Re: Packard wins Best of Show at Pebble Beach

Posted by Jeremy Adams On 2013/8/20 16:23:52
Quote:

BDC wrote:
With all due respect for restoring this beautiful car, the question started to arise after seeing all the pictures: What percentage of the vehicle is the original 79 year old material/ parts?


As much as humanly possible, I'd say in the high 90s. Some parts simply cannot be saved. A great effort was extended to restore parts that other restorers would have thrown away and made new, because of the car's provenance - the hood being a major example.

Mainly, the parts we replaced are tiny things such as fasteners and other small worn parts. Great effort was put into preserving the fenders, only replacing the metal that was so far gone that it wasn't able to be fixed. It would have been far easier to have made new ones, but with so many questions about the car's past, it was important to save the originals.

A few more years in the salty air and there would have been no car left to restore, look at the photos of the car in the 1970s at Wheatley's shop to see how poor of condition it was in.

A note on bolts: We replaced most of the original bolts with new grade 9 bolts because of their larger head size, which is equivalent to bolts that were made in the 1930s. The only caveat was that the grade markings and factory identification marks on the new bolts had to be welded out and machined off so that they didn't appear to be new fasteners. Hundreds of hours were spent on the bolts alone. Why replace the bolts, you may ask? We restore these cars to be DRIVEN, not trailer queens, so we want to make sure they are strong enough to hold up to the rigors of highway driving and touring. Safety is important.

As for the other parts we replaced, sometimes parts are so worn out there is no way they can be restored. This is really no different than taking a car in for new brakes. Keep in mind that this is a Packard and not a Ford. There is no catalog to buy parts from, only a limited amount are available. If a part cannot be restored then it usually has to be made new from scratch, typically at great expense.

Not much else we can say on the subject, hope this answers questions some of you may have. All Americans should be proud of what this Packard represents, as it is truly a national treasure.

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