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Monday 27th June 2011

Arrived at the workshop a "little" later than usual to find Wade under, of all things, a Packard! He was under the front of EdK's '37 120 Touring Sedan adjusting the brakes. Ed had been concerned for some time about the long brake pedal travel he was experiencing and despite bleeding and re-bleeding the brakes couldn't reduce the length of travel. Besides his wife, Margaret, also wasn't impressed with having to push the brake pedal again and again and again for no apparent improvement. Wade tells me that there was no drag at all on the front brakes and he doesn't know how many turns the star adjuster took to bring the pedal up to an acceptable level. Adjusting the rear brakes finished off the pedal travel predicament and after a test drive a very happy Ed was on his way. Now Ed and Margaret will be able to come on PACA's next monthly run on Sunday to The Australiana Pioneer Village at Wilberforce on the far western outskirts of Sydney without the worry they might overshoot it because of dodgy brakes.

But back to my "slightly" late arrival. After I was roundly admonished including threats about deductions from wages (a good one that, how do you deduct something than nothing?) I was set to work, thoroughly chastened, to chase out the threads on Noel's oil filter canister and lid. But I don't call that work, it more along the lines of "Packard therapy". Any tasks to do with getting or keeping a Packard on the road just cannot be construed as work! Isn't there a Confucion saying along the lines of "Happy is he who works on Packards"? Meanwhile, back in the real world, the threads on the top of the tube/pipe in the centre of the canister and the threads in the base of the canister's cap bolt were cleaned using the appropriate die and tap. What had previously been hard to turn now was easily tightened.

By this time Ed had left and we were waiting for Noel when Tony, Noel's mate, arrived. Tony had come down to pick up the '40 110 Convertible Coupe dash and garnish mouldings, he's going to re-woodgrain for RobT from South Australia, that Wade had brought back with him from the Border Run. As I understand it, Tony is using a Grain-It Technologies kit bought by Noel and Peter Packard. Now that Tony's prowess in woodgraining is spreading he's getting "commissions" to do others. Then as Tony was preparing to leave Noel arrived in his '39 120 Touring Sedan. From the trail of oil it left in it's wake didn't look like it would have gone too much further.

Then to work, or is it now viewed as therapy? Old oil filter off with minimum spillage, although from the excess oil on the left side of the engine any spill would have been hard to detect anyway! The bracket holding the oil filter canister to the head was also removed revealing another problem. The retaining bolts penetrate the water jacket. So, besides oil spill, there was now also water spillage. Luckily a large fibreglass catch tray had been positioned undercar otherwise an oily watery mess would have done its impersonation of the incoming tide. After a clean up around the immediate work area the freshly prepared oil filter canister and mounting bracket were loosely bolted to the head. Then the plumbing was re-connected but, instead of a bolt-off, bolt-on operation for this, use of some of the Noel's old fittings was necessary to reconnect the lines to the canister. Meant Noel's old canister, still full of oil, was wrestled for the fittings required. Done, fittings and lines all tightened up, the mounting bracket to the head was then tightened. But......not only did the bolts penetrate the water jacket the thread of the rear most bolt hole was also stripped. And, another thing found with the mounting bolts, they were also whitworth! From the junk box found a pair of the next larger size UNC bolt, tapped the holes out, some loctite sealer and hey presto the replacement filter canister was in place. Filled up the radiator, no leaks at rest. Part filled the canister with oil, cartridge in, top bolted down and engine oil topped up, needed a fair bit because it had been leaking badly. Fired up, no water leaks but there was oil leaking from the canister top seal. Canister top off, nothing apparent causing the leak, canister top back on and re-tightened, a bit harder this time round though. Fired up again, no leaks from water or oil this time, so looked like success. Another 1/2 litre of oil, to top off the system now that everything had had a chance to circulate, and Noel was on his way. Noel too is now ready for PACA's monthly run on Sunday to The Australiana Pioneer Village at Wilberforce.

That done, turned to Big Red's needs. In the lull between Ed leaving and Tony arriving Wade had pulled the oil filter off the old girl, because of an oil leak in that vicinity that's driving him crazy. With the filter off, it was obvious it's not coming from there. Another possibility might be the fuel/vacuum pump, but before that could be investigated Tony had arrived. After Noel's departure, that line of investigation wasn't revisited for now. Instead a road trip was undertaken to 1) source new exhaust manifold to engine pipe bolts, and 2) source new manifold studs. Instead of Lee Bros, Wade took up Harvey's suggestion of visiting Boltmaster at Seven Hills. Sourced the exhaust manifold to engine pipe bolts there but no studs. So off to Lee Bros, but they too had no bananas studs! Instead, bolts with a long shoulder were purchased which are now in the throes of being turned into studs! On our return trip Noel phoned to say he'd reached home, garaged the '39 and was able to report no leaks!

