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Thursday 27th November 2008

After a great morning with out daughter and granddaughters it was off to the workshop in the afternoon. Found Wade in his usual position, under a Packard, this time John's '39. He'd finished off the front end by replacing the right side torque arm rubber bushing in the morning and then moving to the rear spring shackle rubbers and he'd also hooked up the hand brake cable.Wade was working on the front bushing on the left side when I arrived.

Left him to that while I went back to the rubber sealing strips for the bottoms of the inner fender panels for the '41. Refitted the left side and did some minor trimming to clear the electromatic clutch mounting post on the chassis and the brake line and 'T' fitting just forward of that. Next removed the rubber seal from the left side and mounted it on the right side inner fender panels to check to see if I could use it for a template. And it was almost perfect, only 3 holes were in slightly different places. So marked up the rubber and cut for the right side and punched the dozen holes into it. Fitted it, and it's great. There will have to be some more minor fitting adjustments mostly on the left side but all up I'm pleased with the results.

While I was doing the rubber seals Wade continued under the '39 with my assistance given from time to time to hold multigrips, use a long bar for leverage, whack on a bar with a big hammer, etc. All these at moments when a second pair of hands was necessary to get the job done. Surprising how a rusty pin will stick to rubber and defy almost all attempts to move or loosen it. But all rubbers were removed and replaced. Leaves a bit of engine work like changing points and plugs and the brass bushes in the distributor the '39 should be done.

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Friday 28th November 2008

Didn't get to the workshop today, but when I rang Wade this morning he'd just finished giving John's '39 110 a full chassis greasing. He was about to rebuild the distributor with the new bushings John supplied as there is about 1/8" of play in the shaft. He's also going to change the oil, put in new plugs, etc.

And today when I arrived home there was a small parcel for me from Vintage Wiring Harness. I'd phoned Paul there late on Monday afternoon about requiring 6 more of the one to one connector covers and bullet fittings to suit. Wade had also spoken to Paul at the Bendigo Swap Meet a few weeks ago, but that was before we knew we needed these extra pieces.

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Saturday 29th November 2008

Received a parcel at 9:00am this morning delivered by an Australia Post contractor. It was the Steele rubber parts I'd ordered from Max Merritt on the 18th. So delivery 11 days later on the other side of the world is pretty good I'd think. And, it's all there! Cause this all comes at a cost, Parts US$352.80, Shipping & Handling US$53.15 Total US$405.95 which when converted by my bank equals AU$666.13 plus a Foreign Currency Fee AU$16.65 Total AU$682.78. Fixing old cars ain't cheap. But come Monday will be able to carry on with the '41 re-assembly. And MBM in these instances just wouldn't be good enough!

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Monday 1st December 2008

Arrived at the workshop to find Kevin's '35 outside. Wade had adjusted the left front brake on the '35 and then had to adjust the right front brake because it started to pull instead. He'd also re-set the timing using a timing light and these engines have a dual point set-up set on No1 then on No6 are a bit finicky to get right. And Wade's thinking about getting it over to Carburettor Service Company on Wednesday so they can take up the running on the carb problem.

Meanwhile, Wade was under the hood of John's '39 inside the workshop. On Friday Wade had started taking the distributor apart to rebuild it but found it didn't have any advance mechanism in it! So it's been cleaned up, put back together and re-installed in the '39 pending another complete distributor being located for rebuild. And speaking of which, if you read this Wade, I just phoned Peter. This is the guy I bought my '38 off and he also used to have a '40 110. Unfortunately I've now found out he no longer has any 110 engine parts because some went with the '40 when he sold it and his spare engine and other parts have also gone. He suggested try Peter Toet in Canberra. Wade finished off the '39, by putting the wheels and hubcaps back on, and I noted he used a good long bar to ensure all the wheel bolts were properly tightened. Funny how I now pay particular attention to this. So, except for the distributor, the '39's ready to go but before Wade returns it to John he'll drive it a little bit to ensure all's running well. When a distributor is sourced Wade will rebuild that then have John bring the '39 over and swap it in.

