Got a few hours in today, and Klaus did a whole bunch of work this week on the thresholds, wheel arches, passenger side A pillar and one little patch on the drivers side floor. The body is looking pretty good, and I am starting to feel like things are moving forward. (I guess getting help really makes the difference!) Here a before and after shot of the the rocker panel. Sorry for the cell phone picture.
I spent the day removing the old exhaust, fuel line, brake lines, master cyl and the pedals from the chassis. I wonder if I am going crazy with cleaning and painting all these chassis parts! At least the inspector from T?V will be impressed when I go for the vehicle inspections! Next weekend hope I can get the brakes off all four corners and then it will be chassis cleaning time.
Klaus, Gregor and I are in a local car club which also has a chapter in Canada. 'The Reapers' It is a little more hot rod oriented than oem packard style, but the guys are nice, and we US car guys have to stick together
http://www.reaperscc.de/

Getting the cross shaft out of the brake and clutch pedal was a real pain with years of dried and crusted grease...
Another day, a few little packard steps forward

Attach file:

---

  (71.00 KB)


  (63.69 KB)


  (93.06 KB)

Got quite a bit done in the last month or so, but still a long road ahead...flywheel resurfaced, soon the engine and trans can get mated toether and sit for a little bit. Body removed from the chassis and brought to Klaus who is doing the welding on the rockers and rear wheel arches for me. Doors taken to the sand blasting place and then to the painter who is going to prime them for me....
Now I have to clean up the chassis and paint that, then I hope things can start going back together...I hope I remember how things go back together! lol.
Ex is also on it's way from Kepich....slowly things will come together. I can't wait. hehe. Looking forward to sping already.

Attach file:

---

  (98.64 KB)


  (99.50 KB)

Get a set of rockers from mike dulinsky, and have the other parts made locally. I'm staring this same process now, and 500 hours is rediculous. 100 I think would be realistic and even on the high side. That is still going to cost a lot of euros, but not 500 hrs!
Are you in a local club or something in Belgium? Ask around with your car friends, or some local forums. You'll get way better estimates than that.
Regards from Munich, Mike

Made some progress on the car recently, which is good because if I don't work enough on this car, I get tempted to buy a 68-72 Dodge Dart with a V8
Body is pretty much cleaned out, and I managed to clean and paint a few small things. The Master Cyl I got from rock auto I painted with my por-15 manifold grey paint, which should look authentic. I hope the paint can stand up to any brake fluid I get on it.

Attach file:

---

  (130.30 KB)


  (86.48 KB)


  (97.28 KB)

Dropped the gas tank from my 53 clipper today, removed the straps that hold the tank from underneath, and also tried to remove the 'straps' that go between the upper side of the tank and the bottom of the trunk floor. Do the come out? I'm trying to strip everything off the body before sandblasting. There are 2 bolts that go through the trunk floor into these pieces. I got those out easily enough.

Also, the brake lines and parking brake cables are still attached to the chassis. I don't need to remove those before lifting off the body do I?
Thanks guys.

Don't know if this helps, but I recently removed all these bolts from my 53 clipper coupe. Here are pics of the 2 bolts in the front, near/at the bottom of the firewall in the engine compartment, and also the bolts from the passenger side from front to back. My hand is pointing to what would be the front of the car.
For clarity, frameBolt1 is the pass side in the front, frameBolt2 is driver side, and BoltsPassSide from left to right, 1)right by the A pillar, 2)near front seat frame-bolt that does not go through to pass compartment(I broke that one) 3)B pillar, 4)under back seat 5)longest bolt is over rear axle hump, 6)trunk. These numbers are not the same as you listed, but I hope the description is clear.

Body will be lifted off soon and sandblasted....then we'll see how much needs to be welded. :-/

Attach file:

---

  (72.63 KB)


  (106.44 KB)


  (60.77 KB)

Pretty sure that is a direct Swap. Packard Auto Trans' are called Ultramatic however, and not hydromatic.

I got my thermostadt housing from them, and they were great. The were able to quickly send it to a friend in Michigan so he could bring it to germany on the plane. I can reccommend them.
-Tobs

Time to upgrade to a chrome handle from a senior car!

My parents live in Broad Channel, one of the costal communities of NYC. Thank God my parents evacuated and went to stay with freinds in another neighborhood. They had about 4 feet of salt water in the first floor of their home, and the extent of the damage is not known at this point. Hopefully the structure of the house is intact, and only the first floor will have to be completely gutted and rebuilt. Talking to family there really hits home, and I wish all effected the strength to hang in there, get over the shock of loosing most or all of their homes, and the power to rebuild. I also hope insurance and federal aid will help to get the town settled again. I know it will be needed.
Take care everybody. -Mike