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Wednesday 20th February 2008

Quote:

Al,

Thanks for those kind words, it kinda lonely under the '41 for hours at a time so I appreciate it.

Today was supposed the be, for a while, the last day of scraping and brushing and hopefully starting Marine Cleaning as well. But it was not to be for two reasons.

One, On arriving at the workshop I found that John was only there for half a day because he and Rick are going to Adelaide, about 1,000 miles south west for the Clipsal 400 a street circuit race being the first race in the 2008 Aussie "V8 Supercars" series, basically Ford V GM with 360ci V8's. Apparently they do this every year with a group of up to 30 guys! Sounds and looks like fun too from the pictures John showed me of the Gold Coast Indy Car race they also go to every October. Wade missed out on Adelaide this year because of his New Zealand trip.

And two, On getting under the car discovered I'd missed scraping the insides of the frame rails between the diff crossmember and the rear crossmember. This was besides the various patches missed initially. So after more scraping, I think I've got it covered now, although with lying on your back, restricted work space and a lead light for illumination I still can't be sure. But at least wire-brushing has commenced and is complete except for the "V" between the trans and the diff. Pic of todays output below.

Wont be back to the workshop until Monday, as it's closed up while the guys are in Adelaide.

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Mal,

You sure make me feel lucky that my car was driven by the proverbial old lady on the tramac streets Hagerstown, MD. I've got a ton of old grease and oil, but not that apparently insidious Idaho mud/clay.

You are doing yeoman's work. Great job with the car and this blog.

Cheers,

Tom

Quote:

Tom,

It's not so much the dirt and stuff. It's more the situation I let myself get into. I should have had the whole underside pressure or steam cleaned while it was running and before the suspension was disassembled. Pity that our famed customs and quarantine service missed this one as it should have been done on arrival into Australia to protect us from whatever nasties Idaho might be exporting! Anyway, I'm just about through all the dirty work so it should improve from here on in. I just hope someone can learn from my mistake.

Mal, My '47 undersides looked very similar to your car when I first acquired it. It had spent much of it's life being driven o on rural dirt roads and so was caked with mud that had turned to cement like hardness. I tried a pressure washer and it barely scratched the surface. The only thing that seemed to work to remove the crud were scrapers, wire brushes and occasionally a hammer and chisel. There are still places where I haven't completely removed this mud.
On the Clippers there is a sheet metal shelf beneath the headlights and these were filled with mud and I also found some animal bones! My conclusion was that a small predator animal possibly a weasel had made this a home at some point when the car was in storage at a farm. Old cars from rural areas are often very challenging. Keep up the good work.

Monday 25th February 2008

Arrived at the workshop about 9:45am and, like Little Red Riding Hood, found no one was home. On returning at 11:00am Rick was now there as he'd been held up in traffic coming from the airport.

First up I decided to check the diff ratio seeing the centre was out and being as smart as I am put a paint spot on both the pinion and crown wheels. First counted the pinion teeth, there were 11. Then started counting the crown wheel teeth and about half way round found a Part #, the numbers 11 and 48, The Packard script and some other numbers, finished the count and there were 48. So after all my "smart work" I needn't have bothered as it was there waiting for even blind Freddie to see! Anyway I now know is a 4.36:1 rear end!

The rest of the day was consumed by finishing scraping and wire-brushing the area above the tailshaft. Then Marine Cleaning the entire scraped and brushed underside areas followed by spraying about half the MC areas with water to remove the dirt and MC. Sounds easy doesn't it? But not so, because of the caustic nature of the MC, I was wearing rubber gloves having learnt my lesson previously when the skin on my hands peeled for 3 to 4 days because of the Marine Clean. I was also using a big fibreglass 3' x 2' catch tray which restricted the area I could MC or water spray at any one time. Also had to mop up regularly as the liquids more often found the area outside the tray than inside. This was of course all in that now too familiar realm lacking in light and with limited access.

Below are some pics including one with most of the dirt, grease and gloop accumulated from the rear underside scraping exercise. I'll weigh this tomorrow and post the result.

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Looking good Mal. Someday I will get back on my blog and update it when I finally get back to working on Old Bessie. It has been a long winter here. Suppose to get another 6-8 inches of snow tonight. And winds of 35 mph

Really enjoy reading of your efforts and sticking with the project. What exactly does Marine Clean encompass?

Mal,

The Govener of Idaho called and told me that you owe property taxes on that plot of Idaho Land you imported to Austrailia!

Sneaking it out of the country under the body of a Packard only fooled them for so long I guess!

Quote:

Kev,

As soon as the first crop comes through and I collect from the sale of the produce I'll be happy to let Idaho have their fair share.

Tuesday 26th February 2008

Straight under the '41 after arriving at the workshop just to review what needed to be done, and then - I saw it! Dirt, grease and gloop needing to be removed from the main X member around the trans area. In doing this, the morning was used up quite easily.

In the afternoon Marine Cleaned the newly scraped area and sprayed that area as well as those remaining from yesterday. With using a squirt bottle and trying to catch most of the run off in the fibreglass tray as well as re-filling and periodic mopping-up of the overflow, all this took most of the afternoon.

Just when I thought all was done, lying as you do on a creeper just contemplating the underfloor of a '41 Packard 120 Club Coupe, there it was, a strip I'd missed! So another quick scrape and brush then Marine Clean and a short wait before spraying off. Now it was done!

Saying it is done is somewhat of a misnomer because I've only done from the frame rails in. When I remove the running boards I'll complete the outside of the frame when there's more room to operate. Also have to clean up the engine, trans and O/D and the firewall so plenty of dirty work still to come.

And speaking of dirt, there's a pic of todays scraping below. And I weighed the dirt and gloop collected from this exercise over the part few weeks on the local supermarket produce scales and it registered 6.325 kilograms = 13.91lbs!

While in my contemplative mood under the '41, I was taking note of the thickness of the steel used in the frame and it appears to be about 1/16" thick. I had imagined it would be thicker, but it's certainly strong as one of my earlier posts relating to re-positioning the jacks stands at the rear attests to.

And Randy, Marine Clean is a proprietary cleaning product produced by POR-15. After scraping and clearing off the bulk of the dirt and gloop it's sprayed or brushed on and then washed off after 1/2 hour an hour or so. If you'd like, send me a PM with your address and I'll mail you their "blurb" about the product.

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