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Monday 20th July 2009

Rang Harvey before going to the workshop. Why? Because now I have a point of reference with the two '39 Coupes he's working on for his boss. Harvey tells me that "Kermit", the very green 110 Business Coupe, only needs the bumpers back on when they return from re-chroming to finish it. And he's now working on the 120 Convertible Coupe. Anyway the reason I rang him was that I noticed when I was there last week that the '39 110 has "resting plates"(my term) on the rear of the front seat frame against which the bottom of the front seat back rested. My '41 120 doesn't have these although there are brackets where they should mount. I'll be teeing it up with Harvey to get over there to measure the resting plates up so I can have some fabricated because the seat back is too far to the rear without them.

Also rang about getting the "new" wheels for the '41 blasted and then powder-coated. Just want to dress the car up a bit because the off-white/cream colour of the body is somewhat bland and I'm not going to re-spray the complete car so it'll be only be the wheels which get the treatment. Currently it has black wheels and it'll go to red wheels, and I'm hoping to get close to the colour Wade has his '34's wheels. Besides the lovely Kath is quite adamant the Coupe needs it, so who am I to argue otherwise?

At the workshop Wade was showing me the old Kreisler bakelite radio he's restoring for my sister Chris's partner Dennis. Dennis's Dad went into a retirement home and my youngest son Greg and I were helping Chris and Dennis to clean out his house. Out the back, fortunately under cover, my son found the Kreisler radio in an old dog kennel of all places! Immediately I saw it I said "I'll have that" to be be instantly over-ruled by Dennis saying "Oh no you won't!". Well, that was that, but I did volunteer Wade's services, wearing his radio and electronics hat, to check the radio out. I'd given it to Wade some weeks back and now it's working, required a couple of condensors, at least that's what I think Wade said, and a new speaker. Wade had brought in the radio's case because it needs to be cleaned up. He'd used some cutting compound at home but ran out of it so I'll source some more and finish the job. Looks like Dennis and Chris will have a very nice looking radio which Wade tells me is rare and has value, a good find.

As Wade was telling me this John, he of the '39 110 six rebuilt engine, arrived to discuss with Wade what needs to be done before Wade starts on the engine changeover. Wade needs to go over to John's in the near future 1) to look over the car again, 2) and then procure any parts required so everything is on hand and doesn't have to be chased later and leaving the car sitting in the workshop for an extended period. Reason being, painting of the '34 body is close to being finished so once it returns to the workshop space will be at a premium. During Wade and John's discussion a package from Kanter's arrived, contained the seals previously out of stock but not the gaskets required. Although Wade had since locally sourced seals and the jobs done, so the Kanter's ones will go onto the shelf as spares.

That done, I started cleaning up the left front brakes only for Gina, Wade's wife, to arrive. Last Friday Wade had ordered some wire and stuff from Vintage Wiring Harness and it arrived at home this morning. Gina, dutiful Packard wife that she is, accordingly expedited it's arrival at the workshop by personally delivering it. While there, Wade showed Gina what he's currently working on including the disgraceful state of Big Red's wiring and which the new wire will be used for.

Back to the left front and then Jeff from PACA, '52 200 Deluxe Sedan, arrived. He was there to pick up the Penrite oil that Wade had ordered for him and which arrived last week.

Finished the left front, and while doing so Noel rang to say he was bringing over the running boards from his '41 160 Business Coupe. The theory being, I'd use his better running boards on my Coupe while he had my running boards re-rubbered and used them on his Coupe. Noel arrived just as I was repacking the right front wheel bearings so after a quick clean up we proceeded. Well, as we all know theory and practice, are best summarised by YFAM, Randy Berger as "In Theory there is no difference between practice and theory. In Practice, there is." So although Noel's board's are better than mine, it's only by a small degree. So, despite Noel's best intentions, I'll now need to have my running boards re-rubbered.
Noel, for the thought, although things didn't work out, it is very much appreciated. Noel also picked up the trans for his Coupe that Peter Toet and his mate had checked over and painted, and also a sump for his Coupe painted at the same time as the trans. They'd been delivered last week by Clynton and Margaret together with John's 110 engine. That done finished re-packing the wheel bearings, re-fitted the brake drums, adjusted the lock-nuts, fitted the split-pins, re-mounted the wheels and called it a day, actually only half a day because there were other matters to attend to.

