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Thursday 9th July 2009

Before leaving for the workshop this morning received an email from Barry Smith, the guy who imported the '51 Convertible at the same time my '41 arrived in Oz. In it he advised he's bought a '38 V12 Club Sedan and it's on it's way to Australia now. In case anybody's wondering I have been on Barry's back about getting his Packards into the Owner Registry because he is a PackardInfo member. And yes they should be there soon so my "harassment" will pay off. Also before leaving this morning I'd phoned the chrome plater who did my bumper and other parts last year. This because the chrome on the decorative front bumper centre piece has rust spots coming through! Was advised to bring it over and they'd fix it. Seems like a good attitude to have in such a business and I'll find out tomorrow when I take it over to them.

Anyway arriving at the workshop found Wade about to solder up some wires in Old Blues windscreen wiper motor. Dave(O_D) you'd better avert your eyes now rather than read on! Old Blue has been in Wades possession for almost 20 years and had been restored many years before that but not "correctly" in some areas. One of those areas being an VW electric wiper motor. It gave up the ghost recently and Wade found that the soldered connections in the armature had all melted. But not to worry, Wade was able to resolder the connections, clean the motor, lube it, re-assemble it and re-install it in Old Blue. All this being necessary because it's Wade and Gina's wedding anniversary tomorrow and they are going away to Canberra over the weekend. Gina being most insistent that the anniversary be properly celebrated this year because for the past 10 years Packard activities had taken precedence!

That done, moved on to Big Red. Installed the left rear axle and brake. Took a looooong time to do this because of the checking and adjusting for the shimming process for the rear axle play to be acceptable. Also made up rear axle brake backing plate and oil seal retainer gaskets, 6 in all, 3 on each side. Almost like an assembly line process with WFI(Wade Fabrication Industries) and MBM(Made By Mal) working in tandem, marking, cutting the shape and punching the holes required. And of course there was some clean-up of POR-15 overpaint required as well as trimming the brake shoe end of the new handbrake cables because they were just a fraction too long. Well, to cut a long story short, the new axle bearings were packed with grease, gaskets made, gaskets cemented and fitted to the backing plate, seal retainer and oil catcher, all bolted to the axle housing and tightened up, hand brake cable fitted, wheel cylinder fitted, brake shoes, springs and shoe locators installed, brake drum and axle key fitted and axle washer and nut installed but not fully tightened. Sorry to gloss over the process but my one typing finger is getting tired. But that was enough for the day.

All that remained, after David from Penrite arrived and delivered the oil and grease that Wade had ordered yesterday was a bit of chit chat. And John, it is a remotely mounted full flow oil filter off a V8 Holden(Chev SB 5.7litre). And Dave, you can look again now, Wade promised to send me the pic of the '34 he saw and that he is copying the colour scheme of. Don't know what the actual colours are Dave, and Terry, because they were basically matched to the colours on the pic. But when Wade picks up the body he's getting all the details then as to names,and formulations of colours, etc. And earlier this evening I received from Wade the long awaited copy of the '34 pic in question, see attached.

So Happy Anniversary Wade and Gina, have a great weekend of celebration.

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Mal, Rust on new chrome is bad , looks like they skipped the copper coat. If you are looking for an electroplater, I have had very good results from Astor Plating at Villawood, for many years. (hope they didn't do yours!)
David

Mal, thanks for the answer on the oil filter question. Now, do you or Wade have any information on how the oil filter was plumbed to the engine? Any help here is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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David,

Yes, it is BAD, but the rest of it looks good so I'm hopeful that it's only this one piece.

John,

Because Wade and Old Blue are away until next week I'll report back what I find out after their return.

Whatever those grays are on the 34 sedan, they are certainly very attractive and period colors, I like them! the darkest of the 34 Packard grays was Mr. Vernon Gray, followed closely by Storm Cloud Gray which had a bit more yellow in it; next was Roanoke Gray and the lightest (least black pigment) was Silver Fox Gray.

Friday 10th July 2009

David,

Took the rusty bumper centre piece to the plating shop this morning. Peter there was at a loss to explain why this happened only to that piece while the other parts done at the same time all appear OK. Anyway, he said it'd take about two weeks to re-do it and they'll take it right back and do it completely again. Maybe it did skip the copper coat as you suggested. Whatever the cause, I'll be keeping a close eye on the rest of the re-chromed parts, being all the bumper and over-rider pieces and the tail light bezels.

