Re: BigKev's 1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Sedan
Posted by BigKev On 2007/10/8 22:57:51
Well I made the trip to Napa today, and bought the pieces I needed to rebuilt the front brakes.
The existing shoes still had alot of meat on them, so I couldn't bring myself to order new ones, so I am just going to reuse them after a little cleanup (see pic).
Napa had the wheel cylinders in stock for about $11 bucks a piece. I also had to buy new seals as the existing ones were shot. I found out that for some reason the '54 uses a different seal than the '53 or the '55's. The seal in the '54 is National 6456 (Napa NOS17131 $14.99), I belive the 53 or 55 seal is National 5975. I confirmed the one year status looking at the Max Merrit website. They list a different part number for '54. The '54 seal is actually cheaper in price than the pre 53, 55 seals. Weird.
The seals were not in stock and had to be ordered, but they will have them by tomorrow midday. My Napa store is able to get just about anything in about 24hrs.
They also had the rear wheel cylinders in stock, but I will wait on those until I get the fronts all done.
I bought a new hardware set (springs and hold down hardware) and new adjusters a few months ago off of ebay, so I didnt need those from Napa.
I went to use my AAA card to get the 7% discount that Napa gives card holders, when the clerk sad he would give me a better discount, and he knocked %20 of the of the total bill. Must have been my lucky day.
So the plan is to pull the backing plates off, derust them, and paint them. I will also clean up the existing shoes to remove the surface that is on them. I will clean the drums up, and them take them to Kragen and have them turned, and then hit the outside with a little high temp paint to keep the rust off of them.
While the backing plates are off I will finish the degunking of the steering knuckles, and try to clean up the rest of the front suspension. Currently the front suspension and steering is nice and tight with no slop in it at all. So hopefully rebuilding it can wait until later. I will take the time to paint all of the suspension pieces when I paint front frame clip.
Once all of that is done, then I will reassemble the brakes. All of the brake lines need to be replaced as the fluid that was in turned to solid rust many years ago. I already have the new lines, I just need to install them. But I will wait until the frame is cleaned up and painted. So that will be one of the last things on my list.
I just want to get the brake mechanicals all taken care of, and then get the car back to a rolling status as soon as possible. I may need to move the car around to finish the garage renovation, and having it on jacking stands with the spindles showing really doesnt allow me to move it.
I still need to do a little more derusting on front frame clip, then it can get painted. I also need to clean up the firewall so I can shoot it with some Metallic Bikini Blue rattle can paint from Tower paint. I hopefully can get all this done by Thanksgiving.
All parts numbers have been added to the Cross-Reference to help the next guy out.
Attach file:
(35.19 KB)
The existing shoes still had alot of meat on them, so I couldn't bring myself to order new ones, so I am just going to reuse them after a little cleanup (see pic).
Napa had the wheel cylinders in stock for about $11 bucks a piece. I also had to buy new seals as the existing ones were shot. I found out that for some reason the '54 uses a different seal than the '53 or the '55's. The seal in the '54 is National 6456 (Napa NOS17131 $14.99), I belive the 53 or 55 seal is National 5975. I confirmed the one year status looking at the Max Merrit website. They list a different part number for '54. The '54 seal is actually cheaper in price than the pre 53, 55 seals. Weird.
The seals were not in stock and had to be ordered, but they will have them by tomorrow midday. My Napa store is able to get just about anything in about 24hrs.
They also had the rear wheel cylinders in stock, but I will wait on those until I get the fronts all done.
I bought a new hardware set (springs and hold down hardware) and new adjusters a few months ago off of ebay, so I didnt need those from Napa.
I went to use my AAA card to get the 7% discount that Napa gives card holders, when the clerk sad he would give me a better discount, and he knocked %20 of the of the total bill. Must have been my lucky day.
So the plan is to pull the backing plates off, derust them, and paint them. I will also clean up the existing shoes to remove the surface that is on them. I will clean the drums up, and them take them to Kragen and have them turned, and then hit the outside with a little high temp paint to keep the rust off of them.
While the backing plates are off I will finish the degunking of the steering knuckles, and try to clean up the rest of the front suspension. Currently the front suspension and steering is nice and tight with no slop in it at all. So hopefully rebuilding it can wait until later. I will take the time to paint all of the suspension pieces when I paint front frame clip.
Once all of that is done, then I will reassemble the brakes. All of the brake lines need to be replaced as the fluid that was in turned to solid rust many years ago. I already have the new lines, I just need to install them. But I will wait until the frame is cleaned up and painted. So that will be one of the last things on my list.
I just want to get the brake mechanicals all taken care of, and then get the car back to a rolling status as soon as possible. I may need to move the car around to finish the garage renovation, and having it on jacking stands with the spindles showing really doesnt allow me to move it.
I still need to do a little more derusting on front frame clip, then it can get painted. I also need to clean up the firewall so I can shoot it with some Metallic Bikini Blue rattle can paint from Tower paint. I hopefully can get all this done by Thanksgiving.
All parts numbers have been added to the Cross-Reference to help the next guy out.
Attach file:
(35.19 KB)
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=2529