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Monday 30th June 2008

Yesterday was Noel's 70th birthday and with Noel being a bachelor Jeff and Margaret kindly put on a lovely party for Noel in celebration. And I can now tell you, Margaret's a great cook! About 20 from the Packard Club were in attendance, including Peter Packard from this Forum in his '53 Clipper Deluxe Sedan. I'm not supposed to post the pic I took of the photo of Noel with everybodies comments adorning it, but what the heck, he'll only be 70 once!

So after the festivities it was back to the more mundane tasks down at the workshop, instead of the tall and sometimes true tales, of yesterday. But first went and donated at the Bloodbank then dropped into the workshop on my way home in case Peter was there as yesterday I'd forgotten to give him the temperature guage and capillary for the '41 which he'll have repaired when he returns to Canberra. Peter hadn't arrived yet so left the guage with Wade and went home, changed and returned to find Peter had arrived along with Jeff.

Jeff was driving Peter's 327 Clipper to guage how his '52 200 Sedan performed in comparison, although his '52 is sadly lacking in performance at the moment! Jeff and Margaret burnt some valves in the '52 on their return trip from a rally at Wagga Wagga, about 300 miles south, the same weekend that Wade and Gina went on the Border Run to Berri. Yesterday, with the head off the engine, there was a gathering around the 200 at one stage but not so much a post mortem but more a diagnostic and prognostic session about these things as blokes like to do.

Anyway after Peter and Jeff had left, Wade and I started on our respective tasks. Wade pulling more of the '39 110 apart and me cleaning up the gasket surfaces of the sump of overpaint when another Peter arrived. This Peter was on his way to see Noel who thought he had a tailshaft for an O/D '39 120 as Peter is currently converting his '39 120 to O/D. So more social time until Peter bid his farewell and we returned to work.

Before putting the sump back, had to re-assemble and re-install the oil-pump's swinging pick-up which had been removed and partially dis-assembled for cleaning. This was not without it's moments as first I needed Wade's assistance to determine the position for the pick-up head re-assembly. Then struggled to re-connect the pipe from the oil pick-up head to the pump inlet as it was slightly cross-threaded and which I carefully fixed with a small triangular file. At this point thought I'd done well only to discover I'd installed the pipe upside down. If you're supposed to learn by your mistakes I don't know why I'm not a genius by now! Gasket cemented the four surfaces of the sump and gasket segments then, with Wades assistance, lifted and bolted the sump back in place. While Wade then turned to cleaning the parts off the '39 I tightened up the 101 sump bolts trying to avoid the drips of the Loctite gasket cement being squeezed out as space was displaced.

During all that, had lent Wade a hand fetching and holding spanners. Also wrestled with the pedals of the '39 trying to bring them up through the floor because the way down was very effectively blocked by all the linkages on a RHD Packard. Finally succeeded in freeing the pedals from the clutches of the rods and cables below and later after Wade had cleaned them up discovered the clutch pedal appears to be made of brass!

Back to the '41, next with Wades assistance postioned the oil filter canister and re-connected the inlet rubber hose and outlet copper line. Then moved on to the oil filler tube, although I'd re-positioned it, Wade suggested loctiting it in to prevent oil leaks around the base where it enters the block. Did this by cleaning internal block surface and base of filler tube and applying Loctite to both then after pushing the tube in by hand driving it right in using a hammer against a block of wood.

Tomorrow, won't be at the workshop, but will take the exhaust/inlet manifold assembly over to Reconditioning Services at Auburn, an inner west area of Sydney.

Quote:

And John,

Saw Harvey yesterday and he's found some ink and also another type of paint. He'll experiment and test these and if they fail I'll take you up on that offer then.

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Tuesday 1st July 2008

Didn't get to the workshop today but did take the inlet/exhaust manifolds over to Reconditioning Services at Auburn. Thought it would be easy, had the address from John, looked it up on the web before leaving and knew the street and area! Until driving down the street, find the right number but it's a Chinese Acupuncture & Medicine Shop! So drove around the block for another look to make sure I'd got the right address and sure enough it didn't turn into a pumpkin or a reconditioning shop but was still an acupuncture shop. Parked around the corner, and leaving the manifolds in the car because they're bloody big lumps of cast iron and heavy, walked around to the acupuncture shop and of course they were closed. Next phoned Wade, and found him in his natural position under a Packard and up to his elbows in grease, and after confirming the address he suggested phoning Reconditioning Services. Fortunately they had 2 numbers, because ringing the first a message gave me a new number which didn't ring when it transferred my call to it. The second number was more productive, giving me a new number and transferring me successfully to it. Learned they'd moved premises at the start of the year and it is only about 3 blocks away. Easy from here you'd think, but the street I took had a no right turn to it so had to go round the block again and head cross country for want of a better term. This time paydirt, found the shop, lugged the manifolds in and they'll be surfaced and ready by close of business tomorrow afternoon. Also picked up some of their new business cards so John can update his desktop filing system(A Pile of cards you shuffle through until you find the one you want or need, sound familiar?).Then just down the street from Reconditioning Services saw a Bufori Madison parked on the other side of the road. Reason I mention this is that John works on a Subaru powered one at the workshop.

