My next project? 1921 Packard Coupe

3 minute(s) of a 548 minute read

For anyone interested attached are some close up photographs of the tube bender with 3/4 inch round steel tube.

If you are wondering what happened to the other half of the wheel. It is doing sterling service as a hose reel (holder) bolted to the wall next to the outside garden tap.

7-21-2011

Hi All

When someone asks "What did you do today?' they could hardly expect you to reply as I would have to today "I re-cut the slots on 200 wood screws by hand with a hack-saw" 

But that is exactly what I have been doing. I proudly bought two boxes of obsolete and nigh on impossible to find, slot head wood screws. These are needed to re-screw the panels back onto the wood frame of the Packard, Imagine my dismay when I found that the antique bronze finish on these particular screws had filled the slots. There was only one thing to do. Clean out the offending slots by hand one screw at a time. A great way to fill in an afternoon! At least all the purists out there will not be offended by Phillips head screws. Even if they would have had to tear out all the trim to find them.

Bernie J.

In case you are wondering the Packard coach-builders did not take short cuts by nailing their Aluminium panels onto the frame. No! They screwed them on using little 6 gauge X 3/4 inch wood screws, one screw every two or three inches! This is one of the tasks awaiting me over the next week or two.

No power screw-drivers please, just the old fashioned jobs. Turned by hand using arm power.

What a difference just one generation can make. Son Steve has sent me these photographs of his "playthings".

His job? Making reproduction bits for early Harley Davidson Frames.