riders because one of the originals had been sheared off and a nice job they did too! Because of the lapse in time since I dissembled the bumpers, about 8 months coupled with early onset "old-timers" disease, I couldn't remember how the splash/stone shields should be mounted and the one homemade one didn't help either. Took Wade, on his back under the Packard(as usual) together with some shuffling of the brackets from side to side and inner to outer to finally figure out what went where. Reference was also made to my Picasa albums of laid out sequences of parts and while this was thought to help initially in reality it just confused matters. In the end after much fitting, re-fitting, re-fitting and more re-fitting everything was in place, levels checked and nuts and bolts tightened. Except for the outer left side over-rider splash/stone shield mount. I'll get a longer bolt and that'll be finished Monday.

Oh, and there was one other matter of significance. But first I want to know, what did I do to offend the Packard Gods? First up at the workshop looked for the O/D Control Knob I'd bought off Yesterdays Radio many months ago. Looked at home before I left, couldn't find it. Looked around the workshop, not there either. Last place was the trunk of the '41 which had been loaded up with bits and pieces over the course of the past year. Cleaned it all out and still no knob. But that wasn't the end of that, because the '41's now on the floor it's much lower than before so the corners of the trunk lid are deadly weapons and I've now got the scar to show for it, should have ducked lower!

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I can see you're busy at the moment with the wiper issue, so when you can that would be great.

Gerd,

Haven't seen you around Packardinfo for a while. Let us know what's happening, as I'm sure you will!

Jeff,
Don't forget to include your '56 Clipper in the Owner's Registry.

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Dave,

You're right of course. That's how Wade made it. He also made a couple of little springs to replace the shot ones in the wiper arms by shortening up some springs till they were the right length.

Thursday 18th December 2008

Arrived at the workshop to see a little Mazda Ute parked outside. I've loved little Utes ever since a mate of mine had a Morris 8/40 Ute over 40 years ago. It was like a sewing machine on wheels, well it sounded a bit like one when it was running and it wasn't very big!

Anyway, once inside the workshop, started finishing off the tightening of the front fenders and inner fenders and the front inner grill panels. Got all the remaining nuts and bolts done for the fenders and inner fenders with Wades help. Then we turned to the inner panels between the radiator and the side grills. Although they were in place when installing the fenders we'd put them inside the fender when they should have been on the outside. So took off the bolts holding them to the radiator frame and because the nuts & bolts to hold them to the side grills hadn't been mounted we were able to re-align them. Had to also loosen off the two lower nuts & bolts holding the front fenders to the bottom piece that runs under the grill. Then came the trickier part aligning the holes to bolt the panels to the side grills. A fair bit of effort was expended doing this and because of the position of the holes Wade, in his natural position under the car, had difficulty in inserting the little bolts but in the end got there. Also installed, loosely, the front bumper irons and Steele's rubber irons to body gaskets.

During all this Tony, a friend of Noel's the guy with the '41 160 Coupe, arrived. When Tony and Noel were here some months ago, Tony took my good lower front fender stay(the other one was "butchered") and said he could make a new one. As it was also time to remount the fender stays Wade had rung Noel earlier to be told that Tony hadn't made only one stay, but four, and Noel would deliver them on Monday. Therefore we were pleasantly surprised to see Tony today with my original and only one of the one's he'd made in his hand, the rest could be for Noel for his Coupe? Didn't stay long, as he could see we were busy, and when Wade asked him how much we owed him, said "I don't know", shrugged his shoulders and grinned. So I said I'd have to buy him a drink and what did he like. Thereupon he replied "Port, but not too expensive, or you'll spoil me". What a guy! And I forgot to take his pic, to add to the rogue's gallery of characters here, or pic's of the original and replicated stays.

Next we turned to the headlights. Wade had swung WFI(Wade Fabrication Industries) into gear a week or so ago and made a spring that clips the headlight holder to the headlight bucket. There are 2 for each headlight but the '41 came with 2 on one side and only one on the other. Then came the fun part, trying to clip the springs once they were attached to the headlight holder to the mounting hooks on the headlight bucket. Wade tried various long nose pliers, screwdrivers of different lengths and sizes but all to no avail except frustration. Wade figured out he'd have to modify a screwdriver so it had a slot or groove on the on the blade to catch and hold the spring so it could then be pushed into and under the hooks holding it to the headlight bucket. While Wade was swinging WFI into action again I spent time cleaning up more bolts, these for the bottom panel under the grill. By the time I'd finished that, plus a dozen screws to hold the headlight buckets to the fenders(6 a side), Wade had made the tool and attached both headlight holders to their respective buckets. Mounted the completed headlight bucket assemblies to the fenders using the Steele Rubber gaskets bought recently. Then mounted the headlight wiring harness to each bucket assembly, this time using recently made MBM gaskets.

