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Monday 6th May 2013

Saturday morning saw a "courier" delivery of Packard parts courtesy of Barry Smith. Barry had been in Texas last week, which was timely, and was able to pick up the parts required for Fleurette's engine rebuild, plus some other stuff. Wade met Barry at Sydney's Mascot airport where he needed to change planes to get home. Fortunately, or is that unfortunately, because it was a long wait for the connecting flight. But this enabled Wade to meet Barry and his 80+lbs of goodies and take him to a nice breakfast spot on the water, suggested by Noel who was able to join them there.

So with all the parts required, and the block and head already with Graeme Wilkins, today it was time to get the new parts and rest of the engine parts to Graeme so he can get going on the machine work. New parts included pistons, piston pins and bushes, piston rings, cam bearings, big end bearings and main bearing together with a set of used rods to replace the babbitted examples taken out of Fleurette. Other engine parts included main bearing caps, camshaft, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, harmonic balancer and a crankshaft to replace Fleurette's badly worn one.

Back at the workshop, with work suspended on Amelia, there was little to do. First I cleaned up a timing case pointer for Fleurette, it had been dropped in by Noel on Friday and is ex LesF. But Les had been a bit concerned because 120's don't come equipped with one and had quizzed Wade on why he wanted one. Wade advised that it was to make life simpler, being much easier to set the timing with an easily visible pointer and marks on the harmonic balancer than using the marks on the flywheel. Best thing is that pointers off later engines fit the timing case bolt spacing perfectly. Then filing or cutting marks on the balancer and painting both the pointer tip and marks with an easily visible colour makes setting the timing so much easier.

That done, I was then set to work on painting the replacement exhaust manifold for Fleurette. It's now a high temp exhaust paint grey. Included in the painting was the thermal choke cover and hardware along with a couple of spanners(wrenches) of mine for my garage art wall. While I was painting Wade gave Big Red some TLC, she's been ignored lately, with Wade checking fluids and attending to her other needs.

Of the 80+lbs of goodies Barry couriered in, the majority was for the care and comfort of Fleurette. But there were other parts including door handles for me, or rather for my Coupe. Some rubber parts, I suspect are for Noel's Coupe. And, much to my surprise, a pair of rear floor heater outlets, a rather rare item, for Big Red. Gina is going to travel in comfort during the upcoming Aussie winter touring season!

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Tuesday 7th May 2013

Although space is at a premium in Packard corner, with three disabled Packards already in occupation, today Wade prepared to bring another one in. This "one" being Roy, who Wade had prepared for the National Rally in March but stumbled before leaving. So after disassembling yesterdays windchimes featuring Fleurette's new exhaust manifold, some tools and equipment were packed, and off we went to bring back Roy for repair. And Wade had another of Richard and Wendy's Packards to attend to while there, Thelma! While Roy is a '39 110 Convertible Coupe, Thelma is the big sister '39 120 Convertible Coupe! Thelma's problem is carburation with fuel pouring out of it which Richard with the help of the local Motoring Association Roadside Assistance Officer couldn't fix. Plan was to take the carb off Thelma and bring it back to the workshop for inspection and rebuild if required. Once the carb was off Thelma, Wade was to drive Roy back while I followed in the Ute. That went well, for about 2kms, until Roy just died. Now we knew there was a fuel/carburation problem with Roy but he still ran, albeit slowly. But this time he failed to proceed. Some roadside checking found a weak spark and the coil was very hot. While I babysat Roy, Wade doubled back in the Ute and purloined Thelma's coil. But this coil also gave a weak spark so a decision was made to ship Roy to the workshop on a Table Top Tow Truck. Wade also sent me back in the Ute because Noel was expected early afternoon. Noel was able to mostly sort out the "other parts" couriered in by Barry on Saturday. Rubber is for his Coupe and he was going over to the panel shop with that when he left. 2 door handles for me, thanks DAF, a door handle for Emily and again thanks. And there were some mystery parts, mainly door locks, which need to have ownership identified. After Noel left, waited, waited some more and then waited still more and finally Roy arrived on a TTTT. Now I know Packards are perceived as big but a TTTT with a 30' bed just seemed like overkill.

