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Hi Mal

Congrats with the progress! The car looks great and dont new hubcaps just finish the picture! That is one big car!

The same happened to me with the quarter window, but luckily it was cheap and easy to repair, but one of those 'unnecessary happenings" in my case.

How is your paint job generally? I presume you wont need to paint it in the future?

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'Bout damn time!!

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They sure do, and made Eric happy at the same time.

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Bound to happen to me, but it's nice to know I'm not alone.

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Paint's good overall. Except for some small chips and scratches which I'll 'touch up'. I was told when I bought it that it's been repainted twice in it's life from white to off white then to the cream it is now. Getting progressively darker.

Wednesday 7th January 2009

With Wade away the rest of the week there's not much I can do, not that much needs doing. Besides the front-end alignment and the blue slip inspection there are only little catch up items to do. But one thing needing doing, after the wash on Monday, was a polish of the '41. That was my task for the day and Wade was good enough to let me use his Meguiars polish as well as provide rags for the polishing job which I used on the "wax on" part of the job. But I did bring some terry towelling of my own for the "wax off" part. Although indoors out of the sun, it was still bloody hot, and I raised a sweat as usual. This necessitated frequent clean up of Mal to prevent sweat dropping onto the '41. And now, to borrow a phrase from a TV ad of years long ago here, the '41 is "Sparkle-arkle-arkling". I also cleaned all the glass inside and out and now the view is a lot clearer.

Yesterday I'd dropped into the workshop for, at the most, 5 minutes. This was to drop off a door frame mounted rear view mirror I picked up at the Crookwell swap meet back at the end of October for AU$10.00. It has a much longer arm than the present one but came without the door frame fitting. And what do you know our favourite Elf, AKA Wade, had found a mount and a nut for it from one of his goodies boxes. At least I hope that's what he's doing, as these parts and the old short arm mirror were lying on the bench together. if it's not then I might just have to take my business elsewhere! And while I was there yesterday quickly measured the diameter of the radiator overflow tube, as I need some rubber tubing to take the overflow away, seeing it's cut off halfway up the radiator. Also measured the tailpipe OD for the chrome cover/extension I'll be using to "beautify" that aspect of the '41 and found it to be 1&3/4".

And earlier today rang Grippy rubber but found they are shut until Monday 12th. So next week will get the rubber tubing as well as some new rubber bump pads for the top of the pillars where the top rear edge of the doors close and also some for the gas filler door. And just now I've sent an email to MaxMerritt ordering Steeles front and rear windshield channels/rubbers as well as some channels for the rear quarter windows after Monday's mishap.

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Friday 9th January 2009

Drove the '38 up to see Kath's sister at Rouse Hill about a 40 mile round trip. On the trip back stopped at the SuperCheapAuto store at Bella Vista and bought the chromed tailpipe cover/extension for the cosmetic 'resto' treatment to transform the crummy looking tailpipe on the '41. If nothing else it's nice and shiny and will look much, much better exiting under the re-chromed bumper. After returning to Epping, a courier delivery was received from the US. This contained the wiper blades bought on eBay late last year, and they fit the wiper arms! Hallelujah brothers! And on Monday before going to the workshop will go to Grippy Rubber for some rubber "bump stops" for the tops of the door pillars and the gas cap door as well as the rubber tubing for the radiator overflow.

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Saturday 10th January 2009

Stainless exhaust tip installed.

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Looking good. Just out of curiosity, I notice a few cars you took pictures of have the same amber light assy on the bumpers & other cars have nothing added.. Is there an Australian requirement for a particular item on certain cars or just personal preference for a particular unit?

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Howard,

Thanks, the '41 is finally "looking good" after many months of not looking good at all.

As to the amber turn indicators or blinker lights this is a personal preference and safety thing for most. Vehicle registration regulations permit cars to be registered as stock standard when they left the factory whatever their age might be. However should an owner fit things like turn indicators, or say seat belts, into an "old" car for safety reasons that car must then always have those fitted to be registrable. I have chosen to fit turn indicators to the '41 to make driving in traffic easier in this day and age, especially as it's a LHD car in a RHD country! Trying to do hand signals from the wrong side of the car and with 90+ percent of current drivers not knowing what a hand signal is(a gesture yes) is a losing proposition. And they are going to be nice and because originally they came equipped with 12V bulbs, but now have double filament 6V bulbs with both filaments wired into the one circuit. However I'm not fitting seatbelts although these are directly safety related. Might depend on how Kath feels when we're out in the '41 so that could change. And another thing, turn indicators or blinkers must be separate lights so the US practice of the tail/brake light flashing is not acceptable here regardless of originality. So that's why you see US cars(50's, 60's, 70's) with aftermarket blinkers screwed onto their fenders/bodies because of that. In fact Wade with the '37 Super 8 has the US type(Shhhhhh!) but is looking to convert to the bumper mounted units, and I think Jeff with his '52 is also thinking of doing the same from the email I received from him today. Old cars on the road can be a big enough distraction in themselves to other drivers without the added complication of other drivers not knowing where we are going or intending to go.

