Cut the head of the bolt off with a cutting disc and then knock the remains inside the frame. Drill the hole clean through the other side,and use a long bolt, heavy washer and nut. I don't recommend what you are suggesting.

Keep in mind that there is not a mark, you are looking for a lightly etched scale from 0 to 15 degrees on the periphery of the balancer.

Failing that, do this: Disconnect the vacuum advance tube at the carb or distributor. Really no need to plug it. Hook a vacuum gage up to some convenient port on your intake manifold. Where the vacuum line goes down to the fuel pump will do, at the front of the manifold on your car. Start her up and adjust the idle speed to a nice brisk even idle. Now advance the timing by turning the distributor clockwise til you get the highest vacuum reading. Note that, and then retard the timing til the vac reading drops about 1 inch. Lock the distributor down there and then set your idle. Turn it off, hook up your advance and vac lines, and then restart. If it seems to buck against the starter, you will have to retard it a bit. Likewise if it pings under load.

My experience with such low compression engines is that you may advance them quite a bit from the ideal without pinging, but they will seem harsh and will absolutely not start when hot.

I had learned this before and the lesson is reinforced:
Have spent the summer running around in my new Thousanddollarwonder, a nasty 54 Clipper optioned with only a heater and an oil filter. The engine ran fairly well but was prone to buck when pulling a slow corner, would intermittently skip at idle, and the ignition would start to break down if I wound it out in second. Distributor was in good order, and starting was fine.

Finally got around to dealing with the kluge of mismatched and incorrectly routed plug wires--some of which were resistor type. Picked up a universal set of copper cored wires for $25 at Advance. These are now neatly routed through the block under the coil and through their little rubber separators. They are bright yellow and really add a festive touch to the 100% undetailed 91,000 mile engine compartment.

The difference in performance and smoothness is frankly amazing. Idle is dead smooth, bucking under load is gone, and the only rev limit is common sense. I drove the car 180 miles last Sunday cutting and thrusting with all the other clowns on the Baltinmore and Washington beltways null problemo at up to 75. Gas mileage seems way better and I'll have a number when I refill later this week.

Moral is, the change of wires solved a small panorama of problems that could easily have been chalked up to carb, coil or plugs. 6v cars really don't seem to like resistor wires.

If I recall, there is a screw or two that go into the frame horizontally, reached from under the front fender. They never imagined that anyone would ever take the thing off.

A real 48-51 bird has two slots for the wings.

These flatheads run very low valve spring pressures and don't turn too fast so it is not an issue. I have several hundred thousand miles on various flatheads from Kaiser to Stude to Packard with unleaded fuel, no additives, and no problems.

While your engine is apart, be sure to check the fit of the exhaust valves in the guides as this is a common wear area and heat transfer out through the stem is important to keep the valves happy.

Your mother is an excellent sport. Give her my regards.

I am a good judge of that as my mother drove me in my 50 Super from Baltimore to Detroit for a PAC National Meet when I was 15.

Will PM you my phone number so we can talk through whats happening with your transmission. Sounded to me like the shift to second was actually attempting to engage reverse.

Stunning. I am assuming that a complete repaint of the car was included in that price--or was that just for the metal work?

In the last twenty years I have put new bottoms on at least a couple dozen 51-56 Packards. By that I mean: new metal at the back lower corner of the front fenders, new inner and outer rockers, new rear wheel openings and doglegs, and if needed the first several inches up of the rear quarter panels. It has not taken longer than 80 hours to do that down both sides of the car and there is no benefit to removing the body from the frame. Oh, and I make all those parts myself in that time.

Any postwar sedan that needs more rust repair than that should be abandoned as there are more than enough of them to go around.

Could we have some photos of the damage, especially the backside of the rockers where the floor braces meet the inner rockers?

More shopping is going to be necessary!

If you need to remove a lot of undercoating, wait till a freezing cold day and attack it with a needle scaler or just an air chisel set on a low pressure. Cold=brittle=falls off when the sheetmetal is vibrated.

If you just want to unscrew a few things, choose the correct size socket from an old set and grind (6) 45 degree chamfers on its edge in line with the hex. Drive the socket on with a hammer to clear the undercoat away.

The 51-4 mirror's base is contoured to match the profile of the molding. 55-6 are not. Will probably wobble unless you grind the base. Those things go for a pot of money so I wouldn't recommend that.