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Head is on and torqued, oil in the pan, so things are coming together. Flushed the block today, and got the radiator back from the shop. It's an aftermarket core, so they flushed, rodded it, fixed two small leaks, and pressure tested it. They also replaced the overflow tube as the original was about to rot through.

Pressure washed the block. I need to remove a few more things, and then I'll mask and spray it. I also need to touch up the head- I got some brake cleaner on the new paint, and it lifted right up.

Slow progress, but I decided I didn't have time for Hershey anyway. Hoping to drive it quite a bit this fall though.

I'm also planning on flushing the brakes while it's easy with the front clip off. Found a problem with the junction block for the front brakes, so I will fix that too.

Water pump is coming back together too.

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The engine paint lifts up with brake cleaner? It comes off that easily? I thought it was supposed to be more resilient than that.

Nice progress, can't wait to see if back on the road.

-Kevin

I wasn't expecting it to! Not sure if I had some underlying contamination or if it takes a long time cure? It's been on for about 2 weeks.

After considering it quite a bit, I'm just going to pull the engine to repaint it. The bellhousing is also the wrong color, and I'm just not willing to risk accidentally getting some overspray on the body. I already had everything removed except the four bolts holding it to the transmission, so it won't be that much extra work, and I'm removing the risk of overspray. I'll also get a better result.

With family in town, other projects, etc, it looks like I'll get the engine pulled next Thursday or Friday and painted that weekend. With any luck it will be back on the road by the middle of October, but it's an old car, so who knows! :)

I'm sure it will look great when it's all done. And if you're already that close to getting the engine out, might as well go all the way.

Yeah - I don't really want to, but I think it will be faster to pull, clean, paint, and reinstall then it would be to mask everything I don't want Packard green. Good thing this was a simple head gasket job in August, right? Haha - it'll be good once it is. Thanks for the encouragement - we will get our cars back on the road one of these days.

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Ken, consider yourself lucky. I had a friend in Austin who ended up doing a multi-year complete body off frame restoration that started out as a tune-up. JWL

Mission Creep. Sometimes completely necessary as a real time judgement call in the field.
'Unplanned but Necessary' as we say....

Mission creep indeed!

I do have to be careful... I am prone to overdoing it. When I first discovered the engine had never been rebuilt, I was tempted to yank it and fully rebuild it. Then I had to remind myself that I only have a few more months before it will be stored for 6 months, and maybe 3.5 years!

So, we'll get it back to Packard green, and put enough miles on it that I know everything is properly broken in and sorted before it goes into storage in March.

Ken, that's a really nice original looking 120 you've got. Bet it will drive nicely, too.

I had a 41 120 Club Coupe for a while which drove exceptionally well.

Seat belts are a good idea, especially if you want to carry family.

I sourced mine here (dark red lap belts) with the mounting hardware. I'm sure you can get the same stuff more easily there. There was one wrinkle. It's best to mount the lower lap belt fasteners through the floor behind the seats. The catch is that this section of the floor of my 120 was double panel - maybe yours too - so much longer mounting bolts are needed. Given this, though, you might not need the strengthening plate which normally bolts under these mounts. Other than that, fitting was plain sailing.

I had a hard look for suitable upper mounting points for three point belts. There are some kits sold for this but I could not see a strong enough attachment point for front belts. The rear parcel shelf in my car was metal (probably yours, too) so it would be reasonably easy to fit them in the back if you wish with suitable strengthening.

Enjoy the car!

Cheers

Brian