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Thursday 26th November 2009

Wade was just starting to adjust the brakes on Noel's '39 when I arrived at the workshop. Leaving Wade to that I set off on a mission to pick up some Dot5 Silicone brake fluid with which to fill the brake system. But when I returned, although Wade had finished adjusting all four wheels, there was another problem. After doing the front brakes, Wade had turned to the rears but couldn't turn the brake drum freely because the '39 was in gear. All Wade did Noel, and he'll swear this is true, is move the gear lever out of second! What happened? Well, the linkage broke, see pic. It had obviously been broken before because it had another piece of rod welded on one side to repair the old break! At this point Wade went round to see Col, the brake guy, about the bill for Noel's brakes and to get one of the guys there to weld up the broken shift linkage rod. While Wade was away I cleaned up Noel's spark plugs in the blasting cabinet. And when Wade returned it was without either the bill or the linkage rod. Col hasn't done the bill and the guy who does the welding was out of the shop.

Sparkplugs were re-gapped and re-installed and then Wade thought he'd better check the points too. Bad move! Opening the distributor cap revealed something you may not know. What? That there's a gold mine in there. What????? It's not? It was actually brass filings from something amiss in there? How disappointing! And I thought, instead of just throwing money at a Packard, there was finally going to be a return in the form of precious metal! Excitement over, returned to earth, and the distributor was removed to permit examination and corrective action to be taken. With the '39 up on jackstands it's not easy to do this as the reach required becomes very awkward. But Wade by his nature persisted and out it came. Disassembled on the bench and in the vice and nothing obvious as to where the "fool's gold" originated from. While the distributor was out the vacuum advance was removed, the plate removed and all parts cleaned. The centrifugal advance mechanism was found to be stuck, but following adjustment to ease the spring tension on one side and with some necessary lubrication is working well now. The other major problem was the points, it was a wonder it ran at all, being deeply pitted and the rubbing block severely worn. Wade came up with an old set of points from Old Blue which fitted and could be adjusted. Back together and, once fuel was back up to the carb, fired right. Next was replacing the fan belt. Wade had commented when the '39 came in a couple of weeks ago that it wasn't right being both too deep and too wide for the pulleys. Whereupon Noel said he had a spare and dropped it in yesterday when he came over. It was just difficult to get the generator to move because it didn't have the right bolts holding it on, probably metric, but once that was solved the old belt slipped off and the new belt put on fairly easily.

After all that finally got to do what I had expected to be done much earlier, bleeding the brakes. So there I sat for about 20 minutes behind the wheel of Noel's '39 and that was before we got started! Turns out the brake bleed fittings were now also an odd size, so Wade was running around trying to find a spanner to fit. That sorted out, it was then into a routine of me gently flooring the brake pedal, holding and slowly releasing to Wade's commands as he bled air then fluid, corner by corner. All done and all looked well until it was noticed fluid was leaking from the rear copper gasket at the union at the front of the master cylinder. Once more Wade tramped around to see Col, and this time I accompanied him. Col suggested that the thread for the fitting may be bottoming and therefore not applying enough tension to give an effective seal. So armed with that advice we returned and Wade inserted the hollow threaded bolt as far as he could into the master cylinder and compared the union with the gap remaining. Looked marginal, but by this time I had to leave, so I dropped Wade around at Col's to seek further advice and also, I expect, Noel's bill and the repaired gear linkage rod. I won't know the details of what transpired until late Monday morning because it's off to see the granddaughters tomorrow and Monday morning it's off to donate at the Bloodbank.

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Again very interesting developments Mal,makes me wish to be there.
Valvoline grease...I thouth that everyone I know uses this these days, but no need to say sorry , I think people should know the differences between the new and old greases and lubricants. At least so I have understood it.

Actually Mal,can you tell me this: how many pre-war cars have been preserved in australia and what kind of cars are most common?

Can you tell me the markings on the spark plugs, I thouth
ZIS and Packard had similar spark blugs but seems, its not
so.Did Packard originally use Champion spark plugs???

Mal, you guys continue to amaze me. Popping in here, there and anywhere finding people who know about & willing to work on 70 year old items off American cars--even more amazing having or finding parts for them. Its hard enough to do that over here on cars half that age unless they're Ford or Chevy--let alone Packards.

Friday 27th November 2009

Didn't get to the workshop but did ring Peter(Rhino Linings) about progress on the running boards. Result being that I'll go his his workshop tomorrow morning and by lunch time should have a pair of rhino'd boards to bring home. And to answer some questions......

Quote: Steve,

Don't know how many pre-war cars are preserved in Australia but it would be many many thousands. As an example, for the Packard Club here, approx 180 members have about 400 Packards, and those are just the ones listed, some have more not officially recorded. As to what cars are most common. I'd think it would probably be the cars that were most common at that time with Fords, especially Model T & A's, leading the way.

As to the spark plugs, they are 10mm Autolite 3136's. I'll leave it to the more knowledgeable to respond whether Champions were OEM for Packards.