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Wednesday 8th May 2013

In order to work on Roy in Packard corner, first needed to elevate a Packard on the hoist. But before doing that the sump(pan) needed to go back on. That done and Packard elevated tried to push Roy but he refused to move, the left front brake was grabbing when being pushed backwards. To enable Roy to be pushed, jacked the front end up with a trolley jack. The head of which fits almost perfectly in the centre front channel of Safe-T-Flex Packard suspensions, looks like it was made for it! Jack in place, front wheels elevated an inch or two above the floor, Roy was manouvered into place between the front wheels of the elevated Packard, just! The windscreen posts missed by an inch on one side and were shaved by the tyre on the other side.

Then started work on Roy. Initially, just trying to start the old feller, using a shot of Start-U-Bastard, but without response. Another spark test undertaken but with the same results as yesterday, not much! Wade then checked under dash and determined that the ignition switch was the problem. His solution was to wire a relay into the circuit and was about to do this when the Insurance assessor closely followed by Ross arrived. The Assessor was there regarding the insurance claim for the in-transit damage suffered between New York and Sydney. Because of Roy's situation, under the other Packards skirts so to speak, he again had to be moved. Once moved, undercar inspection and assessment followed. Then the Packard was lowered for inspection and assessment of body damage. Following Ross and the Assessors departure a number of attempts were made to align Roy to go back under the elevated Packard but each failed. For some reason pushing Roy back, again jack mounted, just couldn't recreate the alignment required to slide between the front wheels despite numerous attempts. Admitting defeat then lowered the Packard somewhat and removed firstly the left front wheel, and after more frustration, the right front wheel. Should have done that to start with, why take the easy way, right?

Was able to now return to Roy and addressing his woes. Wade had one relay remaining on the shelf and together with some wires, saved when Fleurette's wiring harness was replaced, and an assortment of connectors a relay was coupled into the ignition wire circuit. Bet you never thought Fleurette would ever be a donor Packard, did you Noel? Although Wade explained the whats and why this was happening, as with anything electrical, it all escapes me. I do remember he said it only takes milliamps to activate the relay whereas it takes a number of amps to activate the ignition switch. I think in effect the ignition switch is only used to make the relay work and once the relay is open and virtually all the current is flowing through it there are minimal losses so all the current gets to where it's required. (Sorry if I have this wrong, and please correct me!) One thing is apparent, it's all add in wiring and a fair bit of that plus the relay, but if need be it could be removed at any timr. First test was to see if the relay was working, done by me listening for a click from the relay when the ignition was turned on. And it did indeed click. Second test was turning the engine over, ignition on, with the lead from the coil to the distributor held by insulated pliers near a head nut. The resultant spark was just about good enough to weld with, bright and fat! Lead back in the middle of the distributor cap, me poised with the Start-U-Bastard over the carb throat, Wade in Roy, and away Roy went. As Wade pressed the starter I sprayed the starting fluid down the carb and Roy came to life. But.......after warming up and an idle adjustment, gently blipping the throttle produces a miss. There's just not enough fuel getting through.

Left matters with Wade at this juncture to attend another commitment. And Noel, found out that Wade has a can of the POR-15 black manifold hi-temp paint, so no need to pursue that.

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Friday 10th May 2013

Not long at the workshop today. But long enough to go for a fair test drive in Roy with Wade. Wednesday afternoon after I left Wade had jacked Roy up at the rear, because there wasn't a spare hoist in the place, and installed an electric fuel pump. This has certainly cured the fuel starvation that Roy had previously suffered. And yesterday, had found the accelerator pump on the 1bbl carb, a Holden(local GM product) example, wasn't hooked up. But managed to make a link for it with good results. Going on a test drive after this Roy bucked and baulked until warmed up and then ran well. After that also advanced the timing by ear, the timing marks on these are nearly inaccessible. So this morning, after some final tinkering with idle speeds, came another test drive. Again, until fully warmed up and until a 'modern' temp gauge showed 80c, the bucking and poor performance continued. But, once warm, Roy rose to the occassion with plenty of power, accelerating well and pulling up the test hill in top gear all the way. This last from a fairly sedate start, because you can't get a run up at this hill, so it's a good test.

