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Congrats on your continued progress. No problems putting the carpet back in height-wise? Do the the bubbles crush with weight on them?

No, every laid in nicely. No bubbles popping because when you stand on it you weight is distributed across a large surface area. Only when the bubbles are riding over an edge or a bolt head have I heard any popping noise from me standing on it, because the weight is being carried by a smaller cross section of bubbles.

Thanks. Certainly looks like an effective and much cheaper way to go than some of the other insulations I have looked at.

Kev, nice job on the insulation and carpeting. Silvery stuff looks familiar. Wish I would have used it on the '55, but the Roadster got it and it makes a difference. I used carpet padding under the Lowe's indoor-outdoor carpeting in addition to the Dynamat and Lowe's insulation in the Roadster. Maybe I'll go back and re-do the '55.

Congratulations on the Clipper being selected as Best in Show. It is nice to have acknowledgement and recognition for all the hard work you have done. Well done sir!

(o{}o)

I got a set of replacement side windows from Sanders Reproduction Glass (www.sandersreproglass.com). They are gorgeous and the rounded edge finishing is better than factory. I had a window cut by a local glass shop and it was horrible. Looked like someone used a die grinder to cut it with.

Anyway, I got two windows cut from Sanders for the price of one local window and they shipped it in packaging that could have survived a truck running over it. If you need flat glass, give them a shout. I believe they are up in the Portland, OR area, but ship all over the US. They had all the patterns in stock and even asked me for my exact Packard model body number to confirm.

Oil consumption update:

Drove 150 miles this weekend, with very little to no smoking ever happening. Not even from the breather after stopping like before. No oil consumed, still full, before I was burning 1qt about ever 50+ miles. Lucas or oil ring, either way, I'll take it!

Even did an 80mph freeway run. Trans fluid still nice a bright red also. No burning.

BigKev what a fantastic job you've done on this car. As you know I'm new here and recently bought a quite nice Patrician. I'd also actually like to do a project car but it might be too big a job for me.

Anyway what I'm really interested in is the discussion on pages 184-5 about your nonfunctional lockup. Because when I first became interested in Packards way back in junior high I also became fascinated by automatics and all the elaborate torque converters they had in the fifties. Especially Buick of course. But also Packard's Ultramatic.

For decades I wanted an Ultramatic and now I finally have a car with one ...

I do actually want to buy just an Ultramatic to dissasemble and rebuild it ...

But what I want to know is whether your nonfunctional lockup is intentional or unintentional. Because I'm wondering if any modification is possible to change to a driver manually-operated lockup control. Because I might prefer to be able to have voluntary control over the lockup so I can engage or disengage it when I want.

I assume your nonfunctional lockup actually is unintentional. And in this case do you know what the cause of the problem is? Is it hydraulic or is the clutch worn?
Have you disassembled the torque converter assembly? Interesting and important to know it doesn't seem to overheat.

I'm pretty sure the problem is hydraulic in nature and caused by worn bushings not allowing enough pressure to engage the lock-up.

So far no over heating.I may drive it to Palm Springs this weekend, so that would be a 75 mile freeway run each way.

That should be the torture test.

Using left over windlace material, I replace the fabric cover on the robe rail.

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Drove the Packard to the office today, which is 38 miles each way (stop and go, rush hour traffic the first half, and canyon hills with long grades the second half. She did well....no smoking or overheating. Assuming she makes it home in the same condition, I think that will be a good "test flight" and she will be ready to go to Palm Springs this afternoon (78 miles each way).

I'll inspect the fluids to make sure everything is good, primarily that the tranny fluid is not showing signs of excess heat.