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Thursday 2nd June 2011

Wade arrived with a can of spray adhesive he uses in his other guise of electronics repairman. Uses the spray to affix new material to old radio grills. But todays application was to be used for the upholstery surrounding Big Red's rear window. Yesterday neoprene stripping had been used in the rear window internal retaining channel instead of the original fibre strip. The upholstery surrounding the rear window was originally stapled to the fibre strip but the fibre strip now isn't too healthy so a modern replacement was used in lieu. A cardboard piece was cut to cover the inside of the rear window to protect it from any overspray of the aerosol adhesive being used. But..... the first piece of cardboard was too small so a second larger piece was made. This was slightly too big so about 1/8" trimmed off all round with a further trim along the top edge completing the job. Adhesive was sprayed onto the neoprene stripping and then onto the reverse of the upholstery where it folds into the rear window opening. Worked well. Wade tells me this adhesive can be used to attach patches to shirts and jackets. The rear window moulding was then re-installed. And as previously mentioned, one of the screws for the left side fitting for the rear window roll up blind had snapped off. Solution was to move the left side fitting outward slightly so new holes for the retaining screws could be drilled. Used a small plastic spacer, on the blind pivot shaft, to accomplish this with new holes drilled and the blind then affixed in place. Then came re-installing the rear seat back. The seat back is held in place by eight bolts, four mounting through the boot(trunk) bulkhead into the upper part of the seat frame, and four from the lower seat frame into captive nuts in the bulkhead. The holes for the upper bolts in the trunk are easily accessible, just required me to jiggle the seat slightly from the back seat while Wade inserted the bolts from the boot(trunk). However, the lower bolts being under the bottom of the seat frame with much more difficult access, required a different approach. Required me to lever each mounting point into position while Wade was lying at eye level with the bolts to insert and start them. This went well for 3 of the 4 bolts, but the last one, instead of just requiring a one directional movement for alignment required two directions, up and sideways. Managed to accomplish that, then Wade tightened up all the bolts except one. One having a stripped thread, was replaced and tightening continued. After that the seat bottom was a piece of cake, just needed to be slid and clipped into place. Following a good vacuum of the seat, floor and footrests, it once again befits Gina's presence.

Mentioned in Monday's post about Big Red's heater "gurgling" and what had been done to fix it. But it didn't! During the runs to Ralph Moores Autoglass and to Silverwater yesterday it was still doing it's best toilet impersonation. So another tack was taken after Wade read a Service Letter dated 15th October 1935 from the Service Letters compilation book I bought off eBay a few weeks ago. It was about the only piece referring to heaters! In it, it mentions a change whereby a restrictor plug is now included in the heater plumbing. Says "It has been found that this reduction in flow does not reduce the efficiency of the heater and at the same time it cuts down any tendency of the water to 'gurgle' in passing through the heater core." Also says "These plugs will be supplied without charge and may be ordered under Pc. No. P. A. 5708." Wade tried that, but unfortunately his requests go unanswered. Instead a short length of smaller diameter heater hose was inserted into the heater hose with a couple of hose clamps around the hose to position and retain the inner restricting piece of hose. Test run results? Still gurgling!

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Monday 6th June 2011

Greeted at the workshop this morning by a dirty old oil filter on the bench together with the '36 and '38 water pump bodies and associated impellers and parts waiting for delivery to the machine shop. Noel had sent me an email last week that included this, "Will drop the spare oil filter in, in the next couple of days to be rebuilt - did Wade tell you the one on my '39 is leaking again? Got a spare off Les's '49 parts car", so that explained the oil filter.

Then, after making sure all the parts and diagrams were with the respective water pumps we were off in Big Red to deliver them to David for the machining work required. David can't do them straight away but, because Wade is going to be away on the Border Run until about the 20th, hopefully they'll be ready on his return. On the way back to the workshop dropped into Lee Bros and picked up some bolts and other fasteners which are required for The Fossil. Also dropped into Jaycar where Wade picked up some lights which he's going to use to illuminate a "corner post" for Big Red. "Corner post" is my term for a little metal post that's bolted to a mudguard(fender) so the driver has a better idea of where the corners of the car are.

After all that good clean fun it was time to get down and dirty and clean Noel's oil filter canister, top and bracket. Needed to use the rattle gun to get the nut for the filter canister top undone and then hacksawed through the tensioning bolt on the bracket it was so rusted together. Cleaned the sludge out of the canister and then wire-wheeled the canister, top and bracket before subjecting them all to the blasting cabinet. The top, in particular, required "special" treatment with a build up of stuff around the underside sealing face needing to be almost chiseled off it was that hard to remove. A final blasting and it's now good to go.

Won't be down at the workshop tomorrow and with Wade & Gina leaving the day after, together with Harvey and Carol, for the Border Run I won't be down there for a while. Should be quite a sight to see two '37 Super 8 Club Sedans traversing the countryside on their way to and from Stawell. I will however be borrowing Wade's Holden Ute to pick up some Packard parts from Peter, the guy I bought the '38 Eight Sedan from in 2007. Peter is donating the remaining Packard parts he has to PACA where they will go into "club stock" for the benefit of our club members.