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Monday 12th January 2009

After doing my civic duty by donating blood went to Grippy Rubber for:

Rubber tubing for the radiator overflow.
Rubber stops for the petrol filler cover on the rear fender.
Rubber stops for the tops of the B pillars.
Large rubber grommet to fill the hole in the carpet for the accelerator pedal rod.

Then at the workshop installed the rubber tubing routing it down through a hole in the front crossmember and it exits about 4" below the '41's undercarriage. Also clamped it to the radiator frame so it doesn't get chopped by the fan. Using a little rubber grease Wade inserted the filler cover stops and pushed while I pulled the stops "tail" using a pair of pliers from underneath the fender. The preferred rubber stops for the B pillar had a body diameter too large for the mounting hole so a fallback stop was used. And the large grommet? Not quite large enough! So I'll drop into Grippy to pick up a bigger size grommet next time I'm in the vicinity. Too bad I can't take the old grommet back but after punching a hole through it, it's now unreturnable.

Fitting the new wiper blades to the wiper arms was more involved than I first thought. Looks like the arms I have may not be "correct", either that or the wiper blades are not "correct" or both! Last Friday when I did the trial fit of a blade to an arm I selected the wrong mounting holes. Sure they fitted but the holes they are supposed to be fitted into wouldn't engage because the "jaws" on the wiper blade were not wide enough. But after some delicate surgery by Dr Wade they now fit. Surgery involved bending and straightening the "ears" on either side of the wiper arm hook to gain just enough clearance. And they now function perfectly. Mind you these are ELECTRIC wipers and there weren't any other options available so they HAD to fit.

The two door mounted side mirrors also need some attention. The left side, although not "show quality" was reasonable but was loose and rattling, it turned out to be secured with self-tapping screws. One of which was pushing the door skin away from the frame from where the skin folds over the frame. A quick drill into the folded over skin then re-tightening and, VOILA, that problem was fixed. Still a rattle though, because the glass in the mirror was also loose in it's frame. A little "blue-tac" judiciously applied at a couple of points and no more rattle. The right side mirror as previously mentioned was useless, because you couldn't see it from the drivers seat! The mirror with the long arm, bought at the Crookwell swap meet, looked like it would do the job though. Except I now learned that it was metric and the nut Wade had scrounged up for it from John's junk box needed to be only half it's present thickness. Clamped the nut in the vice and hack-sawed it in half. Was surprised that it was relatively easy to do so even though having to rotate it in the vice jaws tended to have the blade "stick" a bit but a little care and attention helped to finish that job. Also drilled out the bracket clamp as the new arm has a larger thread and squared off the now slimmed-down nut in the grinder. A gasket was jointly manufactured by WFI and MBM to protect the paint on the door edge and the new mirror installed. Perfect, can now see down both sides of the car!

What more to do? Wade had handed over the Clock to Barry last week to be passed on to his brother for repair. Probably won't see it back for a couple of weeks at least. But a clock isn't a necessity, even if we have make do with a sundial in the meantime using the rotary radio aerial and the shadows it casts! Rang Brian about the front-end alignment, recorded message again so will try later this week. Wade then rang Tony, the blue-slip inspector, and tomorrow after 2:00pm he's available. Tony asked Wade a number of question over the phone and they were all answered in the affirmative so it looks positive. Will dig out all my paperwork on the '41 tonight and contact insurers tomorrow morning to obtain cover for Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance and Green Slip(Third Party) Insurance. Then, all going well, the government in the form of the Roads and Traffic Authority will issue 1 years road registration for the '41 with the appropriate taxes and charges being applied of course. By the end of tomorrow my credit card will be smokin' hot. Then all I have to do is pay for it!

And on Sunday there was a Committee meeting about our 2009 National Packard Rally being held in March. It was at Packardinfo Forum member DavidM's place and David passed on to me an original '41 Owners manual. This had been offered to me by Ross, a Canadian who's restoring a '23 Sport Tourer and he and David have been corresponding because of David's '22 Sport Tourer and his expertise with these vehicles. Turns out the father of a friend of Ross's had died and amongst his possessions was this manual in very good used condition. Ross offered it to me for the princely sum of a pic taken of me and the Manual together with the '41. How could I refuse such an offer, at such a price? And being at David's place I got to see the '11 Maxwell he bought from the US last year. And what do you V8 and S8 guys with oiling problems think about the drip/splash feed total loss oiling system on the Maxwell?

And last week I was surprised to receive an email from an upstate New York couple, Hannah and Bron, about attending our National Rally. Seems my name and email details are in The Packard Cormorant to contact for info on the Rally. Me and my big mouth! Anyway they are arriving just before the Rally ends but will able to attend the Friday run to Kiama on the south coast, probably the best run of the Rally, and the Farewell Dinner and presentations that night. And of course, in my own inimitable way, I pointed them to Packardinfo and you can now see their lovely '27 Roadster in the Owner Registry EDIT - Anyone looking for their '27 Roadster in the Registry won't find it! My apologies to Hannah and Bron However I've added a pic of it here from the East Grand Packards Site. Maybe Eric is right when he calls me "unscrupulous" and "demanding". No one is safe, you have been warned!

