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Here's the final batch of progress pictures from my part of the Packard restoration. I came close to the original goal of having the car 100% roadworthy and able to pass the Swedish safety inspection. The only major item that didn't get addressed is a new set of tires. That may turn out to be a good thing, as we had planned to install a set of reproduction bias-ply tires on the car, but I see that many of the Packard Info members recommend switching to the radials instead. The only other significant mechanical issue is a persistent leak in the radiator right below the overflow tube. My local radiator shop tried to fix it twice, but the corrosion on the cast iron elbow is making it difficult to get the brass flange for the cap to seal to the elbow. I had been running the engine for a while on Wednesday evening and all of a sudden I noticed that there was antifreeze spraying all over the engine bay. I drained out ? gallon of coolant, and that should keep it from making a mess again. It took over an hour to clean it up. So far, the oil leaks appear to have been tamed. I have some slight seepage out of the fuel pump where the pivot shaft comes through the pump body, but there's nothing I can do about that. The front seal was the main problem, and I had two small leaks at connections on the external oil lines on the left side of the engine. One required a new fitting on the bottom of the oil filter and much to my chagrin, I had to bend up a new small line between the flow reducer "T" and the block. That tiny line was a pain to do with the engine out of the car the first time. It had been seeping a bit, then after I tried to tighten it a bit more, it started spraying oil all over the place. The do-it-yourself flaring tools just don't make as good of a flare as the factory can. I have a top of the line Imperial flaring kit too, but I often have problems with the flares that I make leaking. I also have a minor leak starting at the pitman shaft seal on the steering box. I had filled it with the same 90wt that I used in the trans. I'm not sure if that means that the box was totally empty before or if the 90wt is much thinner than what was in it. Back when I worked for Toro we used a super-thick oil in the gang mower gearboxes. It was close to being liquid grease. I don't remember what it was called, but it would probably work well in old manual steering boxes.

The transplant of the 1948 Dodge door latch wheel turned out to be a success. I'll put the photos of the process here, instead of on the original post in the postwar section. The Packard had a broken return spring on the pivot where the inside handle attaches. First I tried to swap just the spring, but the tabs on the housing broke when I straightened them out to take it apart. Instead I swapped the rod that goes to the latch onto the Dodge pivot and installed it on the car. I later found that the shafts are clocked 45 degrees off between the two cars, so the door handle can't be installed in the correct position. That's a minor thing that will have to be addressed later on. A while back I scored a beautiful set of outside door handles on ebay, so I replaced the broken handle on the driver door. Lots of lubrication got the passenger side latch working good, so it turns out that I was wrong about a wear issue on that latch. The trunk latch was missing when we got the car, and I was able to find a good one on ebay a while back, so that was installed too.

The only front end work required on the Packard was a new idler arm and stabilizer bar end links. The idler is sold as two separate parts. I got the frame bracket from Kanter and a vintage NORS arm off of ebay. Way back in 1988 I bought the biggest tool set that Sears had in their catalog. It came with a set of huge straight bit sockets that I believe are specifically made for removing and installing the threaded caps on the ends of the old style center links. After all these years I finally got too use one for it's intended job.

The front brakes got the same treatment as the rears. New wheel cylinders were installed, everything was cleaned and lubed, bearings were repacked, and the drums were media blasted where the shoes ride. I had to remove the bearing races to get all the old, mucky grease out. Because I was going to blast the drums, nothing sticky could remain in the hubs for the grit to get into. The hubs appear to have been painted green on the back and blue on the front from the factory, though I suppose it's possible that they were all green and the front part faded to blue. As I was replacing the rear brake hose I notice that some knucklehead completely smashed the right side brake line with a J-hook when the car was transported on a rollback, most likely the dealer that I got the car from, as the damage looks fresh. Goody-Goody, time to bend up another line. Thanks, rollback driver. I filled and flushed the system with silicone fluid. I use the silicone in everything that I can. I've had so many problems with the standard fluid over the years, especially in vehicles that spend a lot of time sitting. I've never had a component failure on anything with the silicone in it.

Most of my fuel line clips had rotted away, so I procured replacements from a couple 1968 Chrysler products that I have sitting outside. The Chrysler clips are a similar design, but mount the line about ? inch lower. If no one is repopping the originals, the Chrysler clips make suitable replacements and are readily available from multiple sources on ebay.

I finally got my hands on the correct tail light gaskets for a Custom Eight, so I could assemble the lights to the car. The gaskets are top notch reproductions, but don't come cheap at just under $100 for the pair. I finished up the install on the front park lamps, making sure to provide a good ground path like I did with the rear lamps. The license lamp and license plate brackets came from Packard Info members. I'm impressed with how bright all the lights are. Six volt systems have long been associated with dim lights, but that doesn't seem to be the case when your wiring and grounds are in good shape. I went with halogen headlamps, and those are very bright too.

The car came with two long carriage bolts, which I assumed were for the battery hold down, so I had cleaned and painted them back when I prepped the hardware. I never thought about why they were different lengths. Turns out that one was too long and the other too short, so who knows what they came off of. I ended up going with 3/8" carriage bolts, since 10" long bolts weren't readily available in 5/16". I only had to grind a little bit off the square section under the head to get them to work. I wasn't going to spend $40 for two bolts to be 100% authentic. I do find it a bit strange how the side of the battery is exposed inside the wheel well. Am I missing something to fill that hole?