Wade had also pulled Thelma's carb far enough apart to determine it needs a full rebuild. Will be recommending this to Richard, courtesy of Tim at Carburettor Service Company our carb rebuilder of choice. And received a phone call from Noel, keen to find out if Graeme Wilkins had been in contact with Wade about the machine work on Fleurette's engine. He had, earlier in the week, but it was only an inquiry concerning the fact the block is already sleeved. Noel, I can assure you Wade is just as anxious as you for things to happen sooner rather than later. Noel also advised that the "mystery parts, mainly door locks, which need to have ownership identified" have been identified. Sparkplugs and some door locks are for Peter Packard while a 51-54 sedan doorlock is for Jeff, PAC052.

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Sunday 12th May 2013

Mother's Day today here in Oz. So why was I working on the Coupe this afternoon? Because our family celebrated Mother's Day early, on Thursday with our daughter and her three children and Saturday with our two sons, their wives and a granddaughter. This gave everyone a free run with the other parents and grandparents today and gave us a free day. So, after catching up with some Packard club work in the morning, turned to a sadly neglected Coupe in the afternoon. And why neglected? Because since the body and paint repairs, before the National Rally in March, the Coupe has been devoid of it's right side fender spears. I needed some new wire clips and screw fasteners to reaffix them because a fair number broke or were missing on disassembly. Picked up some of the screw fasteners from eBay, then recently Noel donated about a dozen used wire clips. My list of excuses for not doing the reinstallation was getting considerably shorter. And why on the lawn? Because 1) not enough room in the garage, it's a tandem, and 2) the driveway is slightly sloping and rough. So onto the grass, well a fine mix of disparate grasses and weeds really, under lovely sunny autumn skies and away I went. Most of the rear fender spears fasteners were the screw type while the front spears were mostly wire clips. Because I wanted some positive fastenings on both sets of spears I shuffled clips and fasteners between front and rear sets so all spears had at least three screws on each spear set. The new screw fasteners have a wire spring which required some massaging in order to enable them to slide into the backs of the spears. Most of the time spent was with these fasteners bending the wire so it would fit in the groove. Then it was just a matter of positioning screws and clips, bearing in mind the orientation of the spears, and pushing them into place. But I also found I was short nuts or fasteners for the screw type fasteners so I'll chase those later this week. Another thing I must do is find a rear fender spear to replace the bottom spear because it's longer than the others. I didn't notice that until, about 6 months after I bought the Coupe, Wade pointed it out!

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Wednesday 15th May 2013

Returned to the workshop today to find it looking like a sawmill, part of Wade's floor area was covered in sawdust and offcuts! Chris, Starliner, had been over yesterday and fabricated a floor and a back for The Fossil's boot(trunk). Wade had previously spoken to the 'chippy' aka carpenter, in the business next door, about doing this but it never happened. Into the breach stepped Chris who has the requisite skills and it's obvious the chips did fly. Well the sawdust did, even though Wade tells me Chris has dust catchers on the power tools used! So after sweeping the floor, and some clean up of other areas, that floorspace was once again ready for work. Pity about Fleurette though, because all the carpentry took place right behind her, she now has a layer of sawdust gracing her once immaculate lines. And the reason why the sawdust was there this morning? They finished at 7:30pm last night!

Turned then to cleaning some parts for 1) Fleurette, 2) Big Red, and 3) The Fossil prior to their being painted by Wade this afternoon. Harvey arrived a little later armed with parts for 1) Wade, a '37 Super 8 front stub axle, upright and brake drum and an exhaust pipe for same and also a radio, 2) Me, a pair of used(well used) Willys hubcaps and a Jeep distributor. Actually the '37 Super Eight parts are for Peter Packard via Wade while the Willys and Jeep parts are for the father of a guy living in Perth, the father and his '38 Willys are actually in South Africa. The guy in Perth had gotten onto me when I placed a want ad for Harvey on the AACA Site for Willys hubcaps a couple of years back, because his Dad only has three hubcaps and needs a fourth. Now he has five, albeit some in less than Concours condition!

Backtracking to Monday, at the start of a day in which Noel and I drove to checkout a possible venue and facilities for the siting of the next Australian National Packard Rally in 2015, we first called in to see Noel's Coupe. The panel shop was virtually on our way to our destination and Noel needed to check something with Karl, the panelbeater doing the work. It turned out Karl wants to see my Coupe again, mainly to check out the bonnet(hood) mountings. I'll now be driving it over there tomorrow morning for Carl's scrutiny. While, tomorrow afternoon, the plan is to return Roy home to Richard and Wendy.

