Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Mal,

My temp sensor was also quite stuck (see photo). I did the PB blaster thing for a few days with no luck. Then I decided to try heating the head around the sensor with my MAPP torch. I would heat the head until the temp sensor indicated overheating, then spray in lots of PB while it cooled. I would spray PB repeatedly, every 25-50 degrees of cooling. The logic here was the heating and cooling would create micro-fissures in the corrosion, and the temperature differences during cooling would suck in the PB. No idea if my logic is correct, but it worked after two cycles of heating, cooling and PB blasting.

Good luck with it.

Tom

Attach file:

---

  (18.72 KB)


  (27.72 KB)

Friday 11th April 2008

Well, today was mostly wasted, spent the morning waiting for the cable guy to come, was given a range of 7:30am to Noon for his arrival. And of course he arrived about 11:50am, just within the time frame advised!

Took the '38 down to workshop, but first stopped to put some gas in it as it was getting low. And to be informed by the bloke at the pump next to me that I had a leak from the gas tank. Ducked my head under the back and it appears it's leaking from where the rubber hose joins the filler neck to the tank. Will tackle this when Wade returns from his trip.

Then, after mailing some bits to Eric for his speedster project, got to the workshop and had a sit down with Wade for about half an hour. The sit down talk was to review what I needed to get for the '41 while Wade is away for the next week and a half. Mainly small things like nuts and bolts, to replace the ones I broke recently, and some rubber stripping for the fuel tank re-install and for the bottom of the inner fender splash shields. Will also get the bumpers, over-riders and a few other miscellaneous bits to the plater. And there's also plenty of cleaning and painting of panels and parts to fill in my time.

Then it was time to leave, the Friday afternoon time honoured ritual of lunch at the pub was upon us. But before we left I snapped a few pic's of Wade's '34 engine for which he'd picked up the re-built carb yesterday and installed it this morning. Basically to complete the engine assembly, and to be able to give it it's intial fire-up, all Wade needs is to finish and install his oil filter conversion and fill and prime the engine with oil.

And Tom, thanks for the tip, I'll keep working at it but if requires a baptism of fire we'll follow your advice.

Attach file:

---

  (38.41 KB)


  (35.89 KB)

Saturday 12th April 2008

Took the rear bumper off the car and dis-assembled the fold-down centre over-riders and bars. Also dis-assembled the front bumper over-riders and bars. There are 23 pieces to be re-chromed, 21 bumper parts and the tail light bezels, shudder to think what it's going to cost. After attempted a number of times to loosen the temp sensor, will keep trying.

Then started scraping under the rear splash shield having left this till the bumper came off to allow easier access. Also scraping outside of rear of frame and back of last cross member, also because of the now easier access. And I bet you thought scraping had finished! Also have some to do up front for the same reason. And then the remaining scraping will be done once I take the running boards off.

Wade and his wife Gina are off today to Gilgandra, about 300 miles west and north of Sydney, to visit Gina's mum. Then back through Tamworth visiting Barry and his '51 convertible project on the way home and are expected back on Thursday week.

Attach file:

---

  (30.64 KB)


  (29.48 KB)


  (36.14 KB)

Hi Mal

You are really progressing there!

I was interested to know what rechroming would be there in Australia. I got quite a shock when enquiring here for the bumper of my 50. That is only for the bigger front part without overriders (Just the bigger bottom piece) - coming to 2500 SA Rands that is about $300 US. I am starting to bargain on about R10 000 - approx $1250US for all the bumper parts. Just interested what costs are across the globe. Needless to say , my chroming will take a loong time!

(Seems the SA rugby teams are struggling, except for the sharks!)

Barrie,

Progress seems to be mainly in one direction, that is dis-assembly. Although now there isn't much more that can be pulled off except the body! So, with all the preparation almost done, in a couple of weeks time re-assembly should start in earnest.

Believe re-chroming is a major expense all round the world. One, because most modern cars now have a minimum of chromed pieces, after all how can one go past plastic! And two, because of the chemicals and materials used and hence the environmental effect, the process is subject to stringent regulations so that these impacts are controlled. For Barry, the guy who had his '51 grill re-chromed recently and only the grill, it cost him AU$1,000 (Approx SA Rand8,000 & US$1,100) although this is a huge diecast piece. I will advise the chroming costs as they are incurred.

Monday 14th April 2008

Quite an interesting day today. After giving blood early in the morning returned home to chase up our plumber, because the sewer was blocked, and arranged for him to come by late afternoon.

Then it was off to All Metal Bumpers at Ingleburn, south west and on the outskirts of Sydney, where I took the bumpers and other pieces for re-plating. Thought it was reasonable when Peter there quoted AU $1,680 until he realised that the picture I gave him contained more pieces than on the bench in front of him. I'd left the bars between the big over-riders for both front and back bumpers in the boot of the car! With these included it brought the price to AU $2,140. Barrie, this is approx SA Rand 17,100 and US $1900 and was close to my guesstimate of AU $2,000 so the go ahead was given.

