Another senior moment! When I saw the heading Clipper Custom I only had a few moments before going off line and assumed incorrectly that we were discussing the original 1940's Clipper Custom in my rush to offer constructive advice. My apology for any misleading statements. I have deleted or amended my posts. Sorry.

I just restored old skirts for my Clipper.

How are you all attaching the skirts? I see it's a 5/16" bolt. Are you putting the bolt from the bottom to the top, with a wingnut on top? Vice versa? No wing nut?

What about the thin rubber strip to protect paint on bottom edge of fender? Is that 1/8" thick? I need to buy some and put it on.

Glad you're pleased with Ficken's work, I've always found it top-notch. I think you'll be glad to have the vacuum system which IMO is superior to the two-speed electrics.

OK, I'm confused. I thought since this was in the V8 forum we were speaking of a 55/56 Clipper Custom which would have 7:60x15 tires. Or is it a 46/47 Clipper Custom which would have 7:00x15? (These are from two different sizing conventions, I believe the 7:00x15 is actually the larger tire with higher load rating.)

If the former, the best measure of whitewall width is to look at original factory photographs, and there are plenty of them. If the former, I agree that at best whitewalls walls were almost impossible to obtain in those years.

Packard sourced tires from several tire manufacturers during any single year and I doubt that each manufacturer's whitewall width was identical to the others, so just general period norms should apply.

My Ficken rebuilt wiper motor came in. I installed it, and it works just fine.... better than ever!

Thanks, guys, for referring me to the right place.

I am not 100% sure the 3 3/8 whitewalls are not correct for your car. If you find they are supposed to be 4 inch for sure, I thought I saw 4 inch firestones in the Coker catalog. I find the actual catalog a little bit more user friendly because you can see all the different tires with a flip of the page. I am hoping someone else here can confirm this for you.

My personal experience with tires is this: Radials work great, but age out after about 4 years. At that point, they are as likely to throw the tread right off the casing and or, blow out. Bi-plys do not seem to do this at the ripe young age of 4 years old. Radials do not look correct, the aspect ratio makes them disproportionate. The Diamond Back radials have a fairly good aspect ratio, but are essentially light truck tires. They are industrial strength, but may not ride quite right. They are also significantly more expensive than the original mold bi-plys.

Another interesting little situation I have seen with radials is they can flex the wheel so much that the wheel will habitually throw wheel covers. I have seen this more on slotted wheels than with full ledge wheels.

Between myself, and friends with old cars, we probably have close to 100,000 miles on BFG Silvertown tires. I took a month vacation on a set, traveling through 4 states. Another friend basically went coast to coast on a set on a month long trip. No reported trouble.

Here is the catch, radials will mask a worn out mis-aligned front end. Radials also resist grabbing the grooves in the highway. On a properly maintained front end bi-plys work adequately.

I really respect your thoughts on wanting the full experience of the car the day it was built. I share that feeling, and as a result, my collector vehicles have correct tires. They are a bit more money, but look fantastic. I also understand why folks run radials, and respect that choice.

Jim

The "Clunker Bill" shows a lack of understanding of "sustainability." The environmental cost associated with building a new vehicle outweigh the savings associated with increasing your fuel consumption by anything but an astronomically high number (think 150%). So unless people are trading in old Suburbans for Vespas, you'll be hurting the environment more than helping it. The one benefit is the auto industry stimulus that would occur from added sales. However, it would be a one-time hit -- not a real solution to the many things that really ail the industry.

Environmental groups have tried for years to get rid of the Auto hobbyist by legislating chemicals they use in small amounts at home garages, & local zoning restrictions for how many autos can be on private property etc, etc. This slide of hand maneuver labeling it as "helping the auto industry" is really aimed at environmental reasons for getting rid of Old cars.

Classic & older cars get so little use per year, they are but a minor contributor compared to industrial polluters. Thus old cars are the scapegoat for the large polluters.

"The "Cash for Clunkers" bill was introduced last week by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA.), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Charles Schumer (D-NY) in a bid to help the economy by boosting spending on car purchasing and increase putatively more sustainable vehicles on the road.

The program would exchange crummy, old, heavy and polluting junkers for coupons between $2,500 and $4,500 for a private owner or $50 for dealers and scrappers. The cars must have been registered for at leaast 120 days prior to trade in, get 18 MPG or worse and be in generally drivable condition. The hope is that with coupon in hand, you'll buy a new car to both clean up the air and stimulate the economy."

While this is aimed at $500 beater Granadas & Chevettes, it is hard to imagine Government stopping there. This might possibly start to creep into hobby cars as well. If a person can turn in a running "Parts car" for a $2500 to $4500 dollar coupon, will there be any more project cars in 10 years?

Fight this legislation folks, before classics are gone forever.

no offense, but i don't really want to ride around in my American made car on japanese tires. give me a set of good ole firestone or something. thanks for the input none the less.

i just wanted to know where to get some bias ply in the correct size with the correct size WWW. so i could finish out the rear end and mount everything back up with the tires on it. i just don't know where to get them with that wide of a white wall.

11/2008
November '08 was interesting, but it seemed to be a series of false starts.
You see, when this project was in the BS and cocktail napkin stage I had assumed we would do all the mechanicals and turn it over to one of the local panel beaters to make the basic body. The proposed design was fairly simple requiring no doors or trunk lid and I figured we would do the hood and possibly the cowl ourselves. Then my friend Dion, who I work with a lot and who is a fabricator extrordenar, expert painter, and mechanical genius insisted we build the body ourselves. Insisted! Having studied his work for years, and had his help on many other projects there was no doubt that even though he had never built a body before he could do it! And I could help, I think.
At first everything we did we did 2 or 3 times, sometimes more! Or maybe he was just re-doing my work? It really shouldn't be surprising as we were starting to build the body bucks, or templates. Something we had never done before. But after a little practice things started to fall into place.