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The above quote is Post #113 which generated responses in Posts #'s 114 - 118, including in the last one my abject grovelling about how I got it wrong, But so be it, those who live by the sword die by the sword and those who live by the pen do likewise. Anyway Barry has been kind enough to forward two further pic's relating to his 54, '51 and I've included these below as well as an edited version of the email that accompanied them.

.....The picture of the 51 on Packardinfo had the wings on upside down, and no one noticed!!!......Took me a month to wake up......

And to Barry for including the '51 in the Owner Registry. Will be even better once we sort out how to load a pic for him. And of course better still once he gets the '37 120 and '38 V12 entered. I've already had a word about this in his ear and he muttered something about don't stretch the friendship. Whatever could he mean?

EDIT - Pic problem sorted.

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Sunday 12th July 2009

End result - The '38 was sold at auction today for $23K, the reserve, and after commission and charges I'll be left with $20K. Seeing I paid $24K for it 2 years ago and with the current economic climate I'm happy with the result. Besides running, registration and insurance expenses the only real outlays in that time have been a WFI rebuilt water pump, new temperature gauge and a new head gasket.

Monday 13th July 2009

Didn't get to the workshop today because Wade was returning from his second honeymoon trip to Canberra. But the next best thing happened, the horn button for the '39 110 Coupe Harvey's working on arrived this morning from Yesterdays Radio. Together with the knobs I ordered for the '41, so Jerry. So I had the perfect excuse to go over to "Harvey's Workshop" instead, especially since Harvey paid for the horn button yesterday when I saw him at the auction! Arrived to see the '39 110 Business Coupe sitting outside in the sunshine. Harvey had cut her back and polished her up and she was sparkling away, a nice sight to behold. The Coupe had been inspected last week and a "Blue Slip", Road Worthiness Certificate, obtained and is now on Club Registration for Historic Vehicles. The horn button will go into the Coupe which currently has the button out of the Coupe Roadster so it could pass inspection. So the work Harvey's put in over the last month came to fruition, though there are still a few minor matters to attend to including re-mounting the bumper bars once they return from re-chroming. Once these are attended to Harvey's got the task of doing the same for the '39 120 Coupe Roadster. One thing I noticed on the 120 is it has a fan with "fluted" blades. Harvey tells me these came in about that time but they tended to be noisier than the flat type.

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Tuesday 14th July 2009
Bastille Dayhttp://www.marseillaise.org/audio/marseillaise.wav and Harvey's birthday, Harvey.

But enough of the festivities and back to the workshop. Did the right rear axle and brakes today and after last weeks effort on the left side this only took about half the time. Almost everything literally fell into place, save for those parts requiring de-POR-15'ing!

Also cleared a space in the workshop for the 110 engine, for John's '39 TJ Richards bodied sedan, due to arrive today. Just as we'd finished the axle and brake re-assembly John duly arrived followed shortly thereafter by Clynton and his wife Margaret. John had met Clynton at the National Rally and it transpired that Clynton had a reconditioned 110 engine. Well this suited John just fine as he was going to rebuild his engine, or should I say have Wade rebuild it for him! Anyway they struck a deal, and with Cylnton now visiting relatives, threw the rebuilt engine on a trailer and brought it with them to Sydney on their way through to Armidale. As well they brought the four 15" wheels I bought off PackardInfo member JP also through contact at the National Rally. On their way north Clynton and Margaret had stopped over with PackardInfo member Peter Packard and his wife Ann in Canberra. There they picked up more parts, a trans and a sump for PackardInfo member tabletennisport, aka Noel.

Then came the unloading, the box trailer being unhitched from the Nissan Patrol tow car and wheeled into the workshop. The engine, very very securely tied down, was released from the straps, ropes and chains positioning and holding it in place. It being on a wheeled stand in the trailer was then wheeled to the rear of the trailer, after jack stands were placed under the frame of the trailer at the rear so it wouldn't tip up. Then John maneuvered the forklift, picked up the engine still secured to the stand and deposited it on the workshop floor. After wheeling the engine over to it's space, the straps holding it to the stand were released and the engine crane lifted it off the stand. It was then deposited on the floor, supported in an upright position by blocks of timber. After refreshments of tea or coffee, and some Packard talk, the trailer was re-hitched to the Nissan and Clynton and Margaret continued on their journey north.

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