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Tuesday 2nd November 2010

"The race that stops a nation" that's the moniker applied to the Melbourne Cup Australia's premier horse race. Happens the first Tuesday in November every year with this years being the 150th running!

Enough of the Australiana lesson for today and on to the more usual Packard presentation. Wade phoned me in the morning to advise he wouldn't be at the workshop until later in the morning because of another commitment but could I be there in case Mat arrived? Of course I could, so spent my time perusing some old magazines that Wade is passing on to PACA members. Among the magazines was one from 1981, I think, which contained an ad which caught my eye. The ad was by Joel Ray, Patrician Industries/Packards1, advertising Packard parts for sale. Shortly thereafter Wade arrived and we turned to his '34, The Fossil.

Still a few things to be done before the '34's body and frame are mated together, one of which was re-installing the right side cowl vent door. The left side vent door had been re-installed back on the 23rd June and finally the time had come to tackle the right side. Besides once the body is back on, with steering column and other things to contend with, it wont be as accessible so now was the time. The right side hinge had posed a problem at the time with the hinge loops on the body not permitting passage for the hinge pin. Wade had cleaned out the hinge loops on the vent door itself but because of the close confines hadn't been able to do so for the body loops. Today the body hinge loops needed to be cleaned out and a number of small round files were the first choice for clearance work. However because of the difficulty in operating the small files effectively this approach didn't produce the desired result. Turned to a more primitive method in an effort to clear what was thought to be paint buildup, hammering an "implement" through the hinge loops to remove the buildup. The "implement" was a long thin bolt of the same diameter as the hinge pin. The top hinge loop wasn't a problem so the "implement" started its work on the second hinge loop. Progress was slow, but it was progress, and to ensure the "implement" didn't get stuck and present another problem it was backed out from time to time. Coming through the second hinge loop the "implement" pushed a wad of paint out before it. Same again for the third and last hinge loops and a test fit of the hing pin proved successful. The hinge pin and all hinge loops were given a coating of grease and with me inserting the vent door from outside the cowl and then holding it in place Wade inserted the hinge pin. And what do you know, it works! All that remained was to couple up the arm and spring connecting the vent handle to the body. And just when Wade was tightening up the little nut and bolt holding the arm and spring, Mat, the owner of the other '34 in the shop arrived!

Mat had arrived in Sydney about 7:30am and in the time between touching down at the airport and arriving at the workshop, about 3 hours later, he'd been busy. Besides collecting his luggage, which had grown from the two bags he'd taken with him to four on his return(lot of Packard parts in there!) he'd picked up his daily driver and visited his '55 Caribbean at a paint shop in western Sydney. Wade was able to show and explain what had been done or remained to be done on Mat's '34. Mat in turn provided stories of his time in the US, and is already talking about going back next year! He then produced a new Delco-Remy 6V Negative ground alternator and some new seals for the water pump and the sump plug. The alternator looks interesting but even more interesting is, how is it going to be mounted? Because the water pump is away being machined, Wade dropped it into Stan yesterday afternoon, any ideas as to where and how it will be mounted will wait until it returns and is mounted on the block again together with the pulley and fan which are all factors for consideration. Mat did say he had a guy who could fabricate a bracket so, once a decision and design is settled on, that will certainly help. And in case you're fretting about this development, Mat does have a '34 generator he picked up in the US but it needs rebuilding.

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WHAT??? You guy's don't get Hershey with almond bars down there? That right there is a staple of Eric's diet!

(And if I don't stop soon I'll be going by the moniker "BigEric", lol!)

Wednesday 3rd November 2010

More work on 'The Fossil' today. First was the long hinged piece that screws in at the top of the windscreen and to which the windscreen frame mounts. Needed to work out which way it goes in, finally solved by looking at the holes in both the piece and the body where it mounts. Then was freeing up the piano hinge which runs the width of the piece because it was painted with the hinge and pin in place. Some working the hinge back and forward, in sections because it very loooong, and it was OK. Then finding the 22 brass screws required, this piece had been removed by the panelbeater and not Wade. And while Wade ran a tap through 20 of the 22 holding threads in the body(the other 2 were were tap inaccessible), I cleaned up the screws. Screwed into place the piece, now with the benefit of now being held firmly by all 22 screws, swings out and back fairly easily.

