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Gina(Big Red's mrs) and John,

We're getting into very dangerous territory here. "Unfortunately" I have a wife, Kath the love of my life, who would not be at all understanding if I started cleaning other peoples houses. For years I have been able to feign ignorance about such things as "how to operate a vacuum cleaner" and "house dusting" and so far this had succeeded. If I did demonstrate any ability in such things, I'm sure the word would soon spread and besides my existence being made even more miserable than it is now I would be expected to perform those functions at home as well. Accordingly I politely decline Gina's "offer" and am not at all amused by John's pictorial evidence request.

And Gina, if you're going to post in PackardInfo, I suggest you become a PackardInfo member. In fact, then you may be able to lay claim to one or some of the Packard's in your family's "collection" in your own right.

Tuesday 28th April 2009

Back to the workshop after the week-end's escapades. After a photo and measuring session under the rear end of the '34 and "Big Red" with the Spring retaining and shock mounting plates, that's the term I'm using for now unless someone can correct me. They are the plates(blocks?) under each rear spring through which the U-bolts pass and which the shock link attaches to by a protruding "arm". Looking in Wade's '33 to '36 Packard Service Parts List for the part description didn't help either. I'll continue this part of the day's activities in the "1934 shock links" thread in the Pre-War Forum after I've finished here.

In my absence Wade had kept himself busy picking up the rebuilt brake parts, taking out the fuel tank, removing the steering column and box and (Careful...Gina might be listening or watching) cleaning up some parts. The tank came out because the fuel gauge wasn't working. The steering column and box came out because of oil leaks. And, presumably, the parts were cleaned because Mal wasn't there! While I was taking the Spring retaining and shock mounting plates pic's Wade was disassembling the steering column and steering box. Wade also checked the fuel sender, gauge, etc. Turns out it's "only" a real bad earth for the fuel tank but while things are out all will be checked.

However during this Noel arrived and work broke up. Noel had called in to pick up a couple of "Certificates of Appreciation" which he'll deliver to the Restoration workshop at Crookwell and the Bradman Museum at Bowral in appreciation of their PACA Rally efforts. Noel will be in Crookwell tomorrow on business and readily agreed to be the club's ambassador in delivering these items. And while Noel is in the Southern Highlands I prevailed upon him to stop into the Mittagong RSL Club and pick up the prize I won in the Raffle being conducted there during the Rally. For your information I won a "Scrapbooking Set" which I'm sure our daughter will appreciate as she's right into craft. Unless the Dark Side of the Force overwhelms me and Packards are replaced by Scrapbooking, whatever that is.

Wade was also quite upset because the parts he'd ordered from MaxM's hadn't arrived. Apparently they were consigned by UPS who sub-contracted local delivery to AustraliaPost who's delivery guy couldn't find the workshop! It's bloody hard to miss I'll tell you, the guy must have been driving around with his eyes shut! No attempt was made to contact Wade, and there was no attempt at a second delivery, and so the parts have been returned to sender. What a joke!

Back on the tools and after cleaning up part of the pedal linkages, the rear axle U-bolts and nuts, the steering column and box, the front engine mount and the fuel filler pipe I was done for the day. Left Wade cleaning the water jacket cover plate which looks a little sad having a number of sizable pits. The inner plate definitely needs to be replaced as it was quite rusty with holes through it in places.

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When Gina finds out that Wade can clean that well she will probably have all kinds of tasks around the house for him to clean. Dishes, sinks, toilets.......

Wednesday 29th April 2009

Originally I had no intention of going to the workshop today, but a request from Eric changed that. So after dropping my sister at the airport arrived at the workshop this afternoon.

There I found Wade had been out and about and picked up his resurfaced flywheel, rebuilt clutch plate and resurfaced and rebuilt pressure plate. He'd also picked up the bearings and seals previously ordered as well as some more now also needed. And he'd been busy too - finishing the initial cleaning of the water jacket cover plate which he also leak tested overnight and which it passed so should be OK to reuse. However the inner water distribution plate will require replacement. The right front suspension was now all apart and Wade showed me the grooves on the king pin caused by the rollers "chattering" there. The tappet cover and also the full double layer rubber gasket were also off and the tappets look OK and there's no sludge. Left Wade reassembling the steering box and shaft, but I'll be back there tomorrow.

Now to Eric's request "I want to know the inside diameter of Wade's bellhousing flange for a certain "project" I have spinning in my head" and a query from me "Do you want the depth measurement too?" to which Eric responded "Yes please". So here we go:

Inside diameter of bellhousing at trans flange - 15"
Diameter of bellhousing bolt pattern - 16" (It's circular)
Outside diameter of ring gear on flywheel - 14 & 7/8"
Depth - From back of bellhousing flange to surface of crankshaft flange - 2 & 3/16"
Spigot bearing outside diameter - 2"
Crankhaft flange bolt pattern diameter 3 & 7/8"

All dimensions were taken with a hand held steel tape and are "pretty accurate" but for Eric's purposes will suffice and I threw in a few extras not requested. And Eric, if there's any more required will be glad to provide those too. As to whether Eric wishes to share what's "spinning" in his head, I'm leave that for him to announce. But being he is our resident "mad scientist" all I'll say is - It's definitely different!

EDIT - Although Eric wasn't pleased that he was "outed" on this he's agreed the post can stay but will not be expanding on the purpose of his request. He wants to keep the world in suspense for the great unveiling at the right time!

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Re: pic above: '37 Lagonda.JPG

How old is the garage that the car is setting in front of???? The reason i ask is that it appears to have a tile (slate?) roof on it ????

