As I understood the clunker program, you could turn in your car for cash and they would pulverize it. I do not think that the authorities can confiscate a car but I do know that in many states a car that fails inspection is denied the right to drive until it is fixed and that is as it should be. If any car violates inspection then it should not be driven for the good of all.

from symptoms presented it seems clear that a $5k rebuild is unnecessary and will not solve the problem. It appears that the car is loading up with gas at idle and smoking on acceleration. Carb or ignition work is simple and cheap.

If a shop wants to rebuild your engine drive away as fast as you can in my opinion.

Your compression readings are impressive, means valves and top rings are 100%. By putting 5w 20 into your 30W you have diluted it and decreased the viscosity. The black/grey smoke is not from oil consumption so a $5k rebuild which would include valve job and new rings would do nothing for black smoke which is from a fuel or ignition problem.

Follow a logical trail and diagnose the problem(s). Oil at the base of the carb cannot be from blowby as compression blowing by the rings wind up in the crankcase and exits via the road tube down near the road. Impossible to travel upwards to the carb base.

If the only problem is some black smoke on acceleration and you do nothing, what will be the problem driving like that ????

Age and heat change the pigments in oil based paints. Something painted in 1937 has aged 80 years and been through 1000's of heat cycles so I doubt it is the same color it originally was. Packard used a green from the 20's at least until 1952 as my '52 factory show car had an original green engine.

It is my guess that Packard did not have a very tight spec on the color as it was not an external appearance item like Packard Blue. My guess is that there are dozens if not hundreds of correct original shades, Checker had over 240 shades of taxicab yellow all bearing the same name. Usually the lowest bidder got the contract.

There may be a paint that is 100% identical to 1934 but it may not be the same as 1935, then again it may be.

Paint it something close and keep in mind that I don't think you can't "match" a color paint from a computer photo, too many electronic "interpretations" along the way.

The time you save fretting over the color might best be spent driving and enjoying your car with the hood closed

Anything is possible on a 62 year old car, even a Packard.
Ground the terminal on the sending unit or remove the wire and ground it to the head on a clean spot. The unit is screwed into the left rear side of the head. Hold for 30 seconds and have someone look at the gauge. If it goes towards hot the sending unit is bad, if it doesn't move then it's most likely the gauge.

Vapor lock is a convenient condition to attribute poor running to but I see no evidence here to suspect that. It is highly unlikely to have it when a car is running at relatively normal temperature. Opening the hood , an electric fan, new WP, flushing the rad/block will have little or no effect to a car that is not running at elevated temp or boiling over. WP inefficiency is very rare.

Removal of the thermostat has only negative results unless it is broken and stuck closed which would be evident if it overheats within a few minutes. Running too cold yields sludge in the crankcase and in some cases the increased flow does not let the water spend enough time in the radiator to cool sufficiently. Lot of engineering went into designing all engines, if they would run better without one it would have been designed so.

If vapor lock is present the car would not run at low or high speed, it would not run at all. A methodical analysis of all systems is preferable to hit or miss replacement of various parts.

Put a pressure gauge on the like between the FP and carb with a Tee fitting, 3-5 lbs is normal. From your description of stalling only when stopping the car does not sound like a FP problem. The fuel bowl in the carb is a small reservoir and you can run the car for a short time on it. So if the FP stops working completely when stopping it will continue to run for a short while. If the car can be restarted immediately then fuel supply does not seem likely.

Bad condenser will be evident if it runs poorly or only when heated up to normal. Check your point gap and see if there is sidewise play of the distributor shaft after removal of the rotor. Rotate the engine until the points are just a bit open, movement will be evident if the gap increases visually when the shaft is moved sideways. Distributor rebuild may be needed.

Idle speed may be the problem?? There is an idle speed screw on the carb but if the carb/choke is misadjusted it may be idling on the fast idle cam screw. After fast running and taking your foot off the gas it then may revert to the idle screw which may be set too low to keep it running. Excessive wear in the linkage/carb can have the idle limited by the adjustment of the linkage. Disconnect the linkage at the carb to see if it is "too tight'

Be sure the FP bolts have insulators both around the bolts and beneath the bolt heads.

Good luck

Do- over, block cracked in the usual place from top of bore to exh valve seat. Will be diassembling another 327 9 main with crossed fingers

Great fun getting black up to my elbows again.

Esquireman,

I suggest you find all 5699's with that color scheme and air, it was very common to add wire wheels after the car was built.

Correction- The Packard parts book gives one part number for transmission assembly from '35 120 through '38 16th series six and 120/Eight. All parts interchange from '35-'38 with the exception of the shifter cane but not because there is a difference in finish. From what I see it is the relationship of the dash, seat and cane that may require a different cane.

As a unit without the cane all '35-'38's interchange.

I'm restoring my '52 custom bodied 8 passenger limousine and right now it's down to the bare frame with only 1 bolt remaining. I want to restore the chassis to EXCAcTLY how it left the factory. If you look at the PROJECTS forum you can follow the progress so far.

I know what finish the chassis takes, a semi-gloss black.
I have NOS air cleaners, generators inner fender panels etc to use as examples of correct finishes. I need help with the front suspension as all NOS parts in stock are unfinished and I could not discern any paint on upper and lower control arms steering linkage etc on the 41,000 mile car.

Underneath the grease and dirt is slightly rusty metal making me think that possibly the parts had been painted.
I will not be finishing anything in "Blinding Black" which I find on many over-restored cars of all years.

Please give me your opinion and let me know what you base it on. Thanks

35-37 Six and 120 trans are identical, everything interchanges. 38-up virtually nothing does