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Wednesday 10th March 2010

Early start at "Noel's warehouse" and I use the term "Noel's warehouse" advisedly because it really isn't "Noel's warehouse"! It used to be but he sold the business a number of years ago although he still keeps his hand in there and for that it's tolerated that he can utilise some storage space if available. That's one of reasons why the PACA club stock parts are being photographed, identified, inventoried and then moved to long term storage with Peter Packard.

And today I had a EUREKA moment! Well, at the time, I thought I had a eureka moment. Down at the bottom of a wooden box in sturdy, but nondescript, cardboard boxes were a pair of NOS Cluster gears! One identified as 35-36, the other 36-38. I subsequently learned that clusters hardly ever wear out so they are unlikely to be super-rare parts. Bugger! But even more remarkable was the fact that noted Packard parts hound "The Flackmaster" missed them when he cast a very beady eye over the parts twelve months ago.

I had another surprise at lunchtime when Noel told me he would show me Bankstown's best kept secret. Actually that was tongue in cheek because, just around the corner from "Noel's warehouse" there it was, out in the open in a storage company's yard. And what was it? Why a mid '50's Holden FJ Sedan. Noel tells me it's been there at least 5 years, just sitting in the open, slowly accumulating storage charges as well as rusting away. Looks complete but the ravages of time are taking their toll.

But back to the parts, and I say that without irony as it's been a big task and takes time to sort, sometimes identify, photograph, and re-pack the parts. To give you an idea of the scale of it, have taken 300+, 300+, 400+ and 500+ plus pic's on each of the four days so far. Not every part has a separate pic, as there are multiple parts at times, and sometimes individual parts have pic's from different angles so the number of pic's doesn't equate to the number of parts. And one of the least pleasant parts of the job is the general deterioration of paper and cardboard packaging together with the rodent excrement and the many chewed boxes and wrappers, see pic's. Hope to get back there on Friday, and if all goes well, could possibly finish this part of the process.

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Thursday 11th March 2010

Spent another hour and a half rubbing back the filled holes on the right running board. Then, on the way to our baby sitting duties this afternoon, dropped the boards into Peter so they can be re-rhino coated. Peter expects the boards to be done by the end of next week.

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Friday 12th March 2010

Stage one of the PACA Club Stock Spare Parts sort, review, photograph, and re-pack is now done! That doesn't mean the job's over by any means. Took almost 700 pic's today, of which I'll probably delete about 100 for duplicates, fuzz and mis-adventures. That will then leave about 1,400 out of the total 2,100 PIC'S taken to date still to be captioned. Then there's preparing lists and diagrams of what is where in boxes and where the boxes are located on the pallets. Didn't realise it was going to be such a big job! All I can say is that it's very satisfying poking through Packard parts and coming across a few gems from time to time, a great way to spend a day. I'm not supposed to (Noel will kill me) but here's a few of my favourite pic's from today!

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Is that lark pedal rubber for sale Mal? Cost? Does it fit a 1962?

Quote:John,

This is exactly why Noel didn't want me to give away too much in what we found sorting through all the parts. As they are "Club Stock" parts, PACA members naturally have dibs on what's available. So the normal answer should be, no it's not for sale. However because it's a Studebaker Lark part the answer could well be yes, it is for sale, but I'll have to get back to you on that as well as cost. Whether it fits a '62 Lark I don't know, but if can you access a Stude parts book with the part number it could help both of us? There are also some Chebby and other parts amongst all the Packard stuff and I have another little task to sell some of these on eBay shortly.

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The Electromatic clutch gaskets that you ask a better description of are not gaskets per se but the actual vacuum diaphrams that mounts inside the vacuum cylinder and attach to the pull-cable which releases the clutch.

Quote:Dave,
for that. When I was giving them a description last night I thought they might be a diaphrams but I didn't want to 1) display my ignorance if they weren't, and 2) it was late and I wasn't sure how to spell diafram diaphram! Another question - Although they still seem to be flexible, being over 55 years old, would the ravages of time have affected their usability?

Although they still seem to be flexible, being over 55 years old, would the ravages of time have affected their usability?

I couldn't really answer, generally when a piece of rubber actually has to work back and forth repetitively, you'd not want to take a chance with old stock as opposed to a static application, but given the right rubber composition and good storage, sometimes it works out. The item is available as a repro piece; it's also quite easy to get at and replace so if it seems nice and flexible with no obvious flaws, you might want to chance it, especially with the repro at $104 and at that perhaps lot an ideal rubber formulation for that application.

No worries Mal, I am a PACA member, however another forum member informed me that it's not for my car.

Cheers

John

The classic good news/bad news scenario! Good that you're a PACA member, if you told me that earlier the few remaining grey cells just didn't retain that gem. Bad that it doesn't fit your Lark.