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Wednesday 2nd September 2009

No road trip today as Wade was anxiously awaiting his "comfort parcel" from Barry Smith. With work on Old Blue stymied until the manifold gaskets arrived I said to Wade I'd paint the hardware for the '41's running boards so all would be ready to re-fit them once they returned from re-covering. And speaking of which, before making the return journey from Mooney Mooney yesterday, I'd phoned Peter at Rhino Linings because they were on the way home only to learn they weren't ready yet! Anyway, while I was wiring up parts and fasteners in preparation for POR-15'ing, Wade went up to Aldus Engineering for the re-surfaced manifold. With the manifold mission accomplished, but still no gaskets, Wade turned to the '34. Dug out the fittings which anchor the door straps only to find they hadn't been painted. So as I POR-15'd, Wade was cleaning and stringing parts for the '34 and, wouldn't you know it, he kept finding more and more! Not a problem because now was the time. Painting all finished, and lo and behold, the "comfort parcel" from Barry Smith arrived containing the manifold gaskets as well as a fridge magnet for Wade from Barry's wife Cheryl, see pic. At this point I had to depart the workshop but tomorrow will be back, and knowing Wade, Old Blue will probably be back on the road. And Terry, the reason I didn't have a pic of the spring cover on the '34 hot-box emerged. Wade had been meaning to re-paint it but seeing it had been put aside it kept getting overlooked, but not this time. So I've included pic's of the '34's cover and spring as well as some of Big Red's oil cooler internals.

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Thanks guy's for all the haet riser valve pictures. It now makes sense on how I must fit it, I had the cover on upside down.

Thursday 3rd September 2009

Well I was right. Wade had put Old Blue back together yesterday afternoon and then driven it home. Though at one point on the trip he thought it wouldn't make it as it was missing, running roughly and cutting out! So back at the workshop this morning Old Blue was back under the spotlight. Wade found the distributor cap was chipped, with a piece missing from the surface where one of the retaining clips fits. No problem, easy to fix, use the new distributor cap carried as a spare under the front seat! Except that cap too had the same piece missing from the clip surface and it's never been on a distributor! Fallback option, old cap sitting on shelf which didn't have any missing surfaces, just needed a good clean. Off for a test run but the same problems surfaced so back to the workshop.

This time as a test Wade shorted each plug out in turn and when numbers 7 and 8 failed to affect engine running these were pulled to display a gap of about 0.035". Wade runs 0.028" so it was decided to pull all the plugs and replace them with the set kept under the front seat. Only trouble with this idea was that Wade and Brian had used that set in my '41 when we were on the National Rally back in March. So I cleaned up the National Rally set in the blasting cabinet, Wade re-gapped them and put them into Old Blue. Also cleaned up the set that came out of Old Blue and re-gapped them and put them under the front seat as ready spares. Then, off for the test drive. It was deja-vu, all over again, no improvement at all.

Back at the workshop a test to determine whether there might be a intake/exhaust manifold leak by spraying WD40 onto the visible top edge of the gasket surface for 7/8 inlet. Voila! A noticeable change in the engines running characteristics immediately, loosing the roughness, not missing and running smoother. Test repeated a number of times with the same outcome. Then tightening of the manifold retaining nuts, first by Wade, then again by John. Similar to how it had been done yesterday but under hot conditions this time, it was surprising how much each nut could be further taken up! Test drive time and success! No roughness, missing or cutting out. And on the drive back to the workshop Wade explained his fear in finding 7/8 were involved was that it might be a blown head gasket in that area. Fortunately it doesn't appear so and Wade will be taking Old Blue home again overnight to give her a longer run in traffic, should be a good test.

All that done then turned to the '34. The other day Wade had started on the body by adding the door latch striker plates to the door pillars. Today it was various rubber item. Started with the rubber door straps which prevent the doors opening too far. Yesterday part of the POR-15'ing involved the retaining piece, which have little "claws" on their undersurfaces to hold onto the rubber strap. There are also wood screws for the rear doors and metal screws for the front doors which pass through the retaining piece and the rubber. So first was using the end of an old strap as a template to make the screw hole locations. Then the strap was slid through the slot in the door frame, the slot in the door pillar and the retaining pieces were then screwed to the pillar. Next were the rubber rubbing blocks, for want of a better term, on the B pillar, two for each door, top and bottom of the pillar. Then the round rubber bumps stops near the bottom of each door and located on the A and C pillars. Finally, each front door has another roughly rectangular bump stop at the top of the A pillar. Because all this needs to be done carefully and right it's surprising the amount of time this all took, my first real hands on experience with a ground up restoration. Also installed the spring and cover on the '34 for the hot-box valve now that the cover has been painted.

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Exhaust manifold:

It is interesting on my RHD 6 cylinder that I can remove the manifold setup (without taking loose the steering) only by taking apart the hot box first, then taking it out as two pieces.

