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thank you for that HH56. The transmission is out of the car and with me in Pittsburgh. I believe one lever on the transmission can shift the trans from 2 to 3 fairly well but the reverse and 1st lever will not move. So I am guessing I have the problem that you mentioned. Which is okay, the transmission is coming apart and will be gone through.

Didn't go back far enough in posts to realize you had a standard shift so the linkage suggestion is somewhat moot since that was only applicable to the 54-6 Gear Start and Twin Ultramatics.

You should be able to move both levers on a standard if they are both starting in the neutral position -- unless for some reason the detent/interlock assy is messed up. The detent assy could have been an issue on the 54 and earlier Packard built standard trans but have not heard it being reported on the 55-6 purchased assys which were also used by other mfgs.

As long as you are rebuilding the trans anyway then surely the problem will be resolved. For others having a similar issue, no matter which lever is being tried if the other is in the neutral position the one being worked should move freely -- although you might need to rotate the input shaft slightly to line up everything so the gears can slide into mesh. If one lever is even slightly out of position and already trying to move into a gear then the detent-interlock assy should prevent the other lever from moving.

Over the past couple days I have finished sanding and got all the interior parts primed (including the dash board). I also disassembled and cleaned the instrument cluster. Now I just need to get these parts painted, the dash pad redone so I can get the dash board back together!

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This past week I was able to make it back to my parents place to get work done on the car:

Given the trouble areas I found on the floor I wanted to make sure there were no issues in the trunk. So I went about chipping away the undercoating in there. Thankfully everything in there looked "A" okay.

I also removed the wiper motor, cables and arms. I removed what was left of the evaporator box from the firewall. I guess someone attempted to remove the box or fix something with the A/C and removed the panel that faces the passenger compartment. Unfortunately, that was not in the car when I brought it to the garage, so there is no telling where that part was lost too. I do have what I believe is a complete evaporator box, but it does not look exactly like what I took out of the car. Namely the complete box I have does not have the port that connects to the base of the windshield that directs air to act as the defroster. I was going to replicate what HH56 did to his a/c system, so I know I am going to have to modify the box somehow. I will just need to make more pieces than I would have liked.

The remainder of the time was spent on body work. I got all the bad areas for the floor removed, and all of the floor pieces made up and ready to be welded in. I did find a passenger rocker online. It did not fit well at all. So I had to cut it up in order to get all of the lines to match what was left of the rocker that was there. But while doing this body work I noticed how bad the passenger inner rocker was, so I will have to see if I can find one of those as well. Plus I found trouble areas on the driver rocker. I was able to cut those out and made pieces to weld in there as well. I did notice that there was a lot of dirt and debris that fell out as I was cutting these rockers off. I think I am going to add some additional drain holes in each rocker to help remove water and dirt.

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This past week I was able to spend a good amount of time with the car. I finished up test fitting the floor pieces I made and welded them in. I welded up the drivers sider rocker pieces and was also able to weld in the inner and outer passenger rockers. My welding skills are not the best, but I got good penetration that required a lot of grinding. Im happy with how they turned out and one major step completed

Next steps would be to prep the rear axle for paint. paint the frame and start to rebush the suspension. all while I try to get the dash board painted and built up and the transmission, engine, rebuilt.

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Nicely done! Having just been through some of that I know how much work it takes. It's great to see more progress!

What are you doing to repaint the dash? I'll probably need to do the same at some point. Did you sand down to bare metal first?

-Kevin

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I completely disassembled the dash to just the metal frame. The dash pad needed redone so it needed to happen either way. But I sanded it mostly down to bare metal and I just sprayed it with self etching primer. Ill see if I need anymore primer before I spray in base/clear coat. My girlfriends dad is a body man by trade and I am going through him for this paint work/advice in the next coming weeks.

This past weekend I was able to get the paintwork done!! the girl friends dad was free so we got together to get it cranked out. all the interior pieces were painted the gray and it is a very close match!

now just need the dash pad to get back so I can assemble the dash!

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Do you know if the engine has the linkage from the carburetor to the firewall still on it? If so could you take a picture of it?

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I have an upper front view of my 1956 Clipper Custom's engine without air cleaner - would it show what you need?