I fully agree with Packards1's comments about the value of attending a Packard National. I won't be attending Des Moines but have attended Asheville NC, Boston (Danvers), Providence RI, Warren (Centennial) and quite a few others. One shouldn't be turned off if your Packard isn't up to snuff for the show day competition; the knowledge you can pick up and the friendships you can make can be immensely rewarding.

Re heat shields, the parts book will confirm by my memory says the 282, 288, 327, 359 and 356 engines all had heat shields around the fuel pump, but only the 356 had the second shield under the carburetor. But despite being non-authentic, adding a shield under the carburetor, as well as making sure an insulating block is installed, will not hurt and probably will help.

My own experience says that with a car in good condition, even when driving in stop-and-go July 4th parades at 100 degrees, electric fuel pumps should not be necessary as a replacement for the mechanical fuel pump though today's gasoline surely isn't helping any. Some folks use an electric just to prime the carburetor after long periods of non-use.

I'd still believe your problem is probably excessive fuel pressure, a leaking needle and seat or a bad carburetor float, or as has also been suggested, a clogged anti-percolator valve (or fuel bowl vent). On the WDO and perhaps the WDG series there is a diecast metal cover with the Carter trademark, held on with 2 fillister head screws. Beneath it are the adjustments for the anti-percolator valves, metering rods, and accelerator pump. Check this out, and don't forget a drop or two of oil on the shaft supports.

And don't forget to check the exhaust manifold heat riser valve.

Having spent quite a bit of time with 34 Eight oil filters and coolers, let me make a comment on the one you pictured. Remember its a full-flow system meaning that no oil gets to anything in the engine without first passing thru the filter and cooler. Thus on your modification, I suggest making very sure that the ID in all of your fittings and connections, hoses etc. is no smaller than the ID of the original Packard feed lines to the filter and then back to the oil gallery. VERY important.

When I did mine I chose to convert the old Purolator L-6 to accept a modern spin-on filter inside (inexpensive kits available from the CCCA), and then replace the heat exchanger core with a length of flexible finned high pressure tubing, thus keeping the effectivness of the cooler. The tubing was rated at 250 psi and I'll enclose a picture of same.

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Can I assume the electric pump is mounted in the rear near the tank? If so vapor lock is probably not the problem. Have you checked the line for pressure? Leaking needle and seat and/or too high a pressure could be the problem (leading to flooding), or perhaps a balky automatic choke. If holding the gas pedal all way to the floor (beyond what triggers the starter motor) help it get started, then clearly flooding is the issue.

Let's hope the 1000 miles of driving them empty didn't do too much internal damage. Hydraulic jack oil is fine to use, and Mobil markets two hydraulic oils, DTE-24 (SAE 10) and DTE 25 (SAE 20) which are excellent for this purpose as well. If your old shocks leak (which they probably will), the SAE 20 may minimize it a bit.

Good questions all, and I don't know the answers but Packard was a well known public stock in 1915 as the introduction of the Twin Six was significant enough news to halt the ticker. I think it may have been 1910 when Packard became a Michigan corporation succeeding the old West Virginia corporation.

The knurled round knob under the dash is the trip odometer reset. Push it up and rotate, one directions rolls back in 1/10s, the other direction after enough turns will roll back in 100s.

The suggestion that it was to activate the Torsion Level ride is not relevant to a 1953 car.

Some new rocker parts are (or at least were) available from Egge. If you've got a lathe or a friend with one, making the bushings is fairly straight forward.

If its reasonably intact but fragile, you might want to consider taking it apart and then painting all the surfaces (inside and outside) with something to strengthen the cardboard while penetrating same, like a polyurethane resin. Or perhaps a dilute cut of shellac in alcohol.

I believe that alcohol (methy, ethyl or ispropyl) is the accepted solvent for cleaning DOT 3 (and presumably DOT 4 which is similar) brake fluid residues from hydraulic parts. I also seem to remember when converting a car to DOT 5 years back that alcohol was the recommended solvent to flush the steel lines and cylinders (all rubber parts replaced). Like others I had good success using gasoline to clean grease from contaminated brake linings, but never had much luck cleaning and putting brake shoes back into service that had become saturated with brake fluid, no matter what they were cleaned with. Nowadays with a few more $ in my pocket I wouldn't even consider it, new shoes are relatively inexpensive.

Back to PackardV8's question about lacquer thinner and acetone, I don't have formulation info in front of me for lacquer thinner but I think the major components are a chemical class known as esters (like methyl or ethyl acetate), not ketones (like acetone or MEK).