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Hi Mal - this is a pretty incredible thread you have going here. Great to see such enthusiasm.

I sent Wade an email last night re his kind offer to lend me his book, to be honest I don't want to impose and I am very flattered that he would make such an offer to a relative stranger. I am hoping the wife will buy a copy for me for Xmas - and maybe also Robert Neals book on Packard motors ...? I suppose there is no harm in asking.

Anyway, I hope to get a chance to drop by next week and will bring the overalls if I can find the time. I can't really think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

Thanks to all of those that are currently helping with my enquiries re Racing Packards and to yourself and Wade in particular for being so generous with both your time and expertise.

Regards

Matt Snape

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Matt,
for the kind words, and yes I am enthusiastic. Does it really show that much?
As for time and expertise, well Wade certainly has the expertise so I must be the one with the time.

It'll be good to see you next week down at the workshop.

Hi Mal and Wade, Please be advised that I believe Noel's engine to be assembled with the valve timing one tooth retarded. You will have to time it by ear until the next time the engine front clip is removed and the valve timing corrected. It does not develop its full horsepower but it goes well under the circumstances. Best regards Peter Toet

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Quote: Peter,

That explains it then, with Wade doing the right thing in the circumstances.

Monday 7th December 2009

After donating blood in the morning it was off to the workshop. Should mention though that yesterday before I went to our clubs Christmas lunch I went to look at a Packard for sale. It is a '40 110 LHD and the dealer selling it only wants AU$39,900! Now Packards don't come up for sale here very often and especially through a car dealer. This dealer is located on Parramatta Road, which at one time was mile upon mile of car yards of various descriptions, so I thought Sunday would be a good viewing day. Not so, this dealer is only open Monday to Friday, my how times have changed. That said, when next I'm in the neighbourhood during business hours I'll drop in and look it over then.

First up was completing the upholstery job on Big Red's front seat buttons. Wade had rummaged through Gina's button box and come up with some fine specimens for use on the seat back. So with me pushing in the buttons to a reasonable depth on the seat Wade was around the back tying the nylon cords threaded through the buttons.

Next, with no work possible on Big Red, still waiting on parts, or work needed on either of the '39's, it was now the turn of the somewhat neglected '34. Some weeks back Harvey had picked up some lengths of bailey channel from Spectrum Rubber. Now the question was how do you bend it? The original channels, although complete, had the felt or whatever it is crumbling from it's 75 years of age and exposure to the elements. The replacement channel, although not the same as the original which is fully metal backed, when installed looks the part and as originals were not available this solution was adopted. I'm not going too far into it but the first attempt at bending the channel to follow the perimeter on the new rear window glass at first looked good but on closer examination there were kinks on the out of sight side. Much head scratching about how to bend the channel without kinking it but no obvious answer. So round to see the Mowads, a local panel shop, to tap into their expertise. Unfortunately it didn't extend back to 1934 so Wade was left to his own devices. Back to the workshop, this time cut the channel to a more user friendly length because it had been like wrestling with a snake previously when doing the second bend needed. Also measured and marked the centre of the first bend on the outside of the channel as a bending reference point. Next "Special Packard Bailey Channel Bending Tool" was brought down from the shelf and the first bend made, perfect! Then the second bend, after measuring and marking again, and a bit of tweaking there you had it, a good usable bailey channel. Then came removal of the rubber seal in the window frame channel, it's the metal channel sealed to the bottom of the window glass and is connected to the winding mechanism to raise and lower the window. Being old, perished and rusted in together with being less than 1/8" wide and about 1/4" deep presented it's own set of problems. Equipped with a Stanley Knife, more of that later, a small metal pick and a screwdriver Wade picked while I Stanleyed. Took some time but managed to clear all the rubber, or rather what was once rubber, from the left rear channel. Turned to the right rear then with Wade again picking and I Stanleying. This rubber bore some resemblance to it's name and proved harder to clean out of the channel although we were making progress, slow progress.
Then Mal Stanleyed himself. All work came to a standstill as I slashed about a 1" cut into the back of my right thumb below the knuckle. Bleed? Yes, it bled, but surprisingly no pain. Still no pain and it's now well over 4 hours since the gory event. Wade became nurse and doctor administering first aid by bandaiding it up and Rick proffered a blue rubber glove which is being used as a thumbstall with the fingers cut off. Purely for practical purposes mind you, I'm definitely not imitating Michael Jackson in any way!

So ended my time at the workshop for today. Won't be there tomorrow as Wade is out and about, and while out will drop Noel's '41 160 front shocks into Tony "Shocks" for rebuilding. And I'll report back in on Wednesday together with a special guest!

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Wednesday 9th December 2009

After some extra curricular activity this morning caught up with Wade, and to my surprise Wade's wife Gina, when I arrived at the workshop. Gina had dropped in, but it was more of a surprise when I arrived because at the time I strangely looked like Santa Claus! My extra curricular activity had been playing Santa to the kids of my daughters mothers group. So still clad in full Santa regalia I arrived at the workshop. This elicited those there sitting on Santa's knee and having their photos taken.

After the festive photo's were done it was into Packard work or should I say into John's '39 110 to chase some parts. First stop was Lee Bros for some needed hardware then to Hare & Forbes for a large drill bit. That done I suggested to Wade we drop into see the '40 110 Sedan for sale on Parramatta Road. Did that, the car yard guy was pleased to let us look it over and of course I took some pic's. Their main line of business is Aussie and US muscle cars and 50's/60's Chevs. The '40 is LHD, no OD, no Radio, has had a recent quick paint job, upholstery is reasonable but some tatty corners, engine has new plugs and leads, new starter solenoid, but many wires with partly missing insulation and came from Oklahoma. The asking price is AU$39,900 but as my '38 Eight sold for AU$23,000 in much better mechanical condition, good body but old paint and good interior with radio I can't see them getting that price.

