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Kevin, in your posting #454 the photo looking straight into the throat of the carb I see quite a bit of air horn gasket. It looks different than what I was expecting. I know getting the vacumeter piston and link to play well with the gasket can be a challenge.

dp

I don't think you can just swap out the damaged pieces as they are swaged to the shaft which cannot be removed. Don't try to take off the choke flappers so best to just use the new upper housing intact.

David - is the extra gasket material a problem? It fit all the holes and passages just fine, and I assumed that the gasket was designed to stick out of the edges to ensure a seal.

Don - I was able to take off the choke flapper when I cleaned it, but if it's too risky (weak brass screws?) then I'll just clean up and swap out the new upper in one piece.

-Kevin

Kevin, that's a difficult question to answer. I noticed in the 'Coming together' photo the same gasket seems to be 'hanging-out' over its entire outer edge as you said. Perhaps it's nothing more that the manufacturer of the kit made the decision to have a gasket that would be more robust if it shifted a bit. Not only would there still be gasket material available to seal, but a wider gasket would be less likely to shift in the first place. There is no harm with the gasket 'hanging-out' on the outside of the carburetor. If it somehow degrades and starts falling apart no ill effects would arise. So let's talk about the '20201208_071831.jpg' photo . . . that gasket appears to be in the engine's inlet air stream, and as such if degradation occurs a benign situation may not be guaranteed. When I first saw this photo I went out to the garage and unpacked my spare WDO, which is not the same design as yours, but it is a Carter two barrel produced only a few years before. In that carburetor the gasket is not visible, it does not protrude into the air stream. Since my experience with WGD is limited I would ask those with that experience to weigh-in on whether it's normal for the gasket to protrude into the air stream . . . I know the answer for the WDO.

dp

I've rebuilt a number of these and the gasket definitely should not protrude.

Been tackling a few side projects while I figure out my next big steps.

I made a couple of side panels in the trunk and got them covered in carpet. I will probably attach some magnets to the back of them so they can hold to the fenders while driving. Not perfect by any means, but I think it does dress up the trunk a bit. I'll make a pattern for the fuel filler tunnel and get that covered. Then figure out how to make a pattern and cut for the wheel wells. I also need to get some brush-able contact cement to get the edges to lay down flat.

I pulled out the original rear window trim and cleaned it up. Several pieces had a good amount of rust on the backside, so I cleaned all that off, did an Ospho treatment, then compounded, polished, and waxed the original blue paint several times. I think it came back rather nicely, considering where it came from. It's not perfect, but probably good enough. I may repaint them in the future.

The interior windshield trim got the same treatment. These were in much worse condition. They had heavy rust on the inside, that I ground off and treated with Ospho. I then primed and painted the backside in an effort to prevent any further problems (probably ought to do that to the rear trim as well). The blue paint on these was much worse and I did what I could. I'll probably need to repaint these regardless.

The dash was pretty rough. Age, fading, mouse pee, and all the debris from my metal surgery on the windshield area did a real number on it. The pictures don't quite show how bad it looked in person, nor how much nicer it looks now. I compounded everything several times, polished, then waxed. It brought back most of the original color and gave it a depth that it didn't have before. I removed the glove box to clean it better (and get all the sand out of it and the tracks). Much better now. Not perfect, but a definite improvement.

Lastly I found some blue carpet of the same make that the stuff is that I used in the trunk. Unfortunately it is not a match to the carpet that came with the car (not original, but close). It's not as dark. But it doesn't unravel, so cut some and applied to the footrest. I'll put the front seat in and see how it looks. I did buy enough to redo all the carpet on the interior if I wanted to, but I'm not sure I like color of the new stuff.

-Kevin

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That paint really came back to life. It's always a great feeling bringing back old paint. Just feels right.

I like the carpet on the footrest. And your trunk is looking great also.

Kevin, the trunk looks great! And good job on the window trim and dash. It's amazing how some elbow grease can really bring back parts of an old car without resorting to a full blown "restoration".

There is another member on this forum, Jason75, who has worked wonders with his Packard, redoing the paint and other areas of the car. He hasn't posted in quite a while, but hopefully is still working on the car.

Anyway, I look forward to your posts, and your progress. Keep it up!

Thanks guys! It sure is nice to see the inside starting to come around. Slowly but surely.

Merry Christmas to all! Been working a few things today. First, I took apart the second carburetor I picked up from Ross (thanks Ross!!) and gave it a good going-over. It was overall dirty and grimy, but far better than what my original one looked like. Float bowl and throat had gum and varnish, but again better than my other carb. I was surprised to see that it apparently had a fresh rebuild before it was pulled off the car. Gaskets new, accelerator pump, needle and seat, and idle screws were all new.

I disassembled and cleaned everything in carb cleaner, and reassembled. It was much easier and faster to do this the second time. I'm feeling much more comfortable with carburetors now. I also set all the adjustments according to the manual (float level, accelerator pump, fast idle, and unloader). Cleaned up nicely, though I will probably hit a few spots on the outside again.

Also got some cheap mirrors to replace the missing ones. Both doors already had holes drilled in them to fit old mirrors that are no longer produced. All I have is the base of one of the old ones, but nothing else. Since there were already holes and I don't plan on repainting the whole car anytime soon, I figured I'd make a couple new holes to fit the new mirrors. I know Packard original ones were mounted to the trim, but those are hard to come by, and my door skins already had the holes.

They work well enough. And for $50 I can make them work. Better than having open holes on both doors!

Can't install the new carb yet because I ran into an issue with the heat tube coming up from the manifold. It's not there. Looking closely at the box on the manifold it looks like there are remnants of a tube that was cut off at some point. What's the best way to address this? Try to take off the plate and then drill out the remainder of the tube?

-Kevin

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The tube is typically not tight where it goes into the manifold so you can probably get it out without any drilling. In the past I've used 3-sided gasket scrapers to grab and loosen stuck pieces but anything with a very slight taper and somewhat sharp edges should do the trick. Maybe even an Easy-Out but don't push it in too hard as you don't want to expand the tube.

Even though not in their online catalog by itself, I believe that Classic Tube can supply a new one but in the meantime there is no harm in running the engine without it. The only adverse affect would by that the choke won't open quickly and possibly not fully so you'll probably have to leave it out of adjustment and open temporarily until you get the tube.

Edit: try to avoid taking off the plate as the screws might be stuck. Sometimes they're quite loose but usually not.