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One of the most attractive color combinations for '55, in my opinion. I'm glad you took her to the Packard plant. I live in the Detroit area, and I haven't even managed to do that yet!

I got the pcs I need to clean the ol girl up. I have all the broken pcs, and I was thinking of welding (pot Metal weld) all the pcs back, but by time I do that and chrome, it is much cheaper and faster to just replace with good Daily Driver parts until the time comes for a full restore, then we can worry about perfect chrome.

A small Lake effect Blizzard blew in this evening and dumped S**W. Warm up to 50 this week end, I hope to get a lot done on the breaks. Since this care is so close, I am making it priority over the 56 for now.

I have been driving it around the back 40, If she floats down the road like she is floating across the grass, I am gonna be in Heaven soon.

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I spent a few hours on the 55 today, I removed the bumper,grill, and mangled lower splash on the car all while getting soaked in the melting snow.

Luckily, the Bumper is not twisted as it appeared on the car. Unfortunaly, when they banged the front quarter panel, they put a minor twist in the frame extension that will have to be fixed. This twist shoved the bumper out of place.

I bent back alot of the twisted inside fender parts that was keeping the turn signal pocket and front fender bent out.

I will remove the turn signal pocket, and straighten the rest of the sheet metal, and it will be pretty close. The Reynolds Wrap will cover any repairs.

I figured for now, I will do this slight repair and the lower quarter rust spot rather than replacing the entire fender for now and messing with trying to match a large portion of paint.

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Hi TroyT

Maybe mix a bit of silver metallic into red oxide for a close match to that lower color. The original paint looks so good, a little mismatch here or there isn't going to go amiss for a driver.

Glad you got that good '55 Patrician!

Steve

Working on the brakes today. I have no Idea what happened here, but pretty darn sure, that hole is not supposed to be in the drum.

I removed the left fender since I have some body work to do on it and of course it makes it a dream to work on the Treadle and brakes.

Treadle was original still had the Trossel seals and looked almost brand new inside minus the dried fluid. Treadle vac is all apart and soaking, tomorrow will clean up and rebuild.

All brake lines are solid, used compressed air to clean the brake lines and test the wheel cylinder action. I happen to have a spare rebuild kit for the cylinders so I will rebuild them. The brake shoes look almost brand new very little wear, the guy had to have had a recent brake job before he parked it.

Comments on that hole in the drum????

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Through 55, and I thought also through 56, Packard drums had the little square hole for observing the linings and checking the major adjustment. The hole on your drum looks a bit fwanged in the corners but should not make any difference if the braking surface is OK.

TroyT;
The laast picture showing the BTV master cylinder internal parts:
Are those the parts that came out of the BTV or the new parts to rebuild it with???

That is what came out, It still had good fluid on the pressure side. I cleaned out the crud and added more fluid and it was still working.

I have an extra kit in the shop, so it is getting an overhaul anyway.

The BTV plunger looks like brand new. Stick a magnet to it to see if it is stainless steel or not. It had probably been replaced recently.

Yes it is magnetic steel. All the seals are original trostel with part numbers. The vacuum can it the cleanest non pitted I've seen yet. My spare can isn't even close to this good