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Monday 2nd November 2009

Didn't expect there would be much for me to do today at the workshop, but wasn't I wrong! When the '39 came in John had asked Wade whether the panel at the bottom of the radiator shell could be cleaned up and painted because of surface rust. That was where I started, and as well Wade suggested that the inner fender panels and the firewall could use a clean and a coat of paint too. Cleaned and scraped the radiator shell bottom panel and the bottom of the radiator cradle which needed attention as well. Then Marine Cleaned the panel, the cradle, the inner fender panels and the firewall. While Marine Cleaning the firewall noticed that some parts of the black paint were coming away with it's application. Allowed the Marine Clean to do it's work then spray rinsed it off. Went well except for the firewall as more and more black came off! Looks like the firewall wasn't cleaned properly when the black was applied or the paint used wasn't right. So now I'm partway through removing all the current black from the firewall so I can prepare it properly for a fresh coat of paint.

Wade was in the process of cleaning the crankcase and sump(oil pan) for Big Red in anticipation of the return of the engine parts from machining soon. Using spray can degreaser followed by high pressure water washing Wade removed most of the grime but still wasn't satisfied so the sump went into the parts washer but the crankcase wouldn't fit. So the crankcase was taken round to Brooker Brakes, Wade's brake guy, who have a washer just big enough for the crankcase. When it came back, still hot from it's ablutions, it certainly looked a whole lot cleaner. After that, what Wade thought would be a quick job, in removing the front seat back from Big Red so the missing upholstery buttons could be replaced turned into a major task. Reason being, because the front seat slides forward and back, there's a flap of upholstery between the top of the back of the seat and the panel behind the seat. That doesn't sound too bad in itself but when there's hundreds(?) of staples holding this flap and they all need to be very carefully removed it escalates the task in hand considerably. When the seat back was finally removed Wade then found that the back panel prevents direct access to re-sew the buttons and gave him a new problem to ponder. Did I mention the front seats slides back and forth? Well I stretched the truth a bit because, although it's supposed to, it didn't! Looks like the toothed track is bound up so it's been removed and I left Wade disassembling it for cleaning and I presume lubrication.

Wade also rang Tony "Shocks" to learn the shocks for the '39 were ready so I'll have to finish the firewall tomorrow. And PeterL called in so time was spent there. And before I went to the workshop I rang Harvey, Noel(tabletennisport) and Jeff and they and their '37 Super 8 Club Sedan, '39 120 Touring Sedan and '52 200 Deluxe Sedan respectively, as well as DavidM in his '29 Roadster should all be at the workshop on Thursday to meet Philip(packardsafrica) in addition to those previously mentioned, see below.
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Tuesday 3rd November 2009

Wade wasn't getting to the workshop until late in the morning so I picked up where I'd left off yesterday cleaning the firewall. Slow and tedious with the paint coming off and continued till I could go no further. Metal Readied the bottom panel in the radiator shell and the inside bottom of the radiator cradle. During the course of painting these pieces and the insides of the inner fenders Wade arrived with the rebuilt shocks for the '110, and re-installed them, reconnected the upper outer bushes and dis-connected the temporary spring tensioning tool.

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Wednesday 4th November 2009

After a morning with the granddaughters it was down to the workshop to finish cleaning then paint the '39's firewall. Wade had been working on the front seat runners for Big Red and finished the second while I was there. He's going to get Ivan to look at and probably weld up the three broken cogs on the cross shaft mechanism, then expects to file the built up teeth back to shape, ya gotta do what ya gotta do! And as I was painting the firewall Wade, with John's assistance, hitched the 110 engine to the engine crane and lifted it off the bench which has been it's home since 15th October. The engine will be re-installed tomorrow, that is if packardsafrica's (Philip Cronje) visit will allow us to. There's going to be a lot of talk and no work while he and the PACA guys are there. And speaking of engines, no sooner was the 110 engine off the bench then the freshly cleaned crankcase from Big Red took up residence there in anticipation of it's rebuild.