A legacy of Noel's visit today is that Wade agreed to do an undercar mechanical overhaul of Frank's '36 120 Dietrich Convertible which we saw on PACA's April run. Wade will be going through things like brakes, suspension, steering, axle bearings and seals, etc. And Noel took with him the spare '34 exhaust manifold he'd brought over with the '37 NOS one last week. Turns out the guy who had these also has 2 x '33 Standard Eight Sedans. One of these had suffered a hole in the muffler on the weekend and, in dismantling things, the exhaust manifold had literally broken in half! So the guy needs his spare '34 manifold back in a hurry, if not sooner. Noel tells me the manifold that broke bore evidence of a number of previous repairs so it was in a sad, sad way.

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Back on Post #791 about engraving the VIN plates, I've been looking for ways to do this. I looked this weekend for a set of metal stamping numbers with an I(phonetically 'eye'), or a hyphen to make one in combination with a san serif I, without luck. On mine, barely discernible, the dealer and date were rubber stamped. So I was going to have a rubber stamp made for that and seal it with clear, and only metal stamp the number. But Packard used a serif I(eye) for the numeral 1, so continuing to look, and today will check with stamp manufacturers.

But an engraver, if they can stamp the number, or a trophy shop, that's probably a better option than trying to find a metal stamp set with serifs. And I fear that once I had it, I wouldn't be able to resist stamping all kinds of other things with it.

But just thought I would mention that perhaps those plates you have were rubber stamped, and the ink wore off over years of wiping off the cowl. Maybe.

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I've used a trophy shop for the the portions that were factory stamped (VN) with very satisfactory results.

Hope you have luck on finding the stamps but to get it to the detail and perfection you're looking for, probably not an easy task. Unless you find the hyphen or a good shop that can precisely match it or possibly even an old time dealer set, would imagine you will wind up having a custom stamp made.

Not a cheap option but Owen_Dyneto posted a picture of the Packard fonts some time back. Perhaps that and an inquiry to one of the custom stamp mfgs like this onehttp://www.infinitystamps.com/alphabet_stamps.html would be an option. At least if you got a custom set you could go into business.

Tuesday 28th June 2011

Wade is away for a couple of days so yesterday, before leaving the workshop, I suggested coming down today to complete the unfinished manifold studs. Good idea, I thought, should only take an hour or so. Took slightly longer, being in the vicinity of 4 & 1/2 hours before I'd finished the 13 studs required. Yesterday I'd just hacksawed off the heads of the bolts being used as "stock" for the studs required. But before leaving yesterday had Wade figure out how long the stud and new threaded length needed to be. Turned out by my cutting off the head of the bolt for the "stock" each was about 1/8" too long. So another series of hacksaw cuts were required this morning to trim the 13 down to the right length. Next was cutting the new thread. First one started off well, threads cutting easily until I realised that what I thought was easy cutting was the "stock" turning in the vice. One stud ruined. Second one clamped much more firmly in the vice and cutting well until I realised the thread was cutting at an angle to the axis of the "stock". Second stud ruined. Third one clamped in the vice, and this time it was a combination of the woes of both one and two, with the thread not cutting straight and the "stock" turning in the vice! Third stud ruined.

Time to take stock.

Determined if I ground a champher on the end of the "stock", so the die could start on a slight taper, I'd have a better chance of cutting a thread parallel to the "stock's" axis. And not to be too gentle in tightening the handle of the vice! And what do you know? It worked! Felt very pleased with the first one, only needed another 12. Fortunately I learned from my mistakes and didn't butcher another "stock" in the process. Did have to cut 3 new "stocks" from bolts to replace the "stocks" ruined but did so with one hacksaw cut each, so I learned there too. With one of the lessons of life being to learn from your mistakes, today was certainly a day I learned a lot! The studs are longer than the studs they'll replace and will probably require some trimming before or after they're fitted. But that's a story for another day, and as they used to say at the end of whatever serial was playing at the Saturday arvo flicks "don't miss the next thrill packed episode"!

Quote: Joe,

Maybe.....it's certainly possible in light of your experience, but I'm not sure that was the case here in Oz!

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The use of the words 'stud' and 'Mal' in the same sentence makes me feel just ever so slightly unwell... although had you been manufacturing nuts it might be a different story. LOL

Grinding a chamfer on the end of the rod to be threaded certainly helps a great deal and is a handy lesson without a doubt. The other one you may not of heard of (or at least I assume so since you didn't mention it) is the use of cutting compound. A good cutting compound makes it much easier to cut threads than they would otherwise be. A squirt of oil helps, but the real stuff makes it that much better again.

Quote:

Joe, this way please.

Sunday 3rd July 2011

Oh, woe is Noel!

Some pic's from todays PACA run to The Australiana Pioneer Village at Wilberforce. About 5 minutes after Noel left, I received a phone call advising the OD on his '39 120 had locked up. The remaining PACA members drove to offer assistance and/or advice but it was apparent nothing could be done to fix it on the spot. Suffice to say the '39 suffered the indignity of being trucked back to the workshop on a Tilt Tray Tow Truck. More tomorrow, it's been a long day.

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Poor car. This isn't the first time it's suffered such an indignity because of the OD is it. Maybe it's time to get firm and threaten to gut, consign parts to the scrap pile, or even replace the OD unless it gets its act together. Too nice a car to be laid up by one recalcitrant assembly.

What is it with this guy's car? I think I saw it on www.imamistake.com.au/Noel...