And a mention of yesterday when PACA had it's monthly run, this time to the Nurragingy Reserve in Sydney's western suburbs. Seven Packards in attendance and we signed up a new member on the day, someone familiar to this blog, Snapey! Turns out Matt lives close by and instead of me mailing him a Packard book I'd picked up in an eBay auction I invited Matt to the party, so to speak. When it came time to Matt paying his dues he didn't have the right change so there was a bit of a hiatus until Russell, Russpackaus, produced some PACA merchandise amongst which was a PACA badge. Problem Solved! Matt bought the badge, change was now available in the amount required and Matt is now a financial member of PACA. Plus Matt promised, that when he returned home he was going to affix the PACA badge to the front of the '34 1100 chassis he bought off Wade. Well Matt, I'm waiting for the pic of that momentous event to be posted in your Snapey's 1935 Racing Biposto blog! On the way home stopped in and saw Harvey's latest folly, sorry, acquisition. Another '40 Willy's. I'm worried in case he's turning to the dark side of the force!

Link to Nurragingy pic's.

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Wednesday 8th June 2011

What do you think arrived in the mail today? Why, just another badge for the badge bar, that's all! And best of all it perfectly fills the void currently there! It's a Packards International badge which I found on US eBay almost 2 weeks ago with a US$19.99 But-it-Now price and, after establishing it's dimensions, bought it. So a trip to the workshop ensued to mount the badge. You'll see by the pic's it's next to a PAC badge. Now that's not an anomaly because PACA is both a Chapter of Packards International Motor Club and a Region of Packard Automobile Classics Inc(The Packard Club). And.....the earth continues to turn!

Plus I contacted Peter about the parts he's donating to PACA "Club Stock" with the major items being a complete '38 Eight diff assembly and 4 doors for a '38 Eight sedan. Will be going over to pick them up and the various smaller parts on the afternoon of Thursday the 16th.

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PAC and PI.....together at last.

Thursday 9th June 2011

No workshop activity today but did receive some pic's from Bill B with the question "Do you know these beautiful cars?" Bill's mate had been in Tasmania during the Packard Tour of Tasmania and had sent him the pic's below with this comment ".....just returned from a holiday in Tasmania. While there, we came across the Packard Club who were touring the island. They had some great cars. All told, there were 8 Packards & 1 Cadillac. Here are 4 of them." Was able to fill Bill in as what it was all about.

EDIT - Pressed the elder grand-daughter, 4 y.o., into Packard Club service today. Needed to stamp some car display day stickers with the Packard logo and with her expertise at this sort of task at pre-school she was certainly the only one for the job. Very determined and a great job done!

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Mal, I like your humour: ' . . . low visibility is now no visibility'.

A coupla days ago I was pulling staples out of my parcel shelf and elsewhere (with some difficulty, as they were really tight!). . . It will be good to use an alternative wherever possible so I've made a note of that spray adhesive.

The headlining etc looks very nice!

Friday 10th June 2011

Pic from Gina's iPhone titled "The old blokes lunch stop at ST.Arnaud." Don't know whether Gina is referring to Harvey, left, and Wade OR the Packards OR the People AND the Packards! After all, they are all much about the same age!

Pic was sent about 1:00pm and St Arnaud is about 45 miles north east of Stawell, their destination, so they are close.

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Sunday 12th June 2011

Talked with Harvey this evening, he tells me so far they've covered about 820 miles on the Border Run. All is going well except for Big Red having a cracked exhaust manifold at the rear most stud. Manifolds and water pumps seem to be coming up frequently at the workshop lately.

Wednesday 15th June 2011

Quote:
Received an email today from DavidM during the course of his European travels, seems the scenery and such isn't fully occupying David's thoughts while there. Asked if I could follow up on the diff with Award because he wants to take the Maxwell to Melbourne "to the man who has the engine so we can fit the engine then get it running properly. Obviously I will need the diff to mobilize the car." Spoke to Terry at Award Diffs and passed on David's message. Also didn't know the Maxwell engine hadn't come back with David when he returned from Tasmania last month. And, with Melbourne being over 500 miles south, as I said to David in my email reply "Isn't it a long way to go for a tune up?"

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Thursday 16th June 2011

Received another email from DavidM, here's some of it ".....I appreciate your amusement that we should travel with the car.....for a tune up but there is a bit more to it. When I took the engine down on the way to Tasmania it was in pieces and in need of some machining work and it will now be back together. I could not get it back into the Packard in this way......so we have to go back.....taking the Maxwell so we can refit the engine and prove it is the way to go. Just so you don't think I am totally crazy!!....." All I'll say David, that's your story and you stick with it!

On a slightly more serious note, Gina sent some pic's of the Border Run, being "The line up of cars in date order". A great way to park 20 Packards, but depends on numbers, the space to do it, someone to organise it and the willing participation of all concerned. Well done!

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