OK, so we don't really worry about how many miles per gallon we get in these old cars. I know that. But for some reason people always ask the question anyway.

I checked mine this week ('49 22nd Series 288CID) and I got 14 MPG in mixed freeway/city/county road driving.

Does anyone else ever check their gas mileage?

Safety wire is great. Be sure and put a good twist on the wires after you put them in. Use actual stainless wire. Aluminum wire and softer steels will stretch and not give you the result you want. If you can't find any I've got a bunch left on a spool. Just PM me and send me a SASE. I'll send you enough to do it.

Safety wire? No, there were no holes in my bolt heads, but what a great idea.

Before I got into the old car "business" I flew ultralights every chance I got. When I built my last one (a Quad City Challenger II) I safety-wired everything. So yes, that would be a great way to do it.

I'm inclined at this point to put a block-off plate there. That is, if the fuel pump ever loosens up again. I know that the purist approach is to use the mechanical fuel pump, but - really - the electric pump does so much to eliminate vapor lock and reduce cranking time in these old cars that I think it's really the way to go. I'd be giving up the vacuum boost, but I can always hook up the wiper motor line to the intake manifold.

Oil leak notwithstanding, I drove the car about eighty miles yesterday. Took it to work, to a restaurant, back home again. I took it by Earl Scheib (don't laugh, they did a great job) where I got it painted last year so they could see how it looks now. What a pleasure it was to drive. There's a lot of satisfaction in (as a complete amateur and beginner) taking an old "junk" car and getting it looking good and back on the road again. I really enjoyed it.

Oh, and I got 14 miles per gallon! That makes it half as efficient (but ten times the fun) as my Kia.

Jay

After a whole lot of work and trauma (I thought I had a bad crank seal at one point), having replaced my pan gasket and still managing to dump a cup of oil on my father-in-law's new driveway Saturday evening, I think I finally found out where my oil leak is coming from.

I crawled under the car *again* tonight, and after about fifteen minutes noticed that there was oil on the rubber fuel inlet tube into the fuel pump. Hmmm. I reached up and grabbed the fuel pump and sure enough, it wiggled. The bolts on both sides had worked loose.

I suppose, were it not for the fact that I use an electric fuel pump in normal operation, I might have noticed a problem sooner (like no, or not enough fuel pressure???).

Anyhow, I got them tightened up (what a job!) and now we'll see what's up. That HAD to be the source of all the oil. I hope.

Jay

For what it's worth I just replaced the deteriorated backing panel on my rear seat also. It was falling apart with rot.

Go to Lowe's and get a 4x8 sheet of 1/8" masonite (they call it "hardboard"). Use a saber saw to cut it to size and mount it to the "X" frame behind the seat with 3 or four nut/bolt combos. Paint the back of it the same color as you're going to use inside the trunk.

I also covered mine on the inside facing side with some thermal barrier. Ought to cut down on noise from my whiny differential.

If the thought of metal fabrication bothers you, consider trying your hand at fiberglass. Autozone and sometimes even Walmart sells what you need for that kind of work. You might be surprised what you can do with it.

May I second that? I've bought two different Steele Rubber products, and they have both been perfect. I would say that with Steele you may get *more* than you paid for.

I used Steele Rubber when I replaced my two split windshields. The rubber was live, elastic and strong. Easy to work with.

If I had an unlimited (or even reasonably high) budget I'd never shop anywhere else. Sorry to say I don't!

Jay

For what it's worth, I bought the rubber for the trunk from that Ebay seller (A. E. Madeiros). It wasn't an exact replacement, but it was certainly acceptable.

The price was reasonable and he did send me a small sample of the door rubber, whick looks like it might work ok.

When I got my Packard a couple of years ago, one of the first things I noticed was the huge amount of crud that coated almost everything underneath the car.

It seemed like everything from the radiator back to the driveshaft had from 1/4" to 1/2" of thick, stiff (but not entirely dry) crud on it. You couldn't even tell what some of the parts looked like originally.

When I was a teenager a century or two ago I remember being in a service station where they had a steam cleaner for taking stuff like that off. I've not been able to find anything like that myself, and so I've just made a practice of taking a paint scraper under the car with me everytime I do any other work and scraping away at whatever's near me. It's getting better and better but it occurs to me that there MUST be a better way to do this. I don't have a lift available to me so I can stand under it with a pressure washer.

What do you all do to clean the underbody? Any great ideas?

Jay

Henrik, I had a similar problem with my 22nd series '49.
Check out my web page about shimming the spring.

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