In production the doors I'm pretty sure, would have been hung and painted before the wooden appliques were installed. The doors would have been adjusted to fit their openings before the strikers were tightened down and the whole body, sans wood was sent through painting.

The notches face the timing cover. Be certain the cork ring will slide with slight pressure over the neck of the vibration damper. Many of them are too tight as supplied and the spring loaded holder will not be able to push them forward to contact the timing cover. A few minutes with a rolled up piece of sandpaper will cure that.

You screw the bushing into the arm quite tightly. As the car is steered the bushing should not turn in the arm. Then you screw the bracket into the bushing as far as it goes less about 1/2 to 1 turn so that when you turn the front wheels the lever and bushing will not bind up on the bracket.

The pattern on the intakes typically rides high. It won't make a problem in that the intakes get only fractionally as hot as the exhausts.

You need to get a sealer into that tank or it will flash rust above the fuel level on any day when the temperature drops and condensation forms.

The edges of your tappet bores probably got smacked whilst the valve guides were being driven out. You will have to deburr them with a small file or a deburring tool.

MC was mounted just behind the steering gear on all manual brake cars through 56 unless it was a Torsion Level car with manual brakes. On those it was mounted under the floor because of clearance problems with the bars.

Absolutely do not cut extra metal off the valve seat. There is no easy getting that back. 30 degrees it is for certain. Please post a picture of what you are seeing.

Just to provide a little perspective: The oil screen on a Packard floats so whatever bigger chunks and sediment are down below it unless the oil level gets very low.

My 51 has never had a filter and is still quite OK as it approaches 100K. Oh, and all those millions of VW beetles never had a filter.

Napa CS 721A points, AL 869 condenser.