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Tuesday 13th January 2009

Started the days work by getting quotes for Insurance coverage for the '41. Spent a lot of time "on hold" but the people in the call centres were Aussies and not located off-shore so at least we understood each other. Ended up going with GIO, the Aussie insurer who I presently have my house and other cars insured with. But to satisfy them, because it was above a certain level of dollar value coverage, I had to provide pic's of the front, rear, engine, speedo and vin number. As well as a letter from my club, Packard Automobile Club of Australia aka PACA, confirming my membership, vehicle ownership and vehicle value! The pic's were no problem as I've photographed just about everything related to the '41. As for the letter, that was another matter altogether as I wanted to get everything done today, and speaking to Barry the club President on Sunday he said his internet had been playing up so I couldn't use him to email me something on the club letterhead. Tried Wade, only got his answering service and left a message for him to call me,turns out today he'd left his mobile phone at home. So turned to Forum member DavidM, who is the PACA Membership Secretary, and he was able to whip me up a letter addressing the requirements of the insurer. Insurance costs? AU$329 for compulsory third party insurance, aka a Green Slip, you need this document to present at the Roads and Traffic Authority office in order to obtain registration of any vehicle. And AU$414 for comprehensive insurance for the '41, that is your call, but the peace of mind is well worth the cost.

Then to the workshop a lot later than I expected because arranging and putting in place the insurance took a long, long time. Found Wade had ground open an oil filter canister for a Super 8 because he's planning to put a modern spin-on filter on his '37 Super 8 in lieu of the original, these being virtually unobtainable in Australia. He's already done one for the '34 but I don't know if he'll do the same setup for the '37 as he did on the '34. Anyway he'd kept the filtering core he'd taken out of the canister after carefully grinding the crimped edge off the centre. Wade showed me the filtering core, and bad move that, as out came the camera and the snapperazzi, aka Mal, sprung into action. Also showed me the split canister which was rusted through in places but that can be repaired. Apparently he got the canister from Harvey who had salvaged it from a wrecked Packard that had been sitting outdoors for years so that could explain the rust and water ingress.

But enough of the warm-up act, now for the main attraction, the Blue Slip Inspection! Headed east in the '41 along Victoria Road through Gladesville where for Wade, in his capacity of PACA Treasurer, we stopped twice so he could go to the bank and to the PACA's accountants office. Only took a few minutes then we were off again heading for Drummoyne where the Blue Slip Inspector, Tony was. Pulled into the Inspection Station to be greeted by Tony saying things like "she's a beauty" and "doesn't she look good". Seemed like a very promising start to the inspection process. First thing Tony did was look under the rear of the car, for a long, long time it seemed. Asked some questions then went away to his office to start preparing the paperwork. Did all the necessary checks coming back a number of times asking more questions about engine size, wheelbase, engine number and vin number, etc. And here's where things went slightly off course. At the weighbridge last year used the thief-proof number as the vin and for the insurances also used the thief proof number as the vin number. But here Tony wanted to see the import documentation. This had the body plate number as the vin number and not the thief proof number! Well, that was it, if the official import documentation said the body plate number then that was what Tony was using no arguments! Fine, I'd adjust the insurance details later, no problem. Back again to the office, then Tony re-appeared holding some blue papers and said "it's a good looking car, but"....... and here the silence was almost deafening until we realised he was kidding. All that remained was to pay Tony, AU$120, and take his pic for posterity holding the Blue Slip paperwork while standing next to the '41.

Back at the workshop after backing the '41 back into it's bay I rang GIO to change the vin number on the Green Slip, to the body plate number, which was easily accomplished, this time without the need to be put on hold. But...... I learnt from this operator that I actually needed a physical copy of the Green Slip to accompany the Blue Slip for registration of the '41 at an RTA office. Seems that until a vehicle is in the RTA system the Green and Blue slips have to be entered manually with subsequent annual re-registrations then able to be handled by their computer system. Would have been nice to know this earlier in the piece but neither of the 2 operators I'd spoken to previously at GIO had mentioned this. So although I now have a Blue Slip the corresponding Green Slip will be picked up from GIO's Hornsby office at 9:00am Wednesday then a bee-line will be made to the Ryde RTA office for registration formalities to be completed.

At this point, on inspecting the '41 after it's run, found there was an oil leak from the rear of the transmission and also found a fuel leak dripping onto the rear sway bar. Jacked up the rear and Wade was under the '41 and quickly fixed the fuel leak by tightening the line fitting involved by about quarter of a turn. Then jacked up the front end and Wade's inspection indicated the trans leak was coming from the O/D Solenoid area. This will be inspected more closely tomorrow and rectifying action taken. And after todays run I'm gaining more confidence in driving the '41, learning to use the mirrors, not to grab the turn indicator stalk to change gear, learning the positioning in lanes from a LHD perspective in a RHD world and generally getting the feel of the '41 and how she handles, which is very nicely but no rally car, and will be even better after a front-end alignment.

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