EDIT - Almost forgot, during all of this received a phone call from PackardInfo member Bill B, who needs to have the capillary tube on the temp gauge of his '37 repaired so he can continue with his restoration. Bill is near Brisbane about 900 kms north and the local guy he's had it with for the past 3 months hadn't done anything with it. Took it back to take to another instrument repairer only to find the old guy who used to do that work there retired about 12 months ago. I'm passing onto Bill the details of Mobile Instrument Service and Ron there, presuming he hasn't retired yet, this is the guy who repaired my '41 temp gauge capillary. So next time I'm up in Queensland I plan to drop in to see Bill and his '37, if you read this Bill - you have been warned!

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Tuesday 21st July 2009

Arrived at the workshop to find Wade had just finished running new wiring in Big Red for the blinkers to be fitted as well as replacing some sections of "crappy" wiring. Turns out this last part came in handy a little later on.

Energies were then devoted to the '41 with a review of the list of things to be done identifying the horn, clock and the radio as matters which could be easily attended to. Mind you I use "easily" in reference to Wade, because when it comes to things electrical I'm at a complete loss. First up was the horn and I climbed under the dash to loosen the 3 screws at the back of the steering wheel hub that hold the horn ring. But it took a bit of effort to unscrew them. Why? Because I used a small flat screwdriver instead of a phillips head! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_F._Phillips
Then took off the horn ring but there was no wire attached to the horn contact? Wade sent me under the front of the car to retrieve the wire where it exits the centre of the steering box, but again no wire! Examination of the contact button showed the cable had broken and obviously fallen out after Wade disconnected the connector on the wire when the horn played up some months back. Wade suggested I retrace the '41's tracks for the last few months to find the wire but I resisted that suggestion. His next suggestion though, of using a length of the wire he replaced in Big Red, was much more acceptable. After cutting off the parts held together only by twisting the wires together there was a piece left of the right length! Had to drill out the stump of wire remaining in the horn contact because as well as being soldered it was crimped! Soldered the new/old wire to the contact, fed it down the steering column and rescrewed the horn ring back to the hub, using a phillips head screwdriver this time, much easier. Wade then crimped a new connector to the bottom end of the wire, connected it up, re-connected the battery and PAAAARRRRRRRP! The horn works!

Onto, the clock. PackardInfo bksmith's brother had fixed the clock a few months ago but until now it had sat on the bench still carefully bubble wrapped waiting for this moment. A straightforward install, for Wade that is, I just passed tools, held lights, acted as go-fer. Again reconnected the battery and
Tick, Tick, Tick. The clock also works!

Then the radio. This necessitated Wade getting upside down under the dash in order to remove it. Comparatively easy to remove, again for Wade that is. Had to remove the heater control bar from the bottom of the dash, held by two screws. Then disconnected the aerial and undid the 2 nuts which hold it in place and it slid out very easily. Wade will work on the radio at home, on the bench, as time permits. All that left us where? With a dash now with a gaping hole in the middle where the radio was, while the glovebox door now has a clock in it in place of the hole I've driving around with for the last 6 months.

What next? The windscreen wipers, no problems here with vacuum or the lack of it because '41's had electric wipers! The problem here was with the area the blades were sweeping and their effectiveness in doing so and when turned off they parked below the edge of the rubber. Easy to fix, shouldn't it? While easy, is was rather finicky trying to achieve a balance between parking the blades just above the rubber and sweeping to just the centre piece of the windscreen, but after numerous attempts Wade nailed both sides! Then it was adjusting the tension the arm has on the blade. It had been operating with just the bottom half of each blade having sufficient drag to clear their swept path of rain. A little judicious bending of each wiper arm resulted in what appears to be a better, more even tension being applied. Didn't think it was appropriate to be waving a hose around in the confines of the workshop to test their effectiveness so the real test is still to come - RAIN!

