For all who desire to go where no one has gone before!

I am documenting the tough/weird stuff, as chapters to a fictitious "Packard Shop Build Manual" (instead of a lengthy Project Blog) as I restore my 1507-1036 Club Sedan.

The attached procedure should give guidance for the next-gen Packardonians (and us old-gen geezers)...this is not for the faint of heart, but if you have good tactile skills, patience and the ability to pump the brakes when roadblocks present themselves, I hope this helps.

When someone charges north of $1-1.5K to rebuild a unit, even starting with all functional parts, consider that it is worth saving up for and is a fair price...simply: 10-15 hours (if things go nominally) x the lowest hourly for a tech/mechanic with knowledge and good bench skills ($60-90/hr), you easily get $600-1350 labor, plus matls/parts/shipping, etc.

Enjoy and Happy Fathers Day!

Dan

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Call on the phone to:emblemagic.com/inshop_enam.htm

They often have these in house or in process.

Please provide a representative photo of what you are looking for

I made 10 sets of 39 Ford Convertible Sedan top irons, castings, steam bent oak wood bows in the late 70’s, so I’ve been through this rodeo.

You need to borrow a real loaner set that fit your car and then disassemble them to faithfully copy each and every part, drawings or no drawings. This is a 160-300 labor hour proposition to do it right plus sourcing the proper cross section materials, screw up a couple steam bent bows, etc. at the most reasonable shop rate of $60/hr you can do the math + materials, tooling, etc.

I’m not trying to discourage you but eyes wide open to manage expectations.

Your best bet is to canvass the forum, ask people to ask their network and identify an old parts phaeton with a set of bows. You could spend $2-4K on them or be prepared to go the extra mile north of $10K to have them made or make them yourself.

If youre trying to do a runner, not a Pebble Beacher, then look at other more common Phaetons of the era and maybe you can retrofit a Buick, Chrysler, even a Chevy/Ford set onto yours. Along these lines at least look at:superiorcarpartsinc.com/catalog/viewitems/top-irons-2/phaeton-top-irons.html

My post was speaking only to prewar cars and 46-47 (largely prewar finishes and methods). The IR lights were discussed only in the context of painting a shroud with wrinkle paint nowhere near the interior of the car.

Many cars restored for the past 55 years and many originals preserved:

1) Gloss or Semi-Gloss: Undercarriage and engine...originally generally semi-gloss but getting a good enamel for undercarriage is more difficult these days, so gloss is usually more available. Majic (Town and Country) or Van Sickle are two very affordable, US-made, alkyd enamels for farm equipment in a variety of colors; I use it on all my tractors, plows, swathers & combines in wind-blown, dusty, cold/hot Wyoming and it lasts and is color-fast. They use soy as a precursor (especially good for very opaque, single coat black). My Packard has 3 coats on the undercarriage & 2 coats on the interior structure for protection.

2) Matte/Satin: Most interior components (heaters, radio receiver boxes, underdash speakers, etc) were painted Matte/Satin to reduce glare reflections on the driver/passengers as well as hiding those items from sight. Satin-nearly-flat finishes were used on instrument panel gauge faceplates to eliminate glare and not show up when backlit at night...PPG (fka Ditzler) has many matte/satin and flat interior paint bases in the full range of hue/tints...talk to your local bodyshop/paint shop who mixes these.

3) True Flat has low reflectivity and was used on high-temp exhausts/shrouds to increase the thermal emittance to dump heat from the surface of the item.

4) Wrinkle paint (textured): As this requires heat (heat-gun or IR lights) to cure it right after spraying to get the shrinkage/wrinkle texture, it also qualifies as a mid-high temp paint inherently. It is in satin black when cured, 98% of the time; this is fine for generator/starter/engine component housings. For interior components (heater, radio, speaker shrouds) an enamel overcoat accent color is applied once dry to give you your interior color if black isnt your vibe.

I hope this gives you my experience/insight

In most of the literature of the era, Packard referred to it as either a hood or the British term, bonnet.

Will you or Rob S. be at the KC national this week? I have trunk handles and maybe we can work out a way to get the lock cylinder out...they can be finicky...worst case (post a picture of the correct current trunk t-handle that you possess)... Before you go cutting anything, lets exhaust the cylinder extraction process...then we can move to carefully drill out the cylinder itself (I have replacement NOS cylinders that can be matched to your key)...we can avoid the uglier approaches, I believe.

I have a booth in the vendor area.

Dan Mark

The attached is a Goddess of Speed synopsis from the Beverly Kimes Packard History. There are additional pages for the 1940+ glass wing types.


Better yet, get the book and read the whole mascot type/history appendix:ebay.com/itm/135694858949?_skw=beverly

If you are coming to the KC National Meet this week, stop by my booth and I'll show you some specific features.

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None that I'm aware of...realize that when we say "2 pieces" we mean both the goddess mascot/ornament body plus the base radiator cap assembly (not counting the radiator seals, gaskets, belleville washer that seal the radiator coolant in).

Some sleuthing: The 1402 "Eight" does appear to use the same basic plain radiator cap part number as the Super 8 and the Twelves did for 1936: see part number search atpackardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/parts ... &SearchValue=215091&ButtonLookup=Go

This implies that all radiator caps for the Super 8 and Twelve will fit the 1402 Eight, so...are you coming to the nationals this week in KC? I will have one there (original cap/goddess masterfully replated) as well as just the goddesses without the bottom cap.

Let me know