Re: 1951 Packard 200

Posted by Hans Ahlness On 2015/7/13 10:24:14

I got my car in a similar state, although it sounds like your potential car had an easier life before being parked and hopefully enclosed storage.

Howard hit the high spots, look for rust under the carpet and floor mat in front along with the places he mentioned. The wiring will likely be rotten, a lot of that and the interior depends on the mice.

The suspension is pretty simple, the areas with petrified grease can be heated up a bit to make the old grease flow and then new grease pushed through a few times. You'll need a new gas tank (the Kanter unit is very good), and after all this time you will want to replace all the fuel and brake lines, and all the brake cylinders and master. It's all available and pretty cheap, just labor.

If the chrome isn't pitted then you might be ok just cleaning it up, try a spot out of the way to test how hard you can polish. If it's Korean War chrome then they omitted some of the plating and you'll polish through to the copper quickly. I think that started in '52 though. The side and window trims are all stainless so no worries there.

The windshield is specific to '51-52 on the sedans, and very hard to find so hope that one is in good shape.