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About the bumper, it looks like yours has had some damage. I can't find a good head on shot of a Clipper but parts manual lists upper & lower bars same in 55 for all so here is a Packard. Straight across. Unusual for upper to get bent, usually only lower because of bumper jack. Your pict and one of brochures kind of looks like there might be a scallop in the middle but the 2 dents immediately next to "Dagmars" should not be there.

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that is what i thought....it almost looks like the car was bumped into something that put a dent in the same place on each side. kind rolled the bumper under and curved it a bit. weird, but not impossible in 50 plus years i suppose ;0).

thanks for the pic and clarification.

found this on ebay and it concurs ;0)

Hank

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well tomorrow we go to our appointment with the doctor ;0) the soda doc that is ;0)

i got the one rim that wasn't holding air busted down and i cleaned off the bead really good. Discount tire gave me a better tire and put it on for free ;0) yes it was a used tire, but i know the guys there really well, so they hooked me up. it holds air now, which makes it WAY easier to push the frame around. push it with my finger now. ;0)

i got the trailer and my dad and neighbor and i pushed it right on the trailer and hunkered it down for the night. tomorrow it is going to rain, supposedly, so it may have to wait until the next sunny day to bring it home so the rain doesn't wash off the soda dust. that is all i will have to keep it from flash rusting, so i have to make sure to keep it dry until i am ready to wash it myself and paint primer.

i power washed it really good today to make things go quicker and cheaper for me tomorrow at the blasters. while blasting i saw a green strip on one torsion bar and a blue on the other, i suppose it is to differentiate between left and right side bars??? i also came across the frame markings.

what does ADS, i think that is what it says, mean?? i can see the date of 3/5 or 1/55....can't tell if it is a 1 or a 4 day. the number on the frame doesn't match anything else on the car and i think the 122 is for the 122" wheelbase??

later dudes, will post pics of the before and after on the frame, and again BigKev thanks for the soda idea! ;0)

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AOS for A.O. Smith the company that bent up the frame.

Please tell us specifically WHERE on the frame u found the number. Maybe a bigger pic with an arrow pointing to the location of the number.

Check the Body number stamped into the firewall just above the heater box to see if there is any correlation to the frame number u found.

oh i thought that was a D, as you can see though it is kinda hard to read that part.

A.O. Smith as in the company that makes alot of stuff around new houses. like my Water Heater per say ;0) weird and cool if so. kinda like GE or something. they dabble in everything.

hope you can see it in the pics, i drew an arrow. also the body stamp is not the same number as on the frame at all. nor is the VIN plate. this number is unique. there is a photo of my body number on the thread talking about such numbers, can't remember what the title of the thread was though, but we discussed whether it was D28525 or 028525, can't really tell for sure.

so what does this number mean on my frame....i am pretty sure the 122 is the length of the wheelbase, AOS you explained, and the other is the date, which confirms my suspicion of an early 55 car.

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Back from the soda blasters and boy is it clean. way cleaner then i thought the soda could have made it. i know it is not shiny, but that was not what i wanted. i wanted it to be cleaned and to have the live rust cleared off. i think it was accomplished. now i will come back with some of the Eastwood chassis kit they have.

also i like the soda so much i am going to buy a blaster from eastwood, $299 and it will do sand and stuff too. should make cleaning the smaller parts even easier.

well tell me what you guys think?? pretty good job i say. and it was only $350 bucks....well worth it in my opinion.

does anyone know what those rubber bushing pieces are at the ends of the torsion bars, especially the smaller bars....mine are rotted pretty bad. some of the rubber on this car must have been replaced at one time cause it is too good looking for being 50+ years old. anywhere besides Kanter to get a front rebuild kit for this thing too?? what are you guys finding that fits from other cars as far as bushing etc...

thanks,

Hank

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I know of no rubber bushings at the ends of the torsion bars. Perhaps if you drew a line in the picture to exactly where you are referencing? Good pics and it looks pretty clean to me.

see arrow in below pic.

there is one on the end of each bar and they are pretty nasty looking. kinda looks like a big o-ring thing that keeps it from rubbing or something, i don't know.

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Really looks good. I think the part you're asking about is a seal to keep dirt out, lube in the needle bearings. Group 15.9975 in the pict. IIRC, I think it is square cut, not round O type but same principle. Once you get some weight back on things, those will be very easy to change.

As to front end, I don't think anyone but Kanter sells the whole kit. Individual pieces are available. Lower control arm bushings are available from Dwight Heinmuller. See his post starting here:
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... ic.php?post_id=14499#forumpost14499

He also has uppers, there is a TRW cross listed in the Parts XRef and also the Ford D3AZ-3068-A will work, so those shouldn't be too hard. Other vendors will have the pieces also.

Since you have the motor off the suspension compensator it reminded me, did you ever find what was allowing all the play in the motor armature? Now would be a good time to turn or push the worm screw by whatever means in both directions and see if there is any play at all. There should not be any more than minimal backlash so if the gear can "screw" in or out to account for the 1/4 inch play you had it needs to be fixed.

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Just FYI, I had the exact same "play" in my compensator motor, and found out that it was the bearing behind the little "freeze plug" on the front end of the compensator assembly. The bearing's easily available at most parts houses, but the # escapes me, I "think" it was a 202 bearing, but not 100% on that, may have been a 205. It was almost 4 years ago when I did it!