My next project? 1921 Packard Coupe

3 minute(s) of a 548 minute read

Thanks West

I will send you a private e-mail re the tail lamp.

Meanwhile I am proceeding with the engine albeit slowly today I have been shopping with Helen Our regular Friday morning date. About the only time that she can persuade me to come out of the shed. This afternoon I "just had' to finish off a report on Vintage "happenings down-under" for the Automobile Mag in the UK, Readers of this magazine probably skip over much of my stuff.

Attached are some photographs of the engine progress. The gaping hole in the right side of the timing chain case is where the plug, that my pet poltergeist hidden somewhere in the shed, goes. The third photograph shows the top of one of the "high compression" pistons. The crown projects approx 3/16 inch above the top of the bore.

Anyone who has done a "proper" restoration will understand where the money goes. For example here is just one "shopping list" that I found in my jean's pocket, the one with the hole in it!

The problem is that I hate using old , rounded, stripped and rusty nuts and bolts.

If any of the purists out there would like them I have several 1 Gallon (5 litre) oil containers full of "original" nuts, bolts & washers. All you have to do is collect them.

Re the above; I have used the original cylinder head nuts as they are a size and pitch no longer commercially available. As luck would have it they are the same size etc as those used on the Dixie Flyer so with some from the spare Herschell Spillman engines I have come up with 23 that cleaned up sufficiently to use. Most of the original nuts on the Packard engine looked as though they had never seen a spanner but two or three looked as though a rat had been nibbling at them.