That done, back to the workshop and into the '34. This time installed the left rear upper bailey channel to the wooden door frame. First trimmed the previously bent channel to size, then secured it to the door frame with the result looking real good. More tomorrow as the right rear is bent up and installed then the front windows.

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Thursday 10th December 2009

Today was work on the '34 day, a rare occurrence. Yesterday new bailey channel had been installed in the left rear door. This morning a piece of channel was cut to working length, bent to shape then installed in the right rear door in much less time taken for the other side. And that left us plenty of time for the next phase, the front windows, and wasn't it needed. Started on the right front quarter window which had been re-chromed and new glass fitted. Wade had previously re-furbished the frame for the window and equipped it with Steele Rubber rubber and bailey channel for the front runner of the main window. It's a matter of just putting all together and installing it in the car, right? In theory yes, but with a 75yo Packard which has suffered the ravages of time it's no! After numerous assemblies and dis-assemblies to get parts to fit properly, necessitating minor adjustments to the frame, bolts, the quarter window opening gearbox, you name it! And we adjusted it, again, and again, and again! Finally it's mounted in the '34! Halleluljah! Next it was the left front quarter window, and......same again! This time even more so, assembly, disassembly, adjustment, assembly, disassembly, adjustment, assembly, disassembly, adjustment, assembly, disassembly, adjustment, you get the picture? Just wouldn't work right. After all reasonable adjustments had been made a much more careful examination of the quarter window frame itself revealed it wasn't the right shape! The bottom edge, although appearing flat, is not flat! The right side has a very gentle rise from the pivot point to the front of the window while the left side didn't. It appears that it may have been straightened recently, possibly when the new glass was fitted. What to do? Why, remove the glass and put back the slightly curving rise as it should be! This necessitated unscrewing the rear u channel from the frame, separating it from the "gorilla snot" sealant, not an easy task in itself, then doing the same for the roughly D shaped remainder of the frame. Comparison with a spare quarter window frame confirmed that the re-chromed frame was out of whack. This necessitated some forceful treatment till it assumed the shape it is meant to be. Then some more assembly and fitment to the left front door. Finally, after some further minor adjustment this time to both quarter windows, mission accomplished. Doesn't sound like a great deal of work but, be assured, all this took the best part of the working day to achieve. Going through all this, it is now plain where all the time goes in a restoration to get things right.

But enough of that. Early this morning, 4:30am Sydney time, I phoned Willysreplacementparts to order Harvey's '40 Willys grill. And during the course of the day Noel had phoned from up north, where he was on his way to Newcastle, to pick up his re-chromed parts before he heads to the US to spend Christmas with the Flackmaster. And I also received some pic's from Santa of his visit yesterday of the guys at the workshop and their Christmas gift requests to the old bearded gent!

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Monday 14th December 2009

Arrived at the workshop to find PeterL there with Wade, they were tackling the steering shaft that Noel had found for Peter because the bearing surfaces on either end of the worm on Peter's '38 120 were badly worn. However it turns out the shaft that Noel found has been modified with what look to be transmission ball bearings used in lieu of the stock roller bearings! The upper bearing came off the replacement shaft easily but the lower bearing resisted all attempts to press the shaft off.

After Peter left we jumped into John's '39 110 and then off to pick up the paperwork needed to present to the Roads and Traffic Authority(RTA) to enable the car's registration details to be changed because of installing the re-built engine in place of the original. Should be easy, but it wasn't. Because Wade wasn't John the RTA wouldn't allow him to present the paperwork even though he had everything there including the current registration papers. But that's a bureaucracy for you, and the RTA is one of the best!

Back at the workshop turned again to the '34, first up measured, cut, bent and installed the new bailey channel for the left front window. What next, because there's still some necessary rubber coming from the US, expected to arrive next week, couldn't do more with the front windows. Same with the rears, although more bailey channel needs to be cut and fitted to the lower sections of both rear doors but these too are stymied waiting for other parts to enable installation in the right sequence.

So turned to the next job which was the window winding and interior door opening mechanisms. Like everything Wade had these in the shelving bays allocated to each door. So bay by bar, door by door each mechanism was unscrewed from it's wooden frame, cleaned, checked for operation, lubricated and re-installed in the woodwork. All of these are now located within the '34's body ready for installation after the channels, rubbers and glass are finally in place.

After that we just sat down for a good half hour or so and discussed various things including returning John's '39 to him tomorrow. However the highlight of the discussions, well for me at least, was bringing in my '41 Coupe to start working on it's engine re-build. What this also means, although it's hard to do it, is store Noel's award winning '39 120 Sedan in my garage so there's space in the workshop for the '41, but I'll have to keep a stiff upper lip and suffer it! Jokes aside, I'm only too happy to have Noel's '39 in residency. Although if the odometer shows a fair few more miles when you get back from the US Noel, it's only because I had to keep things like the bearings and brakes working rather than leave them to develop the kind of problems encountered and fixed recently.

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Mal,

Were you having a problem with the motor in the '41, or does is it just in need of a refresh?

Kev,

It's just "old and tired", like me and uses, and leaks, a lot of oil. Saying that - it runs very quietly, doesn't overheat even on the hottest of days but it does tend to run out of puff going up looong hills which I think is exacerbated when the plugs get oiled up. With our 2010 National Rally at Kangaroo Island in October, about a 900 mile trip, I want to have the engine re-built well before then. And will give it a good long distance test in June when the club has a week-end run to Tamworth, a 250 mile trip.