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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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Thursday 7th May 2009

The tables are turned!

What does that mean?

The YouTube videos of Mal in action at the workshop is the explanation! Said to Wade I'd start on cleaning up the chassis. So after re-locating the trans from the tray it was sitting in and disposing of the dregs and lees from the trans cleaning it was into action. But unbeknownst to me Wade had picked up my camera and snapped what he thought were candid shots of Mal in action. And unbeknownst to Wade the camera was set on video, so I've uploaded the 3 shots/videos he took to YouTube, see links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXXakQZ659E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8NAA_iOUUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9dksnRR96A

EDIT - Looks like the YouTube videos don't work. But all is not lost, see pic's 106, 107 & 108 in the Picasa album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/WadeSWorkshopMay2009#

FURTHER EDIT - YouTube videos now working.

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Youtube links work fine for me.

Quote:
Good to know.

By the way, the '34 Club Sedan you see in the pic on the wall of the last video is Wade's original car, pic was taken a long time ago.

Friday 8th May 2009

Morning spent with Wade chasing parts. First to ABC Bearings to pick up the new axle bearings and to get a rear trans seal, a timing cover seal, upper steering box shaft seal, roller bearings for clutch pedal and roller bearings for king pins. Got all except those for the king pins. While there Wade showed Dennis one of the damaged rear axle bearings, Dennis just glanced at it and said "Been sitting for a long time?" And that's what had happened, Big Red spent from 1961 to 2007 until Wade bought it, sitting in a Museum with very little use. Apparently a "small rust area" will form then while being used will cause the hardened steel to chip away in that area. A similar thing happens when cars are transported long distances because the bearing is not rotating and the car "bounces" on the one point causing similar damage. This can be especially so if cars are shipped by train.

Then on to Cedrays, an engineering and welding supplies company, for some threaded plugs to use as welch plug replacements. These will be available next week as they weren't in stock. Then to Hare and Forbes, a machinery supply company, chasing replacements for the 2 broken wheels on the engine crane but without luck. Then to Jaycar to buy a new battery powered movement for Gina's Mum's wall clock, got it! Then approaching the workshop dropped in to see Col, the Brake Guy, so Wade could pay the bill for the rebuilt brake parts picked up last week. Then back to the workshop.

At the Workshop, Wade installed the upper seal on the steering box and re-installed the steering shaft cover. Next will be further clean, paint and re-installing the steering box back into "Big Red". Then it was off to see Sam and Ivan for a "spot" of welding and some lathe work. But first, just as we were stepping out the door Tony, Noel's panelbeater friend, arrived. Tony looked over the Water distribution plate Wade had detached from the water jacket side cover plate and declared he could make one to replace the rusty original. Later at Sam and Ivan's. Sam spot welded the nuts holding the handbrake cable positioning clamp to the inside of the removable trans crossmember. This because it's impossible to hold the nut while tightening the bolts holding the clamp to the crossmember, unless as Wade said, you have the hands of a gynacologist! The lathe work involves a slight machining of the housing at the rear of the trans for the replacement oil seal being used. OD of replacement seal is 72mm while housing size is 71.4mm = 2&13/16", or "just a smidgeon".

Back at the workshop Wade got a call from Tony "Shocks" that "Big Red's" shocks were ready. And earlier in the day Wade had a call from All Metal Bumpers advising the grill and other parts(EDIT - for the '34) being re-chromed were ready to be picked up. So it looks like Wade will pick up these parts one day next week.

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