John_Mereness

The 1939 Packard 120 Rollson Formal Town Car gets a valve job and some engine detailing - more details to follow.

There are actually two (one original and one reproduction). The Packard Museum in Dayton has the original and the other is an amazing duplicate has been built using the original drawings by a fellow by the name of Ted Davis in Oklahoma (at the cost of some half million dollars). My guess is the original was saved in the early days of car collecting by Barney Pollard of Detroit. The original is powered by a very rare Model K Packard engine. My understanding was the original was wrecked at some early point (1904 or so) and the restoration was done in the early days of car collecting to a level that was the best available for the time period though is not up to today's standards. I am not sure if Ted's is powered by an original "K" engine or an exact reproduction (stunning nevertheless) engine. Both cars were exhibited together at Amelia Island Concours two years ago (see www.conceptcarz.com for pictures). JMM

So you have heard of 1920's and early 1930's CCCA cars having undercarriages color keyed to match the exteriors - the 1932 Twin Six is one of those cars and what you are looking at is what you find when willing to get the dirtiest you may ever get in your life - the frame has been well oiled to protect the underside. There are only a handful of cars that can come close to this car in originality and condition.

1903 Packard Gray Wolf LAND-SPEED RECORD HOLDER gets the broken sprocket for the crank removed from the crankshaft. This could have been days of a project though came out freely in just shy of two PAINFUL hours.

So here is the final product of the paint touch up on the 35 Packard Twelve:

So what do you use when taken off or re-installing wheels ? Of course, you use a jack that is as old as the car. Check out its size. We may just start calling it a crocodile. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WE HAVE TWO (2) SUCH JACKS and the other was camping out under thwe 1939 Lilly Pond Packard 120 Rollson Town Car while Frank Crawford and Mike Mereness (my dad) were adjusting valves.

Pictures of the fuel pump and carb.

Engine bay is starting to take shape with lots of cleaning and I rebuilt the fuel pump and carb (plus did quite a bit of work to get coils in the car - they were stolen or lost - jury is still out. Carb is an EE-3 and is beautifully built (that was 8 hours of my life that I am never getting back).

Here is a close up of the sidemount with the cover installed. Paint color on wheels is Aztec Olivine Green - Light (IM 1096).

Wednesday May 27th - Picked the wheels up from Grismer tire and they did a great job in mounting (and little to no paint damage as well - which you know is nearly impossible on a lock ring / snap ring style wheel). So here are the pictures of the wheels mounted to the car.

Wednesday, May 27th: Lock rims picked up the Monday prior to Memorial Day and they came out rather nice. Wheels were picked up from the painter the Thursday before Memorial Day. Todd the owner of RIMWORKS in Centerville did a very good job. Todd sandblasted and painted, but also had to repair some curb damage, misc scrapes, and one chunked out section of rim that was on the driver's side rear wheel (someone had apparently run it into a curb and not only damaged rim, but also caused damage to the threads on the brake drum (a quick call to Ted Davis in OK revealed thread was 9/16 x 18 (friend Glenn Grismere happened to have a tap) and all holes were rethreaded except one that was a hopeless and all bolts were basically hopeless as well so replacements were sourced.

Crisis possibly adverted on Memorial Day: Roughly 12 hours to actually clean out oil pan (with a hammer and a chissel) and pick-up screen - it was TOTALLY CLOGGED (plus, it took 1/2 hour to get pan dropped and 40 minutes to reinstall. Sorry, did not have camera, but take it as a lesson - ENGINE WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED IF I HAD STARTED IT.

Who has made: 1954 Packard Caribbean turquoise/green Leather ? Thanks, jmereness@yahoo.com

Who has made: 1954 Packard Caribbean turquoise/green Leather ? Thanks, jmereness@yahoo.com

Cecil makes beautiful horns - The ones on the car may clean up (so much to clean and so little time available each week) and have no dents; but if they do not clean then Cecil will be my first phone call. Glad to hear hear he is still in business.

Finally, Stone Guard Brackets are made and installed. Hours were spent cleaning up the stoneguard (it has a brass screen behind it that was polished - and now has been repolished), repairing emblem, and getting whole thing mounted.

No, not a Lumber Jack or Paul Bunyan, but a rather surprised (did not see my camera coming) James from Grismere Tire in Downtown Dayton. He was just coming back from a truck roadside repair when I called and begged for help. Problem was the tires were 8 ply truck and could have stood on their owwn without air - HAAAAAAAAARRRRD as a Rock. The bead on each tire excepting the one original Firestone spare was almost 1 1/2 inches thick each (not much room when you also have an area on a 4 1/2 inch rim that has a metal valve stem through it. James had all the proper tools and basically resorted to brute force. He spent nearly 3 hours to demount 6 tires.

Changing the subject for a minute. This is my next project - a 1939 Packard 120 Town Car, originally built for Lilly Ponds, an opera singer.

The whole engine is pretty impressive. I started cleaning on it and was amazed at the amount of chrome and nickle trim on it and on the firewall. I also started cleaning underneath the car and it is perhaps nicer paint than on the topside (someone coated whole car with oil underneath, but what a filthy dirty mess to get to the paint).

Yes, I understand they are rare though kind of stuck as the automatic choke parts I need are unique to 33 and 34 Packard. I do not need a good carb (the one on the car is very nice) and the parts do not need to be platable - just functional as car gets very little use (even though the car is perhaps the finest surviving unrestored example of a 33). Even the most derelict of carbs should have the parts required in decent enough condition. JMM

Hello, Ran into a small problem with the 1932 Twin Six in that the left rear brake drum had 7 of the 8 bolts crossthreaded when I took off wheels for the first time since at least the 1950's. Damage looks more to the bolts than to the drum. Need to retap drum and forgot to bring back a bolt to figure out thread size to order a tap. Does anyone know the thread size off hand ? JMM

Still striking out on finding the parts. Someone should have a parts carb for this it is not a totally uncommon carb. considering the volume of 33 and 34 Packards built.

This is an picture from the 20's of Citizen's Motor Car Company - "some things have not changed much in 80 years." Every night all the neon is lit and it is great.

Tom, Call Jimmy Chips at the AutoColorLibrary at 859-909-2150. We spoke today about making 1932 Packard Aztec Olivine Brown light. Also, I have the water pump pulley - actually a couple of them. Have not had much of a voice (welcome to spring weather) over past few days so have not called you. JMM

Also, The Carb kit I used to rebuild was super sweet - nicest that I have ever purchased from anyone and very reasonable priced - it came from http://www.daytonaparts.com/