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Mal, congrats on getting the old girl back on the road, and sharing with us the process.

Also Idaho called, and they still would like all that dirt you smuggled out of the country back!

Yes, congratulations, Mal....a long journey.

Hopefully, a few times fuel in and fuel out the guage will settle down (mine did).

Bet the tranny leak is just a seal replacement.

Looking forward to seeing it!

The best is saved for last! Enjoy driving the 41!

Mal, now that the '41 is "done", it's time to think of the next project. May I suggest a "Speedster"?????

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John,

You're right, it isn't 'finished' yet, and probably never will be. There are some things still to be done and other things will come up from time to time needing to be done to keep her on the road. But that's part of the "joy" of owning an old car, isn't it?

And your comment about the enjoyment and pleasure of working on it is very true. I'd never really understood the term "enjoy the journey" before, but having gone through this experience I now well understand it's meaning. It has been a wonderful journey over the past 18 months. In fact my wife Kath is now worried that I'll be around the house more and getting under her feet because the '41's done!

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Kev,

I don't think the planet's axis will shift for the sake of a few, well quite a few, pounds of Idaho dirt now being down-under. But if some Idaho bureaucrat wants a tax-payer funded "junket" to come down-under to retrieve their precious soil they are welcome to do so.

I'd like to thank a long list of people who have contributed to me and the '41 is some way over the course of this journey. Instead of listing them I won't, because if I do I'll be sure to miss someone out along the way. Instead I'll categorise them and you'll recognise yourselves from the form of contribution made, some in more than one category!

The seller of the '41
The prior owner of the '41
The shippers of the '41
The eBay sellers - funny, how often a particular part required would come up at the appropriate time. They must have been reading the Blog!
The Packard parts vendors
The Australian businesses and workers who performed work on, or for, the '41.
The Australian businesses and workers who supplied parts/hardware/paint/lubricants used in the work performed on the '41.
PACA members
Packardinfo members
Those who critiqued
Those who offered advice
Those who offered help
Those who offered support - at times this helped carry me through, lying underneath a Packard for long hours scraping and cleaning isn't a very uplifting life experience.
My family - For supporting me wholly with this strange obsession I now have for a long defunct automobile.

And the blog wont end at this point. As things happen to the '41 I'll continue to update here but it will be a more irregular occurrence than before.

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Eric,

There could be a "twinkle" in my eye for such a project. Our hours in the Chatroom, yours being late at night or more correctly early in the morning, have drawn me to that concept at times. However, my skills in fabrication are extremely limited, and I'll have to resign myself to working within the means and abilities I have at my disposal. But I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when I unveil my "secret project" at the appropriate time.

Friday 16th January 2009

After arriving at the workshop rang Brian, the guy who'll do the front end alignment, but no answer so I'll try again on Monday. Then it was under the '41 for the trans oil leak fix. From inspection it appeared to be leaking from where the O/D solenoid meets the O/D housing. There hadn't been any leaks from the trans or O/D for the 13 months the '41 sat in the workshop. Although that could be explained by the lack of oil in both when they were drained and re-filled as reported earlier.
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Anyway, last year, we'd re-assembled the O/D solenoid the way we found it on dis-assembly with a new MBM gasket between the solenoid housing and the adaptor and no gasket between the adaptor and the O/D housing. There is a little stepped shoulder where the adaptor snugs into the O/D housing and it appears this is where the leak's coming from. So to try and seal the situation MBM sprang into action making a small circular gasket out of paper gasket material. Took three goes, first two stamped the outer ring then the inner ring but each time the gasket split, being only about 1/8" wide. With the third attempt stamped only the inner ring than using scissors cut the outer ring and success. Also used some gasket cement on all surfaces to help the sealing process, although it wasn't used on the other larger gasket which is doing a great job. Didn't take it for a test run as this will be incorporated in the drive for the front end alignment which is about 9 miles each way.

Then Wade turned to workshop maintenance in the absence of other things to do. Yesterday he'd gone to Hare & Forbes a machinery business and bought new "gloves" and new media for his blasting cabinet. The old gloves had split after about 5 years service while the media had lots of impurities from it's operation. He was giving it a re-build and also adding a vacuum to it to make the process easier, visibility or the lack of it being a major issue in it's use. First thing was to drain out the old media and this was done by taking out the plastic plug in the bottom of the trough reservoir and catching the media in 2 buckets. It'll be saved and cleaned of major impurities and used as top up for the new media. The gloves, perspex cover, the filter from the side and the sponge stripping sealing the edges of the cover were all removed. Cleaned the upper edge of the cabinet using brake cleaner to provide a clean surface for new sealing strips. It also prompted a general clean up of the immediate area around the blasting cabinet, as escaping dust coated everything in the vicinity. Filed out the hole where the filter element vents to accept a plastic fitting from an old vacuum cleaner. Then looking at the new gloves it was obvious they were much bigger than the ones they were replacing. I suggested that they could be cut down to size but Wade didn't support that theory. So I left Wade to clean up the perspex cover, which has a stick on plastic throw away panel, to provide vision of the job, while I went to Hare and Forbes to change the gloves for ones of the right size. Mission accomplished, except I returned with the gloves I left with because Richard at Hare & Forbes said they were a "one size fits all applications" and you cut them down to suit the size you require. But the trip wasn't wasted, because on the way back to the workshop I went to Grippy rubber to pick up some adhesive sided rubber stripping. Also took the opportunity while there to pick up three more rubber grommets for the '41, but more of those later.