Should take about 2 weeks for all the bumper pieces and up to 4 weeks for the tail light bezels because these are pot metal. Also learned a bit about the process with the steel pieces being sandblasted, removing the old chrome and any rust, until only bare metal remains. It was interesting too that although the nickel ore is mined in Australia it's processed in Canada then shipped to China and then the finished nickel is shipped back to Australia! Another thing was the reason the plating of the pot metal items takes longer is because after it's stripped it's then copper plated and then left to sit for about a week to see if any pits/bubbles develop. After the pot metal is exposed to air it can pit and if it's going to do so it shows up after about a week. So if there's a problem they can address it at this stage and redo it rather than have a customer come back later after the whole process is finished. Anyway that's what the guy told me. Also met a drag racer there, by the name of Mike, who is running a locally made although highly modified AND street driven Ford Falcon with 10.2 et's, and I thought I was doing OK almost 40 years ago with my 289 Ford powered rail running 10.3!

Next I went to Antique Tyre Supplies which was literally around the corner because Wade asked me to pick up some Running In Oil and HPR30 as they are the local Penrite Oils agent. With Wades '34 engine almost ready to be fired up and Kevin's '35 only waiting for the bearing sizing of the big-ends to be fixed there'll be 2 large engines requiring lubrication shortly.

But the thing was that at the Antique Tyre Supplies warehouse there were a number of interesting cars parked there, being a 1920 Vauxhall, a '23 Vauxhall and a '25 Bentley together with a very rusty cut up chassis, with front and rear axles and engine for a '21 Vauxhall. I've taken pic's of all these, except for the chassis and parts, and a link is attached to a web album for viewing these beauties. David owns the '23 Vauxhall and is the owner of Antique Tyre Supplies and the reason the hood was up was because he needs to replace the middle exhaust manifold gasket which "blew" on a run yesterday. The '20 Vauxhall belongs to a guy in Queensland, 600 miles north, and it is being trailered back there shortly. The '25 Bently is being stored by David for it's owner. While the '21 Vauxhall engine and parts were found on a farm near the Murray River about 300+ miles south of Sydney. The engine had been used to power a pump and the rear part of the frame was used as a farm trailer, but no body panels or fenders remained. The parts are soon to be shipped to England because no one here was prepared to tackle what will be a very demanding restoration.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ozstatman/AntiqueTyreSupplies

After all that it was back to the workshop with the Penrite oils and a blissful 2&1/2 hours were spent under the back of the '41 scraping, naturally.

Then back home to meet the plumber, who cleared the blocked drain, and the end to a successful day.

Tom, 34PackardRoadsta, the close up of the oil filter looks good.

Attach file:

---

  (40.51 KB)


  (38.28 KB)


  (31.50 KB)


  (17.76 KB)

There were some lovely pictures in this thread of a 1934 Eight export RHD chassis. I didn't follow enough to see who owned it but thought I'd make a few comments, based on how the domestic engines were finished. The oil cooler housing, the part on the water jacket, should be engine green, with a black filter. The lines to and from should be nickel-plated. The water inlet just below it should also be engine-green. The starter and generator should be wrinkle-black, not gloss black, and there is quite a bit of evidence that the brush cover on the starter was engine-green. The aluminum valve rocker shaft covers were naked aluminum, not painted engine-green. The EE-22 Stromberg was painted black, not naked castings. Not picking, just assuming someone might like to be aware of this.

Mal,

Lovely shot of the oil filter! I just love my macro, and I am sure you will too! Great progress on the car. It is going to be a beauty once you are done.

Dave (OD),

Thanks for the info on the engine color scheme. Is that pretty much the same thing for a 1930 engine? Particularly the carb. Was it painted black or left raw.

Tom

Tom, I taken enough note of enough unmolested 30 engines to comment with the same degree of certainty about the engine detailing, though I don't think the valve rocker shaft castings were ever painted.

On my 34, since I stayed with babbit bearings, I thought it wise to keep the oil cooler intact and functioning by replacing the original heat exchanger core with a coil of high pressure finned flexible tubing; thus I put the modern spin-on filter inside the original Purolator L-6 cannister -- there are several conversion kit sources for this.

Tuesday 15th April 2008

Spent the day at the workshop cleaning front bumper brackets, numerous over-rider fittings that didn't require to be chromed and some of the sheet metal items off the front end. Most of this was done standing at the bench grinder with the wire wheel, got nipped a few times on the fingers by the wheel but survived to tell the tale. Found that some of the brackets had been replaced by DIY or other fittings, One of the two fender stays behind the front wheels had been modified. It has a bend in it and one of the mountings has been cut/broken off and a new hole drilled. One of the splash shields between the bumper and the car has a homemade bracket while another of the brackets has an extra hole drilled and by which it is mounted to the splash shield.

Attach file:

---

  (19.63 KB)


  (39.92 KB)