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Friday 29th April 2011

Continued with the badge bar today, First checked that it would bolt onto the bumper grill guard bar. Well it almost did, only trouble was the bolts I bought for this purpose were too short! A quick trip to the hardware store for new hardware and I was back in business. Then, back on the bench, mocked up the badge bar with the various badges to get placement and spacings right. Marked holes for the six badges which will be mounted although there is space for 1 or 2 more, but future rallies will fill that in time. Centre punched the holes and using the drill press bored pilot holes for each badge mount. Went back to the bench and re-checked the badges to the pilot holes and all except one looked good. Pressed on with the 3/16" finish drill and completed that phase just needing some file work on the one hole to get it to align. That's the best I've ever done, usually have about 50% of the holes out of alignment. So for these twelve holes my error rate was reduced to 8.333%, almost acceptable! Then in mounting the badges to the bar found the bolts I'd purchased were too long. But a session with the hacksaw followed by clean up on the grinder remedied that. Left things at that but have brought the semi-finished bar home to clean it and polish up the badges for installation on Monday.

John told me today that Wade had come in on Tuesday morning to pick up a few things he'd forgotten to pack in Big Red for the trip south. Wade had also helped John solve a wiring problem John had with a car he was working on. About an hour later John rang Wade to thank him because the car he was working on was now fixed. Instead of getting Wade, Gina answered the phone and told John that Wade was very unhappy because he was in the middle of changing a flat tyre on Big Red. The weather here for the last week or so has been wet and miserable so you can just imagine Wade by the side of the road getting soaked while wrestling a '37 Super Eight wheel and tyre onto Big Red. Getting it off is the easy part, the size, weight and alignment factors in getting it back on are the hard part. And Graham tells me that Wade and Gina had at least reached Sale last night. Graham hails from Sale and Wade had rung to let him know he arrived at his home town.

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Quote:

Mal, I followed the given link. Quotation: "...In Germany it would be called Nackerblitz (nude lightning),...".
Perhaps in a different Germany than the one I live in. We don't invent special names for every single folly.

If you get many more bumper badges, you're going to have to consider heavier-duty front springs to carry all that extra weight!

I learned that men should wear large medals above the left breast pocket.

Dave,

You ain't seen nothing till you see Big Bad Barry's '35!

Gerd,

Soviet military types easily qualify.

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Monday 2nd May 2011

Yesterday, at home, I'd polished the badges to be mounted and attempted to polish the badge bar itself but only with limited success on the latter. At the workshop today re-finished the front of the bar on the belt sander and wire wheel, then re-polished it. Using contact adhesive, glued a narrow strip of thin rubber to the rear of the bar where it bears against the bumper grill guard bar. Trial fit of the badge bar to the bumper grill guard bar was good and with it in place measured for rubber spacers to fit between the badge bar and the retaining clamps. Cut the spacers from a length of fuel injection hose I'd bought a couple of years ago to replace a leaking hose on my son's BMW. Repco would only sell the hose in minimum 1 metre lengths so I ended up keeping more than I used, but it came in handy this time round. With everything ready, bolted the badge bar to the bumper grill guard bar. Then the badges were mounted to the badge bar with a minor adjustment made to the PACA badge in the middle, contact cementing a small piece of thin rubber to its back to avoid a squeak. All done, helped Rick push a Mazda van out of the way then drove the Coupe home. The whole exercise took something like 8 hours to complete, spread over 3 days, although the more proficient and confident would have accomplished it in a couple of hours. But I am happy to have achieved what I achieved, being an accomplishment for me.

Tomorrow I'm taking the Coupe for a run about 100 miles north. Should be a good hit out for the freshly re-gasketed manifolds. Going to see a guy, AllanC, who has a '40 Convertible Coupe and who is interested in joining PACA. On the way I'm picking up PeterL who sighted the car about a month ago at the Hunter Valley Steamfest which also has a large car display as part of the festivities. Apparently Peter went looking for the owner of the '40 Convertible Coupe while Allan went looking for the owner of the green '38 Sedan, Peter! Because Peter and Allan's paths didn't cross that day I took up the running as club secretary and 5 phone calls later, over the course of a couple of days, Allan made contact with me. From there I've arranged to meet him tomorrow and it's only fitting that Peter accompany me.

And yesterday, Gina emailed me a couple of pic's taken with her iPhone of most of the Packards lined up at the start of the Tasmanian Rally.

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Well done Mal, an excellent job on the badge bar.

Also I hope that Gina continues to keep us up to date on their travels in 'The Apple Isle'. Perhaps we could consider a Packard contingent for the Targa Tasmania one day?

Tuesday 3rd May 2011

After picking up PeterL at Morrisset, on the way north in the Coupe, and about 10 minutes away from our destination I called AllanC and was given detailed directions on how to find and approach the property because of the dangerous corner the entrance is located on. Made it there safely, to be greeted by Allan, Anne and friend MalcolmB at the front gate, but only because we were in the Coupe. If we'd been in a modern car, we would have arrived without the accompanying welcoming throng! Then, after a refreshing cup of tea and Arnott's Milk Arrowroot biscuits, a longtime Aussie favourite, we viewed the collection. But, enough of the chit-chat, I'll let the pic's speak for themselves.

See this link for the Picasa album of today's pic's, most of which are captioned. There are some interesting snippets, one of which will no doubt set Packard tongues a wagging!

Quote:Matt,

Another pic below. It came with this comment
"Pepe says "tough life south of the border" may have to return to mainland sometime in next month" Pepe is FredD better known on PackardInfo as PepePackard. That's him on the right of the pic.

Quote:I would expect a certain Packard Biposto will be leading the charge at the Targa?

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Monday 9th May 2011

Not much happening. Did take Harvey's brake drum puller to the workshop this morning. Big Bad Barry had borrowed it to change over a spare pumpkin into his '35 Sedan, and had returned it to me at the PACA committee meeting last Thursday evening. First thing I noticed at the workshop is that John and Rick each had an additional hoist installed over the weekend. Shouldn't be so difficult now to schedule Packard time on a hoist!

Also had a PM, over on the PAC Site, from a US Packard guy who's going to be in Sydney shortly for a 10 day stay. In the midst of trying to tee up some Packard and other car related activities during his stay so he doesn't go into withdrawal.

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Wednesday 11th May 2011

Latest pic from Gina of the Tasmanian Packard Rally. Gina's words used as the pic caption!

And Brian, the US '49 Packard owner, missed his flight and now arrives tomorrow. I'd tee'd up a run for him and his wife on Sunday to a couple of old car events, weather is looking good, but they have other commitments. I'll now catch up with Brian next week for some Packard related activities.

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