Returned to the workshop to find Wade screwing on the freshly cleaned perspex cover complete with fresh plastic viewing section. It had taken almost all the time I was away to get the gunk off the perspex from the additional tape used in securing the plastic viewing section over the years. The sealing stripping was then measured, cut to size and applied to the lip where the perspex cover seals. Because this is a self-assembly type cabinet the perspex cover didn't fit as squarely as it should at the two lower corners. The bottom right corner was fixed by packing under that leg with some cardboard. The left lower corner continued to catch so out with a big file and after many passes and trial fits managed to have that corner clearing the cabinet frame too. Then the gloves, using an old glove as a template Wade cut the left side glove then trimmed about another 3/8" after a trial fit. The next step, installing the left side glove and securing it with the large radiator type clamps used is easier than it sounds. But Wade, with my minor holding and poking assistance, managed to do it. The right side was a little more difficult because the glove was cut to just the right size not allowing any leeway to help in fitting it. But three attempts later it was on. Almost there, now came the fitting of the vacuum cleaner. Wade has an old household vacuum he uses for his cars but it was at the end of it's life with not much suction but should have enough for this job. Tested it, gave very weak suction, and then fitted the hose piece to the filed out vent hole. Fired up the cabinet then switched on the vacuum, no or very little effect was noticed. Scratched heads then Wade said the vacuum should have a bag but hasn't had one for years. He then proceeded to open it up to be met by all the crap he'd vacuumed out of his '34 years ago. No wonder it had low suction, it was chock-a-block full! A clean up of the dirt recepticle and the hose which was also blocked and what do you know? It works much, much better with very good suction! Plugged it all back in and the improved suction almost had the perspex cover imploding into the cabinet. Earlier Wade had pointed out a plastic plug on the cabinet back wall and this he now removed. Tried again and almost perfect. By the way, thanks go to Barry Smith for the vacuum fitting suggestion, he's got one on his blasting cabinet! End result - A better functioning blasting cabinet now awaiting it's next Packard job!

Now back to the '41. As mentioned earlier I'd bought three more large rubber grommets from Grippy. One was to replace the grommet for the accelerator pedal shaft with a larger grommet, but I ended up with one of the same diameter so no joy there. The other two were to provide perimeter rings for each of the courtesy lights in the front kick panels. And these worked well, so there was joy there. However the #$%^&*@ clips that hold the kick panels are something else altogether so any joy gained was offset by the struggle to get these pressed into place.

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Monday 19th January 2009

Before going to the workshop made a phone call to Brian Horne, and teed up a front-end alignment for the '41 @ 10:00am on Thursday morning. I'd also rang Wayne, the guy with the engine and trans on the Central Coast, on Saturday and I'm to ring him back Thursday to arrange to go see it soon. Just before I left for the workshop a courier arrived with the front and rear windscreen seals and the quarter window rubbers for the '41 from Max. Ordered on the 9th and received on the 19th, halfway round the world, is not bad at all. Only problem is, now I've got to pay for 'em!

At the workshop found Wade had the '37 Super 8 up on Rick's hoist, Rick being off on holidays this week. But first checked the windscreen rubbers for apparent fit by holding them up to the '41, with Wade's help, to make sure they are what is required. Seeing there was nothing to do on the '41 assisted Wade in removal of the '37's speedo cable. The speedo had stopped working 1) because the cable had snapped at the trans end, and 2) the speedo itself appeared to be jammed. Wade had already disconnected the speedo and removed it from the dash but was having difficulty in getting the cable out. Ended up removing the front floor to reveal 1) a piece of wire tieing it to the x-member and 2) a clamp also holding it to the x-member. Besides that, where it ran behind the heater it was wedged in necessitating loosening of the heater mounting bolts to give sufficient clearance to allow the cable to be freed. Last struggle was it was wedged between the oil pressure fitting/line and a heater outlet bend. Fortunately the heater outlet bend could be rotated enough to allow the cable to be finally extricated from the grasp of the '37 and the cable housing and the cable were then cleaned up.

