Somewhere in this thread I saw what I thought was the belief by someone that shellac was a substitute for a gasket; not so. Under some conditions Permatex's "Form-a-Gasket" might do that, but shellac is just one of many types of gasket cements, like Permatex hardening and non-hardening varieties. On things like Ultramatic pans, engine oil pans, L-head valve covers, etc., I usually use shellac or the hardening variety of Permatex on the side to the pan, and nothing on the other side. Oft times removing things like valve covers later for a valve adjustment doesn't require a new gasket.

But one thing many people miss on stamped steel oil pans and automatic transmission pans is to correct the distortions in the steel that have been formed over the years by repetitive tightening of the bolts -- what then results is that you no longer have a flat surface to mate with the machined flat surface of the transmission or engine casting and the gasket may no longer be sufficient to make up for the differences. Lay the pan against some solid steel surface and using the rounded end of a ball pein hammer against the bolt hole, give a rap to flatten the stretched area around the bolt hole of the stamping.

As to the comments about no silicone on gasoline or automatic transmission pans, AMEN!

I believe the expression is "jury-rigged", not jerry-rigged. Its roots are nautical, as when temporary rigging was set on a sailing ship.

You may wish to insure that you have no other unwanted current drains other than the already identified ignition "hot wire" and the clock. Turn off all the electrical accessories, remove the fuse from the clock, close the doors to shut off the courtesy lights, and remove the bulb from the trunk light if you have one. The remove and touch one of the battery cables to it's post while observing the contact; any spark, no matter how small, will indicate an unwanted current drain.

I agree with your last sentence, Tim. Though the availability of repro parts keeps our cars on the road and allows us the enjoyment of same, many of them sure don't match the quality of the originals. For example, king pin kits with bronze bushings instead of caged needle bearings, pistons without autothermic struts, and a host of other examples. But I guess we have to be pleased that those parts are available at all, what would we do without them?

Not to belabor the point, but I'm not convinced that just because a battery has a higher amp-hour capacity, it requires more charging. I always thought the amoung of charging required was based on the amount of current drawn, not the size of reservoir it came from.

And yes, new generators are hard to find, but so are new engine blocks, and a lot else. But unless subject to negligence or some other unusual occurance, a set of $10 brushes every 50,000 miles and a few drops of oil annually should keep a generator going almost indefinately. And of course if needed field coils can be rewound and armatures repaired, though those eventualities should be extremely rare.

And of course the major advantage is that you keep the vehicle's historic originality.

Like Randy, I really have a hard time understanding why people make these changes to 12 volt systems and alternators replacing generators. It destroys the cars originality and authenticity, lowers value to many future buyers, and except perhaps in the case of an irate spouse who demands air conditioning, offers little or nothing in return. The engineers who designed these cars knew how to size a generator capacity to the electrical load of the car so unless you've dramatically increased the load, what's the gain - brighter lights while standing still? And why 12 volts? Seems to be this pervasive thought than prior to the advent of 12 volt systems in the 1950s, all cars built before that wouldn't start.

Randy, I strongly recommend a good bourbon, sipped slowly, with the eyes closed.

You think a couple of little drips is annoying? Have you ever seen what a Bijur-equipped car can do to a garage floor after 40 years?

I don't know if that's the general concencus or not, but I think the recommendation is valid. I'll note, however, after a rebuild I went to Dexron, had the groan, changed back to Type F (actually, Type FA) and have had 13,000 miles of flawless performance since.

It was not until well after WW II that Packard kept production records by body style so there is no quantitative answer to your question, though it could of course be estimated by knowing the highest VN production sequence known. You might contact the PAC roster keeper for that year/model to see if his has an estimate. In a general answer, the coupe victoria (or coupe/sedan to some) is relatively uncommon, though of course far more common on the junior chassis than the seniors.