As for the '41, supposedly the central character in this story, things are progressing slowly. Brought along the box of rubber parts received Saturday and the electrical connectors received Friday. I fitted and refitted the MBM rubber seals to the bottoms of the front inner fenders and still have to trim some more of the left side seal. Next was replacing the studs holding the battery to the top of the chassis adjacent to the master cylinder. The studs originally there were cut down because of the Optima Battery I'm using but when re-threaded turned out to be too loose. So cut off and ground down the studs and replaced these with some thicker bolts which Wade welded to the chassis by their heads. Had to drill bigger holes through the aluminium retainers I'd made and now the battery fits snugly and securely. I know it's not "correct", but it is practical and convenient, and is easily reversed if a future owner wishes to do so. Next Wade turned to installing a relay under the dash so the radio, heater and turn indicators ran through individual fuses instead of just hanging off the ignition. It'll also "tidy up" the wiring behind the dash somewhat.

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Tuesday 2nd December 2008

Arrived at the workshop early afternoon to find Wade on his back, head under dash, attaching wires to the fuse holder he's installed yesterday. So after I mounted the turn indicator stalk unit on the steering column I left Wade to mount the flasher can and connect up the turn indicator wiring. While Wade was doing that I cleaned up the chassis from the yesterdays welding and POR-15'd it. Also re-mounted the tailpipe hanger bracket but had to find some longer bolts because the ones I selected originally were too short. After that it was time to test the turn indicators, and they work!

Then turned to re-mounting the trunk handle, number plate light and boot light. Mounted the trunk handle with a bit of fiddling to ensure the handle was in the right position together with the trunk locking bars. Wade then cut the numberplate/boot light cable and the number plate cable and fitted a 2 into 1 connector, the other connector being for the boot light. Next was ensuring and figuring out how the tilt switch should be mounted. This was done initially on the bench using Wade's electrical tester then the concept was transferred to the boot light fitting. This necessitated a cut in the metal bracket holding the light so that the outside part could be bent into a position so the light was on when the boot was open and off when it was closed. Didn't need to drill a hole as the switch came with double sided sided tape and this worked well.

After this turned to shortening the battery cables, necessitated by the new battery position, although these were the cables which came with the '41. The braided wire earth cable had about 6" trimmed from the battery terminal end and a new terminal mounted. The power cable was also longer than necessary and the excess here was about 12". I drove up to Tibby Rose, a local auto electrician where the guy in charge is Ken Gilbert a former Packard owner/club member. Ken shortened and fitted a new lug end and mission accomplished. I mentioned to Ken that the 2009 National Rally was being held in the Southern Highlands at the end of March. And if he'd like to catch up with the club members the Show & Shine at Berrima on Wednesday 25th March would be a good opportunity if he'd like to attend.

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Wednesday 3rd December 2008

Today was memorable, not so much for me but for Wade. If his exploits in turning Sydney's morning peak traffic into gridlock didn't make your nightly TV news then he wasn't trying! What happened is this. Wade is driving Kevin's '35 to and from home, over a number of days, morning and night to make sure all is working well. Last night Wade drove Kevin's '35 home, an uneventful trip. But on the way to the workshop this morning less than 1/2 mile after leaving home the '35, as the Rolls-Royce owners say, "failed to proceed". Now breakdowns do happen, but this one occurred during Sydney's peak traffic time on the Iron Cove Bridge which is a bottleneck at the best of times. Wade had to sit there until the breakdown wrecker arrived and could tow him off the bridge. I can just imagine some young traffic reporter trying to describe the scene and fortunately not knowing what a '35 Packard looked like and identifying it as the cause of the trouble. One thing Wade did notice was the good temperament of most drivers caught up in the snarl with drivers giving way and helping to keep the traffic moving, albeit a lot slower than normal. There was an exception, one guy yelling abuse and carrying on like a prize pork chop, but wherever you go in the world there's always one @#$%^&*!

OK, then Wade gets the '35 to the workshop and decides to move the '37 Super 8 but it too was cranky. Well cranky really isn't the word because it wouldn't crank, it had a flat battery! But back to the '35, Wade discovered the fuel pump was cactus with the pin which the arm pivots on hanging out the side about 1&1/2" and it had been pressed in during the rebuild. Wade replaced the pivot pin, but in testing it before putting it back in the '35 no pump action could be discerned. So pulled the entire pump apart and the lever attached to the pump arm was broken in half! Wade doesn't know if 1) The lever broke first forcing out the pin, or 2) The pin worked out causing the lever to break. We'll probably never know. Anyway the repaired pump is back in the '35 and Wade would it have made it home by now. All I can say is I haven't heard any traffic reports of a '35 Packard breaking down this evening.

