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You guys are right. I originally checked Autozone, Napa and O'Reily's for the shocks and none were listed. I assumed they would be a PITA to find so I just cleaned up the old one (plus I was having fun with my media blaster!). With Turbos mentioning the shock and it being easier to find (and cheaper) than I thought, I'll get it on order.

Funny...I'll order the shocks for this car that is a long way from being on the road yet, but I won't get them for my daily driver! LOL!

Quote:

A real Packard man and old car guy. As long as we have our priorities straight, all is well.

51,

In the long run it is always easier to do a job once even if it seemingly more expensive now. As a photographer I learned a long time ago,and I tell my students every semester,to overbuy equipment capabilities because you grow into it or you will end up needing it sooner than expected. Then you end up duplicating the lower end capabilities.

I was also thinking you might want to get some aluminum baking pans or other deep, cheap aluminum trays to put under your working area to catch dropped parts. There are also some nice cheap halogen work lights that you can get at Home Despot for around 30 bucks ( and they throw some decent heat for the coming colder days and nights)to replace the flashlight.

Hope you don't mind the two cents.

Much appreciated Stephen...The pans are a good idea. I have already messed up my driveway with tranny fluid, so I'm not too worried about the mess I am making. It would come in handy to grab those loose parts (and tools) I'm always dropping.

I have the lights you are talking about and they are great. My main concern is taking too much apart and not being able to paint them because of the lowering temperatures. I want to make sure the paint sticks and I don't want parts lying around for winter since the car is stored outside.

10-19-10...

Wanted to start painting the frame today, but there are still some stubborn spots of toxic muck on the steering box. Tried oven cleaner and it helped a lot, but takes a long time. If you are impatient like I am, the best way to do it is put on a faceshield, some clothes you don't care about and hit it with a wire brush. Very messy, but very effective. Make sure you use an old brush because you don't want to use it on other parts of the car that have no grease. Unfortunately, I am out of wire brushes right now so I'm using more oven cleaner.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get more done. I'm going to try 34PackardRoadsta's tip on using the aluminum foil when it is time to mask. Looks like it makes that task a lot easier.

Use a face shield, and a wire wheel on a die-grinder. It's like a muck eraser! Be careful as it will throw bristles as they wear down.

If you use a wire wheel, either die grinder or drill, you can clean it up by running it in a water-based degreaser. Don't use a hydrocarbon based degreaser, as internal sparks in the electric motor can cause an explosion.

Thanks for the tips guys...

Anyone know what color the shift linkage should be? I originally painted a piece silver when I adjusted it (has the arrow pointed to it in the pic below. BigKev painted his steering box and at least the upper shifting parts black. Should I have painted the linkage black instead of silver? I have been looking through BigKev's blog but I haven't found a pic of this area to compare to.

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I don't find many pictures either. Kev might have something in his PI judging book though.

One picture in a service counselor shows the gearshift and steering tube black but the detent plate and lever at bottom of column appears natural. I rather suspect that the linkage was left natural as well since that seemed to be fairly common on some other linkage items. Having said that though, there is one picture in the parts manual of a manual shift linkage that appears black.

If it were mine, would go with black as that would hide the rust and even if wrong, not be terribly out of place as so many other engine items were black.

I believe all the shift linkage should be black. The throttle linkage is cadmium plated (or painted in my case).