We got a touch of warm weather this weekend so I decided to get the cowl off the sedan so I could look into creating a new wood estate wagon body for the car. I started by removing the steel roof perimeter and found that the wood underneath was completely useless. All the joints are rotted out and some have literally turned to dust. Even the wood that looks OK is as soft as butter, I'm not sure what was keeping the car together. I had already made up my mind to put a wood body on the car but this just confirms it's the right way to proceed. I managed to get all four doors off last night after I had soaked the remaining rusted screws in penetrating oil over night. I also managed to remove the windshield and header piece off the cowl but didn't get photos of it. The wood header over the window is rotted out and the screws had rusted to almost nothing making it fairly easy to remove.

Attach file:

---

  (89.52 KB)


  (107.87 KB)


  (130.02 KB)


  (95.45 KB)


  (83.28 KB)

A farrier taught me that magnet trick when I was about 20. He was hammering on some shoes for a friends horse and I was questioning him on how he knew when the shoe was hot enough to start hammering. Evidently when the magnet drops off the shoe it's time to start bending it to shape. I was astounded.

I have never heard of Kasenit and my brief read of the website leads me to believe it imparts some carbon in to the surface of the steel allowing it to case harden after quenching. Sounds pretty cool and if my torches weren't out of gas I'd give it a try.

I looked around and all I could find was 1018 in the garage so that's what I made the part from. I'm going to skip heat treating it because I don't have the equipment to do it right and I'll probably never put more than a few thousand miles on this car. Here are the results:

Attach file:

---

  (76.52 KB)


  (90.76 KB)


  (89.64 KB)


  (64.27 KB)

But seriously, I think that's a great idea and since I don't actually have any running boards right now it would make their construction a bit easier.

I also love the wood spoke wheels but I've never seen a set for sale and bet I couldn't afford them if I did. Maybe you know someone who wants to trade for my rare disc wheels? Someone removed the standard Packard (Budd?) two piece rims from the discs and welded on a set of Firestone safety rims which are dated 1928 . These rims have a locking ring similar to the Packard ring in section but it isn't "cut". It's a solid hoop and it's installed on an angle to the rim when all of the air is removed from the tube. It can't be installed or removed if there is any air in the tube at all.

I have seen wooden running boards and I do like them. As a matter of fact my car had one wooden running board on it when I purchased it. It was solid oak.....the other side was steel and had been welded to the front fender. LOL

Attach file:

---

  (51.44 KB)


  (89.56 KB)

Here is how I see a possible 733 estate wagon looking.

Attach file:

---

  (38.28 KB)

I've seen photos of his car and it sure is nice

Attach file:

---

  (33.42 KB)

Owen, that's very exciting, I had seen that post earlier and wrongfully assumed that the drawings were from post war cars.

Let the ride decide, the print says it was made from #140-S STEEL and I would agree with Bruce who thinks that this is really SAE 1040 steel. The Cyanide C-512 refers to the heat treatment process which looks to have been added as an alteration to the print at a later date.

Not only does Bruce have the drawing, he says this:

The Packard Motor Car Foundation is in possession of between 35,000 and 40,000 Packard blueprints. These were donated to the foundation by two individual groups. The oldest I have found is 1900 and the newest is 1957. I think I have a catalog of all the prints to make a Model F Packard from 1903 amongst them. We do not have all of the prints, but we have a lot.

Here is an example:

Attach file:

---

Size: 62.75 KB; Hits: 82

Here is another '37, this one a panel delivery....

Attach file:

---

  (62.80 KB)