Next was installing a pull wire for the wire for the radio aerial. The aerial in a '34 is actually the 'chicken wire' in the roof insert and before things went too much further with the body Wade wanted a pull wire in place for when the actual wire will be installed later. First cut a wire coat hanger and straightened it. Then fed it down inside the right side A pillar, little bit of bending and jiggling required. Then attached the pull wire by first roughing up the lower end of the coat hanger and wrapping the end of the pull wire around it. Then using plastic tape, taped the pull wire and wire coat hanger together. With me gently pulling the coat hanger and Wade guiding the lower taped together end, by feel alone as there was no way to see what was going on in the bottom of the pillar. Soon met an obstacle but with "fingers" Wade moving the coat hanger a little bit one way we got it through. Progress up the pillar continued slowly and regularly until we were just about there. Then hit another snag, but under Wade's direction of bending the section of the coat hanger closest to the snag point and a little more back and forwards, it came through that too. Wade then snipped off that end of the pull wire, close to the end of the coat hanger. In order to put the coat hanger away, the end of the pull wire needed to be taken off. Thought I had would have to unravel the plastic tape, but no, all it required was a gentle tug! A lot less than I'd been using to pull it up through the A pillar!

Another matter to be attended to, and which came to Wade's mind when he bumped his head against it while under The Fossil's dash, was the main cowl vent specifically the sealing rubber for it. Wade has a rubber seal from Steele's, but it doesn't fit! It's just too big, in both width and height. Fortunately with Mat's '34 handy, checked that and lo and behold, the seal there isn't fixed to the cowl itself but to the vent lid instead. What a good idea,
So it was off to Grippy Rubber where a length of 18mm X 6mm adhesive backed rubber strip was purchased for the job, and cutting and fitted instructions supplied gratis. Back at the workshop cut, trimmed and pressed the strip into place then left Wade to it. Daughter and granddaughters again, what can you do.

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Thursday 4th November 2010

No granddaughters today, just Packards and a step up in the Packard world too, but more of that later. Yesterday Wade had continued with the cowl vent for The Fossil, installing the vent together the opening/closing mechanism in the car. Only problem was he had about four attempts to do so but couldn't get the gaps fpr the vent edge to the cowl right. The side gaps were fine but the front gap was about twice the width of the rear gap. So now that I was in attendance, standing on a plastic milkcrate for observation purposes, Wade adjusted things twice, the first of which saw little improvement while the second reversed the gap disparity. Then a third time, and it was spot on. To ensure the vent didn't move while Wade tightened everything up I then heavied the vent using my not inconsiderable weight to hold it in place, hence my use of the milkcrate, to gain a height advantage. All tightened up, then a little grease applied to the mechanism for smooth operation.

Next, preparations for the body to be united with the chassis continued. The inside of the body had been used to store the side and rear glass as well as the assembled windscreen and all that needed to be relocated prior to the move. As well as that the woodgrained dash and a coupe of small panels had been accommodated on the roof, suitably protected. Wade has a couple of trolleys, one of which is stainless steel and had been used as temporary parts for the various Packards which have passed through the workshop over recent times. All it had left on it was the accelerator pedal linkage for The Fossil as well as some old wires, New spaces found for the linkage and wires, a clean up and the trolley was pressed into service. That done it was then time to adjust the positioning of the 2 by 4's presently supporting the body on top of 20 litres drums. Jacked the body up fore then aft and moved the timber and drums accordingly and as a result the body now has a wheel standing attitude with the front higher than the rear.

The other side to this equation is the chassis, which also required attention prior to reunion, timing of which is expected to be Saturday afternoon when John's hoist should be free. The chassis needed to be dropped down from the jackstands under the rear axle and the ramps and blocks of wood under the front axle. Back on the workshop floor it was then time to give it a spring clean, from the firewall area back. Over the course of it sitting in this position it had picked up a covering of dust. Tried blowing it off with compressed air, but that failed, so it was back to the old proven method of rag in hand.

Wasn't any more that could be done to that '34 so turned to the other '34. Never would have thought I'd ever utter a phrase like that but there it is, amazing! Not much that can be done to Mat's, until the water pump is back from machining, except remove the idler pulley setup welded to the front motor mount. Initially it was thought that this would have to be done in the '34, but closer inspection on my part, showed it was welded only to the centre retaining hub of the mount. By placing a wide, deep block of wood on the jack the front of the engine was slightly raised to 1), take the strain off the front engine mount and 2), to support the engine while the mounting hub was being relieved of the cancerous growth upon it. Then out came the hub, angle grinder readied, and that's when Barry arrived.

