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Friday 28th October 2011

On the way to the workshop picked up my sister Diana from the railway station because she's interested in buying a car. Unfortunately not a Packard, just something to get her around in. John currently has two cars for sale, a Lexus ES300 Sedan and a Volvo V40 Wagon, to help pay for the upcoming wedding of his daughter in December. When we arrived at the workshop Wade was pulling the plugs from Junior and performing a compression test. Left Wade doing that while Diana inspected the Lexus then we had to drive to where John's son was working because he's currently using the Volvo as his daily driver. Unfortunately neither car took her fancy, for reasons not directly related to the cars, so they both were No Sales. Still, I'm sure there are plenty of eager buyers out there just waiting for the chance to help finance John's daughters wedding!

After dropping Diana at the railway station it was back to the workshop where Wade had completed the compression test, see photo's for results. Wade had also cleaned, re-gapped and re-installed the plugs but Junior refused to start again. Juniors battery is currently on slow charge and because Wade is coming in on the weekend to do a little work on The Fossil will try and fire up Junior then.

Speaking of The Fossil, that's what was turned to on my return. Installed the vacuum tubes and through the firewall fitting for her braking system. Also did the through the firewall vacuum wipers fitting and oil pressure fitting. Finished off with some of the upper into the firewall bolts that attach from inside the cabin. Then it was off to the Eastwood Rugby Club for lunch. Last time at that venue because the food standard has been slipping, something the restaurant owner/manager wouldn't acknowledge.

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Sunday 30th October 2011

Went for a short run in the Coupe today to the Rolls Royce Owners Club of Australia New South Wales Branch Concours Day at Linnwood House. I used to work with the guy who organised the RR Concours and, having a couple of spare hours on a Sunday morning, took the opportunity to check it out. Funny, mine was the only Packard there!

Link to RR Concours pic's. Most pic's are uncaptioned.

And met a guy there who knows Wade, SimonA, he's the owner of the '51 Riley. Gave Wade a "hot lap" around Eastern Creek Raceway some years ago in a RR. And says he'll pop onto the workshop one day because he's only just round the corner

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Monday 31st October 2011

Caught up with Wade early afternoon, after spending the morning with the grand-daughters. Wade was trying to dig out the best of the vacuum and Bijur lines from the shelves, but! But, where there should have been a choice from two sets there was only one set of lines. Where do these things disappear to? Wade was sure the lines he couldn't find were in much better "shape" than those found. Will have to reshape those that were found because they have suffered over the years. While Wade was digging out lines and giving them a preliminary clean, I was taking them to the next level on the wire wheel and/or the blasting cabinet as required. Wade also disassembled the two Bijur reservoirs for the best mounting bracket, top and pump apparatus. These too received the wire wheel treatment. All this is part of the process of getting the firewall hardware, inside and out, mounted so other work can then proceed. And John, believe Wade will call you tonight.

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Mal,
I have quite a few bits and pieces of the Bijur lube system left over from my '29 projects. Let Wade know he is welcome to anything he can use.
David

David,

Melbourne Cup Day, but unfortunately I didn't make it to the workshop! Which as I write this, will be closed up, the occupants having adjourned to a Melbourne Cup luncheon to celebrate the race that stops a nation!

But I'm sure Wade, once the merriment is over, will read your post and contact you regarding your generous offer if required. From what I understand, all the chassis and running gear lines and lubrication points are done. It's now about getting the supply and pump part of the system cleaned, finished, mounted and tested. But a few questions spring to mind concerning the Bijur lubrication system, being:

It is a total loss system, isn't it, and being total loss it will drip?
Knowing Wade's continual struggle to eliminate oil leaks, in his and others Packards, will he be able to cope with this?
Or, being part of the Packard package for that year, he'll just have to grin and mop it up?

Sure, it's a total loss system, so it does drip. Want to see a photo of my garage floor after 46+ years of parking the car in the same location? It isn't pretty. But on the other hand, never a need to replace any item lubricated by the Bijur in nearly 85,000 miles. To me that's a good trade-off.

O_D, just as I thought. Guess the next step is to address the question to Wade to see how he's going to handle it both physically and mentally!

Quote:
YES, no doubt many others would too!

Wednesday 2nd November 2011

Alas, alack, oh woe is me! Soon after I arrived at the workshop these cries of anguish resulted because my camera wouldn't work! As Wade said to Harvey, who phoned while I was trying to coax the camera into action, I looked quite lost. At times Wade is amused about me and the camera, except when an unexpected flash goes off in his face. Recently I wrote an article about a recent PACA run which included this: "Many a time Wade has joked, at least I thought it was a joke but now I'm not so sure, that my camera is welded to my hand. The day before the run there was an advertising brochure in the daily paper which showed a wrist strap to which portable electronic devices can be attached. Wade seemed to think this apparatus would be right up my alley and presented me with the advertising brochure!"

