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Monday 29th July 2013

On the 1st of the month received an email from Phil fromTassie saying in part:
"The Packard is nearly ready for a return trip back to Tassie. Not complete unfortunately - I am going to get the upholstery done down here....we hope to go to VMG take the car for a test run in readiness for the shipping back...Would you like to come up to VMG as well?.."

To which I replied:
"Great to hear that the Packard is getting close to heading home...Of course I'm more than happy to again see you and the Packard"

The details were then organised of picking up Phil and Marjorie, who were going to be in Sydney for a wedding on the weekend, then settled back to wait. Also arranged for Noel to accompany us on the appointed day. First picked up Phil and Marjorie then headed to the workshop where Noel was leaving Fleurette ready for further treatment during Wade's next visit.

It was then off to Vintage Motor Garage about 70kms North. There we found Phil and Marjorie's Packard a little less ready than expected. It was thought the mudguards(fenders), hood(bonnet), doors(doors), running boards(running boards), etc would all be mounted on the Packard, but they weren't. Important thing though was that after a lot of conversation between Phil and Jonathon, the proprietor, that the Packard started up easily and ran well. A little adjustment to lower the idle speed, a seat found for Phil in the form of an upturned milkcrate and off with Jonathon hanging on riding shotgun. On their return Jonathon rustled up another crate, and a piece of foam, and Marjorie went for her Packard ride. Then followed Noel in the front "seat" with me crouching in the back and hanging on to the divider frame with Phil doing a leisurely circuit of the paddock at the back of VMG for our Packard ride. That was all as far as driving and riding in the Packard, Jonathon only putting in about 3 litres of fuel a bit less less than a US gallon, and didn't want to suffer the ignominy of running out of fuel. More talk ensued with the outcome being there are a few matters Jonathon needs to attend to. Then mudguards, doors, etc will be mounted and hopefully, in about a months time, the Packard will be ready to return to Tasmania for Phil to finish it.

On the return journey stopped at Brooklyn, on the Hawkesbury River, for a Fish & Chips lunch at the Marina, lovely. Then it was off to Sydney airport from where Phil and Marjorie were catching their flight back to Tassie. Finally deposited Noel at Bankstown, then home for me.

Link to VMG pic's.

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Thursday 8th August 2013

There was movement at the workshop, for the word had passed around
That the man from the Central Coast was there today,
And was working on Fleurette - she was worth a pretty pound,
So the apprentice was wanted for the day......

I'll leave it at that, having already offended a great many poetry aficionados with my reworking of Banjo Patterson's great Australian Classic, The Man From Snowy River.

Wade called last night to say he'd be at the workshop today and tomorrow working on the list of repairs and adjustments that Fleurette requires. By the time I arrived he had already dropped the engine pipe from the exhaust manifold and extracted the blown gasket. Also ensured the bolts worked freely in the manifold by running a tap through the manifold and a die over the bolts. Then applied a good dose of silicon exhaust sealant to the manifold gasket donut and bolted every thing back up. Next the water was drained from the cooling system so the new pipe from the water pump housing to the heater box could be installed. Accomplished and then the cooling system was refilled with water and the engine run and brought up to operating temperature to test for leaks. There were none! With the system tested it was again going to be drained but only to be refilled with coolant. If leaks had been evident didn't want to risk loosing coolant for such an exercise.

At this juncture who should arrive but Fleurette's owner bearing a gift. Well......it wasn't exactly a gift but an eBay purchase of a Packard part I'd brokered on Ross's behalf. Wade had said the oil pressure gauge line on Amelia was "stuffed" to use his expression. And, lo and behold, who should be having a "Twenny Dolla Tuesday Xmas in July Packard Sale 1937 1934 1938 1936 oil line fitg" but one DAF. After confirming with Wade, it would work, and then with Ross arranged with said DAF to purchase the line and fitting. But how did Noel come to deliver it? Apparently the line had been forwarded via Peter Packard and Noel had picked it up when he visited Peter on the weekend. Isn't it great to have Packard friends? Noel also ascertained that Fleurette will be ready tomorrow but has arranged with Wade for her to remain in the workshop over the weekend and will be picked up on Monday.

Then, following Noel's departure moved on to bleeding Fleurette's brakes, they being a bit spongy and pulling to the left a bit. But when I drove Fleurette, about a month back, although spongy the brakes didn't seem to be pulling. Bleeding wasn't hard work for me, I had to sit in the cabin and operate the brake pedal, after Fleurette was hoisted on high. But for Wade it was, he was down below releasing fluid and air from each of the wheel cylinders in turn. And also had a workout in that he had to run up and down a ladder to keep the master cylinder topped up with fluid. Worked out well in the end with a good solid pedal achieved. But had to leave at that point to attend to the afternoons Grandfatherly duties.