Barry had come down from Tamworth to pick up the hot tanked aluminium heads, that right its plural, because the heads are off his '38 Twelve. He's rebuilding the engine, although it was supposedly rebuilt by a US Packard restoration specialist for the previous owner with many, many thousands of dollars of receipts for the work done. If or what was done is just a disgrace because Barry is now completely rebuilding it. Barry had one of the rods and pistons with him that came out of the engine, the one where the piston was 63 grams heavier than the other 11 pistons in the engine! And how did they address that? Not by obtaining another piston of the correct weight, or by removing the excess weight from the piston itself. Weight removal was done by grinding weight off the connecting rod instead! I believe the letters V & H, or maybe it was H & V, or was it HIV, figure prominently in the name of the restorer of Barrys '38 Twelve, but seeing that rod and piston wouldn't encourage me to use them. Another story Barry told me was about a battery hold down that had been fabricated for the Twelve. It was so shoddy Barry threw it away then later found a bill for its fabrication of $840, he now wishes he'd kept the bracket as "evidence". But enough of the venting, Barry also delivered intake and exhaust manifolds, 4 barrel carb, air cleaner, linkages and lines for Michaels '54 Convertible, all correct, one year only and almost impossible to find items. Now Michael will be able to return his '54 to the breathing system it should have. And another item was the water pump off the Twelve, for Wade to rebuild.

After Barry's departure then returned to the Mat's '34's idler pulley removal. This was accomplished using an angle grinder with a cutting blade and slicing through the welds. Then cleaning up the dags with a grinding wheel, no metal was really lost in this process, as Wade tried to stay within the welds for the separation process then grind through what was left of them back to the metal of the hub. Hub then back on '34 and jack removed from under sump.

Next and last was the Twelve water pump. Seeing we've had a number of water pumps over recent weeks it was interesting to see this one and how it compared to the others, a 120 and a '34 standard eight. First thing I noticed, when I put the Twelve pulley down next to the '34 pulley was the size difference. Then when Wade measured the shaft it was 20mm in diameter, more than 3/4"(19.05mm). From memory, I think the 120 is 1/2" while the '34 is 5/8". My last observation was the sheer size differential between the shaft and impeller of the 120 against those of the Twelve. After removing the bearing retainer plate, the grub screw holding the impeller, and the key for the pulley the impeller was pushed off the shaft and then the bearings and shaft pushed out of the water pump housing. The bearings were then pushed off the shaft and we made a beeline for ABC Bearings for new bearings and a modern seal.

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Friday 5th November 2010

Must have spent all of 5 minutes at the workshop mid morning, dropping in to give Misty a bone and to pick up a computer from Wade. Gave me the chance to see the "engineering" drawing Wade drafted yesterday for Twelve water pump machining purposes. Then later in the morning had a call from Pepepackard, who amongst other things told me he has an old US made Allen engine analyser. Pepe, does it look like this one currently on aBay? And speaking of water pumps, received an email from Mat about the eBay water pump he bought which turned out to be for a 120, Mat also said this "....Let me know if this any use to you and I'll drop it off next time I'm down...." - very generous. Description for the pump Mat bought included "Just what your car needed! Original Water Pump Assembly (Bushing Type) replacement for 1935-37 PACKARD. With original and (mostly) complete box!"

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Mal, has Wade considered using a Redi- or Speedy-Sleeve on the Twelve water pump shaft? Don't know if they are available in the size needed, but it is a quick and inexpensive way to restore a shaft's surface so a seal can seal. Most bearing stores here in the States can order them. They are made by National and Thompson. I used them on the rear axle outer seal surfaces on my '47. Just a suggestion.

(o[I}o)

Saturday 6th November 2010

The plan was that the '34's body would go on the chassis this afternoon. But......received a call from Wade just after 10:00am to say he was at the workshop and John, Rick and the guys were almost ready for the big event. Arrived there about 10:20am and the next time I looked at my watch was at 11:30am and by which time it was all over. So about an hour to move, hoist, shuffle and mate the body and chassis seems like a pretty fair effort to me. And just on that sort of thing Barry told me on Thursday that he'd recently put the body back on his '38 Twelve by himself! Took a whole day but that's the way he preferred to do it!

