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Hi Mal! Like always I enjoy your write up. The technical pictorial records you provide is also of immeasureable value. Someday someone is going to need to see how a ring gear is shrinked onto the flywheel.
How is the terrible fires in Sydney? Hope you guys are well. We are also heading for a dry El Nino season here in SA.

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Barrie,

Fires are not a problem for Sydney....yet! Current problem fires are in north Queensland, probably 1,500/2,000 miles away. We're well, with frustrations for Wade the main drama as different things crop up. Talking of El Nino, it was 35C in Sydney yesterday and it's still a month and a half away from the "official" start of summer!

Thursday 22nd October 2009

Late start at the workshop this morning, because Wade was dropping Gina at the airport first, or so I thought. Wade was also taking the opportunity to drop off the front shocks from the 110 to Tony "Shocks", who lives out that way, so he can rebuild them. Only trouble was, there was little to no traffic on the way to the airport so, arrived early to be greeted by Tony in his pyjamas! Wade also picked up the windscreen and other glass for the '34 on his way back having had a call from Ralph yesterday to say they were all ready. They would have been ready sooner but the quarter window glass had been cut incorrectly first time round.

Because I didn't think Wade would be in until mid-morning that's when I arrived. Wade was already in residence and after taking down all the wired up parts painted yesterday we started on putting some of the pieces back on the 110's engine. Including intake/exhaust manifolds, fuel pump, generator mounting and tensioning brackets(loosely for now), distributor bracket(also loosely) and rebuilt water pump. Wade also put the freshly painted plate and linkage lever on the new shutter stat for the 110. Then realised he could also have dropped off the 110's radiator this morning at JJ Smith's which is also out the airport way!

Before we started on all that John, the 110's owner, called in to see what progress was being made, get filled in on what was happening and what unforeseen things now needed attention or rebuilding. Later on Harvey also called in to pick up something from Wade and I was able to pass on to Harvey some Willys info I'd printed out from the internet that he rang me about last night. If anyone out there has a good '41 Willys trans, or NOS, or NORS parts for one please let me know because Harvey is after one/some. Harvey is also after an accelerator pedal for the '39 120 he's working on for his boss because the ball mountings on it's reverse are all broken. Another Packard visitor was Kevin, former owner of the '35 Wade was working on, looking for John(the mechanic at the workshop) about the progress, or lack of it, being made on his V12 Daimler.

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Friday 23rd October 2009

Most of the day was spent entertaining the granddaughters, what a pleasureable way to while away the time. But I did have time to drop the running boards back to Peter, who's going to respray them after filling the holes as per Keegans advice below, also gave Peter an edited version of Keegans advice. Pic is of the boards with masking tape covering the holes not required to be filled with the masking tape only indicative to Peter where not to spray. Should get them back next week.

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Monday 26th October 2009

After donating blood plasma this morning arrived at the workshop where Wade was almost ready for a delivery/pickup run. He could have done this without me but phoned last night, to find out what time I'd be there, so he could take me along for the ride. Wade had loaded up the tray of the ute with John's 110 radiator, Big Red's flywheel, pressure plate, harmonic balancer, con-rods and gudgeon(piston) pins, new big-end bearings and new pistons. What hadn't been loaded was the crankshaft, which took both of us to lift in.

Then we were off, first stop JJ Smiths for the 110 radiator to be checked, repaired, tested, etc. Dave in examining it said the cap on it wasn't right, although it is a pressurised system, it was a long neck type, too long for the filler it caps! Next was LW Parry Engineeringlwparry.com.au/ for Big Red's new gudgeon pins to be pitted to the con-rods and the new big-end bearings to be bored to fit the crankshaft, and the crank, flywheel, pressure plate, rods and gudgeon pins will also be balanced. Then on to Lee Brothers for various nuts, bolts, washers for the projects in hand. That was followed by Graham Wilkins' where we dropped off the new pistons, Graham already has the block and head. Then on to ABC Bearings where Wade picked up a pair of wheels which had been on order for the engine crane. Also took the opportunity to photograph a roller cam follower of the type Wade is using in Big Red in lieu of unobtainable originals. Didn't have a "before" picture for the article that Wade's going to pen about what was done to adapt them to a Super 8 engine(Jim and others, Wade hasn't forgotten!). But I think we're back to square one on the pic, because all the pics I took are blurry! Sorry Wade. Last stop was Pirtek, a hydraulics business, where Wade was seeking to replace the oil cooler in Big Red because it's leaking with some other solution. Not to be though, the guy he needed to see wasn't there so that'll be for another day.

However, before picking up the running back at the workshop, a little background to some of todays stops. Wade had been waiting for some time for the parts he ordered from Max's to arrive. They did so on Friday, finally. They would, could, should have been here earlier. But because the value of the parts exceeded the "magic" cutoff mark, Australian Customs held them in their unmistakable bureaucratic grip and Wade was put through the hoops in order to gain their release not to mention enriching the governments coffers in the process. Parts received were a set of pistons and pins for Big Red. And there's a story just about the pistons themselves. When Wade rang JD at Max's he was told they were out of stock for 0.060" over pistons and it could be some months before more were available. However, there was a special ordered set which the customer now didn't want but they were 0.063" over. No problems though, the bores are going to be honed anyway, they'll just be honed sufficiently to take the extra oversize involved. The other interesting matter concerns the big-end bearings. These are now available, after being in short or non supply for some time, but they are all the one size! Because of this they then have to be bored to suit the size big-end journals on the crank being used whether they are std, 0.010". 0.020", etc, etc.

At the workshop while I scraped the '39's front crossmember and frame rails of years of accumulated grease and dirt Wade was working on the '39's distributor. On Friday he'd discovered the vacuum advance wasn't connected inside the distributor, it was missing it's actuating arm. New arm fabricated Wade also found because the advance wasn't connected the plate was "floating" around. And today Wade replaced the distributors bushes. Had quite a struggle removing the pins holding the shaft in place but once this was overcome, with the new bushes inserted, the distributor now turns and functions as it should.

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The other interesting matter concerns the big-end bearings. These are now available, after being in short or non supply for some time, but they are all the one size!

Over here we used to call such bearings "semis" meaning they were semi-finished and still required finishing to needed ID.

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Thanks Dave, sometimes I'm lacking the correct terminology, learned something today.

Tuesday 27th October 2009

Morning with the granddaughters over, it was off to the workshop. Found Wade cursing and carrying on over the oil pump off Big Red. Left Wade to that while I turned to painting the generator and distributor off the 110 which he'd cleaned earlier today. To those I added the starter motor and some other bits and pieces I cleaned then painted the lot. Not a very exciting day.

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Wednesday 28th October 2009

While Wade's way Mal will play? No, I was under instructions to paint the trans on John's 110 and the front crossmember and tops of the chassis rails on the 110 which I'd scraped and cleaned. Both were painted black as are all the acccessories on John's engine. Although the engines green, it's not Packard green, so anything needing paint will be done in black because it's not worth the time and effort to try and match the green. I was also supposed to clean and paint the oil filter and some other pieces, but didn't have time today, so I'll catch up with them tomorrow.

NOTE - Will add a couple of pic's later.
Further Note - Pic's now added.

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Mal, Krylon's Hasta Leaf is a color close to Packard engine green. I is a bit lighter, but only noticeable if some is original color and other parts sprayed with the Krylon. It may not be available in Oz.