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Thanks, JayDub,

The editor of our club magazine used the ATF in his '39 and it cured the problem he was having. But whether it's Mystery Oil, ATF, Diesel, you have to do something. I run a tank of aviation fuel every once in a while in winter. Much higher octane than needed, but it's leaded. There are a few service stations in Oregon where you can buy ethanol-free fuel, unleaded, too, but both these options are not free, $4-$5/gal. I do have stainless valve seats.

It's running so good, I'm trying for a last-minute registration in Oregon's finest Concours this weekend.

But I'm also hankering to take any weekend excursion.

I had such an incredible time during car week and the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2014 when a Packard took Best of Show, I decided that this year I would drive the Duchess again from Portland to Big Sur, about 750 miles one way.

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There were a couple of fixes I'd been meaning to make before heading out. My original coil gave out, so got another that accepts the ignition wire on the bottom and installed that. The headlight switch (the rivets were loose holding the fuse clips, making it intermittent) needed replacing. David Moe, Packard Seattle Co., had those items which I bought at the Portland Swap Meet. I discovered a very easy way to work under the dash. It was comfortable, too.
1. Remove the bottom seat cushion.
2. Put down 3 soft pillows in line up the middle of the floorboard.
3. Lie on your back under the dash.

I'd been waiting for the completion of a project to build a better sway-bar/stabilizer to reach fruition as mine disappeared between shops in the restoration process 8 years ago. That didn't happen yet, so I bought a rusty one and will use the upgrade kit from Ron Carpenter to finally have a stabilizer back on the car.

I also got a proper 1940 oil-bath air cleaner to replace my '47 style one. It will need cleaning up, but I have new sticker already that I had to buy a couple years ago from Kanter because I was $3 shy of qualifying for a discount. What could I buy for $3? There's a reason for everything.

The most serious problem (I thought) was major cooling system work, mainly the radiator. She had been leaking, and I'd plugged up the leaks, but I had pulled into the garage after work one Friday and as soon as I turned off the ignition, she blasted water and steam out the bottom.

I bought a used radiator, sway bar and air cleaner from Ed Murmillo in Norfolk, VA. He shipped them across country. So between my radiator and this other one, the shop will be figuring out how to get one good radiator out of two.

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I also had a couple of scratches on the left rear fender (my bad) and a pock mark on the left front one from when my tire picked up a couple of very hard items and fired them at the inside of the front fender. At the time is sounded like a bullet hitting it. I had the police inspect it and they said it was virtually impossible for someone to shoot a bullet at an angle that would hit the inside of my front fender And miss my front tire. Anyway, I couldn't possibly go to Pebble with these blemishes.

I removed both fenders and took them to the paint shop. Tuan at Canyon Auto Repair and Collision, who painted the car in 2010, painted the fenders after Bill repaired the pock and stars on the front and a couple of splits along the bottom lip of the rear fender, in addition to the scratches and a big star next to the fuel filler tube. Again, they did a beautiful job.

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My front door latch spring broke and I ended up removing everything from inside the door to get it out. Is it true that Packard built its cars around that latch? I had a spare spring from John Ulrich to replace it. In trying to press it in, I broke a tab, which son John also has on his plate.

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In the process, I noticed a little bubble of paint at the bottom of the driver's door.

This door had been repaired in 1971. Sheet metal had been added and crimped to the solid part of the door. In 1986 all doors were strip dipped and primed and filled again. It was worked on again in 2004 with a lot of bondo. Prepped for paint and painted in 2010.

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So a little bubble. I thought I might as well get this bubble off and paint the door, too, while the fenders were being done. I had some trouble getting the door off having forgotten about the interior bumper that prevents the door from swinging out too far. With HH56 Howard's help, I got the door off and took it in.

When Bill started grinding on the door there was trouble. There wasn't much metal there.
He said I'd have to take it to a metal fabricator.

After watching packardinfo.com updates on the boat-tail speedster and the astronaut's work, I felt there must this level of skill in Portland as well.

The flackmaster told me I'd be dreaming if I could find a usable '40 4-dr convertible driver door. They mostly all rot out. But my motto is Dumb-but-Lucky. Yes, I found one. Gary Brinton had saved one from the high desert country of Oregon and sold it to David Moe sometime back.

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On recommendation of a fellow Oregon Packardite, I took the two doors to Mike McKennett's Restorations and Reproductions shop in N.E. Portland.

They removed the hinge. "Looks more like it was on the Titanic." So that will be rebuilt.

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The donor door's inner frame, despite the holes after blasting, is still much better than my original. R&R will patch the lower areas with new metal and fill the smaller holes with silicon bronze weld. Mike would prefer to fabricate a whole new inner door, but then I'd have to live in it under the off ramp.

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In the meantime, my eldest son, John, trailered the Duchess to his farm in Salem. He just finished rebuilding and installing the engine of his '62 Corvette, so now there is room in the barn/shop. He promptly removed the hood and shell. He didn't have a key to the remaining sidemount and couldn't get it off. Now I know that the theft protection system works. This is what my daughter-in-law Pam calls "shopping."

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