I can then put it all back together and it WILL go back in as a single assembly. (Scratching head)

I too had an amazing amount of "retightening" after running hot. (and I initially torqued it to the book....the ones I could get the torque wrnech on anyway). I probably retightened 4 times.

I'll take some pics next time.

Wade, looks like your 34 will be a masterpiece.

G'day all, I would urge caution to avoid overtightening of the inlet manifold gasket. The manifold is designed to slide across the gasket as it will expand much more than the block. The inlet manifold gasket will split in the middle on hard driven Sixes if the gasket is overtightened, or the manifold gasket is not placed smooth side out. If you have to overtighten the manifold you may need to have them machined flat. I hope that the attached picture will help. Best regards Peter Toet

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Monday 7th September 2009

I'm actually writing this on Tuesday, on my wife Kath's PC, because being an indulgent grandfather I allowed my granddaughter to play with the keyboard of my laptop yesterday. Now I can access PackardInfo but, among other things, can't see any pictures here, the flags denoting read and unread posts are "missing" and I can't make posts or edit because there are no buttons to do so! But how could I resist a three year old who'd said to me on Sunday, Father's Day here in Oz, "Happy Father Christmas Day Poppy"? I've already been in contact with BigKev and my local tech support, eldest son Luke, but so far to no avail. In the meantime I'll continue through the medium of Kath's PC.

So yesterday arrived at the workshop late morning, after donating blood plasma, to find Wade loading the window glass for the '34 into his Ute. Then it was off to Ralph Moore Autoglass at Mascot, the same bloke who did the glass on my '41. Just across the street from Ralph's shop was a 20's Chev Tourer, pic's attached. Ralph is going to cut all new glass and fit them to frames and channels where required. Speaking of which, Wade hadn't brought one of the channels, and the screws for the vent window frames, so my eldest son Luke dropped these in to Ralph today because Luke works right around the corner from him! Anyway, just after arriving back at the workshop yesterday, received a call from Kath to say come home because the granddaughters were coming over, little did I know what damage would be done.

When I left Wade yesterday, he was talking about pulling the manifold off Old Blue again because he's still not happy with it. We'll see tomorrow when I get back to the workshop, this time in the '41 because I'm going to check it over before our PACA run on the weekend. We're going to Port Macquarie, about 400km's north of Sydney, travelling in convoy from MacDonald's at Thornleigh which is near the start of the northern freeway. And next week, I'll post a link to the pic's I'll take of the run.

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Good on you Mal, Have a good trip North and say hello to the troops from me. I wish that I was able to make it but it is a bit busy down here work wise. On the Packard front, I have just re-done the front suspension on the 38-327 Richards, also fitting roller bearings to the steering crank, it worked out great.
BTW. If Wade is considering removing the manifold again, I would suggest that it is easier to remove the studs at 1 and 8 Inlet and 1 and 8 Exhaust to remove the manifold. The same but much simpler with the six cylinder models. I have never found it necessary to remove the steering box on RHD.
It is also most important to tighen up the manifold to block joint gasket to about 25 ft lbs, before the manifold to exhaust joint is secured, otherwise an out of line exhaust will cause all sorts of distortion and leaks, in my experience. If the exhaust is misaligned, it may be necessary to adjust the exhaust pipes, not make the manifold absorb the torsional stress. Best Regards peter Toet

Wednesday 9th September 2009

Took the Coupe to the workshop this morning in order to ready it for the 400km trip on Saturday to Port Macquarie. Was able to use Rick's hoist for the grease and oilchange, makes it a lot easier. Drained the oil, put in a new filter, filled up with new oil, about 7 litres, topped up all the grease fittings and also a visual inspection of suspension, steering and other visible components. Only one minor drama, in greasing the lower left front suspension pin, the cap with the grease nipple was forced out by the hydraulic pressure of greasing it. Easily fixed, remounted in place and some brute force to respread the cap and done! Next job was to remove, clean and re-gap the sparkplugs and also a spare set Wade had on the shelf I'll take with me on the run this weekend. Lastly muted the blinker by taping over the audio beeper. Kath will be pleased because it was quite loud, like a truck reversing but in the confines of the Coupe's interior!

While I was doing that Wade was cleaning various small component parts for the '34 in readiness for painting. Wade had also received a parcel containing Noel's '39 120 clock from Barry Smith whose brother had re-built it. Noel(tabletemnnisport), if you read, this there a pic of the clock below. And on the way home dropped Wade off at Ivan's because he needs a bolt machined for the '34's cowl vent. One of the two bolts it pivots on is broken and, with quite a thick shoulder, is definitely NOT an over the counter item.

Quote:
Peter,

I'll pass on your regards, the run will be all the poorer for Ann and your absences. Regarding the manifold situation, Wade is happier with it now, and is taking Old Blue home in peak hour tonight to give it a rigorous test.

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Mal, Glad to see your browser is operational again!

Kev,

Not yet, haven't had my hands on tech support guy(eldest son) look at my laptop yet. Still using the good wife's PC in the meantime.