I took someone's advice (Kevin Packard?) and printed out one of these lube charts, circled the items I wanted them to check, and took it to one of those 10-minute oil change places, and they were happy to lube all those spots, and check the differential fluid level. They have standard diff lube in-stock to top it off if necesssary. That was easy and inexpensive (<$40) and the technicians got a kick out of it, and it provides peace of mind. Probably best when they aren't exceptionally busy. Since they are standing up down below the car, it's easy for them. If you bring them the filter and the oil, they will change your oil too, subtract the cost of the filter and the oil from the normal charge. That gets rid of the pain which is oil disposal and is also inexpensive. Heck, have them change the diff lube if it's really ugly. Shell Oil Lube Charts for Packards

Thank you everyone. Ross if you have one you particularly like that would be great. I am sure many others have this same concern.

It sounds like the original mirrors are out of my price range.

The current LH mirror I have, besides not being period, is also too low, so I cannot, say, rest my arm on the windowsill without blocking the mirror (that might have been true with the original mirror, too!).

So maybe something like this might be nice. If anyone has any experience with these or something similar, much appreciated:

1964-66 Ford Mustang Mirrors

Thanks everyone.

This brings up the question - what did the original mirrors look like, and how did they mount? I don't understand exactly what "belt molding mounted" mirrors would look like, but this is the mirror that is on my car, mounted high on the door.

This was probably from a 1960's Ford, I'm guessing, like these?

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Hi Folks,

When I found my car, it did not have a right-side mirror, and the left-side mirror is rectangular with more of a 60's look, and was probably added much later.

That being said, it would be nice to have a right-side mirror, and/or two mirrors that match and look more "period".

I found a mirror seemingly from that time period (I got it for free) but it doesn't crank over far enough for a right-side mirror, it needs to be at about a 45-degree angle, so it seems that not every mirror will work.

Any folks know of a good source?

Thanks in advance.

This chart on this website lists all the possible head/block combinations and the resulting compression ratios.

compression ratios for postwar head/block combos

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I think this is good news. As I understand it, a bent crank should only lock up when you crank down on more than one bearing cap, everything else being alright. That says that you have bearing shells that are not compatible with how the crank is ground for those two bearings. Either the crank is not what you think it is, or the bearing shells, or both, which may be an easy fix. I had a vendor send me the wrong bearings before, they were easy to identify because it was obvious, but probably simpler to do when the issue is simply the difference between 0.001, 0.010, 0.020, etc.

Have you checked the bearing shells? Could one or more sets of undersize (or more undersize than you wanted) bearing shells been installed, e.g. a vendor mistake? You said you checked the clearances. If the crank is bent you say it only happens to the last 2 mains near the transmission. If you crank down on only the last bearing cap and the first bearing cap, the binding from a bent crank, if any, should be less. Similarly if you only crank down on the first and the second-to-last. Might be a way to understand what is happenning. I still don't understand about the clunk.

When it's cold, I tend to hit the starter pedal with the key off 4 times, to throw some gas in there from the accelerator pump. Two is probably enough but 4 works for me.

It takes a while for these things to warm up. Some/most/all of what you see as "white smoke" is actually steam from condensation in the exhaust pipes.

IIRC I was quite surprised at how hard it was to turn the crank when I first installed the rope seal, as mentioned below. The rope seals are weird things for someone not used to them, as I was not.

There is an issue with the oil fill/breather tube, if it is installed backwards it can hit the crank, that might be issue with the "clunk". That's an easy fix just pull it out and turn it 180 degrees and push it back in.

Yeah it didn't occur to me that the wrong tires could be on the car.

According to this interchange:

Coker Tire Size Cross Reference/Interchange

P 235/75R15 interchange with 8.00-15 tires, which is what I have on my Cavalier IIRC.

8.20-15 tires should be even wider I think, so I would worry about that

According to the Packard Model Info on this website, you should have 7.00-15 tires on that car.

Packard Model Info, 1941 120 Convertible Coupe

The closest interchange Coker lists is 7.10-15, which would be 215/75 R15, considerably narrower.