Re: Richter's '53 Caribbean

Posted by Richter12x2 On 2016/4/24 0:31:31

Today was a looong day, but a good Packard day. A friend came over to see the new car, and he's worked on muscle cars for a long time, so I begged his assistance in trying to start up the new Caribbean.

Checked the radiator, and it's topped up, green, and clean - and even let out a bit of a hiss when I popped the cap, so it's holding pressure. The oil was just over the 7qt line, and new honey gold. New plug wires, new coil and new battery already on it - I had it on the battery tender for a few days, because it was a bit discharged, but the battery tender showed it ready for action now.

Battery cable was good, so we ran a cable to the top post on the starter solenoid and gave it a bump, and she turned over and puffed pretty strong - so definitely had some compression. Added the coil wire, tweaked and messed around - it wanted to catch on starter fluid, but not for more than a second or so - turns out we weren't able to get any gas from the fuel tank - not clear whether clogged or just totally empty at this point, but the previous owner seemed to know what they were doing so far.

Took a one gallon gas can, tapped it at the bottom and ran the hose directly from the gas can to the carb, and held it up to use gravity to feed the carbs, a little starter fluid, and a couple of attempts and it started right up. We ran it for a minute or 3, and everything sounds pretty good, other than what sounds like a little lifter noise.

But you be the judge:

53 Packard Caribbean Running

We turned it off pretty shortly, because the coil and starter were hot-wired, but right now the instruments are disconnected, so even though it sounded good, we don't know anything about oil pressure or temperature yet.


Also, yesterday I hit some of the bare metal areas with some red oxide rustoleum, just to give it some sort of protection. They had stripped the hood, trunk and driver's door, and there were a few other areas that needed it too. Now it's looking a lot better, too, and my 3 year old daughter keeps asking if we can take the 'brown car' when we have to go somewhere. :D

Also from our fun little drama of the delivery of the thing, today I managed to pull the window sill in my office, replace the drywall and mud it in today, tomorrow will texture and paint. No damage to anything structural, the tires behind the delivery ramps seemed to arrest most of the momentum. I got the brick window ledge pushed back out and the window is square again, just have to find some sorta-matching bricks to redo the sill. All told, a few hours and maybe $80 worth of paint, bricks and mortar, so that's a load off.

I did notice also that there's a substantial door gap on the driver's side top, and too much on the passenger side as well. On the Drivers side, the door had been disassembled for trim, etc, so I assumed they had taken the latch out as well, but it turns out that it's just flexed so far that the latch doesn't connect with the striker. So very, very soon, it looks like I'll be adjusting some body shims, and praying, hopefully can get it to tighten back up. Have to peek through the service manual and see if they have any good tips on which positions to start with - my guess would be to start adding shims toward the rear, and that should close it up, but technically doing it at the front would probably do the same.

Also, started to take apart the front hubs to investigate why the brakes didn't stop the car, but after pulling the wheel and cap, I found wonderfully packed fresh new grease, so I aborted for now. I'll start with the lines and move on to the master cylinder. Have to make it stop before I can make it go, as my window ledge can attest to. :D