My next project? 1921 Packard Coupe

4 minute(s) of a 548 minute read

Thanks Scott

The one problem is that in my extremely basic little workshop (and I mean little as in single car garage) things like compressors and blast cabinets are just a dream. 

Major items like large panels (fenders etc) and the chassis frame mean renting a pick-up and a 20 mile drive each way with two trips a week or two apart. one to deliver the other to collect the blasted parts. With the cost of the pick up rental and the charge for the blasting this can add up to almost $1,000 depending on the size and number of parts I can fit into a pick up. The alternative to renting a pick-up is multiple trips in my little '85 Alfa Romeo "33" hatch-back. For one reason or another large parts like the Packard chassis frame just wont fit in through the hatch. That is unless I cut it up into pieces, something I am reluctant to do. However I do find that a wire rope wheel in my angle grinder gets rid of a lot of rust and a bench grinder/wire-brush helps for small parts.

True confessions time.

In addition to my reply to Scott here is a photograph of "where it all happens". We live on a suburban one fifth of an acre block in a house we built some 40 years ago. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms a two car carport and a small single car garage/workshop. Helen drives a now 4 year old VW (Turbo Diesel) Jetta and my daily driver is a 1985 Alfa Romeo "33" hatch-back The VW lives in the carport and the Alfa outside.

" I have just celebrated my 74th birthday and have been retired about 15 years. 8 years ago I had major surgery for bladder cancer. At that time I had my bladder replaced with an (after-market) "neo-bladder" fabricated from a piece of my small intestine. At the same time I had my right kidney and my prostate removed. Some twelve months earlier I had a spinal laminectamy (two vertebra welded together) to overcome a serious chronic back problem. In addition to actually working on my restorations with my own two hands, I write articles (such as the "Return to Louisville" for the Antique Automobile) for the Automobile magazine in the UK and for two or three local car club magazines. Together with my wife Helen we take an active part in VSCC (Victoria Australia) competitive road events in our Lagonda Rapier two seater, a car that we have owned since 1978 having bought it as a broken-down racing car. The "Rapier"has also taken us on five or six visits to the UK and Europe. We are certainly not millionaires in fact far from it. We have four children (3 sons & 1 daughter) and 9 grandchildren. Cars such as the Packard and the Dixie Flyer are referred to as my "Project Cars" and tend to be sold on once the restoration is completed. This in part finances the next "project". I am a compulsive rescuer of basket cases and cars that no one else in their right mind would ever even think about taking on let alone fully restoring. In the past these projects have taken around 12 to 18 months to complete. As I have grown older and my standard of work has hopefully improved they have tended to take a little longer. I have lost count of the number of such restoration projects that I have successfully completed. 

I am not a collector and generally look on collectors as selfish people, denying less fortunate people the opportunity of owning and enjoying an Antique Automobile. 

Finally my creed is that God put wheels on Automobiles so that people could DRIVE them not so they could roll them into trailers.

I hope that I have not offended too many people but at least you know where I am coming from!

Bernie J.

P.S. To work in the "garage" I must first put the Lagonda outside. When it rains it gets wet.