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Monday 30th January 2012

While I gave Juniors front shocks and chassis a POR15'ing Wade was "fiddling" with The Fossil. "Fiddling", in this instance, consisted of mounting the accelerator pedal and the throttle arm it mounts to on the engine side of the firewall. Took a lot of "fiddling", there being a lot of drilling and grinding accompanied at times by cries of frustration and at other times by magic words appropriate to the occasion. But he got there, this being another example of RHD parts and the LHD body not co-operating with each other. In the medical world they'd call it rejection and treat with anti-rejection drugs and all would be well, but in the Packard world it's not that simple! And, seeing I had a paint brush in hand, Wade also found time to add to my work load. The bottom quarters of the body, where the front mudguards(fenders) mount to the body, were basically bare metal so they were POR15'd too, as were the edges of the mudguards(fenders) where they are bolted to the body. Wade then dug out some of the engine and other pieces cleaned in recent time and they were POR15'd, likewise the inside lower section of the radiator frame still in the front clip. After that, left Wade to his "fiddling around", but I'll be back on Wednesday. And so too will Noel and Fleurette, they'll be there for a brake adjustment and refitting of the radio rebuilt by Wade.

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Tuesday 31st January 2012

Wade, John and Junior,

Look what arrived today! Not bad, bought 19th and delivered 31st half way around the world.

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Yesterday I included a pic of the accelerator pedal in The Fossil. Today going through my pic's, looking for engine serial number location pic's, came across one I took almost three years ago of a pedal setup in a RHD '34.

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Mal, et al: It looks to me like the accelerator pedal rest in the RHD '34 is installed in a reverse position. Should not the notched out part be on the other side so as to provide a rest for the foot?

(o[]o)

That's a VERY DIFFERENT accelerator pedal set up than I've photographed in other 1934 Eights with RHD. What I've seen is the accelerator placed between the clutch and brake pedals, and just a bit below them. This photo I believe from the Moss 1100 in Australia. I have photos from perhaps another 4 or 5 RHD 34s that are the same. This location makes sense of the accelerator foot rest.

2nd photo is from a 34 Super Eight.

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I wonder if the first photo is an attempt by a frustrated owner to have a conventional layout. The accelerator in the middle seems like it would be an accident waiting to happen should one be used to a modern type layout and need the brake in a hurry--even with a big wide brake pedal.

One thing seems certain when driving in a different country. In addition to trying to remember to keep on the proper side of the road, it seems one also needs to be quite ambidextrous dealing with reversed controls as well.

Howard, here's another photo showing the same layout (see just below the steering wheel rim). This car is a 1932 Eight phaeton delivered new to India.

An accident waiting to happen? I guess it's all what you get acclimated to. This layout is not at all limited to just Packards and was used by many RHD cars, I'm sure Mal can comment further.

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I think it's the acclimated part that is the secret. If you drove it daily then not an issue. I was thinking more of the drive a new car daily and take the Packard (or any other different car) out once a month scenario. In my case, just finding and using the gearshift with the wrong hand would be a problem so the accelerator is down on the list.

As an afterthought, on column shift cars with the lever toward the middle, are the gearshift patterns the same standard H with reverse up and back, third forward and down that left hand drives use? Floor shifts the same?

You're right on other cars being different though. The accelerator is minor details when you consider how many might have a problem jumping into a Model T.

The 'H' shift pattern is the same. Concerning placement of the accelerator pedal in the 1102 pic I posted, I thought it looked "wrong" after seeing where The Fossil's is located. This is confirmed from Dave's, O_D's, archives although the '32 Indian Packard has the pedal coming from the inside of the steering column location against the outside location of all the '34 pic's. Regarding driving with the accelerator pedal between the clutch and brake pedals it's just a matter of getting used to the placement. My first car was a Model A Ford which had this arrangement and I used to swap between that and my parents car with a 3 on the tree and accelerator pedal on the right of the brake pedal without any dramas. A Model T is a different kettle of fish altogether, had a go once and didn't like it at all, and the Maxwell I rode in last Saturday had a similar setup. The matter of driving in different countries with different control layouts is another thing altogether and has been discussed before. My experience of driving my LHD '41 Coupe in a RHD environment is also a different matter and the more you do it the more familiar and comfortable it becomes.

Wednesday 1st February 2012

Arrived at the workshop to find the hoist occupied by a Toyota Tarago. Turned out it belongs to the actual owner of the hoist. How dare he, didn't he know Fleurette was booked in for some treatment by Dr Wade today? Obviously not, but it worked out well with work on the Tarago virtually over by the time Noel arrived late morning. In the meantime I found there was another item off Juniors engine to be cleaned up, the intake and exhaust manifolds. Started by scraping the loose silver paint off using a knife then onto the wire wheel(bloody great heavy and awkward lump of cast iron) then finished off with more scraping and wire brush bits in an electric drill. Done as much as I can although Murray suggested putting it in the blasting cabinet too. Might fit, then again it might not, but there are some places I couldn't reach today so you just never know.

Meanwhile, Wade was fitting the accelerator linkage to The Fossil. Yesterday he'd started doing that but struck a problem when the carburettor fittings, butterfly, choke, float, etc, wouldn't move! It's been some time since The Fossil had been last fired up and in that time the modern fuel had dried and seized everything! So yesterday was one of those two steps backwards occasions with a lot of time spent to remove the carb, disassemble, thoroughly clean everything and reassemble. Today was getting the linkages linked and getting the carb, including the choke, to work properly. Don't know how it all went because, with Noel's arrival and subsequent departure, I forget to ask the question! Anyway Noel dropped off Fleurette and I dropped off Noel at the station and continued home because the granddaughters came this afternoon, first day of school for Livinia the eldest, so a very important day! Will be back at the workshop on Friday, hope to be more organised, finding out what happened with The Fossil and remember to take engine number pic's for Howard. Oh, and Noel did say the body repair on his '41 160 Club Coupe should be finished in a couple of weeks so hope to get some pic's of it when it returns.

And this for the Aussies, I'm off shortly to the Australia V India T20 match at the Olympic Stadium, weather is overcast but the forecast is for no rain till tomorrow, hope so. Look for me in the crowd.

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