63 Avanti -- one of my favorite cars of all time! Is it an R1 or R2?

Craig

As an addendum to the paint job delivery of the Panther: the tow truck driver (Two Star Towing in Pahrump, NV) did something that no other driver had been able to do. He backed his tilt/flat bed tow vehicle around my semi-circular driveway and deposited Panther right in my shop. That guy is good! He said, "How do you want to pay, X for cash and X+$5 for credit card?" I said, "That difference is nothing compared to the cost of everything else on this project...so credit card." He just laughed. LOL!

Craig

The Panther body was painted today and the tow company delivered it to my shop! Here are the pictures I took of it at the paint shop earlier on May 5, 2017:








The trunk was painted later on that day and mounted on Panther for the ride home. More pics later!

The pictures do not do the color or the paint job justice. The hood, fenders and lower front bumper will be painted by next Wednesday I am told. Now a whole bunch of work begins.

Craig

I have a closeup of the left side of the dash after final assembly.

In addition to the trial fit above, the cruise control switch is installed in place of the heater levers on the column surround. The round light in the dash below where the PNDLR indicator would go is a warning buzzer and light which comes on if you have the headlights on, but turn the engine off.

The 1956 400 instrument cluster is installed after being cleaned up and the center "bullets" painted satin black.

Above the dash is a Bosch 0-8000 electronic tachometer similar in looks to a "period correct" Sun tach, except all the chrome parts will be painted satin black. It will be custom mounted on the pushbutton stalk off the column, but with the column rotated 90-deg to put the stalk at the 12 o'clock position. This will place the tach in the middle of the speedometer bezel, but the outer edge of the speedo needle and numbers can still be seen.

The turn signal light "arrows" are done, but somehow missed making the picture. Their surrounds are satin black, not chrome.



The middle and right side of the dash look the same as the prior post picture, but have been final assembled.

Craig

Good to know about Metro Molded Parts from Rock Auto at a discount. I too have ordered some parts from Rock Auto, but for my Pontiac Firebird projects. I have a new Metro catalog and am getting ready to place a big weatherstrip order from someone.

Craig

HH56 Quote:

The plans were "eyeball engineering." Of course, not everyone can do that, but on the other hand, it's not "rocket science" either.

Panther has manual steering (with the right gear box), so there's no power steering pump to worry about. I chose manual steering because I don't like the "dead zone" in the middle before the hydraulic ram switch kicks on, such as I experience on my 55 Pat. I won't be parallel parking Panther much though!

Craig

Bump because I modified the compressor and alternator mounting based upon input from the tech support at Vintage Air and a friend who does custom car fabrication. It's not a biggie, but if anyone is going to use what I did for their own future install, then I wanted put out the right info. The pictures above and the website link are updated.

Craig

fredkanter Quote:

Yes. With modern tires and the relatively high C.G. of the Packard, there is too much body lean in corners. The original front-only sway bar has insufficient anti-sway, IMO.

If all you do is drive your T-L Packard on/off a trailer or just straight down the Interstate, the front sway bar is quite sufficient.

Craig

Gen 2 Firebird and Camaro sway bars can be fitted. Here's a 1981 Firebird front sway bar fitted to my Panther:



Here's the web page which shows more pictures and details:

http://1956packardpanther.com/Panther/swaybars.html

Craig

Now the air conditioning compressor. It was a much more challenging fabrication than the alternator mounting.

I used a new aluminum case Sanden 508 compressor (R-134A). I also used a general use pair of 1/4in mild steel brackets from Vintage Air. Here's the exploded view of the brackets I modified, a bracket I made and the mounting hardware used:



Here's a view of the finished assembly:



Here are more pictures and explanations on my website here:

http://1956packardpanther.com/Panther/engine_Panther4.html

Scroll down to "Air Conditioning Compressor" section at the bottom of the page.

There is at least an inch clearance to the P-side fender.

Craig