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Friday 9th August 2013

Well Noel, Fleurette's brakes are working well with a good firm pedal and not pulling either way so ready to be picked up on Monday. After donating blood plasma in the morning dropped in to find Wade tidying things up, including pulling the rods off Fleurette's old pistons. The pistons are going to scrap, while the rods will go with a load of other parts to Peter Packard for inclusion with other Club stock. But the real reason I was there was to go to lunch with the guys at the Royal Hotel, Ryde. Very enjoyable.

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Speaking for myself, it is enjoyable to see Wade's workshop return from dormancy.

Thursday 15th August 2013

With Wade not in the workshop this week I tried turning my hand today to fixing the drivers side outside door handle. It had "fallen off" in my hand when at Eden 2 months ago! Since then it has lain on the rear floor except at a display day last month when it was fitted back for cosmetic purposes only, ie it was pushed back into place. In my front yard, not at the workshop it's too tight to work around the car in the garage, removed the window garnish moulding, then the interior door and window winding handles(losing a pin in the process), then the arm rest and finally the door panel. But I needn't have! Why? Because the outside door handle is held on by a screw that locks in through the side of the door frame behind the catch.

Then needed to make a trip to the workshop for 1) a new roll pin for the handle and 2) a screw to replace the one missing from the door handle. Accomplished that and on returning home re-installed the door panel, handles and garnish moulding so back to square one there. Next was the door handle, screw appeared to work well but a few opening and closing operations and it was loose again, obviously the thread in the handle is stripped. So, the handle is now back on the rear floor from whence it'll come out again at the Shannon's Sydney Classic on Sunday.

And yesterday picked up a pair of tyres from Annet, tidbinbilla2, wife of John, Appin, the owners of Junior. Junior is now in Arkansas with John while Annet is moving there once all the formalities are sorted out. Part of the sorting process has been selling the house and cleaning out the shed where Annet found the 2 tyres, a pair of Yokahama 650R16 radials. These once graced Junior before he was smartened up with a set of WWW's. Now endeavouring to find the tyres, they are in good condition with plenty of tread, a home because they don't fit a '41 120(15's).

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'The Man From Snowy River' - one of my favourite poems Mal. Best enjoyed in the bar of the Tuena Hotel in 1972, when Bob the Publican recited it every Saturday night, to a silent spellbound crowd. Beautiful. The hair stood up on your neck and you never tired of hearing it.

Tuesday 20th August 2013

Wade's down from the Central Coast for the rest of the week with a couple of things in mind. 1) To start sorting the parts on the "magic shelves" for transportation to their soon to be new home. And, 2) A bit of Packard work as well.

Concerning the sorting, not all the parts are relocating to the Central Coast some are going elsewhere. Elsewhere, in this case, means going South to Peter Packard where they'll go into PACA Club Stock. Others parts still will be sold, don't know how that's going to be accomplished, but I imagine will include a fair number of '34 parts.

As for the work, on the weekend PACA attended the Shannon's Sydney Classic, where I learned Wade was to be at the workshop and also he offered to help with the drivers side outside door handle on the Coupe, because he'd read about my troubles here. Imagine that! Also offered to install the new front handbrake cable I received from Max a month or two back. But the major item of work is not on my Coupe, but on Ed's '37 120 Touring Sedan which was a participant on Sunday, The '37 needs a new pinion seal and is booked in for that tomorrow.

Today though, Wade was kind enough to get the handle onto the door of the Coupe. Thought it would be relatively straight forward, a bigger screw into the re-tapped handle body. But it wasn't that easy. Re-tapping with a bigger bolt proved ineffective, because the pot metal body was badly worn, there wasn't enough metal left for a decent thread for the size bolt(screw) required. So a different approach was adopted, using a heli-coil. Meant drilling the pot metal out more then tapping for the heli-coil and, even though one side of the pot-metal body had little metal, there was enough thread cut for the heli-coil to do it's work. But, trying to drill and tap into the pot-metal had resulted in a new thread a "little" off from the original. Solved by grinding down the head of the bolt so now it's a cheese head screw with a hacksaw cut for screwdriver use, tapering the start of the thread on the new screw and filing out the hole in the door to accommodate the screw somewhat. All together now with strict instructions from Wade that at the slightest sign of the handle loosening to re-tighten it straight away! Thanks Wade, I'm paranoid enough already that parts might fall off the Coupe without that now being a conscious reminder!