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Thursday 5th November 2009

Guy Fawkes dayen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes but no fireworks at the workshop. Instead there were people, Packard people to be exact. This followed from PackardInfo member packardsafrica's message last weekend of Quote:
Joining us at the workshop today after a ring-around saw 6 Sydney PACA members, some with spouses, arriving including 3 Packards in addition to Wade's, JohnM's and my Packards being in attendance. Philip, his wife Ansie and daughter Mariska followed-in PackardInfo member Appin(JohnF) in his '40 110 Sedan to be joined by Harvey and Carol in their '37 Super 8 Club Sedan and then PackardInfo member tabletennisport(Noel) not in his '39 120 Sedan but in his Rolls Royce(a story in itself) and Jeff in his '52 200 Deluxe Sedan. Later we were joined by Packardinfo member DavidM and Veronique sans Packard! I fully expected them to arrive in their show-stopping '29 633 Roadster but it was not to be. Although I did get a promise that if there's a next time he will come in a Packard, or if the Maxwell's up and running in that! David, I'm holding you to that, in light of the great disappointment I suffered today by your Roadster not being there! And last but not least Wade's good wife Gina made a surprise last minute appearance after the group pic was taken, she certainly knows how to time an entrance. A word of thanks to the guys at the workshop Rick, JohnE and Murray, they'd cleared the parking area in front of the workshop just for Packard packing.
guys.

Even before introductions were made Philip was taking pic's of everything Packard. A brief round of intro's and Philip was off again taking pic's, talking to the guys and I think, just generally enjoying himself with things Packard. And this was outside in the carpark! We also turned the cars round, my '41 120 Club Coupe, John's '40 110 Sedan, Harvey's '37 Super 8 Club Sedan and Jeff's '52 200 Deluxe Sedan, as all had been driven in and parked front first. So after a bit of shuffling they all pointed out and Philip took more pic's, including interiors and engines. Also looked after the ladies with coffee and a seat while the gents talked "Packard". Then it was into the workshop with Wade's '37 120 Sedan at the entrance ready to roll and 3 Packards in various stages of dis-assembly/re-assembly. Being JohnM's '39 110 TJ Richards bodied Sedan and Wade's '37 Super 8 and '34 Club Sedan's. So all up a fair range of Packard engineering was on hand to greet Philip and his family. And a word about Philip, he has 43 Packards but he says most are "wrecks" with his "favourite" '37 115c Sedan can be seen herepackardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/registry/View.php?ID=377 entered in the Registry by Barrie(africapackard) on Philip's behalf as well as 10 other Packards of Philips. And by the time Philip had finished his first walk-around of the workshop he'd taken more than 400 pic's!

At this point lunch in the form of BBQ'd sausages and two types of rissoles, beef and bacon, and chicken and leek was started by Harvey. And did Harvey come prepared? Sure did. Apron(which he didn't use, much to Carol's dismay), BBQ tongs and a real sharp knife. Harvey was a butcher in a former life in fact, now I come to think of it, the apron certainly looked to be a butchers apron from what I saw of it. While I was slicing and buttering bread rolls Harvey had sausages, rissoles and onions a-cooking, and that's with the left hand, while the right was slicing tomatoes! Very handy, is Harvey. Must have been a success, I hope so for the tears I shed earlier in the day slicing the onions, because just about all went with only scraps left for Misty, the workshop dog, to enjoy. Lunch over, more Packard talk and more pic's, mainly by Philip, and a very enjoyable Packard experience drew to close. People were making their farewells, but not before a group photo session, and making their ways home. Don't know how many pic's Philip ended up taking but it would be well north of 500. And people here say I take lots of pic's, I'm just an amateur next to Phil! And Philip, Ansie and Mariska I'd like to thank you very much on behalf of everyone present today, for gracing us with your presence, it's fantastic to meet such lovely people as yourselves.

Did I mention Noel's arrival in his Rolls was a story in itself? I did, didn't I, and it goes like this. PACA's run to Port Macquarie mid-September resulted in his '39 being trailered home because of trans/OD problems. It was rebuilt by PackardInfo member Peter Packard(Peter Toet) and Noel picked it up and drove it home earlier this week but not without some problems but unrelated to the trans/OD fix. Finally getting it home yesterday Noel fired it up in the afternoon only to have smoke pouring out from under the Bonnet(Hood in US). Fortunately PeterT had fitted a fire extinguisher to the '39 only about 1/2 hour before Noel left on his journey home so it certainly came in very, very handy. Thanks Peter, looks like you saved another Packard. So Noel, with some doubt now in mind, settled for a lesser mode of transportation today in the form of the Rolls. Noel will bring the '39 over to the workshop, probably early next week, for Wade to have a look at what caused this problem. And speaking of Noel, he told me "The Flackmaster" had a request of me. Noel also told me there should be a trade-off in my satisfying David's request. Well, I'll leave it up to David for any trade-off but he'll see his request satisfied in the pic's below.