Electric related items done, what now? Well because Noel's generous running board swap offer didn't come to fruition, after yesterdays inspection of his boards, we next turned to the running boards. When I say we, again it was Wade who almost literally dived under the side of the Coupe to start unbolting the left side one. A quick squirt of penetrant and all 4 nuts holding the boards to the brackets came off easily. Then with a bit of maneuvering the board was in my hands. Same with the right side, came off easily. Both sides did lose a bit of the perished and brittle rubber getting them out but it's all going to be replaced anyway. Next one board at a time up on the bench, spraying all the clips with penetrant then the slow process of clip removal. While I concentrated on removing the little front and rear trim strips, Wade took off the side trims, the right one of which has lost it's stainless cover, the remnants of the rear mud flap at the rear of the boards and some minor "panel bashing" to correct previous injustices. I'll have the boards sandblasted to remove the old brittle and perished rubber then probably have them sprayed with ute-bed liner or similar.

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Wednesday 22nd July 2009

At the workshop, Wade continued working on Big Red's wiring while I turned to the right side running board removing the very perished, almost petrified running board rubber. Used a hammer and a screwdriver as a chisel, a slow slow process. Started by chiseling across the corrugations but after a while tried chiseling along the corrugations and found this better, not much, but better. At one stage Wade suggested using heat, so tried using John's heat gun, actually an old hair dryer, and did a test using the dryer but it takes a long time to warm the rubber sufficiently, must be the heat transfer to the metal coming into play, before you can scrape off a small section of rubber. Wade thought Rick had an industrial strength heat gun but couldn't find it. Later when I spoke to Rick he said he's got a gas powered torch which I declined because the smell of burning rubber, with me in the middle of the plume, didn't appeal at all. Was able to remove almost all the rubber from the board, chip by chip, with shrapnel flying in all directions. Then started using my trusty scraping knife to get the little lumps left behind. A slow process but I'm getting there.

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Tuesday 28th July 2009

After a morning with the granddaughters arrived at the workshop but tragedy struck! I forgot the camera, had taken some pic's of the granddaughters then forgot to bring it with me!

First was catching up with Wade who has decided to re-build the Big Red's engine while it's out of the car. He'd been told it was rebuilt some time before he bought it and been overbored but didn't know when. It had been burning some oil and the bores look good, no ridge or marks and has 0.060" oversize pistons. The valve guides and valves have been taken out. Once the engine crane returns to the workshop, currently out on loan, Wade will turn the engine over and take out the crank, rods and pistons although he's taken out No 8 already and it looks OK. Wade also has the cam followers back after Ivan's machining work and they are fitted with the new rollers. Also finished his wiring and re-wiring, where required, on Big Red except the blinkers aren't connected up yet because they still need to be installed.

Today's work consisted of removing the perished cowl beading from the '41 and, not knowing they weren't rivets but "nails", started on the left side by grinding their tops off and punching them through the cowl. About half way through this exercise discovered the error of our ways and it was much simpler to just pull the nails out. Then I discovered I didn't have the new beading plus I need to source some S/S screws to use in lieu of the extracted rusty nails. Know it's not "correct" but it's practical. And a question, the new beading is reasonably stiff, is there a method or technique to use so that it can be bent to shape? Also sanded back the strip of cowl covered by the beading, will POR-15 this before installing the new beading.

While I was sanding Wade was filling up the '34's diff with oil. When I finished sanding took the left side running board outside and proceeded to chisel off the perished rubber. Got the bulk of the rubber off but will need to scrape it tomorrow as well as finish scraping the right running board.

That's it, not very exciting, and sorry for the no pic's.

Wednesday 29th July 2009
Prior to going to the workshop rang John Cain the importer of the radial tyres for the Coupe and he advised that the second two are arriving in Oz in the next few days. Wade is travelling up to Newcastle to meet Barry, whose '38 V12 arrives on the same ship, and will pick up the tyres then as well as some other parts, and if it works out Barry will drive the V12 home to Tamworth. Looks like I'll have to get cracking on getting the new wheels ready for the new tyres. Also rang Harvey and arranged that Wade and I would go over later in the morning to see the '39's he's working on and specifically the front seat back plates with a view to replicating them for the '41.