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Tuesday 1st July 2008, a little later

Quote:

Received a PM from Peter Packard which I have reproduced most of below as I'm sure Peter wouldn't mind because this way I won't mangle his words. Peter wrote:

"Took your temp gauge to the Instrument fitter shop today and we are out of luck. His wife advised me that he had a heart attack 12 months ago and has not fully recovered ( very shaky in the hands, etc). She mentioned that they have to send them away now and it's around $A250. I thanked her and said that I would think about it. The $A250 is very expensive and i believe that you will pick up a good S/H unit ( two gauge set) for around $US50....."

So now I'm on the prowl for a '41 120 temp guage with complete and undamaged capillary attached.

EDIT - Just posted a WTB here and in other Packard forums as well as emailing the large Packard parts suppliers for cost and availability.

Tuesday 1st July 2008 - much later

Quote:

Had a call from Harvey, he advised the paints he picked up don't do the job but he's investigating some other lines of enquiry and hopefully he'll get onto the right stuff soon. At present Harvey has 2 days to go till his retirement then he's having a cement slab poured for a garage he's building at his house up on the Central Coast, about 50 miles north of Sydney. So he's got a few things on his mind at the moment, but I'm glad he's taken the time to fill me in on the progress or otherwise of the dashboard woodgraining.

Wednesday 2nd July 2008

Before leaving for the workshop this morning had a call from Tony at Reconditioning Services to say the intake/exhaust manifold was ready. Drove to Auburn and picked up the manifold which had about 2mm, or about 0.080", taken off the block faces to remove the irregularities present.

At the workshop I started cleaning still more parts. Surely there can't be too many more to clean now? Dis-assembled the distributor so I could clean the body, cleaned the relays, coil and the dipstick. Biggest task was wire-brushing by hand the intake/exhaust manifold assembly. Thought at first I'd never get there but, with progress being made at a very slow pace, results did begin to show. Finally it was at a state where I was able to Marine Clean it and the other parts. Then before going home applied a coat of POR-15 Grey Manifold Paint to the manifolds.

While I did the cleaning, Wade worked on his '37 Super, he'd had the carburettor bloke around the corner overhaul the carby yesterday so needed to re-install it. Did that but not without incident as the new needle and seat in the kit was different from the original one in the carby and the fuel line then didn't fit! After Wade solved that problem then couldn't get the Super 8 to run smoothly. After a bit of hair tearing Wade was talking to John who suggested "check the points, if they've closed up that'll retard the spark". And lo and behold that's what the problem was. And yesterday, after taking out the last of the linkages for the '39 110, Wade took them to Ivan in the machine shop around the corner so that new pins and bushes could be made, the originals being very worn.

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Mal,

What type of gasket are you going to use? I recommend this style if you can find them. I know that one of the PI chapters repros them (either San Diego or So Cal cant remember which on). These matched the original style ones that were on my car. I bought some from Best Gaskets, and they were just thin "cardboard" style gaskets. These original style gaskets have a bit of crush to them, which helps to seal and I belive someone told me it also works well with any expansion that may occur between the block and the manifolds.

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Mal, I ditto what Kev said....I picked up some from here...

http://www.packards-today.com/catalog.php?CID=7&PID=24


Jeff-

Yup thats the PI Chapter I bought them from. I usually buy everything at the annual So Calif area swapmeets, so I tend to forget which chapter's booth I bought what at. But those gaskets are very good quality and looked spot-on to the old ones that were on my car.

Thursday 3rd July 2008

Kevin & Jeff, Thanks for your advice re the manifold gaskets. Forgot to have a look today at the ones I'll be using but I think they'll be OK, being donated to the cause by Wade and he wouldn't use them if they weren't up to the task.

At the workshop cleaned and Marine Cleaned a few more smaller pieces then Metal Readied the parts to be painted and POR-15'd them all black.

John. the owner of the '39 110 dropped in to see Wade and also drop off a manual for the car and some spark plugs, including a dozen Edisons in their original boxes, and other bits. Tells me he bought the '39 about 6 years ago from the son of the bloke who restored it and also that had it been previously owned by a publican who had it in storage for many years.

Left Wade working on the water pump for his '37 Super 8, it's been a source of annoyance to him for a while now as he thinks the guy who did the machining on it when he put a new seal in for him, and it wasn't Ivan, stuffed it up! Now off to see the grand-daughters.

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Mal,

I am not being nit picky, just curious: was your distributor original wrinkle painted? I have seen some that are, and some that aren't, at least on Senior cars from the early to mid 30s. I can't tell on my 30 because the paint is almost gone.

Cheers,

Tom