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Tuesday 5th February 2008

Arrived at the workshop before Wade for a change, and started off by photographing the re-construction of the rear sway bar tapered pin removal process.

Proceeded then to scrape and wire-brush the diff housing and centre section to within an inch of their lives, well anyway they look a whole lot better now than they did before. The diff centre was then removed but only after a suggestion from John resulting it it being hooked and lifted by a bar while Wade hammered the housing and using screwdrivers finally prised the housing loose.

Also cleaned up the sway bar shock as I will have Tony "Shocks" look it over and weave his magic on it if required.

It was Wades last day before he goes to New Zealand tomorrow for the NZ Packard tour in the north island and in which Wade is driving a borrowed '24 (Psssst - It's got hydraulics with disc's on the front!) hopefully will post some pic's on his return. Then Wade and his wife Gina are holidaying in the south island before they return 1st March.

In Wades absence I will be scraping, wire-brushing, cleaning, preparing and painting the underside of the body and the frame together with the floor inside the '41. All to remove or prevent surface rust on these components. I'll also do this for any removed parts which haven't yet had the complete treatment. This will facilitate replacement and reassembly of the '41 after Wades return.

And Brian, thanks for the advice, but I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to these things!

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Wednesday 6th March 2008

Not much to report. Finished scraping rear end housing, sway bar and u-bolts and Marine Cleaned and Metal Readied them. Also scraped, wire-brushed and Marine Cleaned floor plate over the transmission and left rear "deflector" panel, if that is what you call the panel behind the rear wheel between body and inside of fender.

Rang Tony "Shocks" this morning and left a message to call me as I want him to cast a beady eye over the sway bar shock and rebuild it if required. Ordered a gasket for the diff housing when it is reassembled. And I think the front springs have arrived but as I was out Fed Ex didn't leave them only an advice of a missed delivery. However I have phoned Fed Ex and arranged for the delivery to be made tomorrow, home or not.

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Thursday 7th February 2008

Tony "Shocks" had called back last night and we arranged I'd drop the sway bar shock over this morning. Tony again gave me a lesson in shocks with most of it lost because of my ignorance together with Tony's accent. Pic's below are of the Sway Bar Shock and the backroom of Tony's workshop which has shelves and shelves of old shocks. Tony even produced a similar but bigger sway bar shock which was disassembled for reference purposes.

The other Packard related matter today was the arrival of the new front springs together with the missing king pin bushes. And last night I'd had an email from the wiring harness maker that they would soon be starting on the new harness. Wade if you read this while you're in NZ we now have just about everything required for the re-assembly process

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Friday 8th February 2008

No Packard work today but the parts keep arriving. The new hand brake cables and the electomatic clutch unit both being delivered by Australia Post. There was a small kerfuffle concerning the hand brake cable with an overzealous postal clerk identifying it had a value of US$1500.00 instead of the $15.00 declared, because the decimal point on the declaration form had been obscured by the a zero. However after I faxed a copy of the eBay order concerned they realised the error of their ways and released the package without further drama. I'm glad that Australia's customs and revenue interests are being safeguarded but I wish they wouldn't practice on my deliveries.

Monday it'll be back to undercar scraping and cleaning now that the diffs out.

Monday 1th February 2008

Spent the morning under the '41. First removed the rear shocks and for a change did not have to wrestle to get them out. That is after I found the right size spanner, as I'm not adept enough yet to look at a nut and say 3/4". Ahhhh - To be young again, as I had this skill 40 years ago but lost it through lack of practice over the years.

Than spent the rest of the morning scraping the underfloor area and the frame around the rear crossmember over the diff. Biggest difficulties in doing this are my bulk, about 230lbs at 5'8" so I'm about as wide as I'm tall, lack of light and wearing goggles that keep fogging up. This last is a necessity to keep your vision clear and avoid the accumulation of Idaho dirt, grease and crap that keeps raining down.

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Tuesday 12th February 2008

More scraping and brushing under the '41. Started above the tailshaft and worked out to each side then moved back behind the diff area. Starting to see some progress, but the frustrations of lying on your back with dirt, dust and greasy particles raining down on you is slowly taking the fun out of it. Amazing that the caked up dirt, or dirt and grease/oil mixture sometimes comes off in 2 or 3 layers or so it seems. So much so that I have to retrace my steps to check that all the goop is off. Returned home and had to wash up to ensure I removed all the facial and beard dirt before I had a shower!

I also took off the rod that bolts to the frame and to the underside of the transmission. One, to clean it up and two, to fix it, and the transmission, because the tranny end had sheared/snapped off and three, to ask a question.

The question is: Is this rod straight? Reason I ask, as you'll see from the pic below, is that the snapped/sheared end (the upper end in the pic) is bent back.

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Mal at first I thought you had been out in the Bush to long from that picture!

I actually have a picture of me like that when I was scraping out all the rotten interior and falling headliner insulation.

Wednesday 13th February 2008

Scraping, scraping and more scraping, little more than that needs to be said. Only 2 hours available this morning with that time spent under the trunk floor and the rear frame rails and end cross-member.

Just a question Mal, but is there a power washer somewhere that you can rent? It'll knock all that crap off in less time than you've spent cleaning your rear end. Downside is, you'll have to drag the car out of the garage a little, unless you want that crap all over the walls, ceiling, windows,......you.....!

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Eric,

Many's the time while lying under the '41 I've thought the same myself, but because it's now up on stands this option is not feasible. The other side to this is that the Quarantine and Customs Service inspect vehicles on arrival in Australia. If buildups of dirt, etc are found they have the vehicle underside steam cleaned, at your expense of course. I wish now they had found the dirt, etc as it would have been cheap cleaning whatever the cost!