Maybe it's not apparent without zooming, as I did, but about 3-4" up(toward front) from the radius there's a seam from the quarter panel overlap. That was what I was referring too. My doors are quite robust and do not sag. This overlap pushes the quarter out a tad and leaves a large door gap at the bottom. I'll take some close up pictures. I see it on some and not others, so some were fixed, just don't know which ones. Seam correct or not?

This '49 club sedan (hemmings this month) is reported as a original survivor*. It's been scraped in this panel behind door and recently "rattle canned" over.
I was looking at the pictures for authenticity and I find the same thing on my "original" car. The quarter panel overlaps the rocker panel at the door bottom radius corner ("B" pillar). The door fit suffers terribly. The quarter sticks out 1/4-3/8" on the lower half. An invite for stone chips.
Is this common to all as normal poor factory fit or the way panel replacement was done?

Why I ask, mine looks the same. I know my car was lightly "wrecked" / body repairs several times. Could be a patch panel or they fit the rocker panel under the quarter during those repairs but quarter won't stick out, if that way...unless you readjust the door poorly. Body work 101, circa early 50's, you would lead(Pb) over gaps like this and flush file/grind. Unsealed lap joints invite crevice corrosion and don't paint over well.

I'm cutting those parts out and redo w/ flush panel fit. One side is worse than the other on mine. It looks bad to me, but I know factory fit wasn't that good in the day either. I'd seen a lot of panel repairs back in the day living in snow country. My cuz and friends used to do them.
*- I think it's an older restoration - just not known**. If it had been stored this long, they don't look quite so good without major detail. It'd have to been sealed up in a bubble and they didn't do that 50 years ago.
** - Caveat Emptor. Last one I saw sell in this condition(but authenicated) was $7500 less. Tell a story - ask more $$.

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Don't forget to check/recharge the battery and polarize the regulator/generator. If you just replace the reg, it won't necessarily charge until the field is polarized.

It varies a bit from state to state. If you're in KY, and it's titled from out of state, you'll probably have to have the police check it to get a KY title. If it's in state, the DMV/court house should have forms to fill out, if you can't tell what the id is. They should be able to retitle it, if incorrect. I'd just leave it 160, if that's what the title says. it worked for this many years. The registration will be what counts if you get stopped. We recently found out in that era, some states didn't title by model year, but calendar year, so it might not even be a '38. Need to check that - compare to pictures.
They don't get too worried about vehicles pre-title era, so they just need some means to ID in case of loss; theft, collision, etc. The purists will say the theft ID is not the VIN but it's a good substitute, if no other markings. At least you can prove it's existence and unchangeable.
I brought my P in from out of state without a title and you just have to follow the procedure and be patient. My other collector car is model ID'ed incorrectly, but the DMV paperwork only has one designation for it. It was in-state transfer and they didn't care when I told them.

Blaming it on the depression is like blaming it on oxygen. There were others that survived, so that's circumstantial, not certain death.
I just see a pattern, that they might not have known what they were doing that well, or were bleeders, as they seemed to attract failure which sometimes means, it's causative. Romney made some of his money like that, take over, pocket the cash, and sell it off for debt.
I'm sure my contact over at the Stude museum would refute me, but having spent more than three decades in business, you see and smell things...
So what brought down Packard, might be a wider question than self infliction - a little help from my friends...

I read an account the other day that said "Stoogebaker" bought Pierce Arrow a few years before Pierce went out of business during the depression.
Seems to be a connection here...Maybe there's another reason why Packard shutdown...end in the clowns?

Some are shady but some just don't know what they're doing. Once they find how much time and money, they end up cutting corners or no money in it.
This, cleanup/fixup, used to be the perveyance of the "used car dealers", we all loved to hate, so why would we think things have changed?
People watch TV shows like Phantomworks, etc, and think they can do this in a week, believe everything they see. Some of these shows do things that are not quality technique also. How boring would it be if they showed every hour of sanding? Don't over estimate your skills.
Always go to the shop where the work is being done and see how they do things, tools, etc, and get a cost estimate, if you can't do it yourself. Don't just take they're word and make sure you specify the parts to be used.
Auctions are another source of concern. They won't let you test drive or get a professional survey done, and once you win the bid, you own it, regardless of the condition/price. I won't buy like that, if I can't be present and crawl over it. I drove two hours to look at some "museum" cars going to auction and they looked great from the outside, but after I crawled underneath were held together by bondo, too long sheet metal screws, and paint. The mechanicals looked nice but were a mess/inoperable. The interior trim didn't match, etc. So "museum" quality varies also. That's the 20 foot rule. They don't let you look inside the ropes, for a reason.
You get what you pay for only if you're a careful buyer.

Akin to pondering one's own navel.
Asking why they used left hands threads, etc. It was the current thinking of that day and once you're a tooled up manufacturer, well, it sticks around.
There is a bit of thinking behind a smaller hole being less affected by compression forces, simply from the cross sectional area and pressure effect but is that an after or fore thought?
Spark plug technology has pretty much evolved with not much substantiative change. Screw a wire down a hole somehow. Rudy Diesel was the only one that didn't seem to see a need for those silly wires...

Diagnosing points based vehicles is becoming a dying art. I'm sure everyone will have their own methods on here and I'll be rebuked, no doubt, but;
Of all the things mentioned, if she's "missing", I'd put the condenser and coil in last order. Usually, if those are bad, it won't start or be hard to.
A condenser can be checked with a meter, to see if it's in spec or not. I saw a recent article from an old timer master where he showed NOS condensers go bad on the shelf, and new ones often aren't good, so even if you change it could be faulty or not to spec. So check. The ones at the store may have sat a long time in today's market.
What I was taught;
Check plugs first. Then points, cap/rotor, and wires. We always changed the condenser with the points because it's a cheapie, and later you could even get new points sets with it built in, so you replace it all as one unit. I like to use the induction timing light and go around each cylinder and check to make sure it's sparking consistently before tearing apart. We had inline type back in the day when I started. Induction type came later. Often just one cylinder is the issue, like a loose wire, plug, etc..
Timing should also be checked after the points are adjusted. The idle speed has to be correct rpm.
Most places no longer have the distributor machines, so you're fortunate. I've been looking for one... Another dying art: adjusting/checking distributor timing centrifugal advance curves...
Over time, wear on the points cam lobes occur so the factory gap settings may not be ensuring the points close. I prefer to set on dwell. Cams aren't easy to replace if you can find one, or make one. At that point, it's a simple swop to change to a "pointless" electronic ignition which is independent of a mechanical cam follower, but has to be a 6V in this case.
And if the ignition all checks out, you get bigger internal engine problems.

If it's ounted on ths steering column, probably the vacuum control for the wipers. If you have electric wipers, its not needed.