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3-21-12

Yesterday was spent removing the front fenders again and checking out what still needs to be done in the engine area. I reattached my distributor. The rotor and cap had to be moved around to get it to set in. I also don't remember the cap in the position it is in now so I hope the car is going to run! Distributors always make me nervous and I try to avoid touching them as much as possible.

I broke my second Packard bolt. This one was the one that attaches the bottom generator bracket to the engine block. The one at the rear of the generator broke. Maybe I had too much paint in the hole and I should have cleaned it out first.

When I put the belt on, I noticed the generator pulley and fan pulley were not perfectly aligned. I must not have gotten the fan pulley all the way on after painting the water pump. The fan was really hard to get back on so the paint must be a little too thick. I will have to remove it and sand the paint down.

Today I got the gas for the welder. Besides the empty tank, my other issue was the welding wire getting kinked and back feeding into the welder. I researched the problem online and found out it could be the wire tension. Sure enough, after loosening the adjusting knob, the wire fed without incident.

With a working MIG I gave it a try. Night and day is how I would describe the difference between MIG welding and flux core welding sheet metal. The MIG was so much easier! I was even able to run some beads and fill in pinholes from my other welding attempts. My welds don't look pretty, but they are definitely functional. I also filled in some of the larger gaps between the trunk and patch panels. Those are the blobs of weld you see in the pictures. Didn't grind them down yet. I think I need a smaller grinder to get in the curved areas of the trunk. Also got the new patch panel tacked in place. Still needs some work around the rear filler panel brace area and by the wheel.

Best of all, I convinced my wife that I need a MIG welder! I'm going to mess around with this one from work for now. I won't be able to afford one this expensive, so I will probably go with the Eastwood 135 model that BigKev is using. The one I got from work is a Miller 135 so I wonder if they are pretty much the same?

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Try cutting back on your wire feed and going slower. You need more penetration. This is a common failing with MIG welders. Slow down and see how much better your welds get. If you have trouble seeing the weld put a strong light on the work area. When you have the knack of making good welds you can increase the power and the wire speed and weld faster.

Will do Rusty. I see what you mean. The welds seem higher than examples that I see on the internet. They should be flatter showing it is penetrating better.

3-25-12

Not much progress this weekend. I bought a new spacer piece that goes between the engine block and the fuel pump bolts to replace the one I lost. It was a little too long so I ground it down to size and ground the edge so it would sit inside the housing like the OEM one did. Bolted that in and tried to attach the vacuum line but ti wouldn't line up. I'll have to adjust the bends in it.

Took the fan and pulley back off, sanded the hub, and reassembled. The pulley still seems a little off compared to the pulley on the generator. Maybe it was always that way and nothing to worry about.

Bought some new bolts to attach the generator, but I don't know which bolt is which in the parts book. I thought I bought the right size one that connects the generator adjustment strap to the water pump, but I am not sure. Seems too long. You can see it sticking out in the pic. I have about 1/4" screwed in so far.

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3-26-12

Another attempt at welding today. I took Rusty's advice and slowed down and reduced the wire feed. Seems to have helped and the welds are not as built up as before, but another problem arose. Both gauges on the regulator now do not work so I have no idea how much gas is being fed to the welds. I was getting a lot of brown around them so I thought I should turn up the gas a little. Not sure if that even helped. Didn't have a chance to grind them down yet and look for holes.

Yesterday while looking through the plate pictures in the parts manual, I came across a pic of the trunk pan. Looks like I bent the strengthening channel in the new panel wrong. I made it come up instead of going down. The drivers side was raised so I assumed the other side would be the same. We all know what happens when we assume! Oh well, live and learn. I'm certainly not going to do anything about it at this point. I'm sure no one besides a Packard owner will be able to tell.

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I got into reading this discussion late, but, for filling any little holes in the body I would suggest using lead. I did that on my '51 300 and am quite pleased with the results. It takes a bit of practice, but you get a repair that will not fall off the steel, is very hard after it cools, and will never rust. I buy lead from ACRO Sales in Menomonee Falls WI. IT is called 3070 acroloy bar solder. It comes in 1/4lb bars. You will also need the tinning compound available at the same source. Their phone #is 262/781-8940.
Last time I bought lead it was about 5.75/lb (a whole lot cheaper than Eastwood), and you can remelt the drips and small pieces left to make new bars. The wooden paddles are usually available on e-bay along with the vixen files etc.
Try it I know you will like it.

Your welds do not seem to be penetrating. You need to get all the rust and paint off, grind the weld area down to clean metal. Welding will go a lot easier. The weld should melt right in. You may want to increase the power but not so much you burn through. Don't be discouraged, you might want to practice on a few scrap pieces and see what settings work best.

Thanks guys! I have always wanted to learn how to lead but it seems really hard. Good to know that supplies are really close to me!

Rusty, next time, I will try more voltage. I noticed that my panel lifted on me while I was welding it in so I have a small bump there. Looks bad, but I will fix it with some kind of filler.

Although my pics do not show it, I had bare metal before welding. Next patch, I will try to clean it more.

3-27-12

Today was spent cleaning up the trunk area. Rusty mentioned that maybe my weld area was not derusted enough. I ground the welds down and wire brushed it again. While I was at it, I wire brushed some more areas of the trunk and guess what? More rust holes appeared! I feel really down about this, but I will recover. I honestly had no idea the trunk was this bad off. Hind sight being 20/20, I would have been ahead of the game if I would have bought the bullet and bought the trunk pan from Classic 2 Current. Oh well. I will persevere. The trunk will definitely not pass for OEM, but now my goal must be to have a strong car body again, regardless of what it looks like. I will just have to cover it all up with filler, lead, carpet or whatever.

I also tested my theory that the passenger side of the car is sagging (resting on the frame) causing the trunk to be misaligned. I jacked the car up really high and put a 2x4 in the wheel well between the fender and tire. I lowered the car so the body was being supported by the 2x4 and the frame dropped down.

The trunk did not align so I jacked up the back part of the body by putting some plywood under the new patch panel I put in. My welds do not look great, but they are definitely strong because I was able to jack up the car body with pressure only on that panel and my welds. Tested the trunk lid again and still not a good fit.

Then I took out a level and did some tests. The trunk lid is straight across, but the back filler panel droops on both ends. Looks like the middle must have been pushed up causing a hill. One more hurdle to overcome!

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Charles,

From your photo in post #574, it looks like your generator is missing a spacer between the top bracket and the generator. I know mine has one. That may be the reason for the misalignment.

J