That aside, looks like my plan of attack to bring the camera back to life is:
1) Try a different memory card and fresh batteries, then if that fails,
2) Read the instructions for a solution, then if that fails,
3) Buy a new camera. In fact, on the way home popped in and perused the digital camera range available in my price bracket, cheap!
Gerd, this is one way to reduce the number of pic's I post. In fact, because of no pic's today, I'm going into withdrawal!

Aside from the photography famine, progress was made on The Fossils firewall hardware installation. Yesterday Wade had POR-15'd the various pipes, Bijur bottle fittings and some other parts. Firstly, some trial fittings of pipes to the already installed through the firewall fittings for the oil pressure gauge and the vacuum wipers. Only trouble was, they wouldn't fit! One is a male fitting, the other a female fitting and somewhere along the line they'd been swapped over. Easily fixed by refitting them to the correct sides of the firewall. Then after a MBM gasket the Bijur reservoir bottle was fitted and the pump apparatus and bottle top installed. Next was figuring out which pipes went where. This was much helped by a pic Wade has in his Restoration Folder of that side of the firewall of the replacement body before being dis-assembled some years ago. Wasn't helped though by the various extra kinks the pipes had acquired over the years, although they all fitted together in the end. Last job for the day was drilling and mounting the "wavy" retainer plate near the base of the firewall which positively locates the Bijur oil line and two vacuum lines. My biggest disappointment was that I couldn't take pic's because I'd hoped to post pic's of the process in this thread!

And last night, Wade did speak to John about Juniors engine woes. John is biting the bullet and treating Junior to an engine rebuild so Junior wont be leaving the workshop any time soon.

Lastly, this afternoon Gina takes to the skies and is travelling to the Kingdom of Bhutan for a couple of weeks holiday.

Quote:
Mal, what would it be like if you would reduce the number of pic's? There are certain moments in life when "too much" is dead right!


Cardboard cone filled with tons of sweets, given to children on their first school day in Germany.


[picture source: www.op-online.de]

Thursday 3rd November 2011

Instead of "Alas, alack, oh woe is me" it was cheer and goods spirits today. Well, at least it was in my little corner of the world. The camera works! First tried a different memory card, worked but blurry pic's. Old card in again still no go with error message of "card locked". Reference to the manual was useless so turned to Google. Typed in "memory card locked Canon powershot" and lo and behold an answer of: "...it's because the little white lock tab on the memory card has slid into the locked position...". Never knew that a tiny little card had a tiny little switch on it's side. A flick of the switch later and I'm back in business, almost. Pic's still blurry. In all my efforts to fix the problem I'd upset my camera settings, More operation of buttons and finally fully functioning again. Phew!

At the workshop there was a change of pace to start out with, Wade gave Gina's Celica a logbook service. First needed to put Big Red out in the rain, Junior into the slot vacated by Big Red and the Celica onto the hoist. Basically it was drain the engine oil and auto trans fluid, replace the oil filter and refill with fresh oil and ATF. Along with visual checks of other fluid levels, all OK, except the windscreen washer reservoir required a minor top up. Other visual checks included the brake pads, tyres and CV joint covers. Wade was going to change the timimg belt until John advised because it has VVT it doesn't have a belt but a chain. At the same time Wade was going to replace an engine mount which had deteriorated but, because a spare wasn't available, that will now be done another day along with a new accessories drive belt. Major part of the process is removing the plastic covers from atop and below the engine compartment.

That done, turned to Junior and returned him to his position on the hoist. Although John has "authorised" an engine rebuild, rather than dive straight into that, Wade has adopted a more measured approach. First the head came off to check whether there was something obvious, like a stuck valve that could explain the compression readings, especially the 0 from #3. Nothing obvious at first glance, turning the engine over by hand showed all valves opening and closing and the head gasket appeared to be intact. Turned to the bottom end next. Removed the sump(pan), again nothing obvious. Then #3 big end cap removed and the piston and rod knocked out. Big end journal is in the vicinity of 0.040" undersize, slightly ovoid and the journal surface appears "scratchie". Cleaned up #3 piston top which is stamped as 0.040" oversize but haven't yet checked the bore for size and taper.

And last night I received an email from pepepackard advising "...have a good range of junior parts for an engine rebuild if John needs any...". This from a guy who found he had 5 Six/110 engines when he moved house a year or so ago, he thought he only had a couple!
Fred.

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