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Keith, now I see, the oil dip stick tube is on the oil pan. My vision is impaired.

(o[]o)

well, not much going on in the garage cause i'm either broke or making myself broke.

latest adventure for making myself broke is having my Grandfather's 30 year old Lay-z-Boy chair recovered.

if anyone has ever owned a Lay-z-Boy you know why its important to hold on to one, especially a solid wood old one.

this vinyl on the chair just started to split about 2 years ago....now THAT has paid for itself many times over i say.

i'm getting it redone in a nice thick new recycled leather (cause i can't afford 100 grain leather, besides this stuff tends to last longer then real leather). total cost with labor and new foam is 576. but it really needed to be done. i'm sitting on it with a blanket in the seat and it was just wearing me out finally. i hated it.

i did buy some new valve covers off of ebay though. mine were all dented up and i didn't want to bang them out, wouldn't have looked right. so i got new ones for 10 bucks plus shipping. not bad and there are ZERO dents.

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Henry,

I got your e-mail. I will get you the updated information about the up coming Packards North Texas event.

i got the updated email. i should be there tomorrow for the museum at least.

Got my valve springs in finally. you can buy this kit, but it comes with the keeps for a chrysler...so you have to buy the single groove keepers seperate.

the numbers are a bit high, but the install height is off, so it lowers the numbers to within specs. you can see they are barely shorter.

this goes along with the Jack Vines Cam.

Lunati

73949
75702
77004

Hank

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heads are at machine shop, getting recut for the spring seat. he happened to have a .725 inside diameter cutter. 60 bucks to do it. which was about what it would have cost to get a tool alone.

should be done by wednesday.

if the cutter doesn't work, since the inside diameter of the spring is .750....they are just going to cut the seat flat, because i have no other choice to use those springs.

i also bought 5 new 45gal trees, 3 red oaks and 2 live oaks for the backyard. they had them 50% off cause of the end of the season for planting. i got one of them planted already....sucked. my pass through 3rd bay on my garage was handy.

i also got to see a B17 fly right over my house this weekend. was sooooo cool.

and I got to go to a car museum with the Packard club on Saturday. many awesome cars....but no photos allowed. website is www.panthercity.com


Hank

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Nothing like a B17 flyover to make your day.

Military aircraft from WWII always a popular backdrop for our cars of the same era. Marshall Katz' 1940 180 limo and friend Jeff Guss' 1941 LeBaron sport brougham, the latter taken at the Teterboro (NJ) air show.

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yup i flipped out. the name of the plane was Aluminum Overcast. great name.

it was at the airport right down the road from my house. they were giving tours and rides. i wish i had known...

My Grandfather was a B17 top gunner, but never saw any action. He was some type of reservist or home defense or something. not sure.

Hank

At least for the shows up here at Teterboro or a few years ago at Westchester (NY) airports, the rides are expensive but well-worthwhile if you can affort it - about $450 when I did it for perhaps a 40 minute ride. At the time it was up the Hudson River to above Poughkeepsie and back.

In the same vein another ride I took last year was a day cruise on the WWII liberty ship John W. Brown from Providence to Narragansett Bay where we were "attacked" by a Zero and "saved" by a Mitchell and a Mustang. The scream of the Mustang engine is something you'll not soon forget.

This past spring the Collings Foundation brought their B-25 Mitchell, B24 Liberator, B-17 Flying Fortress, P-51D Mustang and a Bell Huey to Austin. The Mustang was getting service during most of the time we were there. Then, just as we were about to leave, they fired-up the Merlin. It did not fly, but I got to watch it do taxing tests with the engine covers removed. Great sound, even on the ground.

Last week another preservation group brought a B-29 to Bergstrom. We did not get out to the airport to see it, but I got to see it flying low over the neighborhood. It was at about the same altitude as Hank's B-17. I had never seen a B-29 flying until then. I had to think about hundreds of them in the air at the same time time.

(o[]o)