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Monday 10th August 2010

Rang John Cain, the importer of the radial tyres I'm waiting for, and he advised they have been released by Customs but are not yet unloaded. Also phoned the chrome-plater and will pick up the re-chromed front bumper centre piece next week. At the workshop found Peter L there, he was miking up 120 crankshafts because he thought the crankshaft that Wade gave him some months back was not the correct one. Turns out it is the right one but probably requires new big-end bearings. And here's something interesting, the big-end bearings being used are Ferguson tractor/Vanguard/Triumph TR ones! Sorry didn't get a pic, it's easy to be wise after the event. Rang Harvey and arranged to meet him at his house where he showed me the wheels in primer and also the Mazda True Red paint for them. Harvey also told me he's pulled Vince's '39 120 Convertible Coupe's engine out in preparation for tear down and rebuild. And I won't be back at the workshop till next Monday and because of that I've arranged with Wade for him to pickup the tyres and settle the bill should they become available in my absence.

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I doubt very much that Harvey will only need one piston, but if that's all that's wrong I have a box of them in varying sizes. So he is welcome if needed.

Monday 17th August 2009

Just to back track a bit. Thursday of last week, while I was away, Wade phoned to tell me he'd picked up my tyres the day before at Belmont, meeting up with Barry Smith who received his '38 V12 Club Sedan in the same shipment. He also said that he was off to deliver the new O/D cable for the '39 120 Convertible Coupe that Harvey's working on at present. And had a call from Harvey on Friday advising the wheels were painted and ready for pick up. Arranged with Harvey to pick up the wheels Monday morning and that brings us back to the present.

So this morning picked up the freshly painted wheels from Harvey and caught up with what he's doing. Has the engine out of the Convertible Coupe and it's all apart with the crankshaft journals and bores looking OK. He's going to have the block and head hot-tanked and then will turn to what's required to re-build the engine. He's also installed the new O/D cable into "Kermit". the very green '39 110 Coupe.

Then it was off to Ingleburn, All Metal Bumpers had re-chromed the front bumper centre piece which had rust spots coming through. Looks a lot better and Peter there said it could have been caused by nickel blow-by if the piece hadn't been set up in the plating tank correctly.

Next was the workshop to pick up the Firestone radial tyres to fit to the new wheels. While there I noticed the '41's running boards weren't lying around and John told me that Paul had taken them to beat out the dents and irregularities before they get Ute Liner sprayed. Then to Wheel & Tyre Co. for the tyres to be fitted, leaving instructions with both the manager and the tyre fitter about the standard of treatment required. I'll find out tomorrow morning, when I go back to pick them up, how gently they treated everything.

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Hi Mal, I too have had some recent tire experience. The spare on my 115C was a 25+ year old thing. It had thread, but was looking a bit weathered. I decided to replace it since I have been driving the car to shows in a 50-75 mile radius of home and did not trust the old tire. I ordered another Diamond Back wide whitewall tubeless radial to match those on the car. The tires are new Hankooks with the whitewall vulcanized to a smoothed outside sidewall. They have been most satisfactory in driving and appearance. I took the new tire and the old spare tire and wheel to a speciality shop here to have the new tubeless tire mounted and balanced. When I got it home I discovered that they had mounted the tire with a tube, and not even a radial tire tube. I took it back to the shop and they mounted the tire properly, without a tube, and rebalanced it. I gave the the old tire and the new tube to the grandsons. I am somewhat surprised and pleased that those old 1937 wheels can be mounted with tubeless tires and hold the air pressure better than my 2008 Mini Cooper. I hope your tire experience is better.

Tuesday 18th August 2009

When I picked up the wheels complete with the freshly mounted tyres from Tyre & Wheel Co, on the way to the workshop, I was stunned when the guy at the front desk told me "I hope you like blue sidewalls"! You can't imagine what flashed through my mind but the look of amazement/bewilderment/confusion on my face must have been quite apparent because no sooner than he said it he also said not to worry because with some soap and water and scrubbing it'll come off! Reason I didn't know was that the two pairs of tyres came packaged white wall to white wall, or maybe it should be blue wall to blue wall, and they are treated this way for protection during shipping. It would have been nice to know beforehand rather than risk giving this old bloke a heart attack! Must say the tyre fitting was excellent with a father and son team of Tim and "Tray" attending to my requirements, apparently Tim fitted the tyres and Tray balanced them.

