Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Wednesday 25th July 2012

Yesterday in my absence, was visiting my Mum & Dad in Queensland about 500 miles north, Wade had rebuilt the '41 120 starter which arrived Monday. When I say rebuilt he'd first taken it to an auto electrician for testing and skimming of the armature. In fact he took it to two auto electricians, the first Tibby Rose being a bust. Tibby Rose at Ryde had been owned by a former member of PACA but, following the change of ownership, the response Wade received was less than welcoming. Instead, on Rick's recommendation, Wade then went to Star Auto Electrical at Gladesville. There, he received a much friendlier reception. Asked if the guy could check it on the "growler" and was then going to get him to skim it. The guy said just a minute, and about 5 minutes later reappeared with a tested and skimmed armture! When Wade asked about replacing the brushes he was advised they still had plenty of meat on them and to leave them as is. Brought it back to the workshop re-assembled it and it's now waiting to be picked up. Wade had also bought some nuts and bolts and assembled the front mudguard(fender) brackets to the radiator collar. But of the 40 nuts supplied(Not all required for Noel's Coupe, the vast majority are for The Fossil) only 6 were NC the rest Whitworth! Although the thread is the same the spanner(wrench) size is different so I'll be doing an exchange of nuts tomorrow. Trying to keep a Packard tool friendly in Australia, ie only one set of spanners and sockets, has it's challenges.

On to today, but things were looking pretty barren with little to do. So I busied myself finishing the cleaning of the wall art Packard Headlight in preparation for it's painting. Wade was finishing dis-assembling the gear linkage mechanism. So with those parts, and in conjunction with a few other bits and pieces I was almost ready to start painting, when Noel arrived. Noel had had a successful country town tour on Monday, delivering his Coupe's doors to Tony at Mudgee where they were fitted to the body. Then onto Cowra where he picked up his rebuilt radiator. Noel told us he'd had a call from Tony to say that yesterday he'd fiddled with the doors and they now fit nicely with good gaps. Noel also said that Tony has done a terrific job on the body. And surprise, surprise, Noel brought over a exhaust pipe bracket for his Coupe! No, he hadn't found it stashed away somewhere, he'd purloined it from the '41 at Cowra which had been earmarked for it's rear mudguards(fenders). The mudguards turned out to be just as bad as the ones on his Coupe, so he passed on those and took the bracket instead! Then, while Noel and Wade were going through some matters about the chassis as well as the box of rubber parts Noel brought over, I attended to the exhaust pipe bracket. I'm now sorry I didn't take a pic of it in the condition it arrived in, being badly bent and still attached to a short length of mangled exhaust pipe. Noel, I can only imagine the atrocities you inflicted on this poor defenceless part in removing it from it's Packard. I should report you to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Packards, RSPCP! But with the help of the vice and a BIG have managed to help it almost regain it's former shape.

Noel's departure was followed by a trial fitting of the muffler and rear exhaust pipe section in conjunction with the now straightened bracket. Looks good, but the exhaust pipe section needs about 6" trimmed from it's forward section so it fits and arches over the diff as required. The muffler was left in situ with a temporary bracket installed to locate it. Then cleaned up the straightened bracket and U-clamp and proceeded to paint it and the other parts.

Attach file:

---

  (31.20 KB)


  (26.02 KB)


  (44.43 KB)


  (38.13 KB)


  (24.09 KB)


  (31.02 KB)


  (34.13 KB)


  (24.29 KB)


  (34.06 KB)


  (23.54 KB)


  (23.33 KB)


  (15.44 KB)

Thursday 26th July 2012

Quick trip to Lee Bros to change Whitworth for NC nuts then a drop in to the workshop to dis-assemble yesterdays wind chimes. All the parts look pretty good except for a glaring miss on the headlight bucket. Speaking of which, I roughly re-assembled the headlight, and even with dents, dings, a misshapen retaining ring and no glass looks alright! Now to get a piece of glass cut to fill the void and at least have it appearing to look like a headlight. After I left yesterday the workshop Fairy had obviously been at play because with the headlight parts there was a fresh bulb and a spring to replace the broken one which provides tension to the back of the reflector. Wade, please keep that fairy under control, too many surprises! I will have to dis-assemble it again to put the spring in and maybe some new wires. hmmmm?

On another note, PACA had received a request from the Colonial Inn Museum at Mudgee seeking some parts for their 35, or is it 36, Packard. The list was:
- Set of piston rings
- 1 Inlet & 1 exhaust valve
- 3 valve guides
- Fuel pump kit
- Front timing case oil seal
For most items they were referred to Max or Kanters and suggested trying local sources for the piston rings. But I asked Wade if he had some spare valves, which he did. Then this morning, on ringing the guy who made the request, found out they really need 2 exhaust valve only and not one of each! Wade is going to have a look next week to see if he might have another exhaust valve.

Will be quiet here for a while, I'm having my Hernia surgery tomorrow and part of the recovery is no driving for a week, so there wont be any posts until at least Monday week. Will also be quiet at the workshop, at least initially, as Wade is away until the middle of next week. While Noel is off all that week too!

Attach file:

---

  (36.89 KB)


  (32.97 KB)


  (19.42 KB)


  (38.65 KB)


  (24.76 KB)


  (31.74 KB)


  (21.62 KB)


  (17.32 KB)


  (15.98 KB)


  (17.50 KB)


  (18.15 KB)

Hi Mal,

Wishing you the best on your surgery. We'll all be missing your posts and thinking of you.

(o[]o)

Calling Mal, calling Mal. This is Packard Info calling Mal. Come in Mal. Over.

(o[]o)

Wishing you the best on your surgery. Getting cut is never a small matter.

Speedy recovery Mal!

for the support, and I'm here, just not much happening in the way of Packards at the moment. Recovering from the surgery, all seems to be going well in that regard, except I now have a bl**dy sore neck! Off tomorrow flying up and back with my family to attend my Mum's funeral, she passed away on the morning of the day I had surgery, so that's occupying our attention at the moment.

Mal, sorry to hear of your Mother's passing.

Mal, may I too offer my condolences to you and your family on your mother's passing. Sad time. Take care.

(o[]o)

sorry my friend!