Quote:Howard,

Most of the guys mentioned have been "found" by Wade over the last 20 years or see he's been fooling around with Packards. Besides that there is a very free exchange of information between members of the old car movement in general, and the Packard club in particular, including various automotive services where the mention of Packard doesn't result in the usual blank stare and slack jaw. There have also been links to Packard guys in the US for years including access to the major vendors there and annual expeditions to Hershey which have helped many a Packard club member here to complete a restoration. The Packard club here also has a stock of new and used parts, but most of the "good things" are gone by now. As well, there is often the "mate rate". If your friend is after a part and you have a spare you pass it on, and somewhere down the track when you need a part someone else will come to your rescue with the necessary part. Simplified somewhat, but you get the idea. And of course now there's the internet and such entities as eBay, and not forgetting PackardInfo, because of these technological advances the world has shrunk considerably.

Saturday 28th November 2009

Title of the blog is somewhat misleading today because I was at Peter's Workshop this morning, not Wade's! Peter is the guy who Rhinoed the running boards and he said yesterday if I came over this morning I'd be taking the boards home by lunch time. Certainly I've taken them home but there's still a lot of work to do to till they are acceptable from my viewpoint. Peter had filled, what seems like, hundreds of holes with black urethane. Now it was my job, after the urethane had set/cured, to sand it back to achieve a smooth surface. But first had to remove the milky looking skin from the urethane which took about 3/4 of an hour for both boards. Then, using 80 paper to start with, sanding of the urethaned holes commenced. A slow process and because the urethane is softer than the Rhino it tends to peel rather than wear away through the rubbing action. After about an hour and a half of this and covering less than the surface of one board with still a whole lot of work to do I gave rubbing back the urethane away. Instead I concentrated on rubbing back the orange peeled rhino surfaces on the front and side of the left board. Did this for about 15 minutes and was gratified to see that promising results were emerging. And because I can do the same thing at home called it quits for the day and have brought the running boards home to work on in my own time in my own garage. I can see many, many hours of effort going into this to smooth the Rhinoed finish. And this from a post on another forum in response to a question of mine "started with coarse paper - like 80 grit on the really rippled surface and worked our way down to 400 I think, maybe 600" so there'll be a number of grades of paper utilised until an acceptable level of finish is achieved. Saw a couple of interesting cars too, see pic's.

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Why didn't you just have the holes filled with the Rhino liner? That way it would sand better and match better.

Quote: Eric,

The Rhino liner is sprayed on, and I would think it's not easy to handle in small quantities. My earlier post explains the process involved.Quote: All my troubles, ie re-doing the the boards, results from my lack of understanding about 1) The process and what it can and can't do, 2) The preparation needed for my running boards, ie filling superfluous holes before being Rhinoed, and 3) The finishing work required after Rhinoing. Plus the fact the applicator, Peter, had no experience in this particular type of Rhino application. We're all very much wiser after the fact. Ain't 20/20 hindsight a wonderful thing?

Quote: And JD,

I think the Rhino can be a very good running board coating. In my correspondence with Dave Mitchell on this subject, he was kind enough to provide me with pic's of the boards of his '41, Dave Mitchell's 1905 Bohman & Schwartz Limo see pic's below, they are great! And this quote from Dave " I would have put some fresh treatment on them to make them look blacker if I had known that, but I guess it doesn't matter. They are on a long wheel base 160. I have never seen seamed mats that look anywhere close to these. I have to give credit for the idea to Terry Hoenicke who works with me. He has been restoring cars for about 45 years and is one of the best Packard men in the country."

EDIT - Click on a pic to get a bigger image.

Further EDIT - Dave gave me some info on the Limo and here it is in a slightly edited form.

"This car was owned by the Harrah collection from 1966 until 1978 and even they didn't know who the coachbuilder was. It is a Bohman & Schwartz body, and is a one off. The tail lights are Cadillac. Bohman liked the Cad lights, which came out in 1934 and used them on a number of Duesenbergs, as well as Cad headlights. I think that the Cad tail lights are one of the best designs of the era - and one of the first with a lens that can be seen from the side when lit....... Anyway, this is a 160 1905 on the 148 wheelbase. It was junk when I bought it in 1990 and I was totally nuts to restore it, and have more in it than I can ever get out. I like unusual coachbuilt cars and I love Packards, so for me it was a car that had to be saved. Most Packard guys laughed at me (at best), but I did win my class at Pebble Beach after a 7 year restoration, as well as lots of other concours and CCCA events where we have never gotten less than a perfect score. We won best of show at the PAC nationals also. I restored this chassis completely with NOS parts starting with a crankshaft and working my way out (except for the block), so it drives like a new Packard. It has a great history - the original owner was the woman who founded the Hollywood Bowl and who had made four fortunes in her lifetime, so she could afford any car she wanted. I love the interior and the trunk with fitted cases too."

Note, I did gain permission from Dave to use his words and pic's in the Blog in case anyone is concerned.

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Sunday 29th November 2009

Yesterday it was Peter's Workshop, well today it's Mal's Garage. Started work on rubbing back the running boards to obtain an acceptable finish. And why aren't I out there right now? Ran out of 80 grade paper, so took the opportunity to update here, have lunch then go purchase more paper. Now I know the true meaning of 'hand finishing' having spent over 3 hours on one board, with one grade of paper and only about half way done. And there's still finer sanding required after the 80 grade cut is done and that's even before I start on the other board!

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I still think a small paintbrush would have filled those holes with Rhino and would have looked a lot better than the urethane...

Looks like you've bitten off a big one Mal.....good luck.

Except for the running boards, my first impression of the 1941 Bohman & Schwartz Limo was of one of the ugliest cars but it is growing on me.