Arriving at the workshop found it to be full of fumes because Wade had the '34 up and running again. Yesterday he's filled the diff and trans on it with oil and wanted to circulate it as best he could in a static environment. And when I say up and running the back end of the '34 was up on jack-stands and in gear so the diff and trans were working although not under load. Wade ran it for a fair while to get the engine and cooling system hot enough so that the shutters opened. And they did! Took a while because the engine is not enclosed and wasn't under load.

Next was getting our stuff together to visit 1) ABC Bearings, 2) Lee Brothers, 3) Harvey and the '39's and 4) Jaycar. At ABC, Wade was seeking to source some plugs for the new cam follower roller bearings. Didn't have anything but suggested machine screws. So at Lee Bros, while I secured S/S screws for the Coupe's new cowl beading, Wade obtained some hex headed machine screws and taps to suit.

Harvey and the '39's were next and it was nice to see "Kermit" sporting it's re-chromed bumpers. Looks finished now. Examined Kermit's front seat back retaining plates and took pic's of them. Yes I remembered the camera today! But I didn't take any pic's of the "bump stops", for want of a better term, on the '39 120 Convertible Coupe. Haven't looked at the '41's setup yet but will do so tomorrow. Harvey showed Wade what he's been up to and what he's going to do. This will probably entail taking out the 120's engine as it has, as they say in the vernacular, "issues". There is a lot, a real lot, of scale and rust as will be evidenced in the pic's taken and the water pump is seized. The car has sat for the last 15 years so this is no real surprise. And Harvey was saying something about a hole being welded up in one of the pistons by the previous owner. After refreshments of tea and coffee our travels continued.

At Jaycar it was quickly in and out, purchasing some cable ties. Then on the way back to the workshop talking about John and the rebuilt engine Wade is going to swap in for him it was decided if possible to go see John so Wade could look at a few things on the '39 before it hits the workshop. John was available, Wade looked at the '39, in particular the carburettor a Tillotson Y R2 and the radiator hoses. Talking to John previously it transpired that when he bought the '39 a whole heap of spares came with it including a '38 floor shift trans. This now gave me the opportunity to see the trans and from the outside it didn't look too impressive but taking the top off it LOOKS good inside. Together with a pair of brake dust sealing rings(my term - they cover the gap between the brake drum and backing plate to exclude dust, etc from entering the brake assembly) we left John's with Wade better equipped for the job when the time comes.

Back at the workshop I cleaned up the Coupes cowl and POR-15'd the strip under where the new cowl beading will be installed. And earlier this morning I'd found the cowl beading, where I'd left it of course, in my top desk drawer. Still haven't worked out how to flat bend the beading, because of it's too ridges, without kinking it. Even rang the supplier but his experience was limited to straight runs of tape type beading although he did suggest soaking in hot water, bending and then compressing under weight or using a heat gun to warm bend it. Not sure yet what we're going to do but as I have extra beading a little used and lost in experimentation will be well worth it.

Then I turned to the '41's running boards. Needed to finish removing the excess rubber still remaing and for this I rounded up an old wood chisel from home. With high expectations sharpened it up and it turned out to be next to useless. So back to the original plan and out with my trusty scraping knife and after a pleasant 2 hours the boards are now smooth and relatively free of petrified rubber. Any residue remaining will be taken care of when they are sand blasted next week.

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Hi Mal
That Wheelbarrow now just needs an engine and you can drive it!
Barrie

Thursday 30th July 2009

First up at the workshop Wade checked the bore of Big Red's engine because he's going to purchase new pistons rings. Wanted to be sure it was 0.060" oversize, which it was. Then checked the ring thickness, the top three compression rings all 1/8" while the oil ring is 5/32". Because Wade wanted to check this was correct I referred him to O_D's post of:
Quote:
Wade, happy that the ring sizes were confirmed, then asked John to see if he could source some locally. Expectations were high, following finding rings for Kevin's '35 locally last year, but it was not to be this time. So Max, looks like you'll get some more business from Wade in the near future.

