Re: I need some serious advice about buying a Packard

Posted by BigKev On 2016/2/23 11:41:10

When I started on my car...I had never done any of this kind of work before. I just took my time and worked through every problem as it came up. It's really going through one system at a time. Take it apart, rebuild/fix it and put it back on the car. The biggest mistake people make is taking a car fully apart. That's how things get lost, misplaced, mislabeled, and soon becomes an overwhelming project to put back together. Which leads to a basket case car being sold later. I shudder when I see someone working on a car and there are coffee cans full of mixed up fasteners.

Also, a disassembled car takes up 10x the space of an assembles car. Invest in boxes of ziplock bags (different sizes) and sharpy markers. Every piece of trim I took off the car, I wrote on the backside with a marker to it's location. This made putting it back on the car years later much easier.

Pretty much all of the knowledge needed to work pretty much any Packard is here on the website between all the scanner information and tribal knowledge between all the users here.

All in all, I have less that $8,000 into my car. Because I was willing to learn and do as much of the work as I could, and I had a lot of lucky breaks and help from people here on the website. Remember, it's the work you farm out to other people that gets expensive, the stuff you do is all sweat equity.

My car is still a work in progress and took my nearly 10 years to get where it is now. Remember, a small steady stream can cut a deep canyon given enough time. My car was passed on multiple times by people as being unrestorable. Because it would taken $30,000 worth of parts and labor (mostly labor) at a resto shop to have a $12-$15 car.