Dear Santa,

I have been a very good boy all year - I promise. Could I please have a set of 60 thou oversize racing pistons and an RO34 supercharger for my 38 282 Packard engine for Christmas?

Also my friend Wade would like a new spinal column made from titanium and my other friend Mal would like a new set of gasket punches and a suit that POR-15 won't stick to.

Thank you Santa. We love you!

Matty

Well it has been quite a while since I last had the chance to sit down to update the blog, but in reality you have not missed very much at all. It seems that there is a world wide conspiracy to make sure that Snapey doesn't get to spend time in the shed as he would like. Even the weather has been conspiring against me, with regular rain and hot temperatures meaning the the back yard seems to need mowing ever second day... I might have to buy a goat. Although I am sure that Echo, the workshop foreman, would prefer a sheep to chase around!

Anyway, little has changed on the car, except that I finally got a phone call from the spring people (I did tell them that I wasn't in a hurry, but geez!) and plan to pick up the four rebuilt spring packs next week.

Also I now have the bearing housings that will hold the brake cross shaft in its new location. For all of about $30 each with the bearings this seems to me like a bit of a bargain. Not having a lathe meant that to clean up the cross shaft so the new bearing would fit on easily I had to revert to some old methods. About an hour and several strips of emery cloth later I had some nice clean surfaces that the bearing would slide nicely onto - the whole process was very zen and I am sure it was good therapy. I also made sure there was plenty of additional space to allow the shaft to be pushed further into each bearing to allow installation of the one at the other end.

Also the 6 wire wheels (although I think the car will only carry the one spare) should just about be painted by now. I elected to go with the same very dark 'Packard Blue' that I will use on the chassis and various highlights. With brushed alloy or light grey paint work I think it will be a nice affect - similar to the ex De Palma 902 record car that still lives in the US. Largely for cost and convenience I opted for spraying the wheels with 2 pack acrylic. While powder coating would have been better I would have had to send them away and try to specify a suitable colour - and all at a much higher cost. If for any reason I don't like the outcome, I can always have them cleaned up and powder coated later anyway.

So that is about all that has happened in the last couple of months, but stay tuned as I have some holidays coming up and hope to get some real work done then!

I plan to adapt something else entirely, since my car didn't come with steering wheel, column or box AND it will be RHD then there is no real issues here. Adaption of another steering box in your case would require fabrication or other changes to the chassis and re-jigging of the steering column at least.

I am surprised that a rebuild kit including the worn componants is not readily available...

I would recommend that you check the terminals & connections (you can use a multimeter to test voltage on battery posts, then clamps, then cables, then other end of cables...); then battery; then voltage regulator; then generator. It is no coincidence that this list starts at the cheapest/easiest fix and works up from there.

Hi Roberto,

I noticed your similar post on the Wades Workshop blog. I am in Sydney and was looking for the same thing myself. I have now decided to adapt something different but can tell you that I wasn't able to locate any RHD steering boxes here in Australia when I was looking. All the very best in your search though.

Cheers

Good to know and well done.

What make and model are your new pins from?

Spent the weekend on other projects, including a very nice brunch at Hyde Park Barracks Resturant on Sunday morning with the BW and family and replacing what was left of the harmonic balancer on my Jeep Cherokee after it spat off the outer ring a week or so back.

Friday, however, was potentially very contructive as I gathered all the various spring pack componants that I have managed to collect and dropped them off at at Carrolls Springs at Smithfield. I have not had work done by these guys before, but they were recommended by the people that used to do this sort of thing for me, so we will have to see how we go.

Their instructions are to reset and reassemble to packs that Wade had from Mats 34 with 6 leaves instead of the standard 9 and to use the remaining leaves and the old rear leaves from the car to build a new set of front packs with 7 leaves each.

Now before anyone starts to panic here, please remember that this car will be significantly lighter than the original (I'm aiming for around the 1100kg mark, instead of nearly 3000kg). Also I am aiming for a relativly soft rear suspension but stiffer front springs which will help handling - especially under hard braking into corners as this formula should produce a 'usable' oversteer.

Also I dropped in to see my new mate Tom at Top Tyres in Blacktown. He stripped the old tyres from three Packard wheels from the 34 chassis. I had already removed one myself, using an angle grinder and a lot of effort, so was happy to give Tom $50 to do the swearing for me.

While he was doing that I walked to the motorbike shop next door and scrounged through their bin looking for discarded tyres that might fit the rims. I found one and will have to return on a regular basis over the coming weeks in the hope of finding 3 more, but the idea is to end up with a set of easy the handle tyres that I can use to roll the project around on until it is ready for the road. I don't see the point of buying new rubber that will sit around for a couple of years getting covered in muck, grinding sparks and welding slag and going hard when I can pick up something that will do the job for nothing.

Meanwhile I need to talk to the sandblasting/treatment guys to work out what the best option will be for surface prep and painting. Powder coating would be the best option, but it may come down to colour choice and I might have to get them sprayed instead.

Also I ordered the new bearings and carriers to allow for the relocation of the brake cross shaft. After advice from Wade I won't be attempting to reuse the original units as he has tried this in the past with poor results.

So, even if I haven't been in the shed making any noise or mess, things are still slowly progressing.

Ouch! That certainally looks like it hurt - not to mention the damage it would have done to the laundry bill!

Is there no retaining strap or cross member on the car to prevent a broken prop shaft from 'poll volting' the car as it looks like has happened here? I remember hearing stories of some of the very early Ford Falcons in Australia having a habit of doing this and know that a number of people fitted leather or metal straps under the prop shaft just to the rear of the front universal to stop it from happening. If the rear uni lets go it just drags the shaft on the ground (that would be after it spins around at strange angles and flogs a few things to death), but the front one breaking? I shudder to think what might happen with a much lighter car and I have hear tales of diminutive Austin 7s being put onto their roofs.

I'm here! Actually I am laid up in bed with what the beautiful wife refers to as the 'Man Flu'. We were away last week on holidays and life has been getting in the way of my Packard hobby once again

I am hoping to spend some time on the biposto project this weekend, but first my daily driver needs some work after spitting the harmonic balancer off the front of the engine just before we went away. Luckly the parts arrived from my friends at Summit Racing in the US yesterday, but it will be a big job if I have to pull the radiator out as I suspect.

Meanwhile I have been planning my next moves on the project. I have sourced the flange mounted, self aligning bearings that I will need to mount the brake cross shaft in its new location and then I will start on the metal profiles and fabrication needed for the numerous other jobs that I have to do, including engine mounts, spring mounts, etc.

Also I am currently on the look out for a suitable steering box. The original set up is not my preference and the car will be right hand drive, so a donor box from another vehicle will be sought.

I have found the people that I will be using to fix/reset the leaf spring packs, so dropping them off is another job to be done - all when time allows.

So even though I have not been able to spend the time in the shed some sort of progress has been made.