Re: 6V, +ground, one-wire, 55-amp alternators

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/4/3 15:42:32

The alternator is, again, a simple bolt-in proposition.
One-wire. You use one of the existing generator wires, tape off the other two and you're done. Of course, instructions come with it. They've been offering 6V, pos-ground alternators for 20 years. Their contact info's above.

Dr. Cole, couldn't agree more about chromed wire wheels.
Hideous. A friend gaga over ancient Italian barouches showed me a photo of a Bugatti aero coupe Ralph Lauren campaigned at the Pebble Beach tournament of credit lines and ego a few years ago. The wire wheels were, of course, originally body color, but Lauren had them chromed. To their credit, the judges didn't give him best in class, but i think he still placed.
Packardite Phil Hill, despite the many Pebble restorations his Santa Monica shop turned out, summed it
well: "I've seen more beautiful original cars forever ruined for the sake of another few points."

Twits. I've been a hardcore "old car cuckoo" as Jean Shepherd called us and himself all my life. But if i never attend Pebble 'twill be fine. I've friends who've taken best of class, and best of show, so i know what i'm talking about.

But i disagree about painted radiator shells. I remember the first 1930s senior Packard i ever saw up close and personal when i was on my way home from college. A huge,
canary yellow '36 Packard Twelve phaeton and what most impressed me was the understatement of the radiator shell painted body color, only the grille bars chromed. This really underscored Packard's genteel elan, quiet class, and made a '30s Rolls-Royce or other highend car look crass and vulgar in comparison.

What's really sad are the bozos who two-tone 1935-40 Packards, which the factory, of course, never did.

The above shop in Ohio, AAB, uses a 1972-78 GM Delco alternator for their 6-volt, positive-ground conversion. A couple of us have already ordered ours simply as we like the idea of 55 amps at idle as opposed to NO amps from a generator,
and i like the idea of getting rid of another 16 lbs. from the front end, as i've already jettisoned 100 or so from the rest of the car. If only Packard had made those effing heavy seat frames out of aluminum instead of steel!