Dear N.C.

All of the suggestions here should help you isolate the problem. Let's put them in a list.

a) Rather than the hand method a KD spark tester from NAPA will let you check for continuous ignition. The spark should be regular with four beats per revolution from the coil. You should have at least 20Kv.

b) Pump the accelerator and check for fuel. Use a squirt oil can to prime the carburetor.

c) Put your hand over the carburetor and crank the motor. You should have suction. If not, do a compression test and check the cranking vacuum. It should have at least 80psi and 2-5 inhg cranking vacuum. Cranking speed is also important. Too fast means low compression. You can use a jumper wire across the carburetor switch when testing cranking vacuum.

The other day I had a brand new truck come in on a flat bed with a bumper sticker than said "Buy American". I have a set routine for proceeding through these cases. Sometimes they are runnning again before they leave the parking lot. The other people gave up and pushed into my area. It was running again before I went home and the owner happy that there was nothing wrong with his brand new truck.

Dear Joey:

Somewhere else around here is a similar case with a cheap diagnostic list. The first thing to do is hand check the block for uniformity of temperature during warm up, then remove the front pan and check the radiator flow using your hand, then put a thermometer in the radiator and check the gauge accuracy. If it's running hot it should be boiling out the overflow.

Also, those old radiators should always be rodded unless they test good on the road. If the radiator was allowed to dry out it will clog.

Hope this helps.

Maybe I'm over reacting. After all if so many of those JC Whitney knock offs were sold I suppose that says something about the design. Heck the CCCA even had it on their trophies.

I've seen the MacArthur car (and others) with the crazy surfin bird hood ornament. But that is not something that came out of a design studio. It made salesman happy.

I still think if you want to put a Pelican on a postwar car, then go to the drawing board and design a mount for it.
Ditto the prewar Deluxe piece.

Although I think the 19th and 20th series arrow feather and the prewar Clipper Bullet are underrated. Those were designed by a stylist.

However, from the drivers seat the early thirties Cadillac Goddess is pretty darn good.

Dear bhappy:

Thank you for the great picture. The only thing missing is the lighted plastic wings option.

I cannot understand bolting hood ornaments on top of hood ornaments. That's what they do with low riders, pimp rides, hotrods, and hillbilly trucks. It just reminds me of the slums. Didn't Cheech and Chong have a bird bolted onto the hood of a 64 Chevy in the movie "Up in Smoke"?

If someone wants to put a 1934 ornament on a 1949 car then just french the dumb thing on and throw away the original. Otherwise is just looks like a bird sitting on top of a house or the local drug dealer's car. Heck, why not bolt on some fender lights too?

For 1951 Packard was recommending high octane for the engines with Ultramatic and regular for manual transmission cars. By 1954 they recommended premium for everything; the 288, 327, 359 and the V-8.

How did they make these recommendations? They drilled and tapped knock sensors into the block, took the car out on the test track, and recorded the knock readings on special meters inside the car. Or they did it on a dyno. Or both.

The reason modern cars generally run great on regular is because a computer controlled engine retards the timing to accommodate the grade of gasoline. And the owner's manuals will sometimes state that optimum performance will be achieved with higher octane, but that regular is acceptable.

Now those old gasolines used tetraethyl lead which was a very effective, and cheap, anti knock compound. I don't know what the octane ratings were in those days, but I'm sure they can be found. However, the octane number methods are subject to change.

Suffice it to say the Packard owners manual is the appropriate source for deciding what grade of gasoline to buy. Notwithstanding that the cars burn so much of it.

I wouldn't tell somebody to disregard that recommendation.

According to the petroleum engineers handbook inaudible detonation results in accelerated motor wear. So I would refer to the owners manual and use at least what they recommend. Modern car knock sensors can monitor spark and bearing knock below threshold and the computer control retard timing accordingly.

I guarantee there were two Victorias because they were owned by a Dr Hoeschbaker. One is in Turnquist's book. They were both running driving cars. However a maniac got a hold of one and that was the end of it. As happens so often with these cars.

Once I was in a warehouse perusing a beautiful original Lincoln convertible sedan by Dietrich. It was really nice save for the fact the somebody chopped the back off to change it into a different body. And that's the way it stayed.

According to the parts book body 1499 is a 120 convertible coupe. The parts books lists both painted and grained dashboards for this model.

According to the 110/120 brochure the cars with all leather had grained dashboards, but cars with cloth and leather had a painted dash. It's right there in the picture.

This combo goes back to 1938. However I have seen bone stock originals with all leather and a painted dashboard. Anything is possible with Packards. Heck Turnquist had a convertible sedan with V-12 trimmings, yet when you opened the hood there was an eight cylinder motor.

However, that fact that the interior is rotten is another issue separate from the paint color.

I wouldn't rely too heavily on the data book. For one it refers to the cars as 1940 models in places.

The parts book lists at least a dozen bodies with lacquered dashboards. For example, DE1900 which is a 19th series six Deluxe.

Granted the dash is in poor shape, but that color looks like Crescent blue to me. Just because it doesn't look like it ran into a barrel of lathe waste doesn't mean it doesn't have the additive. I worked on a 41 180 with a blue like that and was original.