Once I recovered from that shock and unloaded the wheels and tyres it was time to mount them on the Coupe. But just as I started that Noel arrived to pick up the new hand brake cables for his '41 Coupe. Then Paul arrived with the running boards he'd been straightening the dents on for me. Needed to finish them at the workshop rather than at home because some of the more severe dings required heat as well as hammer and he doesn't have oxy at home. With those two guys gone then finished fitting the new wheels and tyres but final tightening of the lug bolts had to wait until the coupe could be lowered to the ground. Also put a coat of POR-15 on the underside of the boards before they went for the Ute Liner re-rubbering treatment.

Next it was into Wade's Ute to pick up Big Red's chemical-dipped block and head. But before doing that dropped into Lee Bros to pick up one, count 'em, one S/S countersunk screw for the princely sum of 50c. Then, while picking up the block and head, it came up that Harvey had dropped the block, head and water pump for the '39 120 in there for the chemical-tank treatment yesterday and so we were able to have a look at them. Turns out Harvey couldn't extract the water distribution tube, however and whatever he tried, so it's going in as is. Then dropped in to see Harvey on the way back to the workshop where he was able to inspect Wade's cleaned block and head. Also a lot of Packard talk as well as seeing the progress Harveys made on his '40 Willy's Sedan, including his re-woodgraining of the dash.

Back at the workshop unloaded the block and head then turned to finishing the wheels and tyres on the Coupe. After the fiasco when I almost lost a front wheel off the '38 I'm now somewhat paranoid about the lug bolts being TIGHT! Once the car was back on the ground borrowed John's long socket bar and ensured all were TIGHT! And Wade installed the re-chromed front bumper centre piece for me.Then turned to Big Red's block where Wade removed all the head studs in preparation to sending it the engine shop for checking and machining. Also rang Peter of Rhino Ute Linings to discover he can't do the boards for about a week or two. Well that was a turn up, I'll now have to take the Coupe to the big display day on Sunday sans running boards!

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Wednesday 19th August 2009

Yesterday Wade had pointed out a minor problem with the Coupe, the battery had come loose! The battery, an Optima, is mounted on the chassis rail next to the steering box sitting on a rubber pad and held in place by a clamp at each end attached to studs welded to the chassis rail. Looks like vibrations from sitting on the rubber mount combined with possibly not enough thread length allowed the battery to slide out from under the clamps. Easy fix then, a couple of washers to compensate for not enough thread length and re-tighten? Should have been easy but "Heavy Handed" Mal snapped off a not very well welded stud. How to fix it, and more importantly how to fix it so it doesn't happen again? By using a longer stud, drilling a slightly smaller hole in the chassis rail, tapering the end of the stud, gently forcing it into the drilled hole and a good weld job, that's how. Had to utilise John's welding skills with the MIG and now I can assure you that it ain't gonna' snap off anytime soon!

That done turned to the topside of the running boards of which the undersides had been POR-15'd yesterday. Great job, but POR-15 is very runny, so with the myriad of holes in the boards for the various trim pieces some, well a fair bit, ran through to the topside. Started cleaning it up while Wade was continuing with more wiring on Big Red. This time for a back-up light. He's had it since about the time he bought Big Red 2 years ago and because the reversing light switch wasn't working didn't install it till now.

Then, the call I'd been waiting for, the three cars blocking the Coupe in could be moved. That done drove the Coupe outside and proceeded to clean off the blue protection finish on the WWW's and tyre sidewalls. Looks a hell of a lot better now with white, rather than blue, sides on the tyres. That done was able to take the Coupe for a test drive around Wade's circuit, with Wade along as the riding mechanic. Then took the Coupe home with Wade following so I could get back to the workshop to pick up my daily driver. Had a moment on the way home because the O/D is playing up and wouldn't kick down and stalled it on a VERY steep hill. Managed to get going again but will lock out the O/D until the Coupe goes in for it's engine rebuild coupled with clutch/trans/OD work as required.

