Re: Henry's 55 Constellation

Posted by Cli55er On 2008/11/11 23:36:28

my grandfather and my dad were my shop class. they didn't offer shop class at my school when i was there, shame too as there was a place for it...they just didn't have a teacher for it. my dad was a better teacher anyways and i am still learning from him everyday.

got to use his 1970 snap on 3/8ths air ratchet tonight FAR-70A is the model number and it was AWESOME to use it. i felt like a king using something my dad used when he was my age. ;0) i am that way about old tools though...anytime i get one i keep it in better shape then my new ones, especially if they belonged to my dad or grandfather.

i have decied to start using my old 3.2 megapixel camera instead of my cell phone. i have now dubbed it my shop camera. i wish i had remembered it up in the closet from the beginning, cause my cell phone pics sux pretty bad. the only other camera i had was a 9.2 DSLR...and i really didn't feel like resizing all those pics all the time or handling it with my dirty hands. the 3.2 camera i have is old and i used it on the frame pics up a couple of posts. the pics are much clearer, there is a flash and i still don't have to resize the pics. win/win for all of us. ;0)

tonight i went to Lowe's and bought one of those 5 shelf units and took it in half and made two work benches out of it. i will post a pic of it tomorrow. it was about the same price as building one, like i planned, and it was made of metal and had the partical board already in it, for under 100 bucks. the partical board wasn't the thickest, but it says it will hold 450 pounds on each shelf....yeah right. i plan to get some thicker plywood from on of the scraps left over on one of the builds around my house. they don't care as long as it is just the scraps you are taking and it is after they are done framing. free is always good.

so, i got 5 times the shelf space and 3 times the work bench space. worked out great. no i have somewhere to start rebuilding the torsion motor at.

i was going to buy the front end rebuild kit from Kanter, but i need to wait until next pay check. then on to the rubber from Max Merrit, which i found was consistently cheaper than Kanter. should be under 1000 for all i need. then the chassis kit from Eastwood to paint things up.

my winter project is to finish the chassis completely and move on to the powertrain for the summer.

as far as stock things.....the way i see it...people drove it like it was back in 1955 and it worked fine. i doubt if Packard did any HUGE recalls on things for the 1955 models just because they improved some things in 1956...i.e. the updates to the transmission, etc...so i plan to put it back the way it was when it was made. i even will go as far as using the bolts as much as i can....i think the bolts from 1955 are just as much a part of the cars spirit as anything else....and i see no reason to pic at the spirit of the car by replacing all the bolts with new grade 8 or something.....heck they have been there for over 50 years....they must be fine for the job ;0)

i know the master cylinder is not the safest, but it will give people a correct translation of what Packard did on this car in 1955. i will take my chances and keep the car true to itself. i am not a 100% purist, i just like the spirit of this particular car the way it is, we have bonded and have an understanding now. ;0)

hopefully my next 37 coupe will be the same way ;0) LOL!!

thanks for the kind words dude! sure picked me up!

later,

Hank