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I put the new-to-me headlight trim rings and hood ornament on the car, and it was a nice day so we went for a ride. A new record, we did about 85 miles. I've put 450 miles on since I got it licensed in August, and aside from the noisy valve train the Ghost is running strong.

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I spent some time writing out a list of all the things that I need to do to the car, then arranging them in order to lead into the following items. Lots still to do, it won't be done any time real soon!

I removed the glove box and cut some toolbox drawer liner to fit the sides of the box, and a chunk of rubber mat for the bottom. Glued the liner to the sides with some spray adhesive, and it all looks pretty good. I had to replace the inner box liner since the original cardboard stuff was all mouse-pee and chewed up etc, so no saving that.

Now I need to figure out how to replace the chrome paint that was inside the Packard logo on the glove box, it all flaked off. I am searching for some kind of paint that looks that shiny, anybody have a good clue as to what was used? It looks like real chrome, but I don't know how you chrome plate the inside of a clear plastic trim piece.

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If you find a paint that works on the inside I would appreciate knowing too. At one time I thought they might have used some kind of heat stamped foil pressed or shaped into the emblems but never ran across anything saying how it was done. Be nice if someone had a contact with one of the places that restore emblems that might be willing to divulge but I guess that would be too much to hope for since it might impact business.

I did see a writeup for a mirror chrome paint that is sprayed on the reverse side of Lexan or plexiglass model car windows or some such that might work but I haven't tried any. Amazon and others sell the stuff.

Howard, I am on a quest to fins something that looks better than just using silver spray paint. I've been researching model paints, and I tried some "liquid silver leaf" paint - not even as shiny as the silve spray paint.

I'm going to get some silver leaf sheets and experiment, I'll let you know how that turns out.

There is a product sold at hobby stores that is used for gilting. It is a wax-like material and comes in gold, silver, and maybe other colors. It comes in small jars. It is applied by rubbing it on. A little goes a long way. When dried the gilting is permanent. Something like a paste gold/silver leaf. Maybe something to look into? Hope this helps.

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That gilting stuff sounds interesting. Don't recall seeing anything like that locally but I may not have been looking in the right place. Being Calif, if it has a solvent or stinks much it is probably illegal here.

Not sure how that mirror chrome stuff works. It is a spray paint that goes on the inside of plastic so you have to look thru the plastic. There is some kind of backing coat also.

One thing I have been wondering about is the finish on the inside of old plastic once the original material is gone. Does the original stuff etch the plastic in such a way that anything done later will have the light refracted thru a surface that nothing can reflect back thru with any kind of clarity.

Howard, where the chrome coating flaked off it left the inner plastic clear, no etching. There are some spots still stuck and I'm not sure how I'll get those off so that whatever I end up using will be consistent.

Has anyone tried vinyl wrap film? I can get a small sample cheap on amazon to try, but obviously it is made to stick on an exterior surface so I'm wondering how shiny the adhesive side is. Maybe I can talk to a rod shop that does car wraps and see what they say, or if they have any left overs I can experiment with.

fellers.com/avery/cat/avery-colored-patt ... dennison-chrome-conform-accent-film

It was beautiful today, got up to about 60F so it was oil change day. I last changed it about 600 miles ago, the Ghost has gone about 1100 miles since it came out of the barn and this is the third time I've changed the oil.

I changed the filter too this time. No metal flakes or anything in the old oil, wiped out the bottom of the filter housing and nothing ugly there either. So that's encouraging.

I looked at the spark plugs while I was at it, they are all looking fine, none are oily or black so I'm happy with that too.

I've been trying to get the passenger door handle off so I can take it to the locksmith and get keys made. Pounded on that clip inside the door for two evenings and so far I've gotten it to move less than a quarter inch. I'll just keep dousing it with pen oil and keep working on it, the key is not to chip up the top of the window glass while I'm beating on the clip. I put a piece of plastic edging over the glass edge to keep tools away. I had removed the bottom window stop and that allowed me to drop the glass down a skish more, but not too much really.

I had to refurbish the plastic emblem on the boot (trunk) of my '51 and tried a range of silver paint etc to try and get the right effect. It had to go over some red dye-type 'paint' also, which is translucent. Nothing looked good.

Then I finally found a silver nail polish that blitzed everything else!! It truly looked like chrome, and adhered ok, was close to the original look. I tried it on clear plastic sheet to get the effect. You can brush it carefully in small areas.

Suggest you check out women's nail polish. Bit embarrassing trying it on yourself - take a lady. Lol

Thanks for the lead Larry, luckily I know a gal. Now I need to convince her she needs chrome nails. What kind of paint did you find worked for the red?