After that turned to the cowl beading for the '41. Decided to try heating again with John's hair dryer, not that John needs a hair dryer, but this time to heat the outside of the beading and stretch that side so the inside doesn't buckle. A test heat and stretching, by manually pulling the outside bead, saw good results. So we, that is Wade, continued until enough of the beading was curved to approximate the bend required on the top of the left side cowl Installation was left to me and this was accomplished by using an awl to pierce a hole through the beading starting at the top of the cowl then a S/S self tapping screw was inserted but not done right up. Holding the beading in place the next hole was similarly made and a screw inserted. This continued, until reaching the last hole of the 9 required, the beading was trimmed to give an end to that piece. All accomplished, the screws were then tightened up and the bonnet(hood) was closed to apply pressure which should smooth out any minor variations in the beading. Same again for the right side and all was done.

Next turned to the underside of the '41. Now the running boards are off, I can access areas of the frame and underbody that I couldn't last year. So started scraping the surface rust, dirt and paint of the newly accessible areas in preparation to POR-15'ing them prior to re-installing the running boards shortly.

And earlier, before going to the workshop, I'd phoned Spectrum Rubberhttp://www.spectrumrubber.com.au/index.html who may have clips for the fore and aft trim pieces on the running boards because some broke during dis-assembly. Couldn't believe it when I found their site and under P for Packard was a listing of various parts available. But it was too good to be true, as I found out when the guy there told me their range was now quite limited. Nevertheless on Saturday, timing permitting, I'm going there to see if they have any clips and taking samples as suggested.

During the time I spent under the '41, just like old times with nose, eyes and ears filling up with dust, dirt and rust particles, Wade had turned his attention to Big Red. After the success with the cowl beading on the '41 Wade started on Big Red's. But because the beading is much bigger the hair dryer wouldn't generate enough heat to permit it to be stretched and shaped. Looks like a heat gun is required. Then he filled Big Red's diff up with oil, he'd filled the trans up yesterday, so the drive train is now lubricated. And finally he started on plugging the oil holes on the roller bearing shafts of the cam followers. Because of the hardness of the steel, a starter, an intermediate and a bottoming tap are all required to tap the threads required for the machine screws bought. And when I left, early due to another commitment, Wade was part way through doing the sixth of the sixteen required.

And on the way home, dropped into Bluey's Ute Worldhttp://www.blueys.com.au/# which is next door to the workshop. There I enquired if they did Ute bed lining spraying. Answer - No, but try Rhino Linings.http://www.rhinolinings.com.au/auto/default.asp
I've just now emailed Rhino a query about their product and await a reply.

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Mal,

Would it be possible to get a little more detail on the rocker arm repair & more Pictures? These are always in need of service, and I am very interested. It looks like Wade has a plan, and getting along with it.

Thanks,
Jim

Friday 31st July, 2009

First up at the workshop, in response to Jim's request, was to take some pic's of the rocker arms with the new rollers, together with the plug for the roller end of the pin and the machine screw for the other end of the pin. And yes Jim, Wade does have a plan and once it's done intends to go into detail about what he did and had done, so stayed tuned! For more pic's go to this Picasa album and scroll right to the bottom, but I think the best of them are displayed below. Note, Wade wanted to know if I had a pic of the new rollers before they were machined, I checked but don't have one. Reason he asked was because they had a thread and nut on the end now secured with a circlip and being threaded for machine screw plugs.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/WadesWorkshopJuly2009#

The rest of my time was spent underneath the left side of the Coupe scraping, scraping, scraping. More difficult than the right side because of the fuel line being in the way. Will have to finish the cleaning on Monday as I got kicked out of the workshop when the guys went to lunch, Sorry, that's a lie, they said they were ready to go to lunch but I could have stayed but rather then get more paint, dirt and rust in my eyes, ears, nose and mouth took the opportunity to depart at that time. But returned later in the afternoon to pick up a running board trim piece to take with me tomorrow to Spectrum Rubber who may have the clips I need.

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Thanks so much for the update and pictures, Mal. Wade has really come up with a great looking fix. I am very excited to hear more when he is finished. I can see this fix has much more load bearing surface, and the roller bearings should last a very long time.

Thanks,
Jim