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I was very lucky to find a good spares salesman over the weekend that actually knew what a Packard is! hahaha!! I get this very often these days, the younger guys here don't even know what a Datsun is anymore!!

Anyway I was looking for a throw out bearing and we matched up one from a Isuzu small truck perfectly, so I am very happy not to have to import at big dollars! I am still missing the throw out bearing spring and on the other forum helpful Randy Berger showed me where to look for it in the plates. I am still not exactly sure where it should fit though so if someone can help i will be very glad.

I am sourcing new rubber bushings for the anti roll bar in front and it turns out to be more difficult than expected, especially the bigger bushings. I took the whole saturday to clean and wire brush the intake and exhaust manifolds and then painted with high heat matt black paint, it turned out nice and I will post a picture later.

Concerning the heater flap in the exhaust: I am gonna rig it to be always open as our climate is very hot and the thermostat spring is missing. I read somewhere that this flap can cause overheating if the spring is missing.

The photo attached is the view from my back door so i have a big incentive to get this engine finished and back in its place. I cant get the truck out! No forward planning here!

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Great progress! Kanter Brothers should have your throwout spring OR if anyone else has one and could measure it and send a picture alongside a ruler you could probably find one locally. Interesting about the "Made by Motor Wheel" you discovered after cleaning up your wheels. They also made the wheels on my 56 and the wire wheels everyone keeps attributing to Kelsey-Hayes. They must have been a long-time supplier to Packard.

Yes, Motor Wheel was a long-time supplier to Packard; the wire spoke wheels for the Eights and Super Eights beginning at least in 1932 that I've examined were made by Motor Wheel, and the Twelve wire spokes, a very different wheel, were also Motor Wheel. I've not taken notice of any manufacturer's name on the steel disc or wooden artillery wheels of the same era. The steel disc wheels were available at least thru 1934 and are very uncommon, most often supplied on export cars where they were they were desired because they were better able to resist the rougher road conditions. I'll enclose a pic of steel discs on a 33 Super Eight.

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Here is some photos of last weekends work. I think the manifolds dont look too bad for a job done on budget. The paint promises 1200 Fahrenheit. I also did the bellhousing, water pump and fan and the engine cradle. Still looking for a engine mounting. In the last picture you will see that the thermo spring is missing on the exhaust. I am pondering if I should replace or rig it to be always open. When removing one of the manifold studs water flowed. Hope this is normal. The stud was a bit rusted.

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Well, spend the weekend looking for parts and also attended a swop meet at my club. Were very lucky to find some replacement stabiliser bar rubbers, but could not find a engine mounting. I got a piece of rubber that will be modified to work. It is a cured piece so it should work. Rest of the weekend spend wire brushing the head and started with the rest of the block. Applied some anti rust to the head and covered it for further work. Hope the anti rust wont make problems when the head gets hot. Also wire brushed and painted the oil filter and pulley. Here is some pictures.

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Well, had a very relaxing holiday spend at home working on the Packard. My first priority was to get the engine painted and installed. The prep and painting took up at least 2 days. I am still hoping that the paint will be able to handle the heat but I am happy with the results. Any comments on the color will be appreciated. This is the best I could do with aerosol cans in the grey color. I was concerned about the chain but hope it will be fine.

I renovated the wiper unit. It was dirty and the cover did not have a seal. After stripping and scrubbing I painted it with a clearcoat onto the bare metal. It turned out fine and works as well!

Also included is a picture of my tag plate. It is in a very bad condition but you will be able to see the info. The paint scheme says "SA" which I presume means South Africa. Any ideas on this??

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Thought I would split my story in 2 as the installation of the engine was a story by itself! I was sitting relaxing after a days work at around 5 in the afternoon and then just decided that it was now time to install this engine. Sometimes I get this huge motivational feelings which realy helps to finish projects hahah!!

Anyway as it was starting to get dark I had to work by the overhead lights and as I was alone you can imagine the struggle! The results are good and I am very happy. I struggled a bit with moving the crane and keeping the engine steady at the same time. Also getting the spigot shat into the flywheel was a struggle. I was very carefull and worked slowly not to bend anything. The oil pan barely misses the steering cross shaft in order to line up the spigot shaft.

As I cannot aford imports at the moment I had to improvise the engine mount. I got 2 very thick pieces (for free when the guy heard about the packard!!!!) of cured rubber from the Transvaal Rubber factory. This I sawed and filed into shape. It seems to work fine and is very strong, probably stronger than original. Just remember to use "cured" rubber otherwise it will collapse soon. Unluckily the thread in the mounting stripped out and I had to remove the chain cover in order to get 2 studs inserted for the mounting. It is stronger now than with only the bolt setup.

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Barrie, that's what I call "good ole' South African ingenuity"!

Barrie,

Great to see the progress you've made. And like Eric, I applaud your "enginuity".

Did some more work during the weekend which entailed fitting the manifolds - some of those nuts are a tight fit! I made a packing form a material called Halite which are meant for exhaust manifolds as it has a metal filling. That took quite a bit of time to get all the templates worked out, but in the end it was allright.

Also visited the previous owner and he had some very interesting things for me. Including a pair of fender skirts!!! Although they are in a bad way, I think this will be a good adition to my project. He also let me strip out a 1948 sedan that he is selling for parts. Got a relatively good original fuel tank and good condition water neck. Also got that elusive brass bolt for the water jacket that I mentioned in a previous forum.

My petrol tank is non standard and as you can see hangs out quite far on the back of the car. This seriously detracts from the handsomeness of the backside!! haha! Hope the new tank will be fine, doesnt seem to be rusted inside.

I also fitted the alternator conversion and the new oil filter piping. I am not that happy with how the tubing looks, might have to redo.

I was extremely lucky to get a good condition horizontal shock for the back from that parts car. Painted and fitted it should help with drive ability. also replaced the rear shocks with new Monroe gas adjusts. I think they are made in Australia? We get a lot of off road equipment here locally imported from Australia seeing that our countries share the great outdoors!

Also handed in some small pieces of front grille assembly for a trial run at the electro platers - jeepers but that is going to be the most expensive thing on the car! Hope it looks alright though.

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