Keith,

Don't know the age of the garage, it was in the lot behind the car yard and is a private residence, but probably 70/80 years old. Many Australian homes(and garages) have clay roof tiles and this type of roofing has been used here for over 100 years. Other roofing materials are slate tiles(more common many years ago on high value houses), cement tiles(used a lot in the last 20 years often replacing clay tiles), colorbond corrugated roof sheeting(also used a lot in the last 20 years) and corrugated galvanised roof sheeting(replaced now by the colorbond sheeting). I have never seen a wooden shingle type roof in Australia.

http://www.boral.com.au/product_index/roof_tiles.asp

http://www.colorbond.com/

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Roofing puzzled me here, Mal, when I first moved here. After living through some bush fires, it became much clearer.

I would be VERY surprised if wood shingles (which I love) are even legal here. The impregnated fire retardant, over time, goes away and you then have a disaster waiting to happen.

Thursday 30th April 2009

Scraping, cleaning, scraping, cleaning, scraping, cleaning - you get the picture? Pretty much describes todays activities.

As I arrived, Wade was walking around to see Ivan about machining up a new shaft for the clutch and brake pedals to pivot on, the old one being worn. The new shaft will have some improvements on the old, having a couple of flats inside where the pedals swing, and tunnel bored with a grease fitting at the inner end. The flats on the new shaft will allow easier installation and removal and being greaseable will permit proper lubrication of the clutch and brake pedal roller bearings. Wade had also reassembled the steering box and steering wheel shaft but found when doing so that there is a seal at the top of the box which need to be replaced, thus preventing complete reassembly including the outer shaft casing.

Took some more Pic's of the Super 8 flywheel for Eric including measurements, then it was into the scraping and cleaning. Came back inside to find Wade working on cleaning up the oil cooler, external oil lines and the oil pressure valve. Also found Paul, one of John's mates, inside Big Red working at filling the holes in the cowl. Continued cleaning and, after finishing the parts I had, switched over to the oil cooler housing, oil filter housing and bracket. After that helped Wade clean the outside of the trans which was sitting in a fibreglass tray. Couldn't believe that what we ended up with was what was started with! The trans has an aluminium body/housing/case, call it what you like but, it's aluminium! Has a lot of leaks, rear seal, top cover, gearbox mount studs, front spigot cover. You name it, it leaked! No wonder I couldn't see it was aluminium, it was completely caked it black crap! Even inside the clutch housing!

And about 5 minutes before I left Gina arrived. Gina and Wade are off to "Gil-bloody-gandra"http://www.gilgandra.nsw.gov.au/index.cfm?objectid=4C0D6823-FEA3-0007-81637FC272549DFF to visit Gina's Mum tomorrow and because of that combined with some other matters Wade won't be back in the workshop till Wednesday. I won't get there tomorrow myself as the granddaughters are coming over, but should get there on Monday as there's still scraping and cleaning to attend to.

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Monday 4th May 2009

In Wade's absence just a couple of hours in the workshop cleaning parts and now most are done. But before leaving I did notice the engine splash shields still require "the treatment" as well as the generator, starter and water and fuel pumps.

Before cleaning though, took about 40 pic's of the muffler mounts on the '34 1101 because of a request by Z71Hobbs over on the AACA Packard Forum.

Here are a few extracts, and a link to the AACA thread -http://forums.aaca.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/598491/Packard_Exhaust_Brackets#Post598491

"....I have located a few photos from a 1934 chassis in Wade's Shop in Australia, compliments of Mal. I am trying to determine is if the brackets displayed are correct......"
and
"The next time you are over at wade's shop, would you be able to take some detailed photos of the muffler brackets, both front and rear? I would like to get as many detailed photos as I can get! Also, can you see if he if he has any extra brackets on his spare chassis and if he would be willing to part with those brackets?" Looks like the vultures are circling.

and a link to the Picasa Album with the pic's(No's 16 to 60) -http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/WadeSWorkshopMay2009#

Also took pic's of the old fuel tank sitting in a corner out of Wade's '37 120, this in response to this thread -https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2659&forum=1

A bit of good news, there's a package from Max sitting on Wade's desk.

And another thing, yesterday while driving home in the '38 saw the Ferrari that Rick had been working on back in February so whatever he did, it works! Speaking of yesterday, here's a link to the pic's I took at a Ford display day I stumbled upon at the Ettamogah Pub.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/FordDisplayDayEttamogahPub#

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Wednesday 6th May 2009

After a morning with the granddaughters it was off to the workshop in the afternoon. Shortly after I arrived, so did Wade with the newly machined brake/clutch pedal shaft from Ivan, and it looks great!

While Wade made some gaskets for the re-assembly process I carried on cleaning, this time the engine splash shields and fuel tank straps together with some other minor stuff. Wade also put the top back on the trans but the trans still requires a new rear seal before it can be remounted in "Big Red".

I then took off the rear muffler bracket from the '34 parts chassis and the remainder of the front mount as well. Because the shock adjustment rod runs through the bottom of the rear muffler bracket and the clevis pin attaching it to the shock adjustment lever was heavily rusted up I required help from Wade, because I didn't want to damage anything, on this part of the removal process.

So friend, Z71Hobbs, over on the AACA Packard Forum is in luck. Wade doesn't want to retain the muffler brackets off the spare chassis and I've posted on his thread there about their availability including the parts of the front bracket Wade had sitting on the shelf. There is a U-bolt missing and the front rubber mount is shot, only 75 years since new, and the parts will be returned to the US complete with California dirt still on them from the time Wade imported the '34.

Edit - Almost forgot, both my '41 clock and the clock for "Big Red" arrived in the mail from Barry Smith whose brother, a clockmaker, had repaired them.

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