With everyone heading home turned to John's '39. And here I'll mention that even before anyone arrived today Wade went around to Ivan and had the worn accelerator linkage shaft built up so it could be re-installed prior to the engine going back in, can't get it in otherwise! Because I won't be in tomorrow the engine was going back in the '39 this afternoon and Wade will connect linkages, add accessories and such forth tomorrow. Still to come is the radiator from JJ Smith's but Wade will follow that up. Wade's also following up the parts and machining being done on Big Red's engine, Reason being he's got a wedding to do in Big Red the first week of December and time's starting to run out.

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Saturday 7th November 2009

Dropped into the workshop early this morning after clearing the clubs Mail Box which is nearby. Needed to pick up some nuts and, at the same time, saw some of what Wade did yesterday. All the left side accessories are now installed on the 110 engine, starter, distributor, generator and oil filter. No doubt all the clutch, brake, column shift linkages are also hooked up but I didn't think to check. And John, looks like the distributor position was temporary. When Wade first put it in he was concerned about clearance for the vacuum advance and the grease cup, must have worked it out yesterday.
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Also saw he has Big Red's front seat adjusting cross shaft back from Ivan. Looks like there's going to be a lot of patient filing being done soon.

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Monday 9th November 2009

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After a morning with the granddaughters, learnt the assumption I made on Saturday contained a lot of doubt! Wade had done most of that work this morning and was tackling the road draft tube at the back of the block. Like a number of things with this engine it didn't quite fit, because all the accessories were taken off John's original engine and put on the re-built engine, which only had a water pump with it, little things like that came up from time-to-time to make what should have been straight forward transfers just that more difficult. From there the head was put back on but not without first taking all the studs out, some were loose, coating with sealing "goo" and re-tightening all of them. Cleaned up the head of it's protective coating, oil in all cylinders to ensure compression is gained on first start-up, a new head gasket, and torquing down the nuts to spec. Will be re-torqued tomorrow and again after the engine's run and warmed up. Speaking of which, the radiator for the '39 is ready for pick up, so start-up isn't far away. Wade adjusted the gear change linkage from the instructions in my '41 manual, now that the various re-built surfaces have taken up all the previous slop. But the proof of that will be in the changing of the gears, down the road literally. Also installed the carb, the linkage from the accelerator linkage to the carb and manual choke linkage. Wired up the fuel pump bolts, re-connected the lines from fuel pump to carb and fuel pump to fuel line and the vacuum line from carb to distributor.

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i like the pictures of the cars from the top. cool to see the difference. ;0)

Like Henry, I enjoy all the Packard pictures showing details of your text. The photos, of the cars and people you mention make an interesting read - GOOD JOB!

Tuesday 10th November 2009

First up this morning was to fill up the '39 with oil, did so, then removed the sparkplugs, hooked up the new Optima battery and cranked it over for for a while to get oil circulating. Gapped a new set of plugs and installed them, then Wade made up the new plug and coil leads from the kit received, with some minor trimming to length required. Although without a radiator yet, it will be picked up tomorrow by Wade, it was decided to try and fire it up, which it did after very few turns. Seemed to be running OK but wasn't allowed to run for long at all. This being because of the lack of cooling but, more importantly, because of the apparent lack of oil pressure! The oil gauge did work when the car was driven into the workshop even though the engine internals were very rattly, so no reason to suspect a gauge malfunction(that one's for you Eric). Took the inlet off the line to the oil filter and it was as dry as a bone, so it seems little or no oil is circulating at present.

But before we could go further Noel arrived with his '39 120 Sedan.Quote: An inspection of the wiring showed the power/hot/live wire from the atarter solenoid to the OD Relay on the other side of the firewall, this is a RHD Packard, had shorted out, But why? Because the power/hot/live terminal on the OD Relay was grounding out on the firewall! Noel had taped wires up to get the car over to Wade's workshop but it was obvious this wire was cactus. Question was, are any other wires similarly damaged. Answer, it doesn't appear so. So Noel and the '39 are very very lucky, could have been a whole lot worse. Noel left us to it, using "we" very liberally because "we" really means Wade. While I dropped Noel at the railway station Wade had already found a piece of steel and was cutting it to size to use as a spacer so the OD Relay would clear the firewall without any problems. Remounted the newlay spaced relay, found a length of good capacity cable, hope Noel like white, to use to replace the useless section in the wiring harness and cut it to length, added connectors, installed it and cable tied it in place. A former Concours winning Packard just got brought back to the pack.

