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Yes, say hello to David and Margaret for us. It would have been good to see them again, but we had some clashes (one of which didn't happen......oh well)

Have a good trip all.

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John,

Will do, pity you couldn't make it but there's always next year. However there will be a little bit of "Appin" accompanying us on the trip, courtesy of Annet's creative fingers, because the running boards won't be recovered in time.

And Kev,

Picture and access problems solved by #1 son tonight. A box had been checked so I couldn't see pic's. Will have to ensure the little angel keeps her distance from the keyboard in future.

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Friday 11th September 2009

Arrived at the workshop to find Wade washing "Old Blue" in preparation for the weekend run to Port Macquarie. While he continued with that I readied the cleaned up '34 parts and my new accelerator pedal for my '41 for POR-15'ing. But yesterday Wade, after a horror trip home on Wednesday evening in the peak hour traffic, again pulled the manifolds off "Old Blue" and again replaced the manifold gaskets. Although it's been said before, this time it appears successful! The mating surfaces were checked with a straight edge and no irregularities were found and the gaskets this time appear to be thicker than the ones previously used, and so far so good. Noel also came in yesterday to have Wade install the rebuilt clock in his '39 120. Noel had also brought over a gear lever boot for my '41. Methinks it's the one he was going to use on his '41 but, seeing that's a fair way from completion, I'm able to utilise it and I'll procure him a replacement. Noel was also looking forward to seeing the Coupe's running boards after their coating with the polyurethane ute bed lining, wouldn't we all? But they're not going to be done till next week now, so hope he can wait till then. Now I'm off to emulate Wade and give the Coupe a clean before tomorrow's journey.

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Wednesday 16th September 2009

Called into the workshop to drop off DavidM's newly balanced Maxwell Flywheel and found that 4 new Coker WWW's had arrived for Big Red. There was also a power steering setup for Paul's '54 convertible and a tow bar for Barry's '51 convertible. Wade had picked these up when he collected my WWW's a little while back but they'd been boxed up. Wade had recently opened up the box thinking he might take the tow bar up to Port Macquarie, but it didn't happen. Took some pic's of all these for posterity. Reason I mention taking pic's is that yesterday I'd taken my digital camera into the Canon repair centre to be told it'd take 2 to 4 weeks to replace or repair. So I was quite surprised to receive a phone call less than 24 hours later saying the camera would be replaced under warranty and that I could pick up the replacement at any time. Even the guys on the service desk, when I picked up the replacement, were amazed that it happened so quickly! Just as well it was because I was almost in "camera withdrawal" - it's a standing joke that when I'm around the camera's a'flashing. I think I just plain wore it out, I took something like 3,500 pic's in a bit less than 4 months.

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Received an email from Barry Smith, edited copy below, following his return to Tamworth in the '51 convertible along with a couple of pic's, the captions of which are Barrys. Tamworth being about 250 miles north west from Sydney is not exactly Wade's workshop, but by extension, if Wade is upside down under a Packard that qualifies it for "Wade's Workshop"!

"......Problem now fixed, fuel tank pickup point was right on the tank floor, so even a small amount of debris blocked it off. We lifted the pickup tube about 1/2 an inch, problem solved. (Thank goodness, we had to stop some 20 time coming home from Port, and reverse blow back into tank to temporarily clear problem. I HATE the taste/smell of petrol, and I smelt like the inside a an empty 44 when we finally reached Tamworth)"
Barry

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Tuesday 22nd September 2009

Yesterday, Wade was back from his sojourn touring around northern New South Wales, including New England, in Old Blue. Tells me his major task yesterday was to clean Old Blue of the road dirt, insects and such picked up in over 2,000 km's of faultless '37 120 touring. He'd also bolted on the cowl mounting for the '34's bonnet, as he's trying to maintain doing at least one thing every day to the '34.