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Thursday 16th May 2013

Started the day by installing nuts onto the many bolts holding the right mudguard(fender) spears to the Coupe. Then with the spears secured it was off to meet Noel and from there onto the panel shop and Noel's Coupe. There Karl inspected the bonnet(hood) mountings, props and a few other aspects of the front sheet metal to aid in reassembly of Noels Coupe. Noel is pleased with the progress Karl is making on his Coupe as each time he visits something more has been done. This apparently is in stark contrast to Fleurette where, from the sounds of things, it was an ongoing battle to get things done by the panel shop doing her!

Later, back at the workshop, caught up with what Wade had been doing to The Fossil where the boot(trunk) lid has been receiving attention so the hinges can be remounted. Also saw the rear floor heater outlet after yesterdays paint and it looks good. Yesterday at Lee Bros, besides the nuts I picked up for the Coupes spears, I purchased 2 longer coach bolts for mounting The Fossils Trippe Lights. But discovered today they are slightly larger in diameter than required. The coach bolts that came with the Trippe Light brackets are 4"(100mm) x 12mm while the replacement ones are 4&1/2" x 1/2"(12.7mm) That 0.7mm does make a difference. So tomorrow, after visiting grandkids, I'll exchange them for a pair of 4&1/2" x 12mm coach bolts. I'll also be picking up quantities of 8/32 and 10/32 bolts, nuts and washers for The Fossil at the same time.

Then it was time to take Roy home. This was easily accomplished with Roy running really well, keeping up with traffic wasn't a problem. Wade wanted to know, once we arrived, what his speed was along Mona Vale Road. Had to tell him to relax, the indicated 60 mph was in fact about 80 kph or around 50 mph! Obviously Roy's speedo is very optimistic. After delivering Roy to the comforts of home turned to Emily and made her day by fitting a replacement left outside door handle courtesy of Noel's US connection. Little bit of a struggle to do so until it was figured out the bezel went on one way, the other way changed the handles orientation to the door skin!

Returning to the workshop, I drove the Ute for a change, reason being Wade wanted to thaw out! Wade had driven Roy with the top down, being a Convertible Coupe, but for reasons other than asthetics. With the top up, the mail box slit like rear window doesn't afford much visibility at all! So with the top down, especially combined with Sydney's autumn weather, the wind chill factor was readily apparent. Also, on the way back, called into the auto upholsterer working on Big Red. The guy had worked on the front seat, especially the drivers side, to repair worn areas. He'd salvaged pieces of seat fabric from under both the front and rear seats to be able to effect the repairs needed. Looks good! I aim to take the Coupe there next week for a quote to repair the torn, frayed and split front seat. Depending on cost might also be looking at new kick panels and maybe a new carpet!

And this just for Noel - All going well, Graeme Wilkins expects to have the work on Fleurette's engine finished on Tuesday.

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Monday 20th May 2013

Drove the Coupe to the workshop today because 1) I'd lent my other car to my sister, and 2) I wanted to get a quote for recovering the front seat of the Coupe. Mission accomplished with front seat squab and backs to be recushioned, resprung, especially on the drivers side, and recovered. Sarkis, the upholstery guy, is also going to make and fit a new carpet front and back. In order to get matters under way Sarkis removed the front seat squab and both seat backs replacing them with a temporary drivers seat composed of blocks of foam. Not pretty, but they did the job, and the extra elevation provided the best driving position I've had in the Coupe!

That done, at the workshop, spent a lot of time cleaning paint and rust off Fleurette's tappet covers, timing chain cover, front engine plate and front motor mount. In the course of doing that, all in preparation for their repainting in the near future, saw a problem with the timing chain cover. In fact I'd finished cleaning it to almost within an inch of it's life when I realised it didn't have a life! What I thought was a spot of gasket cement was a small hole, but at least we now know the source of an oil leak. 282 waterpumps have a weep hole that is directly over the top arch of the timing chain case and that's where the hole was. I'd noted there was a rusty section at that point but hadn't noticed the hole. And now I know why the bottom of Fleurette's rebuilt waterpump had a build up of grease and dirt. It was directly above the hole in the timing chain cover. Wade thought he had a spare on the shelf, Old Blues original cover, but it couldn't be located. Instead turned to JohnM's '39 Six engine which has been sitting in the corner since a rebuilt engine was swapped into it a few years ago. John's engine has been a source of a number of parts since then so has certainly come in handy. Of course it also meant I had to completely clean the cover from scratch, but that's life in the world of Packards.