The fender lights were next, and because the studs holding them were the worse for wear, the studs were replaced with bolts I cut to size with a hacksaw and finished on the bench grinder. All the new bolts screwed in easily on the workbench but putting them together on the fenders especially the left side was another matter altogether. Finally got there but then discovered the front bolts, although longer than the rear bolts, were too long. So after more hacksawing and grinding on my part finally got the fender lights mounted.

Turned then to mounting the lower fender stays. The outer mountings of these attach to the bottoms of the front fenders just behind the wheel arch where they level off and continue rearward. While the inner mount is under the chassis and held by a bolt which is cushioned by formed rubber gaskets, but we didn't have any of these! This time MBM Gaskets swung into action cutting out 4 large rubber gaskets about 1&1/2" in diameter with a hole to fit the small metal tube that runs through their middles. During this Wade scrounged up 2 'O' rings to fit and fill the middle between where the rubber gaskets fit each side of the metal stay. And I'm pleased to say mission accomplished, although no pic's were taken in the heat of the action. Now the fenders, especially the right side which had previously been pulled under at the bottom, are now firmly anchored in place.

What next, you ask? The overdrive cable came the reply. A little Elf(AKA Wade) after I'd left one day recently, had straightened the kink that had previously been in the metal sheath where the O/D cable exits its armoured coiled housing. Discovered he could screw the sheath off the coil cable housing, straightened the sheath in the vice and also straightened the kink in the cable itself. A good man to have around, especially when you're not around yourself! Now to remount it. Wade fed it through the cable access hole in the firewall, then while he was mounting the control knob end and the switch wiring in the cabin I was re-aligning the MBM cable access hole gasket. Both tasks should have been relatively straight forward. But both were not to be so. The MBM gasket had been cut and installed some while ago, but since then the dash had been re-installed, the speedo cable hooked up and various other cables and controls "played" with to say the least. What had been easy before now attained a significant degree of difficulty. However help was attained somewhat by re-routing the two cable which still had free ends, the choke and the O/D cables. Adjusting the position of the coil cable by easing off the coil mounting and rotating the coil about 45 degrees. And undoing one of the heater hoses so the speedo cable and oil pressure line passed inside it instead of outside it. Wade meanwhile had mounted the O/D control under the steering column only to find he had to take it out again to mount the O/D switch, it being too restrictive to reach while in situ.

That was one end of the O/D cable, now came the undercar part. First Wade was on the creeper under the car while I fed the O/D cable down to him. It took about three re-routings before a satisfactory route was found and then checked to ensure the control knob end was in the correct position in the cabin. The O/D cable was mounted to the chassis X-member when it was removed earlier this year, but looking at that Wade believed it could be the cause of the kink in the cable because it wasn't positioning the cable in the same plane as the lever it actuates. A few trial positionings found that if the cable mounting was moved to one of the bottom bellhousing cover bolts it would allow the O/D actuation to operate in the one plane without twisting stresses. So while Wade laid on the creeper I drilled out the mounting hole on the bracket to accept the larger diameter of the bellhousing cover plate bolt. And when all was mounted the O/D actuation cable worked well. Kudos to Wade again!

Is there more? Yes! By this time I thought we may have reached the end of our day but it wasn't to be. Wade suggested lowering the '41 back to earth from it's previously lofty perch on jack stands since early December 2007. So while Wade fetched the floor jack I rounded up the lug bolts and the rear tires. And pretty soon - TOUCHDOWN, Houston, we have touchdown! The '41 returned from whence it came - the concrete floor of Wade's Shed, as he calls it! Then to the front end, the process was repeated and all four tires were once again in contact with what was now considerably dirtier concrete than when they left it. Ensured all the wheel lug bolts were tight by borrowing John's long socket bar and tightening accordingly. Wade tightened up the front and rear axle bolts and split-pinned them and the front axle gease cup covers installed.

What a day! Little did I think when we started that the '41 would return to looking like a car rather than it's hovering presence up on the jack stands. In fact I was tempted to drive it home but, seeing there are still some things to attend to, that must wait for another day!

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G'day Frank,
to Packardinfo and good luck in getting started. And please don't forget to add your '51 to the Owner's Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it.