Recalcitrant Packards seem to be the theme for today as you'll soon see. While Wade was tackling repair of the '35 fuel pump I installed the new plug leads in the '41. Feeding them through the plug lead holder bolted to the head, identifying from the firing order 1-6-3-5-8-2-7-4, the direction of rotation of the distributor and the position of No 1 terminal as to which lead went where. And I remembered the firing order from todays effort, just checked in the manual! Then it was installing the metal contact ends for the distributor cap ensuring the rubber boot went on before I crimped up the contact. Next was the spark plug connectors at the other end. I'm sure someone who knew what they were doing could have knocked this task over pretty quickly but being my first time wanted to get it right. During this I helped Wade several times with the '35 fuel pump repair when an extra pair of hands was needed. Next was the coil wire to the distributor cap, the '41 has an original coil with the armoured metal cover between the coil and the ignition and also a screw-in fitting for the coil to distributor cap lead. The lead supplied in the kit for the coil was too short, but as always Wade came to the rescue, producing some plug lead from which I was able to cut a piece to the desired length. Also screwed the temp gauge sending unit back into the head. Then Wade replaced the wire which screws onto the coil and the outside of the distributor body with some period correct looking wire rather than the yellow plastic length extant.

Then filled up the radiator with water. Went out and bought 20 litres(about 5+ US gallons) of unleaded topped up with upper cylinder lubricant and poured that in the tank. Wade in the meantime had checked the radiator and added another bucket of water, must have been a big air pocket in there. Turned the engine over on the starter only, no ignition, just trying to get fuel through from the tank. Wasn't working so Wade used a trick of John's pressurising the tank with compressed air while I operated the starter, and Eureka! We have fuel! However, even with a blast or two of "Start you Bastard", an aerosol starter spray, the '41 turned over but wouldn't fire. Checked wiring connections and found I hadn't connected the condensor wire when I reconnected the coil to distributor wire. Must work now? Of course not! Out comes Wades multimeter and check of where power is and isn't - and it looks like it might be a dud coil, although the '41 got to the workshop using that very same coil! Fortunately I have a NOS one in my garage which I'd bought off eBay months back so I'll take that down to the workshop tomorrow morning. Oh - and because the water was now circulating, we'd sprung a leak from the thermostat housing to the cylinder head. Mopped up the overflow and placed a bucket and big catch tray underneath and will fix the problem tomorrow.

That really was a day I'm sure Wade would like to forget. Every Packard he touched wouldn't work in one way or another from '35 to '37 to '41. Ahhhh, you say - but that's part of the journey. Maybe, but three in one day!

And a final word - John, the owner of the '39 was there when I arrived today, had brought over a new battery for it. So this time I remembered to get his pic with the '39.

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Thursday 4th December 2008
It's been a year today since the '41 was backed into the workshop, so

Didn't expect things to take this long but a combination of parts availability, scheduling and plain underestimating what I was up against contributed. It's a standing joke around our house whenever Kath, my wife, asks "how much longer" I'd say "a couple of months". This has been my constant refrain since December 2007 and was said in all sincerity and continues so to this day. Although now it's "a couple of weeks", fingers crossed. It would be a nice Christmas present.

Anyway, enough of the navel gazing. Only a couple of hours at the workshop this morning, Wade having a dental appointment late morning and Kath and I enjoying our granddaughters in the afternoon. My arrival at the workshop was rudely interrupted by the thought I'd left the NOS coil at home so a 25 minute chunk of time was lost in backtracking to pick it up. Also put another 20 litres of unleaded in and the fuel gauge shows a bit more than 1/3 full, a win there.

The matter of spark was somewhat different though. Used a spare coil of Wade's in the end to check we had spark and it worked, but nothing coming out of the distributor. So pulled it out of the '41 and on the bench realised that by having one set of the dual point setup not operative it grounded the current required. Out with the redundant points, fabrication of a new wire to link to the remaining set of points and a general tightening up of all fittings and back in the car. This time there was spark! However still wouldn't start, even with another dose of "Start you Bastard". It would seem with the fiddling in and out of the distributor that timing setup is now sufficiently off to prevent ignition. We'll pick up the running tomorrow when time isn't a critical factor.

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Friday 5th December 2008

A year and a day to the day it last fired up the lusty roar of the '41's 282ci Packard straight 8 could be heard resonating around the walls of the workshop! Well, maybe not resonating, but it runs! But before doing so, first up the distributor cap was removed and Wade aligned the rotor with No 1 terminal with his trusty eye. Then following another burst of "Start you Bastard" Wade turned it over and I operated the throttle linkage manually, first to pump some gas into the engine then to keep the revs up. Sounded real good, music to the ears in fact, although the tappets were a little noisy, there weren't any knocks or other costly noises. And when Wade hit it with the timing light it was spot on the mark on the harmonic balancer. What an eye, what a guy!