Noticed on DavidM's Maxwell flywheel, that it has clearly defined timing marks. Hadn't seen these before but because it was rotated around a bit from where I left it these now became apparent. Helps that the flywheel is at the front of the engine and is not enclosed so setting the timing shouldn't be too much of a problem

Turning to the '34 today, while Wade was trying to measure and mark on the inside of the firewall where the steering column bracket should be attached, I was involved in cleaning out part of the cowl side vent mechanism following it's chrome plating. There's a hollow cylindrical part into which a spring and a "piston", for want of a better term, inserts. Because of the re-chroming the "piston" now wouldn't fit. So armed with an array of round files I started but didn't make much progress. Then Wade suggested using a drill slightly smaller than the internal diameter of the hollow cylinder and honing it out. Daredevil Mal took up the challenge and bare-handed accomplished this task using the pedestal drill while holding the cylindrical piece, with a small phillips head screwdriver through the eye at the end, then rotating the piece while operating the drills handle up and down. Took a while to do the first one because I wasn't sure of the process, But the second, no time at all.

Meanwhile Wade hadn't been successful in his attempts to measure and mark where the holes for the steering column support for the change to RHD should be drilled. He then turned to temporarily installing the dash back in the '34, then bolting the bracket to the lower edge of the dash. Marked and drilled the holes, which were close to the marks he'd made earlier but different. Then switching to the left side a relay(or fuse block?), also required new holes to be drilled. Next was installing the new beading to each side of the '34's cowl. The beading, which has a wire spine through it's length, with the wire protruding about 2" from each end of the beading. The ends of the wire are bent to secure it at the top, through a hole, and at the bottom under the cowl. The only other affixing point is a "V" shaped indentation about 2/3's of the way up the side of the cowl, through which a hook headed bolt holds it in place. Of course the process of installing new beading doesn't come with instructions so we made them up as we went along. In order to secure the beading, while it was being formed to fit the shape of the "V", it was secured to the cowl using special Packard tools, see pic's, these I believe are readily available. The installation of the new beading turned out very well and certainly looks the part.

Turned next to the right front brake of Old Red which had a small leak of brake fluid under it. Wade tightened up the connection of the flexible brake line to the wheel cylinder then took off the brake drum. Examination of the wheel cylinder couldn't find any apparent leaks so there's now a watching brief on this with a plastic bucket strategically placed to cash any escaping fluid.

Lastly Wade pulled out the striker plates he has for the '34. Has a number of different types, the rubber ones which were on the US car he bought, and steel ones which came off the car he bought here and intended to restore. There's also a third type, bronze castings he had made here but which aren't entirely successful and are still in their rough form and probably won't be used.

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Last week the blasting cabinet had a new perspex top put on it by Graham and today I give it a workout. Had to re-clean the parts for the dash brake control knob. Wade had cleaned these up a fair while ago so they only needed a quick touch up.

Then loaded up Big Red's block, head and intake and exhaust valves for transportation to Graham(another one) for:
- honing the bores
- decking the block and head
- valve guides
- valve seats
Also took a '34 rear window channel because we were also going to Spectrum Rubber to source replacements as well as some new rubber for the door latch rubbing blocks(I think that's what they are). Spectrum first, and of course, they had every type of channel except the one required. Only good thing out of that is that there's new stock expected by the end of the work, the bad thing is another long drive to the outer western suburbs of Sydney. Did manage to obtain some strips of rubber though, so the trip wasn't entirely wasted. Next the block, head and valves were unloaded at Grahams who advised they should be ready by the end of next week. But.....also saw '39 120 parts there from Harvey and they hadn't been touched so Graham thought he'd better get going on those too.

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Mal, we here in the States have been reading about and watching news of the horrendous sand/dust storm that hit Sydney and surrounding areas. It looks like a serious and terrible weather event. I hope you, Wade, and everyone else were not too badly affected by the storm. Watching it reminds me of photos of dust storms here in the US's "Dust Bowl" during the 1930s. I also remember as a young lad in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we had bad dust storms. The dust and sand storms were the result of a house building boom in the late 1940s and early 1950s to satisfy a housing shortage after WW-II. The delicate top soil was scrapped away for roads and building sites, and with just a little wind was picked up and sent flying through the air. It was so thick at times that it blocked out the sun. It's all better now, but was a real problem at the time. I remember that my father always ordered Packards equipped with oil bath air cleaners because of the severe dusty conditions.