Instead of a blow by blow description just follow the pic's in this web album. I actually used two cameras because Wade asked me to also take pic's with Gina's camera. I did that by using my camera in my right hand and Gina's in the left. So if any pic's are fuzzy blame the photographer, but I did delete the worst of them. Took 201 pic's with my camera and it would have been up there with Gina's but her battery expired getting towards the end of pushing "The Fossil" back into place in Wade's workspace.

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G'day Mal,
"BLOODY MARVELLOUS" I've learnt more on how my car is put together with all the great pictures you've posted. Wade did look a bit apprehensive from time to time but it seemed like he had a team of bloke's with him on the body to chassis fit up.
I bet Wade can't wait to get on to the next stage whatever route that might be. Please keep all the info coming as soon as you get it Mal.
Regards Terry

Congratulations to Wade and support staff on this milestone. I'm sure rejoining the body with the chassis is a celebrated occasion....keep up the good work.
DAF

Monday 8th November 2010

With the workshop now able to accommodate another Packard a queue is forming at the door. However before they could be attended to Old Blue, to use a horse racing term, pulled up lame yesterday and requires urgent attention. Yesterday was a PACA run to Kurrajong Heights in the foothills of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. 7 Packards and 1 Studebaker attended an open garden day at a house owned by a contributor to an Australian car magazine. This guy has an Austin Healey 100/4 as well as a restoration project Healey Saloon, apparently the only one of it's type left in the world. So besides the gardens there was also the added attraction of cars. Anyway going over the top of the last steep section up to this guys house strange noises started to emanate from Old Blues diff. Scared the living daylights out of Gina who, as usual, was riding in style in the back seat when the noises started. After the open garden, we then continued a little further up the mountains and had lunch at the Kurrajong Heights Hotel. From there Chris(Starliner) and I followed Old Blue most of the way back to the workshop in case assistance was required. Fortunately it wasn't, and Wade and Gina made it there safely changing over to Big Red for the remainder of the trip home.

So first up in the workshop was getting Old Blue out of Big Red's parking spot then backing Old Blue into the space next to The Fossil. Still leaves a vacant space and I believe the TJ Richards bodied '39 Six will probably fill that on Thursday. But back to Old Blue, hubcaps off, lugbolts loosened, jack under diff, jackstands under axle, tailshaft disconnected, flexible brake line clamped, brake drums off, clean up of brakes and backing plates, removal of same, axles removed, diff centre loosened and then removed. Well that's the sequence of events to remove the Pumpkin from the car and it went pretty well, Used the puller on the brake drums with the right side requiring much more effort than the left which came off easily. Removing the pumpkin also had it's share of minor problems plus I didn't realise until today that Old Blue had the older style pumpkin which fits the diff housing at an angle. Wait, I'm wrong! Again? If I remember rightly Eric did mention some time ago his speedster diff from a Junior '37 is like that. The two problems with removing the diff were: 1) the copper washers which had spread and held on to the studs impeding the pumpkin in it's removal, and 2) The long bolt which goes through the top of the banjo into the body of the pumpkin, all the other studs go through the flange of the pumpkin and are accessible from underneath. Once this "hidden" bolt was found, which is 25/32" by the way and only time I've ever seen this size spanner and socket used, removal of the pumpkin proceeded in a much easier fashion. Pumpkin balanced nicely on the floor jack and was rolled out from under Old Blue just like that.

When Wade had been disconnecting the tailshaft it was evident the pinion shaft bolt was loose, but what other damage might there be? Teeth on crown wheel, pinion and sun gears all looked OK on initial inspection but some of the bearings weren't looking or feeling as good. Clean up and marking of parts was followed by further dis-assembly. Pressing the bearings off the hemisphere and the large pinion bearing presents a whole lot of challenges without the specific tools required to do so. But with some improvisation along the way, all but one have now been removed. This gave Wade all the cups and cones he needed in order to phone ABC Bearings and set them on the search for new bearings. ABC are also looking for new wheel bearings, one of which appeared to be fine but the other definitely needed replacement. Just to be sure all will be replaced.

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