Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Got the newly woodgrained dash back, and its gorgeous. WHn installing the instrument cluster, note that Packard did not waste an inch of wire, but was promiscuous with electrical tape, which after 70 years turns to iron.

Attach the clock wire and fuse off the car, as its too short to do under the dash. When installing the instrument cluster, start reattaching wires by component, not by wire. Start at the bottom of the cluster and do the four bottom dash lights and the circuit breaker. Then the two lower gauges, then the two upper gauges, hi beam, turn signal and the 4 dash lights.

DO NOT remove the circuit breaker once its's on the cluster! Its held in by two flat screws, and its almost impossible to get it out while its in the car, and completely impossible to get it back in. My son could not get the wires on the breaker, so he took out the breaker and put the wires on it, and then could not et the breaker back in, and left it for me to do. I had to take the whole cluster out and reinstall it.

There are two pieces of canvas that go between the cluster panel and the dash. These are anti squeak strips. Trying to thread the attaching screws thru these and into the nut is a chore. I got some glue and glued them to the panel, not the dash, and it was not too bad.

NOTE that there are differences in the 22d series wiring diagram and the 23d series wiring diagram, and especially the turn signal system.


My correct Standard 8 window moldings/surrounds are also back, and are magnificent! However, they no longer have the window fuzzies on them. It appears that these are pretty generic, and sold by height and width. The height can be easily measured, but since the fuzzy is what's worn away, anyone have any idea of the width?

Also, how are these things attached? My cursory inspection did not reveal any holes for staples, screws, etc. Did Packard have a magic glue or something?

The difference between the 22 and 23 series turn signals is on the 23rd and later models they went to the system of sharing the rear bulb filament for brake lights and turn signals. To do this the brake light circuit goes thru the turn signal switch where moving the switch disconnects the rear turning side bulb from where it is normally connected to the brake light power and connects it and the front bulb to the flasher circuit. The 4 bulbs are individually fed from the switch. On the 22nd and earlier models turn signals were more or less an add on circuit not integrated with the rest of the electrics. Separate bulbs were used for the brake lights and rear turn signals and front and rear turn signal bulbs were in parallel. Other than maybe sharing a loom covering which enclosed the separate wires inside it there were no other connections to anything except to get power from an accessory supply source.

Packard used staples or clips to hold the belt fuzzies. Usually staples on accessible pieces like the window garnish molding where they can get behind the fuzzy with the staple tool to bend the staple legs and usually push in clips thru the fuzzy into holes in the sheetmetal on the door panel side. The NOS type clips seem to be almost extinct but I have been able to make a style used by some GM products of the era work on my 47. 48 is probably the same. You can also drill small holes to use very small and short flat head sheet metal screws. Just be sure to embed the head of the screw well down in the fuzzy and tar material so the screw head is mostly covered and invisible and also cannot contact the glass.

Here is a photo of a NOS but well shopworn 23rd series standard 8 molding that had the fuzzy stapled on. The fuzzy overall dimension is 7/16" high and the fuzzy part is 5/16" wide or high. Believe the thickness on all the fuzzies is more or less standard at about 1/8". Would expect the 22nd series molding piece was identical except for the woodgrain pattern.

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Excellent.. Thanks!

Not to hijack the thread but;
HH raises a universal problem(pet peeve), "stapling metal" in the 21st century, not confined to Packards but required to restore most cars up to about the '60s. This was industrial practice of the day, which is passe. This just isn't done, and no one supplies these tools. I found one supplier that reported to, but list cost $2000+ and wasn't guaranteed to work, wrong size, limited in "bite", and they didn't have any in stock and had to make and required a test sample which I sent. I've searched for used, antique, etc, but these are dinosaurs and apparently went out with the meteor impact.

Anyone have any knowledge or knows someone or something; old machine makers, models. etc. please post here or on another thread. No frustrating stories please. Everyone so far, struggled and did what they had to by hand with wire or reused the originals, which is too dependent on condition. ie, what to do when half gone? Thanks.

About the closest thing is a book binding machine which uses spooled wire, but isn't really adaptable to sheet metal.
ps: I believe period were made from spool wire. Industrial staples are now made using metric(SI) specs so they're not even the same size anymore and rarely tough enough to penetrate 18 gauge. The package may say 1/2" but they're the shorter metric equivalent. I bought/have thousands of unusable "1/2" staples now and none fit the original holes. {Smallest order 1000.} I ended up using glue, then poking holes(ice pick) in the fabric side, and pushing a widened staple in, and mashing with tack hammer on a small anvil. A tedious job not appreciated, nor looked forward to by bifocalled arthritic old guy. Not pretty, not original, but worked somewhat/not consistent. Problem many more to do, need a solution! There is a hog ring staple that closely matches, but is round ended and not staple wire diam. - tough to bend.