Wednesday 12th March 2008

Slow day at the workshop today, repainted or second coated some of yesterdays painted parts. But before doing so cleaned up the diff centre so I could paint that too. And what did I find? That the rear axle ratio, 4.36, is stamped on the flange of the diff centre, see bottom of flange in first pic!

Anyway after the excitement of this discovery had died down it was into marine cleaning and metal readying the diff centre then painting it and re-painting some of the other parts. While I was doing this Wade was painting the bottom of his Aluminum fuel tank for the '37 120. And doesn't it look great, the picture below doesn't do it justice at all! Besides that Wade also painted the '41 parts requiring black POR-15 for me, what a guy!

Just after the paint had finished being applied, a set of NORS King Pins for a '41 1901 was ending on eBay. The reason these were of interest, although I had already bought a front end kit including king pins, was that the eBay set were needle bearings and not brass bushes. So I used Rick's PC to bid and win these, and then off to the Post Office for an International Money Order as the seller did not accept PayPal, how dare he!

Wade's also given me a flash card with pictures of some of the cars and people on the New Zealand Packard Rally. When my son comes over later I'll get him to show me how to download this device and post the results in the General Forum. Oh the shame of being technologically illiterate.

And Randy, thanks for the kind words, I can't describe what it's like to be able to share these experiences with someone like Wade on a day to day basis.

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Tuesday 11th March 2008

Short day today with only a couple of hours at the workshop this morning. During that time wiped over parts cleaned and metal readied yesterday then painted most with silver POR-15, pic below. The remainder will be done in black shortly when there is more to be done.

Wade showed me a pic of the '22 Town Car he drove while in NZ for the Packard rally there. A very impressive vehicle with its closed passenger cabin and open chauffer's driving position. If Wade can send me a pic of it by email I'll post it on the Forum.

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Monday 10th March 2008

After a very pleasant Packard run on Saturday to the Powerhouse Museum's Discovery Centre today it was back to the workshop today.

Started by tidying up the area behind the '41 moving loose pieces back inside the car and some of the boxes containing new parts. Then worked on the fore and aft slide mechanism of the front seat which had been almost inoperative. Blew the Idaho dust out of it with the compressed air, yes more dust! Then oiled the runners and the cogged sections. A bit of to and fro later and, hey presto, a sliding mechanism that slides!

Next it was to a number of removed pieces, see pic below, to finish scraping and wire-brushing. Fortunately a number of these were small enough that I could use the wire-brush wheel on the bench grinder, so much easier than the manual method. Then Marine Clean, at this point Wade asked if I could do the new aluminum fuel tank for his '37 120. I was only too glad to be able to do something for Wade instead of me relying so much on him. Same with the Marine Clean phase. One thing though, Wade's tank is very heavy as it's made of thick gauge aluminum, it's much heavier than my '41 tank.

While all this was going on, Wade was working on his '34's engine installing and connecting up the generator and distributor and coils. Being a retired electronics engineer Wade is quite adept at the electrical side of things and as a service to Packard Club members here also repairs their radios for them.

And speaking of Wade, amongst the projects he has on his hands now is rebuilding Kevin's '35 1201 Standard 8. He's stymied at the moment because although he's now received the new big-end bearings, which were made in the US and took over 6 months to manufacture, he can't re-assemble the engine yet. This is because he's now found out that over the years the "Tunnel" of the big-end of the connecting rod has become elongated and to get the bearings to fit and have the correct clearance the big-end "tunnels" will have to be re-bored to the correct size after grinding some metal off the big-end caps. However, and this is what's stymied Wade, He doesn't know the size the tunnels should be. So I'm also posting this in the Pre-War Forum and any replies should be directed there and not here. Just give me a little time to set up that post after I finish this one!

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Friday 7th March 2008

No work on the '41 today, but picked up the re-soldered fuel tank from Emile and dropped it off around the corner at the workshop, pic's below.

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Thursday 6th March 2008

Only a couple of hours at the workshop this morning and on a positive note re-installed the back seat, see pic. Also finished scraping and wire-brushing of the fuel tank and because of the crack at the join of the filler pipe to the tank took it round the corner to Emile at the radiator repair shop. Emile is going to completely re-solder the filler pipe to the tank and I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Just going back to yesterday, when I was painting the floor of the '41 with POR-15, there was a bloke on the other side of the workshop talking to John. He called out a greeting and I replied but didn't know who he was, there's a lot of people in and out of the workshop, some some regulars but many others. About 5 minutes later he came over and said "G'day Mal" and I looked at him and didn't recognise him and said "Do I know you?". He replied he was Graeme Wood a member of the Packard Club and that John repaired Mazda gearboxes for him. He knew of me but I didn't know him. Turns out he's got a '28 526 Convertible Coupe which he's owned for 36 years and so I got to meet another member of the Packard Club.

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Eric,

The VW just caught my eye on the way to the workshop this morning. And no, although I survived the 60's and can even remember some of it, I'm not going to repaint the '41 like that. In fact it will stay as is.

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Wednesday 5th March 2008

Started where I left off yesterday catching up on a couple of areas needing some extra scraping. Used the compressed air gun then and raised a mini dust storm this time inside the cabin of the '41, buts it's certainly the way to go by ensuring all the dirt and dust is blown away. Next the Marine Clean, sprayed it on fairly carefully and also used a small brush to ensure it reached into all the nooks and crannies. Then came the fun part, because I was inside the car I didn't want to spray water around, and used a saturated towel to wipe off the Marine Clean repeating the process about 5 times and also changing the water and rinsing and wringing out the towel. Used the compressed air to help the drying process and it was very helpful especially for the seams and areas where water gathers. Repeated the spraying and brushing on then mopping up with wet and damp towel process for the Metal Ready finishing up with the now required blow dry technique. Then the POR-15, this time using a Silver finish instead of the Black I'd used underneath.

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Tuesday 4th February 2008

Back to the workshop today now that the excitement of the new granddaughter has settled a little. Soon after arriving Wade also arrived and he said he had a great time on the New Zealand Packard Rally. In fact he said it's the best he's ever been on with about 20 to 30 Packards all pre-war. If I get some photos I'll post some here, as apparently there are some very nice Packards in NZ.

Anyway, back to the workshop, today I removed the rear seat to enable scraping and cleaning under it and found evidence of a rodent having been in residence. A pile of stuffing from the interior of the seat squab was on the floor under it and a hole in the hessian seat bottom showed where it had been removed. There were also droppings and mouse/rat poison pellets, so it looks like this little critter had been taken care of so to speak.

Interior surface of the floor is good with some mild surface rust and evidence of water ingress but not much corrosion has resulted. The worst areas are where the drivers and passengers feet rest on the floor, probably from wet shoes and resultant wet carpet in those areas, with some mild pitting resulting. The only other area of any concern was the base of the right front door pillar but this will clean up easily. So I'm very pleased with this area of the '41.

Tomorrow will wash down interior, prepare for painting and paint.

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Randy & clipper47,

Thanks and I know how much joy they give us from Elyssia's sister Livina, now it's just been doubled! And I'll certainly be trying my darndest to ensure they are both Packard enthusiasts.

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Saturday 1st March 2008

Although not Packard related, our daughter Margaret gave birth naturally to her second child, a daughter, Elyssia Lauren @ 6:41pm weighing 9.1 lbs and 52cm long. A sister for Livinia, and mother and daughter are both doing well.