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Wednesday 7th October 2009

20 minutes at the workshop only, a bit of Packard chit-chat with Wade, some pic's(6 only, way below my usual quota) and then with a '37 120 temp gauge in hand(of which I forgot to take a pic of) headed for Mobile Instruments at Kings Park. This followed a call from, PACA and PackardInfo member, Bill B seeking a temp gauge for his '37.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/registry/View.php?ID=407 Bill had sent his temp gauge there to be rebuilt but was found to be beyond repair. Fortunately Wade was able to tell Bill he had a spare, although in-operative one, on the shelf(what doesn't he have there!) which following a quick look by Ron at Mobile Instruments should be OK to repair. Bill also said his '37 is off to be re-upholstered today. The other things Wade has done were to paint and partially assemble the '34 ignition switch and armoured cable and finish installing and wiring the footlights for Big Red. This entailed removing the rear seat as well as one of the rear quarter upholstery panels to run and connect wires to the switch in the rear door jamb. With the seats out Wade's also going to repair the upholstery buttons which have "popped off" over the years, and fortunately he's managed to save all the "popped off" buttons. Apart from that things are slow at the workshop and tomorrow Wade's going to clean up the sump and crankcase from Big Red in preparation for the arrival of various parts on order. And speaking of parts on order, the clips for my running board trim which Wade ordered on my behalf arrived, also forgot to take a pic of those!

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Friday 9th October 2009

Wade phoned me to advise he's looking to bring John Mackey's '39 110 into the workshop on Tuesday for it's heart transplant. To do this the stuff behind the '34 body needs to be moved and then the body to be moved back so there's enough room for the '39 in front of it.

Also visited DavidM who'd advised he had his Maxwell engine back together. Arrived there to find his '29 633 7 passenger sedan with the left front wheel off. He'd put new tyres and tubes on it recently only to find that tube had split along the seam. Took pic's of the Maxwell's engine and the windscreen he's made for it. The Maxwell didn't come equipped with a windscreen so David made one out of brass tubing with the assistance of a tube bending business and the corners look perfect. David also made and closely matched a new wooden cowl/firewall piece to the top of the existing wooden cowl just as it was done back in the day, looks real good. David showed me the trans and how it works, only two speeds with bands to hold the gear selected. Also showed me the way in which the valves are accessed through large brass plugs on the "top" of the head part of the "en-bloc" head/cylinder casting. In the early days of motoring apparently the valves were reground fairly frequently. It should have been a fairly routine process with the valve springs and stems exposed and large threaded brass plugs removed to access the valve head for hand lapping. David expressed some concern I was posting stuff about his Maxwell in a Packard site but I assured him 1) Importantly it's my blog, 2) It is auto related, and 3) Early in the piece I'd stated that virtually anything of interest that intersected my path would be fair game as far as I was concerned.

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Tuesday 13th October 2009

Enough of Maxwells and back to Packards. Yesterday received a Boot(Trunk) light for the '41 in the mail I'd bought off eBay earlier this month. Funny thing was I didn't immediately realise on seeing it that I wanted one although the cover for my Boot light is missing. But once the brain cells clicked into gear, a day or so later, had the requisite eureka moment. Will clean, paint and mount the light cover in the near future.

Today was pick up and start on John's '39 110 engine swap day. But, before getting to that, first caught up with Wade about what's been happening. More work on Big Red with the seats taken home to resew the popped buttons onto them. The wheels and new WWW's have gone round to Wheel and Tyre Co to be mounted. Wiring continues with the dash again looking like a can of worms as Wade fixes more wiring issues and has replaced the broken off armoured coil wire. When the new pistons and pins arrive, expected any time now, then the machining processes required for Big Red's engine can start.

And so on to John's '39 110. Wade took along the Optima battery out of Big Red as well as a booster pack from the workshop because the battery in the '39 was flat. The '39 isn't run very often and apparently only cranked over about twice before expiring on the weekend. Wade put the Optima in the '39 and she started fairly easily but another problem manifested. It was stuck in gear so some judicious fiddling with the linkages was required before she could be moved. Very rattly engine noise so the sooner the transplant is performed the better she'll be for it.

Back at the workshop she was backed into the space cleared late last week by Wade and dis-assembly undertaken. Bonnet(Hood) off, then front clip removed. I hadn't been directly involved in doing this with Old Blue as it happened during my absence although I did see it off at the time. But I must say it is a really nifty way of working on a car engine and front end because it makes things so much more accessible. With the engine out there are a number of other matters which will also be addressed including the gearchange and throttle linkages(both very sloppy), the carburettor(has a Tillotson on it at present), jumping out of 2nd gear(could be solved by the linkage fix), radiator check, flush, fix, etc, new thermostat for the radiator shutters and reconnecting and making the shutters operative, various wiring fixes, and more. With the front clip off it also looks like the right front shock is leaking and probably inoperative so that's an extra thats already reared it's ugly head and no doubt there'll be more to come! I removed the fan(modern flexfan fitted), head, generator, starter, distributor, coil, horns, carburettor and almost the fuel pump before leaving for the day. And I say almost the fuel pump because after getting the bolts undone it couldn't be manouvered past the combination of oil pump, shock and RHD steering box, so it's currently "hanging" waiting further appraisal of options. With the wiring all over the place Wade had to tag and cut most wires before the front clip could be removed.

