Brian,

To answer your question about the transcooler construction, the two halves are stamped steel, and appear to be crimped, and then sweated together. Internally the cooler has a metal hardline tubbing that is coiled in a elongated oval to give as much transfer surface as possible. In '54 in there were at least 2 versions of this cooler. One for the normal passengers cars, and then a "Heavy" duty version which I imagine was for the Commercial Chassis. The difference is the diameter of the tubing and larger trans line fittings.

When I replaced mine with a NOS unit, I also replace all the trans lines. But I put in a small 5 inch long spliced-in section in one line towards the front. So in the future I could easily remove the spliced section and attach a aux cooler in line without have to cut into the hard line.

As stated by others, the OEM cooler tended to rust at the water hose connections. Sweating brass ends on would be an improvement. On the NOS unit I acquired, I repainted it in the Eastwood Chassis black, and also painted the inside of the hose connectors to hopefully ward off rust a little longer.

I did the springs myself. I removed the entire hinge from the car and sandblasted them, moving the hinge into different open/closed position to get every angle and get the springs in the "expanded" state to get in between the coils.

Then I used a large screwdriver to remove the spring from the hinge. The hinge itself was sprayed in Cadmium paint from Eastwood. The springs were re-sandblasted to get down inside them, and then painted with Eastwood Chassis Black. I painted the hinges first, and once everything was dry and cured, I then bolted the hinges back on car to hold them in place, and carefully put the springs back in place while the springs were still a bit tacky. That way I could leave them in the expanded state while they finished drying. Then I touched up the paint where needed with a small brush.

I'm using the Packard 440 wire which has a steel core. You can find that on eBay if you want to make them up yourself. They do make the correct crimping tools to produce professional results.

Not sure if exactly the same, but on my '54 the axle nut is 1-5/16. I ended up buying a socket set from Harbor Freight for large trucks that had impact sockets from 1" to 2". It wasn't too expensive, and I figured I would only use on them every blue moon, so I didn't need to buy expensive versions of them.

Eric,

Add this guy to your list also 38-rays

He has hundreds of listings for Fender Toppers with Packard in the title.

Kevin,

Not sure if it matters to you or not, but I noticed something which is overlooked on many cars I have seen is the Hood Hinge Spring. They were actually black from the factory. The hinge itself is plated, but the spring is painted black. I found traces on black paint on mine, and matches the PI Engine Judging Guide and some of the photos they use for reference.

Here is a picture off of my '54.

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Well it's finally gotten cold here (relatively speaking) in So Calif. So this is the time of the year I get the most stuff done on the car. The garage can reach 115 in the summer, and all the fans do is move the hot air around. If it gets chilly out there I can usually close the big door, and it will stay warm enough.

Interesting. Not sure if that is a feature or there is just side to side play on the "swivel" rod. I will have to go check mine.

Alrighty folks. With everything else going on in this world going on there must be something better to talk about then getting pissy with each other over types of fire extinguishers.


Time to move along to other lines of conversation or get back to the original topic thread. No replies or comments are needed. Thanks.

According to the 41-47 and 48-54 Parts Books. Both the 22nd and 23rd series had Hood (Bonnet) to Cowl Weatherstripping. Sometimes the answers are right there in Black and White.

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