Next I turned to the leaking thermostat housing while Wade once again dived under the dash to hook up a few loose ends, so to speak. Took off the upper radiator hose at the top tank then undid the thermostat retaining bolts. Checked the surface of the housing and it had a "channel" for want of a better term on one part of contact face. Cleaned this up on the wheel and also made a new gasket and re-installed the lot for a second time. Added about a gallon of water, and what happens? Same result, a flow of water but this time from the outside centre of the housing. What to do? Why make another gasket of course, but this time out of cork much thicker than the gasket paper previously used. A bit harder to cut the cork than the paper but got there and re-installed the lot a third time. Re-filled with water and no leaks! A much much better result than before.

Fired up the '41 again and, still no leaks! Let her run for about 10 minutes and again, still no leaks! Wade put his temperature sensor on the engine. And this blew me away as I'd never seen or heard about this tool, it's amazing. A tiny hand held device which throws a beam onto the part you wish to monitor the temperature of and displays a digital reading. I couldn't believe it, temp on head in various spots, on side of block, on welch plugs or wherever. And best of all they were all reading below about 160 degrees. Also checked oil pressure - good, temp gauge working - good, ammeter charging - good and fuel gauge working - great!

While Wade returned to his underdash endeavours I diversified to increasing Dave's (Owen_Dyneto) data base of Packard I/D numbers. Took pic's of what Wade had for the '34, Kevin's '35, Wade's '37 120 and Super 8, John's '39 110 (you'll have to create a separate category for Aussie Packards, Dave) and my '41 120. I'll update the details to your post tomorrow as it's now past midnight here, way after my usual bedtime. Last thing we did was re-install the front windshield interior trim surround, a job in itself because it's pretty hard to align the 21 screws required with the holes they came out of. But because Wade's done this before he had a technique which worked well, otherwise for the novice it'd be a nightmare.

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Monday 8th December 2008

After yesterdays Packard Christmas Lunch and run it was down to the workshop this afternoon for a few hours. Found Wade at work on the '39's interior light because it wasn't working. When he looked at it, thinking it would only need the bulb to be replaced, it fell apart in his hands! So the fix required was much greater than expected.

While Wade was doing that I set about re-installing the front kick panels. Left side was fine except for my earlier mishap where I punched the hole for the courtesy light in the wrong place. Fixed that by taping the piece punched out back into place. Right side was a little different, instead of the courtesy light lining up with the hole in the kick panel it was out by about 3/8"! Well that's Mal and his untrained eye for you. Anyway, to "fix" it, I punched another moon shaped piece from the side of the hole and it now fits! Not as snuggly as the left side but, unless you're upside down under the dash, unlikely to be noticed.

By this time Wade had finished on the '39 which he'd also been driving around the block earlier and is taking it home tonight. Hope it's uneventful, unlike with the '35 when he literally stopped traffic!

We are aiming to re-install the interior but before doing so needed to re-install the O/D Governor and Solenoid because the Solenoid wiring harness needed to be clamped to the left rear transmission top bolt before the transmission cover plate is re-installed. Wade bolted the O/D Solenoid to the trans then passed the O/D harness to me and I bolted it the the trans top. Next Wade re-installed the O/D Governor and started hooking up the O/D harness wires to the main harness but ran out of connectors plus one wire is a fraction too short once is was screwed to the O/D Solenoid. Remedial action will be taken tomorrow and with that in mind I went to Jaycar Industries on the way home and picked what I think are the connector required. We'll know tomorrow as soon as Wade sees 'em. Put the trans cover back in and also the metal floor piece for the pedals and steering column. Wade also put the air cleaner back on the '35 and one of the horns will also need to be re-installed.

Should be able to re-install the underfelt, carpet, aluminium sill strips (is that what you call them?) and front seat tomorrow. All that should then remain for the interior is the re-installation of the steering wheel and horn ring and the radio. Steering wheel should be OK but the wiring for the horn ring might be a bit harder because it didn't come with the '41. We'll see tomorrow. The radio, that is a different matter! Because Wade is waiting for some parts for it from the US. So it looks like we'll be driving around in a '41 with a dash that looks like a 7 year old without front teeth.

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