And on arriving Noel raised some concerns about the brakes, saying "They aren't working too well". And after a drive around the block, before starting on the wiring fix, Wade agreed they wren't too good at all. Wiring done, Wade then inspected each backing plate and the master cylinder for any obvious leaks but couldn't find any. So top off the master cylinder and......like Mother Hubbard's cupboard......it was bare, well there was some fluid there but only just. Wade wants to get the '39 120 up and the wheels off so he can do a better visual inspection but before that can be done there needs to a re-shuffle of cars in the workshop before the '39 becomes immobilised. Also went round to the local auto parts shop, Repco, for a battery isolator switch for the '110, they didn't have one, and an in-line fuel filter for it, they did have that.

Noel also brought over "the remains" of his R6 Overdrive which he'd demolished on our Port Mascquarie run. And Noel has some words of warning. Don't keep driving as he did, follow the instructions in the manual should Overdrive problems occur. See pic's for results of keeping on driving.

At that point I had to depart the workshop because my eldest son and his wife are having their new kitchen glass splashback installation finished today so good old dad has come to the party and agreed to open up their house at the appointed time. Mind you as I type, that was 2 hours ago, and I'm still waiting. Now believe the installers will be here in another hours time!

Tomorrow? Tomorrow I won't be at the workshop so Wade's going to do a pick-up/delivery run in the morning. This includes dropping off a power steeering set-up for the guy in our clubs '54 convertible. Picking up the '110 radiator from Dave at JJ Smith's. And picking up the block, head and pistons from Graham Wilkins. There's also bound to be some smaller items too, literally the nuts and bolts. And where will I be? With Noel, when heads north to the Central Coast and Newcastle. Why? Because there's been a schemozzle with a shipment of parts that came in from the US recently! It involves the 2 x T/Ultras that Eric sold to one of our guys here with a '56 400, some stuff of mine that Eric included in the crate and some parts for Peter Toet(Peter Packard). Appears a guy on the Central Coast had imported a '28 Packard and also a spare engine for it in a crate. Seems the crate with the T/Ultras was confused with the crate with the engine and it was only after the guy opened the crate, didn't find the engine he was expecting, but found some stuff with my name of it that the stuff-up was detected. It's also complicated by the fact that the guy has paid customs charges for an engine he hasn't got! That could be a major stumbling block in getting it sorted out. Seeing that Noel was going up to chase the part's for Peter Toet I thought I'd tag along to help sort things out because of my involvement in the process. Hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow and parts can be pointed and delivered to their rightful owners. Stay tuned.....don't miss tomorrow's thrill packed episode!

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Wednesday 11th November 2009

Well after today I'm now a table tennis table delivery man and installer. Besides the Packard parts to be picked up at North Belmont, Noel was delivering three table tennis tables and erecting/installing one of them. Because I was "navigator" we only got lost twice, one of which wasn't my fault. That was because one street wasn't signposted and without a GPS it's very hard to imagine what a street's name might be. So I blame that one on the local authority responsible for signposting that area. The other one? Well I'll cop the blame for that fair and square. But......the last delivery was to a street also without a sign and in addition to which the street before that also wasn't signposted! We found that one anyway, so my map reading skills weren't entirely deficient.

But wait......there's more. After the first two table tennis tables were delivered we dropped some parts at Hamilton Chrome to be re-plated.classiccargurus.com.au/Hamilton_Chrome Boot(trunk) handle for Appin's '40 110 Sedan, '37 door handles for the "Flackmaster" and a headlight rim and grill slats for Noel's '41 160 Coupe. Then it was off to Belmont where we had lunch with Garry, who Noel had coached to Australian Championships in table tennis. From there we made our way to John Cain's at North Belmont where Noel picked up Packard parts for himself, Appin and Peter Packard. I also got the story of the mis-directed Twin Ultra trans' that Eric had shipped to PACA member Wayne through Performance Exports in Orange California. John Cain's son Lincon runs the Orange CA. end of the business and according to him the crate from Eric was not marked with Wayne's name or details. Because a '28 Packard arrived about the same time and a spare engine in a crate of a similar size was expected with it that's where the confusion set in. It wasn't until the guy received his '28 Packard and on opening the crate that the mistake was discovered. By then it had been cleared through customs and quarantine and duties and charges paid as if that crate contained an engine. Could get complicated if the crate containing the engine is opened for inspection because it has now arrived in Australia but is probably identified on the manifest as containing two twin ultra trans! Should know more about that in the next week or so. I've also emailed Wayne, couldn't find his phone number, telling him what transpired today and suggesting he contact the guy with the '28 and the Twin Ultras but no engine!

After all that still had one table tennis table delivery to be made but complete with erection/installation this time. Jobs done, time to head home after a long day on the road. But I'll see Noel again tomorrow as he's dropping into the workshop to pick up some keys he left in his '39 and to see how it's progressing.

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