On my 53 clipper I was able to leave the grill in. It was tight getting it out though. If your car is beautiful and you don't want anything scratching the grill remove it, but if it is a driver it should be fine.

I sure hope all this work will keep the tin worm away for a long time! Finally got all my compressor and sandbasting equipment after a snafu with DHL the shipping company. If I'm lucky I'll get to use some of it this weekend.

Here's a question: I'll be cleaning and painting the frame and suspensiont parts soon. What can/should I do with the rear leaf springs? Wire brush and paint? Or media blast? They did squeak a little before, but the car sat ok.
Thanks for any tips.

Nothing too exciting happening recently, it is finally warming up a little bit. Had a friend helping me today and got the garage cleaned and organized, flipped the frame over and up on work horses, and we spent a few hours grinding away with an angle grinder and drill. Starting to be pretty much done as far as this step, then will sand blast the edges and places I can't reach with the angle grinder with the blasting slag.
My friend recently bought a karmann ghia from San Francisco and plans to restore that in the garage we work in, so the packard will have some (cute little) company.

The blasting material (Hochofenschlacke) I bought in Ebay for 20? per 100 lbs. I think it will be used up pretty quickly. Should have bought more I guess...Was a nice sunday in the garage

Saturday Gregor and his son Dean and I picked up the clipper body at the painter. They sanded, cleaned, primered, used seam sealer where needed and appllied underbody coating to the wheel wells and underbody. They were finished faster than I thought, so I am still working on getting the frame cleaned and painted....7 liters of epoxy primer was applied. Looks a lot better than it has in years, but there are still a bunch of places that are going to need some filler to smooth over.

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Yeah, wow. Seems like a good Deal to me.

Claus, Gregor and I picked up my body at the media blaster, mumified it with packing plastic so it wouldn't get wet and salty and brought it to the painter so he can start cleaning and prime the body. It will get this green/grey moisture proof primer on it that then gets baked in an oven so everything will be sealed. That will give me time to work in parrallel on the chassis...Driving around with Claus's F350 with a packard on the trailer turns a lot of heads around here! Not something you see every day.

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I would bet that you could get a length of standard threaded rod at your local hardware store (1/4-20) and cut your own. -Not sure if it is 1/4-20 or another size.

Exactly! It is called Hochofenschlacke here! Now I have to figure out where I can get that locally. That was a new German Word for me.

Pulled the trigger on a compressor, portable sandblasting gun, and a the parts balsting booth. Wow, getting serious. Will be a good addition to the garage, and I will be able to process (clean/derust/paint) parts a lot faster. Will also plan on priming and painting black the undersides of hood and fenders so hope to re-coop some of my investment with that....Will have the compressor and sandblasting gun this week, so may be able to get the frame cleaned up in the next week or two....Am excited to get my new tools!
Have to look around and see where I can buy 'one time use' media to blast the frame.

Good old Harbor freight....Yeah we don't have that here. This is what I am looking at. 300? is about 400$

StrahlKabine

Bringing the parts to the sandblaster and doing them myself or having them done there is also going to be some pocket change and also time....
The compressor in the garage gregor and I share is not enough for this (single piston) but the garage next door has a twin piston compressor that I could borrow, and then in a few months perhaps I buy my own 'kompressor'

Was in the garage yesterday and got the top side of my frame cleaned with the angle grinder...still a bunch to do. A '65 or so malibu came in from a freind, so I spent a few hours helping to pull a small block chevy. Fun distraction to work on a car that runs and drives for a few hours. Going shortly to POR15 a few parts this evening in the basement...
The body is finished with media blasting and I should be taking it to the painter for primer.