Door handle affixed it was onto the handbrake cable. Coupe backed into the workshop and up on the hoist then the end of the cable was released from the equaliser. Next undid the clamp that retains the cable housing to the trans crossmember. Then removed the "device" that took up most of the stretch in the cable. Back to the clamp which was now hanging on the end of the cable housing and after a lot of persuasion managed to free it. Coupe back on the floor, removed the drivers side kick panel and peeled the new carpet back to check if there were any clamps inside the car. There weren't. Then the fun began, with Wade trying to remove the split-pin from the clevis that holds the handbrake cable to the handbrake handle. With very restricted access, plus a split-pin that was recalcitrant in the utmost to removal, finally had to admit temporary defeat. However once Ed's '37 has been attended to tomorrow the running on the handbrake cable replacement will be taken up again. But why admit defeat today? Because I was taking my wife Kath to the movies in the afternoon!

Link to Sundays pics

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Wednesday 21st August 2013

Arrived at the workshop in the Coupe to find Ed's '37 120 Touring Sedan being positioned to go up on the hoist. Once up the rear universal joint was disconnected from the diff(third member, Randy?) pinion flange and the tailshaft wired up to the rear sway bar so it was out of the way. The flange removed and then the leaking pinion seal removed. Inspection of the pinion flange revealed the sealing area was good so the new seal was then installed and the pinion flange re-installed. However the pinion nut wasn't in great shape so a trip was taken to Lee Bros for a replacement. This entailed going in the Coupe, which normally I would have done alone, but because the hand brake was disconnected I enlisted Ed to ride along. Ed was going to stay behind and clean up the spray that resulted from the leaking pinion seal but did that bit of housekeeping later in the circumstances. Picked up another nut, but the only locking nut they had was too long. So another trip in the Coupe, this time to Ed's house because he lives relatively close. There, a thinner washer was sourced as well as Ed cutting down the length of the nut in his lathe. Quite a lathe is it too, formerly from HMAS Perth. It is in extremely good condition, only being used while the ship was at sea for emergency repairs, while in port any work required used dockyard facilities and machine shops. Took a while to do the job, with most of the time spent in centering up the nut in the chuck. Back to the workshop, washer and nut on, tailshaft reconnected, diff refilled and then Ed finally was able to do his undercar cleanup.

After waving Ed goodbye in the '37, started work again on the Coupe and its handbrake cable saga carried over from yesterday. The problem yesterday being that the split-pin holding the handbrake handle end of the cable under the dash, besides being in a very difficult position, was very stubborn in defying removal. Even though the split-pin was loose and rattling in the clevis pin it couldn't be gripped for removal. Finally after a loooooong, loooooong time Wade finally managed to extricate the split-pin in a number of pieces. To do so the front seat squab had been removed, padding laid down, and Wade lay across the cabin. But by doing so his head hung out the open drivers door with no support and his neck was copping a beating. Who should come to the rescue? Why Max Merritt of course! Huh! Actually it was the box from Max that the hand brake cable came in and this, together with a couple of folded up towels, provided a head rest of sorts for Wade. No chance of falling asleep though, still not comfortable enough for that to happen. But if you've ever wondered what those oversize boxes Max's parts come in are good for, now you know at least one use. Old cable out the interior end clamp removed and reused on the new cable the new cable was then finally pushed through the holes in the body and remounting began. This too proved to be difficult as Wade was vowing the spit-pin would be more easily removable should it ever be necessary in future. It is but not as well as Wade expected, the physical restrictions inherent in remounting the hand brake cable providing impediments in being able to do so. Still, one end of the cable was now secured, time now to put the car up in the air and do the other end under the car. This proved a lot easier, being readily accessible for a start, but did shorten the threaded section on the end of the cable that holds the clevis. Did this almost freehand with a hacksaw under the car while Wade held the cable end with a pair of vice grips against the arm of the hoist. Adjusted the rear brakes up some adjustment of the clevis and we were in business. Once again I'm indebted to Wade for the time and effort he spent on the Coupe.

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Am interested in where you acquired the Packard lettering decal on the trunk of your '34. I have a '36 and would like to have one.

Your help is appreciated

Dave Lee Saratoga, NY
Classiccar47@aol.com

G'day Dave,

I bought the Packard decals for Wade's '34 off US eBay over 2 years ago. I'd also bought similar Packard script decals for my '41 also off US eBay about 5 years ago. However, at the moment, the only current eBay listing for Packard Script decals is this one. Though did find an old email from 2 years ago which indicates the seller was The Sign Depot 1 which had an email address of - thesigndepot1@aol.com. If you don't have any luck there, or on eBay, maybe one of the Packard clubs or Vendors sells them?

EDIT - Looking at the Site of the seller of the eBay listed decal they also have a larger Packard Script decal available.