Next up were the horns and the air deflector. I have to say that I'm totally shocked that both horns work. Obviously, horn quality went down hill over the next 20 years, considering how many horns from the 1960's I throw away because they don't work anymore. The air deflector was off the car when I got it so I don't know what was used to bolt it to the car, but I had some ?-20 phillips head screws with real nice plating on them, so they were recruited for the job.

There was no time to do much with the filler panels that go between the frame and the inner fenders. They received a quick shot of undercoating to pretty them up. They put up a fight going back in. I had to take off the radiator support braces to get them in place, and it was still a struggle. I don't recall any trouble at all removing the one on the left side back when I took the engine out. The right side was removed by someone else. The baffles between the frame and engine were also off when the car arrived. There was an extra baffle for one side, but not the side that had the mangled baffle. That's typical. There was no time to do anything with the baffles. They will need lots of TLC to look nice again.

After I got the electrics hooked up, it was finally time to test my favorite feature of the car, the ultraviolet instrument lighting. I can't say how disappointed I was to find that only half of the illumination bulbs were working. I figured it had to be a wiring problem, as I installed all new US-made bulbs when I put the cluster together. Well, it turns out that I got a bad batch of bulbs. Some of those sockets are real tough to get back in with the cluster in the car. The turn indicator wasn't working either, and that turned out to be a bad flasher. For anyone re-doing a '48, I strongly recommend changing to the 1950 remote mounted flasher. It's quite a challenge to get up in the dash to remove the flasher that screws to the upper left corner of the cluster. With all my bulb issues cleared up, I have to say that the instruments look really cool at night. With the engine running, the spedo and clock are plenty bright to read at night. The writing on auxiliary gauges could be a bit better, but it's easy to see where the needles are pointed, so you know what's going on. It appears that the dampening spring on the ammeter has seen better days, as it bounces all over at times. I recall someone else with the same issue recently. My gas gauge isn't working, but I think the sender is the culprit on that one. I added a blue filter to the bulb for the switch call outs, so that they would better match the cluster. It did a good job toning down the too-orange look of the plain bulb. The filter came out of the dash of a mid-70's Chrysler Newport. I think it's made of silicone and stretches right over the bulb. I can't get an accurate photo of how the cluster looks at night. The camera picsk op the UV lighting much better than the naked eye does. I can shut off the lighting, but the camera is too slow to capture the glowing gauges at maximum brightness.

Last on the list was re-torqueing of the head and manifolds, and a little fine tuning on the carb. I have a special socket for tightening chrome lug nuts that worked nice on the head nuts. It has a plastic insert to protect the chrome, and worked nice on the painted nuts. I have a bit of a dead spot in the carb and noticed that the accelerator pump linkage was lagging behind the throttle plates due to some wear in the lever holes. I moved the pump spring to the other side of the pump so that it now helps to apply the piston instead of return it. This takes all the slack out of the linkage. Some newer Carter carbs have the spring in this location. I'm still not sure about some things on my throttle linkage, so I may post a separate query on that later.

After I finish this post, I'm heading up to the shop to get the Packard loaded up and onto the trailer. The weather tomorrow for the trip to Bayonne is supposed to cooperate, so all systems are go for now.


November 2013. Finishing touches

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You have done an outstanding job on this restoration. The dash lights have a very good glow. Most of the black light dashes have faded, but these look very good. I'll bet they were very impressive when new. My hat's off to you.

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Jeff,

Like Randy I want to compliment you on the great job you've done and the comprehensive reporting and pictorial spreads provided. I felt I was privileged to be along for the ride and enjoyed every minute of it, especially going for a drive!

Jeff, it has been a fantastic thread. Thank you for sharing with us, and taking the time to provide so much detail. I have learned a lot, and I'm sure I will refer to this thread in the future.

Jeff,

Great job and thanks for the wealth of detail and insight you provided on this project. Good going.

Thank you for the kind words guys. I'm glad that you enjoyed my blog. I tried to make it as informative and interesting as I could, given my tight time constraints.

Jeff


Latest update: We're all loaded up and ready to hit the road in the morning.

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The Packard has finally left my care, only 10 days shy of being here for two years. After encountering the worst traffic on any of my trips to Bayonne, things were really quiet at the shipping terminal, so it more or less evened out in the end. Hopefully the car will have a safe trip to Sweden, and maybe even arrive in time for Christmas.

I stopped at the store on the way home and bought myself a little treat to celebrate the occasion.

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Jeff, I have a 49 Super 8 Victoria that needs help. Can I bring it out to you?
Packardtaximan

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I would love to help out, but I'm packing up the toolbox for a while and changing careers. After turning wrenches professionally for almost 26 years, it's time for a break. I've been patiently waiting for a training spot in the Glass Division at Maverick Transportation for almost two months now. They have very few on-road trainers in that division so the wait is quite long, which has been a good thing when you consider how long it took to get the Packard done. I'm not sure if I will go back to working on other people's cars someday, or reserve all my car-time to my personal collection of cars, which I have barely touched over the 15 years that I've owned most of them. I've wanted to drive a truck for a long time. It's one of those things that you have to do to find out if you like it or not, since it's such a different lifestyle compared to most other jobs. Only time will tell on this one.

Jeff

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Wish you the best in whatever you do. After my strokes 4 years ago I am again gamefully empmoyed part time.