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Great attention to detail, keep up the good work. Have you finished your "drip tray" solution for the quarter window water problem? My '51 has the same issues, and I'm also trying to figure out the best way to permanently solve the problem. I know you asked this already, but I'll repeat it:

"I'd be keen to hear of other methods and workarounds for this problem that have been used by members"

I also would like to get some other ideas on this fix.

There is no easy way to remove old sound deadening tar undercoating and paint. The best answer is to leave it alone. It serves an important function of sound deadening and rust proofing. Nothing you can substitute will do much better and in most cases, will be worse.

The only exception is when you must remove it to do welding or panel beating. In that case I prefer to heat with a propane torch and scrape it off with a putty knife but to each his own. But you only need to scrape it away for 2 or 3 inches away from the weld.

Lee,

Good to see you back on the tools and as always doing a wonderful job.

Any chance she'll be ready for the PACA run to Hill End September 9 to 11? If not, might have to come and harass you on the way home to Sydney to see your '51 in person.

Hi mt, I've been holding off posting about the 'drip tray' idea until the trays were made and I could take some photos of them in position. They're partly done but still a way to go . . .

The fix I'm doing should work OK but some might say it's a bit 'drastic', as to get the trays into place, the inner panel (below the window) has to be cut away then welded back in place later. That's not a big job of course, and if you have rust in the quarter panel already then removing this panel makes getting in there very easy. I figure that since mine is already removed it's not a problem.

Perhaps if very small trays were used it might be possible to get them into the qtr panel cavity without cutting away at things, but I doubt that's possible.

Another thing - because the sills on my car were totally shot, we incorporated a copper tube (silver soldered in place from memory) into the new sills which passes vertically through the bottom of the sill. Intention is to take a short rubber hose from the drip tray to the pipe and this empties the tray. You can see this in pics above . ..

An alternative to doing any mod (if there is no major rust popping through the exterior yet) is to just treat the cavity with Dynax S-50 or whatever. So much easier but another problem is we figured the water getting in via dripping from the window above was also seeping through onto the rear floor and that's why the floors were rusted out.

Packard knew about this problem as they provided a post-production kit to fix it. See the manual, Section XIX 'Body' page 24 - 'Rear Quarter Water Leaks Club Sedans'. So because of this I thought trays were one answer.

We don't reckon Packard's fix will prevent the floor rust - all it does is redirect water a little, but leaves it sitting there to happily rot the car.

Here are basic diagrams (originally a PowerPoint drawing) of the tray measurements and design. There's a lot of info missing - e.g. material is aluminium and either 1 or 1.5mm thick if I remember correctly. The trays fit (just) so there is room to reduce the size by a few mm overall to make it an easier fit. Also I made a cardboard template to get the shape of the curved tray sorted.

Pleased to provide other info or clarify the design - let me know.

Yes I agree Rusty - whenever you can leave the sound deadener / stone guard in place that's the best idea. On my car there is quite a bit of surface rust formed under the coatings in some places, like on the inner surface of the turret and also inners of fenders, inside trunk etc. This is still minor but I was surprised that even slight rust could form under those coatings.

In places the coating was loose, missing (old repairs) or very thin.

Intention is to re-coat these same areas with new schutz except the turret, where I'll use matting to a larger extent than originally used. (When I removed the original matting there was zero surface rust under it). I think condensation in the turret has been a problem sometime, so now the whole area has been treated so there'll never be a problem there again.

It would have been much better if existing coating was all reasonable, would have saved a heap of work!

G'day Mal, thanks for the encouraging comments you always give me. We're certainly planning to get to the Hill End meet but doubtful I'll have the '51 on the road by then. However it will be hopefully getting near to completion.

Would be a pleasure to have you call in on the way!

Wow...what incredible attention to the details! I admire your dedication to this car and its preservation.

Buck up 51 your car will be just as nice if you don't run out of lumber ha ha just kidding lol.

51 thanks for your kind comment. Ain't it fun! So much to learn and master.

Reading your blog . . . . I haven't a clue about the innards of Ultramatic trannies and sometimes I sit bolt upright in bed imagining what a mess I'm likely to make when I eventually have to tackle mine. However your blog has a mile of good info that I can refer to - it's already helped by making me feel a bit more confident about the 'Ultramatic challenge'to come.

Thanks for the drip-pan update. Look forward to the pics. Good luck.