On Wades side of things he gave me a memory stick containing some pic's of the front of his Super 8 cam, in response to a post in the General Forum,https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3289&post_id=35081#forumpost35081 because he couldn't get his pic's to load on PackardInfo. There are also some pic's of Barry's '38 V12 Club Sedan from when it arrived in Oz last week. And Barry now's the time to get it into the Owner Registry, not to forget your '37 120 too! Wade also rang the guy painting his '34 and has arranged to pick up the body and doors next Tuesday. I've been waiting a long time for the day I'll finally see the '34 Club Sedan in the metal. The mudguards(fenders) and bonnet(hood) still require painting but with the body back Wade will be able to continue to progress the '34 re-build.

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And John, with my new radials the steering on the Coupe has improved markedly, the tendency to wander at will appears a thing of the past. Saying that, it was a short drive so with a few longer runs on the week-end it'll be put properly to the test then.

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Thursday 20th August 2009

Wade had asked me a couple of days ago to mount a hose saddle on the end of the bench, so the air hose could be coiled up instead of it hanging on a hook. Seemed like a 5 minute job but won't go into the details except to say it took about an hour instead of the expected 5 minute time frame.

Then I turned to finishing off scraping the POR-15 run-through from the top of the remaining running board. While I was doing that Wade was servicing his Commodore dual-cab ute. The ute will be used to tow the trailer with the '34 body on Tuesday so it received a very thorough service to ensure it was in shape for the tow ahead of it. Wade is also in the process of trying to run down a set of standard sized big-end bearings for Big Red and he believes he has lead on a set from a fellow PACA member.

Also started to clean up the NOS accelerator pedal from the "Flackmaster", but shelved using the wire wheel when I realised the rubber surface was bonded to the pedal itself. (David, just demonstrating what many years of shelf life can do to parts.) Will clean up the rest of the surface rust, with a small wire brush and paint with POR-15 next week, when I'm back at the workshop next week.

That was it for the day as there were no simple and/or menial tasks left which I could perform. So went home for lunch amazing Kath in the process as she usually doesn't see me that early on the day's I go to the workshop.

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Back in post #186 I included the pic below. This was taken back in 1980 when Robert Sacchi was in Sydney promoting the movie he starred in, "The Man with Bogart's Face".

http://www.videodetective.com/?publishedid=2881

Harvey and his then Packard, a '38 120 Sedan with O/D, was used to ferry Robert Sacchi around Sydney for radio and TV interviews, promotions and the film's opening night.

I've also included a pic of Harvey taken today at Eastern Creek.

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Monday 24th August 2009

Only spent about 5 minutes at the workshop today and there I found Wade in the process of removing Old Blue's front clip to have the radiator cleaned, checked, repaired and tested. It's had a bit of a leak for some time and with Wade taking her on a couple of thousand miles round trip in three weeks time decided he's better off get it fixed now rather than have a problem occur during the course of his journey.

And tomorrow, the big day! Down to Helensburgh to pick up the '34's body!

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Tuesday 25th August 2009

Well, the big day, and the '34's body beautiful was to be united with it's lonesome chassis. But !!!!!
Because of high winds, overnight and this morning, with trees and branches down and roads blocked the trip was cancelled! It's re-scheduled though for Thursday but, because of other commitments, I can't make it so Wade has strict instructions to take many, many pic's.

At the workshop I found Wade had removed the front clip from Old Blue and taken the radiator to JJ Smiths yesterday and it's expected to be ready Friday. Wade was also taking the opportunity, while access was readily available, to undertake replacement of Old Blue's exhaust manifold. The manifold has a crack in the flange where it bolts to the exhaust pipe. Although Wade had it repaired about 5 years ago it wasn't successful and with a good exhaust manifold obtained from PACA member Fred D, also known as "Pepe" because he comes from south of the border, now was the time to replace it. Wade had already disconnected linkages and lines and removed the air-cleaner and carb so removing the intake and exhaust manifolds should be pretty straight-forward, shouldn't it? Well No! Why? Because it's RHD and the steering column only has about 1/8" between it and the manifold hot box, and that's after the column has been flattened to clear the hot box! So the steering box is unbolted from the chassis and from under the dash, the pitman arm disconnected from the sector shaft and the steering box and column swung up and outside the chassis to give enough clearance to remove the manifolds. Once out, while Wade cleaned up the surfaces of the replacement exhaust manifold, I cleaned up the block surface of old gasket. All went back together accompanied with a liberal application of manifold sealer to ensure against leaks.

There won't be any posts at least until Friday. Then I'll be able to provide pic's of the '34's body, and the radiator and front clip will be able to go back on Old Blue.

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