John,

It's being viewed as a once in a lifetime event, we've had dust storms before but nowhere near this magnitude. The dust cloud stretched for over 2,000 kms across the states of New South Wales and Queensland. It originated in the desert country of South Australia with plenty of additional dirt picked up from the many farms and properties sufferring the effects of drought in the outback. The particle level was astronomical but the whole thing was over in less than a day. In fact yesterday particle level was back to normal on a beautiful blue sky spring day. There was a strange buzz in the air, which went all day, as millions of homes vacuumed away the deposited evidence from the day before. Carwash businesses were doing a roaring trade and tomorrow, Saturday, I'm sure there'll be a big dip in dam levels as cars across the east coast are washed. And it's probably the first time many of the suburban SUV's have had mud on them as in some areas there was rain before the dust hit. Thanks for your concern but, like all affected, I can say "I survived".

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Monday 28th September 2009

Promises, promises....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Gg1WfQWa4&feature=fvw....that's what it seemed Peter of Rhino Linings at Thornleigh kept telling me regarding the spraying of the running boards for the Coupe. I decided I'd better research this before completely disparaging his good name and through diary and blog entries came up with this timeline of the running board saga:
Tuesday 21st July - Running boards removed from Coupe
Thursday 23rd July - Rubber cleaned off running boards
Thursday 6th August - Quote from Peter of Rhino Linings to coat running boards. Running boards garnet blasted
Tuesday 18th August - Dings and imperfections knocked out, POR-15'd the undersides & Rang Peter at Rhino Linings who advised can't do them for a week or two.
Thursday 20th August - Boards wrapped in protective plastic
Friday 28th August - Rang Peter who advised he is setting up coating equipment today and if I can get the boards to him they should be ready early next week
Tuesday 1st September - Not ready yet
Saturday 5th September - Not ready yet
Wednesday 10th September - Not ready yet
Tuesday 22nd September - Should be ready tomorrow afternoon
Friday 25th September - Rang Peter twice & left messages to call me
Saturday 26th September - Rang Peter, could be ready in the afternoon
Monday 28th September - Rang Peter, should be ready in the afternoon. Rang Peter in the afternoon - READY!
So most of the delay was in my tiny mind, although Peter said at the start that the boards would be ready next week it really only stretched to one month! Just seemed to be much longer, but I now realise its because the whole running board saga stretched over an almost 10 week period whereas Peter's direct involvement was for just for the last month of it.

That said - How did they turn out? Well good and bad is the answer. Although never having done a coating of this type for running boards Peter was confident he could do a good job. And from Peter's perspective IT IS a good job, while from mine expectations were not met. It's a learning process on both sides with a lot more being learned from my side than Peter's. Expectations? I thought it would turn out to be a smooth even finish. From Peter's side it is, but because the boards have corrugations running their length some of the coating tends to slightly "pool" in the corrugation valleys and leave a ripple or slightly lumpy effect. This is compounded by the finish being very shiny/glossy. Because of the way the finish is applied, the equipment uses a mechanical pump to separately force resin(also contains the colour desired) and iso cyanide isocyanate in a mixing nozzle under about 15,000PSI then it is atomised by compressed air and applied from the spraying nozzle. The sprayed mix sets, or to use a technical term "goes off" in 20 seconds or less. Because of the limited time available it is difficult to evenly coat uneven surfaces. I had hoped to get some pic's of the equipment but it had been packed up before I arrived. There are also myriad holes in the boards, some of which are used for the 120 trim pieces, but others are not, being for 160/180 trim pieces which run the length of the boards. Peter had ensured that all the holes remained while I would have been happy to see them all covered over. Observation, communication and understanding are all great qualities, I just wish I had some of each and were able to apply them in the running board saga. But we do learn by our mistakes don't we? I hope I do, although this particular set of circumstances will never present itself again. Did discuss my disappointments with Peter and no, he can't do anything about the holes so I'm stuck with them, so they are now obviously drain holes for wet driving conditions. The other matter of the shiny/gloss finish and the ripple effect in the corrugations might be mitigated though. Peter suggested coating the boards with modern plastic bumper primer which has a semi-gloss or matte finish, before they completely cure, so I'll give this a go.

Would I recommend doing this procedure for your running boards? The short answer is - No. In my case, its been a learning and instructive experience, and because the alternative cost 10 times as much I couldn't afford it anyway, so I'm happy with what I've got.

EDIT - Received an Email from DavidM and he should be at the workshop Thursday to pick up the Maxwell flywheel.

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