Re: Can this Packard be saved??

Posted by Fred Puhn On 2011/7/22 21:18:50

I used to own a Lincoln 4-door convertible around 1960 vintage. It was a heavy road crusher. One feature nobody discussed yet is how to support the rear door hinges. As I recall my old Lincoln had "suicide" rear doors with hinges on the rear. If the door hinges are on the front of the rear doors there is no stiff structure to mount them on after you cut the top off of a sedan. I could see a person opening the rear door and having the overhung weight break the hinge post off. To avoid this on your new project start with a 4-door "hardtop" body where they already have a stiff post to hang the doors on (or a car with suicide rear doors).

I used to have a 73 Oldsmobile 4-door hardtop, and those rear door hinges were hung on a very heavy post between the doors, well braced into the lower body structure. That same post mounted the door strikers for the front doors. Even with all that bracing the huge heavy doors deflected a lot.