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Friday 24th May 2013

Q - If I said the stories stemming from the title of this, so far on-going, saga are drawing to a close what would that mean? A - It would mean that Wade's occupancy of his "Shed", aka workshop, will cease in the near future. Wade is moving house, next week, heading about 120 kms North to live on the western shore of Lake Macquarie. As such Wade's occupancy of workshop space at West Ryde will come to an end. However the house Wade is moving to has a 9m x 9m shed where he still will be able to play with Packards to his hearts content!

Earlier this week, Amelia was relieved of her engine in preparation for a move of her own to a panel shop, and that move occurred today. At the panel shop Amelia will receive a full body makeover, as and where required. While that is taking place, Wade will be disassembling Amelia's engine at Lake Macquarie and rebuilding it so that they can be reunited later to make Amelia complete again. Also, earlier this week, received a care package of parts off US Ebay where a recent seller had numerous '35 parts on offer some of which Amelia required, see pic's.

Wade has been packing in preparation for the move North but this hasn't encompassed the workshop side of things, that'll come later. He's been concentrating on the house move, more specifically the contents of his "other" workshop. This other workshop was in the garage and encompassed Wade's other hobby, electronics, and needed to be boxed up and/or disassembled for transportation North. The major part of the disassembly were the benches and shelving units, set up and built into the garage. Wade has accomplished all that but the removalists aren't tasked with their transportation, that Wade is doing himself. To that end the workshop's car trailer is being utilised, because the carcasses for the benches are quite large. And, because the trailer needed some TLC, that was done yesterday, with a new hitch and brakes being attended to. The new hitch and 2 pairs of brake shoes had been purchased on Wednesday in preparation for the work required. However the brakes needed more than new shoes because the old shoes were down to the metal, no lining left at all, and had ground or should I say gouged the drum surface with a lip about 3/16" deep on the edge of the drum preventing their easy removal. Fortunately Harvey's heavy duty brake drum puller, used on many Packard rear drums, helped overcome this impediment. At that point it became evident more than replacement shoes were required so these were returned and complete new backing plates, shoes and drum assemblies including new wheel bearings were obtained instead. Today helped Wade load the benches and shelving on the trailer and, on the trip to and from the house, Wade commented a number of times about how well the trailer pulled and stopped now. Packed and ready to go, the trailer will head North early next week in conjunction with the house move.

There's also things happening with Fleurette, the block, crank, etc being picked up from Graeme Wilkins late this afternoon. There'd been a delay in the crankshaft grinding which pushed things back from an expected pickup on Tuesday. And, speaking of pickups, I'll be running over to Graeme's early next week because the valves were somehow overlooked in the pickup today! There was also a dropoff earlier this week with Thelma's carburettor being left with Carburettor Service Company for rebuild. Will take about 3 weeks because Tim is presently away for 2 weeks so the carb will be attended to on his return. But back to Fleurette, on Tuesday Wade will start the engine re-assembly, while on Wednesday Noel will be slapping Bill Hirsch Packard Green on the block, head, etc. All going well, Noel should be behind the wheel of Fleurette for our Packard run to Eden, about 480kms South over the weekend of 7th - 10th June. Also, when Noel dropped into the workshop yesterday, he compared some replacement hubcap clips with those already on Fleurette. He's had problems because his clips have lost tension and aren't retaining the hubcaps like they should. Still has problems because the replacement clips, which were supposedly longer but weren't. Because I have a spare set of wheels I also compared the clips on my wheels with one of Noel's replacement clips and they too are the same.

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Tuesday 28th May 2013

Today Fleurette's engine started to come together. Arrived to find Wade was just finishing cleaning the block. First step after that was cleaning the cam followers and re-inserting them. Next was pre-lubing the cam bearing journals and installing the cam. A new retaining plate was installed together with re-inserting the little plug, also retained by the plate, at the front of the oil gallery. But there was some consternation before the new retaining plate was installed because it couldn't be found! Here I have to confess it was ALL MY FAULT, isn't that right Noel? I'd inadvertently put the box it was in, along with some other parts, in with Ross's parts. Took a fair little while before we found it. A new rear plug completed the cam installation process. Once that was done the main caps came off, they'd been tunnel bored, the bearing shells inserted, also suitably treated with pre-lube, caps installed, and torqued to the Packard recommended 82-85 ft/lbs. It never ceases to amaze me that after torquing the caps down the crank turns easier than before being torqued!

