Thanks, Howard.
I sent Mr G the part numbers and dimensions from the parts book for the belt moulding and the parking light trim. Plus a photo.

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Shifted the hood to an old trunk that came around the Horn from Ireland in the early 1900s belonging to my step-father's parents. Herbert Ignatius Maguire was a SFO CPA who had never married until he met my mother, a widow, then in their late 50s. He loved big cars. He had a 57 Lincoln Premiere convertible, which he gave to my sister, and drove a black 60 Chrysler Imperial leBaron convertible. The Packard was his until he gave it to me in 1959. His mother, Hannah, a devout Catholic, blessed the Packard with Holy Water every time she asked Herb to drive her to Reno to gamble. She sent a half he winnings to help missionaries. Her name is painted on the trunk.

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Thanks, West. That's a relief. I think it's just swung to the left a bit. I'll pick up some screw rivets today and take them to the paint shop.

Also, take a look at the cover of Jim Hollingsworth's book and you'll see those side grills with the crossbar. I think they were intended that way. Mine are a little beaded between the vertical bars. The top and bottom are like that too. If they wanted them to disappear, they could have recessed the casting between the bars. There are many items that could be improved for looks, but it's like culture. It's a context with everything woven together. It's like the beauty of returning things Under the car, the stuff no one but another mechanic might see, to the way it was engineered. It just looks right in the overall context of say 1940. I'd have to study the design more to determine if there was a rationale for making them the way they did. What other lines do they coincide with? What patterns are established into which this fits. If the cross bars vanish, it may look cool like a hot rod looks cool. It may look more 30s than40s, or more 70s. The Joe has spoken, And that is the end of the comment.

HOOD BUMPERS: Mystery solved. Those large triangle pita pockets did come off the car because they were from JC Whitney (universal bumper pad) and were cut down on one side to replace the real thing. I don't know why I saved them. West mention he used the rivets that screw together and was glad because the bumpers were incorrectly installed and had to be turned around. Now I'm wondering if the rubber shows on the outside or if it should be on the backside with just the edge showing. I have my front bumper on the outside and the back bumper on the inside.

The hood trim for one side, all polished and cut to size (glad I kept my old ones...which are not as bad a shape as I imagined) look great. I need to get some new clips because some of the old ones, which I de-rusted and primed, don't hold very well. Restoration Specialties said they no longer makes the originals, so I need another source. Their number 2047J replaced Packard 306129 clips as near as I could tell.

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TOP BOX: Gary Martin, master model maker and genius at casting met me during lunch this afternoon at the house. We removed the top apparatus and the wooden box which he will be finishing.

HOOD: It takes tons of polishing to get the stainless steel belt moulding to shine, but it looks almost as good as the decent pieces of belt moulding I still have. The top sections went together easily using two couches like a saddle.

I guess I'm not done griping about that center hood moulding from Max Merritt. Not only is the lip on the underside too thin to retain standard washers, and the shape without a crease down the center as original, and that bulbous nose on the end that reminds me of a 50s pickup, but tonight I discovered that the lip doesn't entend far enough to the end to hold the screw for the last position, the screw that discourages hood ornament collectors. I inserted a large cotter pin and epoxy puttied it to the end to create a lip, then slid the screw head underneath it.

PAINT; Other front fender and 2 rear doors ready to come home. The trunk rack parts were painted, but I'll hold them in reserve for now.

Still wondering about that triangular pita pocket rubber piece.

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I know the part came off the car from an obvious place. I know I will kick myself. It may have been on the shell, the splasher, the fender...with these things apart it's not obvious. Here's a pic of the split rivet I removed from the car. I would not put it past the resto shop that painted the car in 1971 to have replaced the original, but I got split rivets, added a washer on the back. These things are removable. The brass screw together rivets I've seen are flat headed. The aluminum ones have very big heads. This head may be bigger that it should be. These appear to have been plated with a white metal.

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This big one was original on the car. I couldn't find in the 2005 Steel catalog. It's going to be I coulda had a V8 moment when I remember.

I've been holding my runningboard rubber since 2004. Steele didn't make the 40 160 version in 1986 when I bought most of my rubber. Two years ago I studied runningboards at the local car show trying to find someone with new ones. I found Bryan Parker who lives near me. I talked to him today. He made a few attempts before settling on a method that worked. I'm going to research getting the rubber removed at a local rubber fabrication company because that may be the worst of the job, then have the metal surfaced at the paint shop, Canyon Auto Repair and Collision. The metal surface has to be absolutely smooth and planed. Then Bryan will put them on. He uses 3M formica contact cement avail at Home Depot.
Joe

West, Martin, Jim,
When I look in the parts book I see only 2 rubber pads for the hood. The small one on the left that fits the front corner and the one on the far right that goes on the bottom rear so the side can rest in that groove in the cowl when the hood is open.
The pad in the middle is a third one and is made so that flat metal goes inside it, like a pita pocket, but I just can't remember where it goes. One side was beat up or dried up pretty bad I guess because I cut some of it off IN 1986.

Also my computer crashed today so using older home desktop version.

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Putting together hood and these were in a bag marked Hood, along with the front corner rubber, small, and the rear rest rubber, both new from Steele. But my memory bank failed me on where these go, which are original.
Don't accuse me of being lazy because I went through the Steele catalog twice and could not find these. I looked at most of the pix I have, and couldn't identify it. I know I'm staring at where it goes. Any clues?

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