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A great looking car. Seeing it come to a finish makes all the sweat, tears, money and maybe even some drops of blood worthwhile.

Hi

Congratulation! Looks marvelous! Perseverance certainly pays off! Now, what's the next Packard project?!

Steve

Congrats! The car looks awesome! All your hard work has definitely paid off. I'm still wiping the drool off my computer! Man I love that color!

Beautiful car, Larry, congratulations!

Lee,

Looks great! And looking forward to seeing it "in the metal" at the National Rally in March.

Thank you very much for your kind comments gents. I've concluded that it was worthwhile spending all that time and money on the project. My wife is also still with me(!) after it all, and she loves the car. But dunno if I'll take on another project anywhere as big . . . . unless of course, it was a '51 Convertible in reasonable condition!

The '51 has been running well and I've clocked up around 300miles since it was registered. Mostly very enjoyable driving!

There have been a few problems, he most inconvenient being range on fuel is only about 80 miles. I was sure that was caused by a hole in the petrol pickup tube because every time I was refilling the tank petrol started coming up the filler spout after around 4-5 gallons were added. Even adding very slowly it was always the case of fuel coming back at you from the spout, and the tank just would not take any more. "No 'airlock' could be that persistent" I thought.

So I was ready to take the tank out, cut a hole and fix the pickup tube . . . until a few days ago when thinking: what it I find no problem with the pickup tube? So, how do I prove it is the pickup?

I took a Jerry can and topped up my tank, which SHOULD have been completely full after the last drive / top-up at a servo. Around 35 litres (8 gallons) later I knew my problem was an air lock that was happening every time I refilled the tank (- no matter how carefully). Strange because one time a few months ago I blew air down the breather to test and there was no blockage.

So, got under the car and took the rubber hose off the breather-to-tank pipes and blew through it / sucked through it. No blockage. So, question is: why the almost constant airlock problem?

A friend with a '51 tells me that Packard placed a whistle in the breather pipe, which was to alert you when the tank was nearly full. I can't tell if there's a whistle in there or not. If there is, maybe it creates just enough back-pressure to cause an airlock.

Now I need to figure out how to overcome this airlock problem. The only idea so far is to change the existing breather to make it more effective. I wonder how?

Have posted to see what ideas other have.

Did you try blowing through the vent tube in both directions?

See this thread for information on the 1951 vent tube and whistle.

Whistle while refueling

Been a LONG time since I put gas in my '51 but I vaguely remember having to keep the nozzle of the pump out a ways from the filler opening. I think it had something to do with the pump constantly clicking off. Maybe that is your problem? I did hear a whistle noise when I did it that way.

Thanks BDeB and Charles.

I read about the whistle, quite interesting. And I'll try the method suggested for filling the tank next time . . . Hope that it will work!