Then we had a visitor, Noel! An unexpected pleasure but there was a reason for Noel's visitation. Hub cap clips! Noel had been referred to Helm Springs as a possible maker of the springs he requires to secure Fleurette's hubcaps. Apparently DAF had previously supplied longer springs which are now ensconsed on Fleurette's rear wheels and Noel required a sample for Helm's to work from. Jacked Fleurette up removed a rear wheel which Noel took away and TonyW drilled out one of the hubcap clips retaining rivets. Noel returned with wheel and freed hub cap clip. There's quite a difference between the two clips, see pics. Also had a call from Sarkis, the upholsterer who is redoing the front seat and carpet of the Coupe. I'd taken the Coupe down to Sarkis yesterday, because he'd finished the front seat bottom and backs, and now wanted the Coupe so the front seat frame can be taken out to enable measuring for the new carpet. Sarkis's call came at an opportune time today in that I was able to get a lift with Noel to his shop, saved me a 5 minute walk! And the reason Sarkis wanted to see me? He'd hung the Coupe up in reverse gear! Although I given him instructions I obviously didn't stress the necessity for only gentle shifting between gears, thinking that he was only going to use 1st and reverse didn't warrant such a warning. Easy fix, under the bonnet(hood) and showed Sarkis how to align the bell cranks, but also stressed the necessity for gentle shifting.

Back at the workshop, next was installing the pistons to the rods, then the piston rings and the rod and piston assemblies together with new bearings and pre-lube into the block where they were married to the pre-lubed crankshaft. From the box of DAF replacement rods the first one selected was #6, then into the box of pistons where #6 was located. The rods had looked sh#thouse when received, rust pocked externally, and still look so. But surprisingly.......all the piston pin bushes had less than 0.001" wear so, instead of being rebushed, were left as is. Of course the rods were checked for straightness, etc and the tunnels rebored as well as being balanced. Next was rod #7 and piston #7, then #2, then #3, then #7!!!!!! Wait on, we've already done #7! Much confusion, much checking of numbers on rods but no clarification. Hmmmmm......something's not right here. Putting the second #7 aside, then did #8, #5 and #1 without further dramas and returned to the evil twin #7. #4 piston was still waiting to be united with a rod so at least that was clear. Pulled the #7 we did earlier and minutely examined the numbers stamped on the rod and the rod cap and they all certainly looked liked #7's. Except, these old eyes, finally found the merest hint on the rod cap that it was a #4 and not a #7! Removed the #7 piston from the #4 rod and putting the rod aside used the remaining rod clearly marked #7 instead. Then #4 rod and piston were united and installed. End of story? Not quite! #2 compression ring ring on #6 had been installed upside down, not noticed until we were doing #7's piston rings. From #7, or should that be #4, it all gets so confusing with all these numbers flying around, all #2 compression rings had been installed right way up. So, it was back to #6, out with the rod and piston, removed #1 and #2 compression rings and re-installed said rings before #6 went back in the engine again. After each piston and rod assembly was installed there was a test rotation of the crank to check all was well. And it was, even with the #7/#4 fiasco, although the more assemblies added the harder it was to turn, everything still turned smoothly.

Yesterday, besides taking the Coupe to Sarkis, I'd gone over to see Graeme Wilkins and picked up the box of errant valves not collected last Friday. Then tomorrow, with Wade physically moving into his new home on the Central Coast, Noel and I will be painting Fleurette's block, head, bellhousing, tappet covers, etc, etc with Bill Hirsch Packard green engine paint. Later tomorrow I will be taking Fleurette's exhaust/intake manifold assembly to Reconditioning Services at Auburn for the manifold to block surfaces to be resurfaced. Today we'd mounted the manifolds on the bare block and bolted them together with a new gasket before tightening it all up. On the way back from the manifold resurfacing will drop into Pirtek at Rydalmere for a BSPT threaded plug for the rear of the oil gallery, could get very messy very quickly otherwise.

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