While doing all this Harvey arrived with two things, a 1949 AWA(Aussie manufacturer) radio and a shopping list of parts for Wade to order for him for the rebuild of the '39 120 he's doing at the moment. Wade's going to check and fix the radio itself, wearing his other hat of radio restorer, while Harvey brings the timber cabinet back to it's former glory. The shopping list? Harvey doesn't have internet access so Wade's going to order the parts in for him.

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Hey Mate,

You playing Fred Flintstone in that 11th picture

Or is that some new engine design you have come up with.

The firewall stamping is interesting. No Theft Proof number, no triangles at the end.So did they know this car was destined for Oz at the time of the cowl stamping?

I wonder if there is anything in the Briggs archives that is part of the Chrysler Archives that could shed some light on this.

Quote:
Tom,

That's Wade undoing the bolts holding the radiator in it's cradle.

Quote:
Kev,
Body didn't originate in North America but was built in South Australia by a company called TJ Richards. From what I've heard it's almost identical to the Studebaker bodies TJR's also built at that time. It's different from Packard bodies with a different belt line, door handle placement and windscreen slope amongst other things. A company called Holdens also built bodies but mainly for GM cars of that era and later became General Motors Holden, the Aussie arm of GM after WW2.

Gotcha. Now that makes more sense.

Thursday 15th October 2009

Yesterday Wade had pulled the engine and trans from the '39. The partly removed fuel pump was fully removed once the engine was raised enough to clear any obstructions. He then removed the trans, intake/exhaust manifolds, water pump and sundry other parts most of which will be cleaned and/or painted for re-use on the replacement engine. The original engine will be kept as a core should a PACA member require it for rebuild.

Today I cleaned some of the various parts that came off yesterday while Wade attended to a number of matters on both the original and replacement engines. The clutch, pressure plate and flywheel were removed from both because Wade had rebuilt John's last year and since then it had done less than 500 miles. The original engine was parked in the back corner of the workshop while the replacement engine was lifted onto the bench for attention. I then scraped off the green paint, it's definitely NOT Packard green but it's staying as is because this is NOT a 100 point showca,) from the gasket surfaces on the block for the water pump and inlet/exhaust manifolds.

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G'day all, Sorry to come into this late on the TJR bodies. The body is identical to a 38/39 Studebaker President and has opening rear quarter vents. The Studebaker Dictator and Commander used body cores identical to the Dodge TJR bodies, together with Dodge guards ,etc. The TJR Packards used Packard front and rear guards,bonnet assembly and dash. I am almost certain that the 39 TJR dash and surround was originally woodgrained. Mal identified a number of differences between the Packard and TJR bodies. A few more are: much smaller rear windows on the TJR and about 200 lbs heavier. TJR bodies have a year production number such as PAS 57 ( one of my TJR Packards) stamped in the upper LHS of the cowl, also a brass "King of the Road" body plate with the total production number stamped thereupon. Most of the TJR bodies get the Kangaroo emblem on the lower LH cowl leg stolen by collectors. John's car still has the Kangaroo in place.

Monday 19th October 2009

Last Friday Wade picked up Big Red's wheels from Wheel & Tyre Co now fitted with the new WWW's. While over the weekend he displayed another talent in replacing the buttons that had popped off the back section of Big Red's rear seat. The rest of the seats need this treatment too, but more materials are required to finish them off. Then while Wade bolted the seat back back in Big Red I started on John's '39.

The right front shock is shot while the left front appears to have been leaking so both needed to be removed for rebuilding. But how to remove them with the front up on jack stands and without releasing the tension stored in the front coils? Why use something to take the place of the shock when it's removed and keep the lower arms in tension. Wade had given this some thought and had come up with a solution - use an old broken leaf spring sitting next to his spare '34 chassis. How? The spring-eye centre to centre measurement was almost exactly the same as the lower front sway bar mounts! So stepping through the procedure, it's:
1) Remove lower mounting nuts for the front sway bar
2) Swing sway bar out of way
3) Place leaf spring across front of chassis
4) Measure and cut threaded rod to length
5) Tighten 2 nuts together so they lock at the bottom of each rod
6) Push rod through sway bar mount up through spring eye and screw a nut on each rod
7) Tighten each of the top nuts so that the bump stop for each shock is clear
8) Undo the upper outer pins/bolts
9) Slide out the pins/bolts
10) Support the upper bushing by wiring it to the chassis
11) Undo and remove the four bolts holding each shock to the chassis
12) Remove the shocks noting the number and position of the shims under the inside bolts
There you have it!

Next, while Wade was working on removing the gear change linkages and other things, I cleaned up the intake and exhaust manifolds which had been split apart because there was an exhaust leak at the hot box join between the two. Also cleaned up the shocks to remove the years of crud accumulated. Then we bolted the cleaned manifold sections together and remounted the assembly on the block. This, to check for fit only. Looks like the manifold assembly will be sent out for a light skim to ensure the block mounting faces are level.

The other thing that Wade did was remove the ring-gear off the flywheel being used because the teeth were chewed up. Then he heated up the new ring gear, and after a couple of attempts(not hot enough, so it didn't yet fit!) dropped it onto the flange around the outside of the flywheel helped along with some light taps to ensure it was properly on. After the assembly had cooled and ensuring the engine was at TDC for #1 the flywheel was re-united with the crankshaft which also had a new pilot bearing installed. Wade had also had Ivan turn up a new pin for the clutch pivot on the bellhousing because the original one was quite worn and this too was installed.

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