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Matt - Fedex shows wheel delivered. Careful not to trip over it... AOK?

AOK it is! A quickie clean-up and it's ready to go, thanks Flackmaster!

Another way to open and close the radiator shutters, when the thermostat is non-operable, is to use a throttle/choke type cable. This should be a fairly easy job to install the cable. I used this method for a time in a 1939 Cadillac 60 Special. It worked well, but I had to remember to push the cable in to open the shutters when the engine got up to operating temperature. I eventually bit the bullet and bought a thermostat for it. The Cadillac did not allow for a conventional thermostat to be fitted like the Packard does.

Hi John, I actually did consider a manual cable type arrangemnt. It entailed drilling a couple holes over the bracket to mount on a piece of flat stock at the rod end. The position I have them in now seems to be working OK, we drove around the back roads this afternoon on some of my wife's errands. It is really running well, but I am waiting for that exhaust... I am curious however, how do you go about using a conventional type thermostat in lieu of the 200 dollar unit?
Matt

I don't have a 39 shop manual, but the 37-38 shop manual gives specific recommendations for the thermostat setup. In a nutshell it advises for best cold weather operation on cars with hot water heaters use a 162 degree cylinder head thermostat in combination with a 135-150 degree shutter stat, and to remove the cylinder head thermostat in the Spring. There is some other info as well, I suggest you read the shop manuals. If 39 isn't available, I'd guess the 1938 advice is applicable to 1939.

So Packard only recommended using the cylinder head thermostat when hot water heater operation was required; otherwise the Fulton Sylphon stat was meant to control engine temperatures.

39pickle, sorry if my last post was confusing. I did not use a conventional thermostat. I bought a correct one that fit in the radiator top tank. It was expensive (about $150 at that time). I like things to be original and in working order, and while the cable worked my O-C personality took over. You have the option to use a conventional thermostat in the outlet housing, which is a good and economical fix.

Thanks John, I'm on top of those cooling issues now. It was a great day, put another 50 miles on 'er.

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39pickle, driving them is what it is all about. We took the 1089 to the Veteran's Day Car Show in Bastrop, TX on Saturday. It was a 96 mile round trip. Part of the route was on a busy freeway with lots of on- and off-ramps. It was like flying a Piper Cub into LAX. The car worked fine and it was its first outing since the distributor self-destructed. It was a nice day and there were about 300 cars of all types exhibited. It was a well run event. Here is a photo of the car at the show.

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Two comments - first, I think someone should start a string for "Packard sightings" for photo's such as these, just out and about photos, not just professional calendar car portraits. And second, John, you'd better move your car soon, its in a no parking zone...

DF (my 1089 at a local airshow 2 weekends ago)

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Hey, you guys are making my lowly original 1282 look bad! Seriously though, great looking cars gentlemen, I think a "random sighting" area is a great idea. I see these around once in a while.