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Well my Birthday is not until Feb, I got the Packard in the month of Feb, but's it Birthday is actually sometime late August.

I have no idea what date the wife and kids put down on this card. Perhaps as the family has no Birthdays this time of year, they thought it would be a good time to have another discount card show up in the mail. I just thought it was funny to get a card addressed "Rusty McPackard" as Rusty has been my kids nick name for my Clipper.

I told them that they couldnt use the card as I plan on framing it! No discount for them!

everytime i turn around you have something new i didn't think of....like the cad paint..damn! damn damn!! (like from back to the future ;0)

okay so explain the CAD paint to me....is it just to renew and anti-rust old hardware?? i am guess the PI manual says that too.....i really need to get me one of those.

later dude,

Hank

Yes it's primarly just to keep the rust away. I glass bead the parts down to bare metal with 80 grit, and then spray on the Cad paint. I have had good results with it. The hood springs and parking brake mechnism was also done with it.

It also mimicks the look of tin plating that you find on new hardware. So that is why I use it on hardware where they dont specifically call for the harware to be finished in a different manner.

I dont have the budget to have all on hardware replated. So this is my resto on a budget method.

replated.....that would be hard to find around here. half the replate people are gone, except for chrome.

plus....budget is my thing too...thanks for cluing me in. ;0)

Well today I decided to get the front brake backing plates back on the car. I had to make new gaskets to replace both the backing plate to spindle seal and also the grease shield to backing plate seal. Both of mine were toast when I disassembled the plates last year.

So the first picture shows the new shield gaskets I made. (Gaskets By Kev). So now I was ready to reassembly the plates.

One of the things that needed to be done was reinstall the steering links and arms, as those were off the car to be refinished and the steering arms bolt between the backing plate and the spindle assembly. So I crawled up under the car, and reinstalled the cross-shaft and tie rods back to the steering box. Then back out from under the car to connect the steering arm to the spindle assembly. Then I realized a problem. When I disassembled the steering last year, I had separated the tie rods and the steering arms to replace the tie-rod end dust boots. Somewhere in that process I had swapped the left and right steering arms. CRAP! Live and learn. So out came the steering assembly again, and I had to separate the tie-rods from the steering arm and swap them left to right, and then reassemble everything. Thank god I still had that pickle-fork. In the process of re-separating the tie-rods, I dinged up the paint of the steering assembly from the vise, so I will touch that up after I get it back on the car. Luckily I was able to get them apart without tearing up the new dust boots.

Take 2!

So now with the steering assembly back in, I was ready to reassemble the backing plates. So I installed the lower two bolts. The rear most, lower bolt has an odd-shaped heat which acts as a steering bump stop. With the bolts in, the next thing was to install the spindle seal which I sprayed with some copper gasket sealer. Next the backing plate when on, followed by the grease shield gasket, also coated with copper sealer.

Then the great shield was added, and the lower castle nuts where added thumb tight to hold everything in place. The top two bolts were next, but they require a spacer to be added between the backing plate and the spindle assembly. With the top bolts in place, and went around and tightened all the bolts in a cross pattern. New cotter-pins were added to the castle nuts.

So that was about all the good light I had in the garage before dark. So the remainder of the front brakes will wait for another day. Please excuse all the dust on the parts and frame.

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Also I found the source of another problem while I was under the car putting the steering back together. I had replaced the oil pan gasket awhile back when I dropped the pan to clean out the sludge. Since then it had been leaking a little bit of oil (more of a seep). So I figured that this was due to a shifted gasket that happened when I was wrestling the pan back into place. While under there today I noticed it was leaking from the back on the pan near the drain plug. I felt around the back of the pan, and there was no oil on the pan above the plug, so it must be seaping from the plug itself. The plug is tight, so I guess it needs a copper washer as a seal. Thank god I dont have to drop that pan again!

what is the purpose of those homemade gaskets?? i can't seem to find them on the exploded parts view.

They are there. Look at the 51-54 Exploded part plates. I belive there was one in your pictures of your diasembled rear backing plates.

looks like i need to start looking at the 54 plates as i see alot of things that i have been missing. i should have known since my car was a very early 55 car.

but still, what is the purpose of those gaskets do you think?? i am stumped.....vibration dampener, keep things from seizing???

i know the ones on the back have the gasket on the outer oil seal, but i didn't see any others on my rear brakes. i will have to look closer.

The round one is a seal between the backing plate and the spindle.

The other one is more important and seals the grease sheild to the backing plate. If that is not used then bearing grease could drip of the single down the inside of the shield (like it's supposed to), and then drip between the bottom of the shield the plate and then leak onto the drum. I for sure would not want bearing grease leaking on the braking surface of the drum.

Here is where everything goes. It should be the same for 51-56.

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