Into Wade's crew cab Holden Ute and it was off to General Instruments, the guys who did the new handbrake cables for John's '39 and my '41. And there, for those many many Chevy lovers, was a blue '57 Bel-air in the workshop. Gave them the speedo and old cable and they indicated they fix the speedo first then will make a new cable to ensure 1) it works, and 2) to get the cable length right. Should take a couple of days, although Wade was hoping turn-around time might be more like the day it took for John's brake cables. Then on the way back called into Altronics for Wade to exchange a part he'd bought last week. Next was Grippy Rubber as Wade needed some rubber to make new seals for the headlights and Trippe lights for his '34. I took the opportunity to look for a bigger rubber grommet to replace the one I used for the accelerator pedal rod, but without any luck. And a note about the Trippe lights, the reflector is in two parts with the lower part able to swivel up and down, suppose this enables fine adjustment of the lightbeam. Pity, but I didn't take any pic's of this and Wade took them home to work on them.

Back at the workshop Wade took the inoperative reversing light switch off the '37 and using a door switch's contacts fashioned together a working switch which tested as working on the bench. However installing it into the '37 didn't give the same result and will some fine tuning to get it operating properly. Wade was also saying today that, after the National Rally in March, he'll be doing some serious work on the '37. He intends to pull the engine and trans mainly to find and fix all the oil leaks. He's also mentioned doing the shocks the other day but what else I don't really know. But if it's anything like my '41 and John's '39 there's sure to be more than just that. I also noticed the diff centre had a liberal coating of oil, grease and dirt on it so it could well receive attention too. Wade, when you read this I'm not being critical, just saying it as it is!

The other news in the workshop is that Darren has been working on Kevin's Daimler 5.3litre V12. The fuel tanks went in on the weekend and Darren replaced all the flexible hose pieces in the fuel delivery system today. Then this afternoon it fired up for the first time since it arrived who knows how many months ago. Sounded like it might be running on one bank only but after a number of starts and runs was sounding better and running smoother. 'Cause this might have been contributed to by the liberal dose of fuel injector cleaner added initially. And then after adding fluids there was power steering and auto trans movement as well!

Won't be back to the workshop till Thursday when we'll take the '41 to have it's front-end alignment.

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Thursday 22nd January 2009

Took the '38 down to the workshop and after driving the '41 out, in readiness for it's trip to Greenacre for a front-end alignment, backed the '38 into the vacant bay. Then with Wade driving, because I'll have plenty of behind the wheel time after this, we proceeded to Greenacre to Brian and his wheel alignment device. The machine is accessed by the back end of it being lowered to the ground by releasing the air from the airbags which lift it up level. And after running the '41 up onto the machine Brian moved a large trolley jack under the rear cross-member and used that to raise the back end of it up. Apparently it works fine for the usual run of the mill modern cars but something with a bit of weight, like a Packard, needs some assistance. Then the airbags were pumped up and the support legs dropped into place. The '41 was then gently edged into place so that both front wheels sat squarely on the pivoting platforms beneath them. Brian proceeded to measure Castor and Camber and found out this:

Left front, Castor spot on, Camber out by 1 degree, about 1/4",
Right front, Castor out by 1 degree, about 3/16", Camber spot on.

And this after the initial front-end set-up through the magic of Wade's "eyeball aligner", not bad! Although we had the shims for the left front Camber adjustment with us, we didn't have the time to put them in place there. Plus I'm going to make more shims in case they are needed either for this job or as stock for the future. The right front Castor is another matter entailing taking off the wheel, undoing the upper outer bolt and seeing which way the offsetting washer is located. Wade thinks it is as far as it can go so another washer with greater offset needs to be made it seems. But these we'll look at next week because I can't get back to the workshop before then. Brian did adjust the toe-in/toe-out though, so now we have a better aligned car. It's good enough for short trips at the moment and that's all I'll be doing until the Camber and Castor adjustments are made.

Back at the workshop Wade showed me the carb off the Super 8 which he'd taken over to Carburettor Service Company (CSC) on Monday afternoon. This was because if the car was left to sit for a time the fuel drained out of the bowl and then took a long time to get fuel up to fire "Big Red" up. Wade had a call from CSC yesterday letting him know it was fixed so he picked it up on his way home and brought it in this morning. Turns out they found a microscopic hole through the wall of the bowl which was leaking the fuel out. They drilled the hole out and sealed it up so all should be well now with no more permanent petrol smell. Wade also showed me, from the outside the automatic choke on the Super 8 which is in it's own "pocket" on the wall of the rear part of the exhaust manifold. He'd taken it off fairly easily, as it was only held on by two self tapping screws! The bolts/studs having been snapped off. So he carefully drilled out what remained and tapped new threads and two bolts now secure the automatic choke very nicely and neatly. He cleaned up the mechanism, that being all it needed, and Hey Presto a good working automatic choke.

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Nice update, Mal! Love all the photographs.