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Joe - Thanks! That is great advice. Haven't heard of that stuff, but if it works then I certainly will give it a look. I don't know if the upholstery can be removed from these seats. I haven't looked at them close enough. And I don't want to totally screw them up by trying to take it off. For the most part they aren't in terrible shape (except the rear seat back at the top....split seams and a couple mice got in there). With a little work I hope I can clean them up and use them without having to reupholster immediately.

I'm checking with some local detailers as well to see if they want to try and tackle cleaning the seats up. I'm concerned about the smell so I'm hoping maybe they have a solution for that. Steam cleaning maybe? I know my wife won't want to ride in it if it's stinky.

Joe, I'm glad to finally own a Packard, even if it is definitely a project. I've been thinking about this for a while and I decided that I should start with a project in order to learn. Rather than buy a more expensive car where everything (supposedly) is in good order, I figured that picking up a relatively inexpensive project would allow me to learn first hand how it all works.

I don't think this Panama will be my ultimate Packard. I will restore and enjoy for a time, and will probably move on to a different car. But hopefully this car will teach me valuable things and I'll be able to purchase another in the future knowing exactly what to look for and what to avoid.

-Kevin

Once you get it all cleaned out, you can use an ozone generator to knock the smell down. One of our derailing friends taught my dad and I that truck, and it worked great on an old pickup so stinky it took your breath away!

A wire wheel on a grinder, especially if you're not pushing hard, will add very little heat to metal, and will do less damage to sheet metal than a needle scaler, IMO. Needle scalers are for heavier metal.

Good luck, and nice to see another Packard owner with young kids! Mine are 8 & 5. Also, my wife helped bleed the brakes when I provided wine. 🤣

A product you may want to try on the rust is Ospho. Three years ago I had to paint the metal frame for my dock that had been painted once in 30 years.. very rusty. I couldn't blast or pressure wash it but was only able to wire brush by hand. A SW paint store manager told me to try it along with a oil based primer and industrial topcoat. Knock on wood no bleed through, it is all in the elements. I did remove all scaling though.. a tedious task by hand. What you might like better with this product is you can get a cheap plastic spray bottle and spray it vs the jelly like converters that would work well too but, I see it running down your glove and arm.
Mike

Looks like you might be doing a little metal work, just remember little steps and take lots of pictures. It will seem like no matter now many pictures you take something will always come up, like did this go on this side or that side. Also be on the look out for any factory papers, sometimes you can find them on top of the glove box and I have also heard around the gas tank filler neck.
Good luck and enjoy, also what a good looking family!
Wes

Ken - Yes, I've heard about the use of ozone to get rid of smells. I may need to do that if I can't get the smell out by traditional means. I'll need a needle scaler for the the underside of the car to clean up whatever is down there. Didn't see much rust, but lots of old flaking undercoating. I figure I'll try the needle scaler on that front corner of the roof and see what rust I can get off. And I've been following your progress on the 120....really looking good there!

Mike - I hadn't heard of that. I'll definitely check it out!

Wes - Yes, I've already taken dozens of pictures of each step from different angles. As I take off screws I'm putting them in labeled baggies, and taping and labeling each piece of trim that comes off. I need to refine my system for cataloging and documenting everything though. Kind of haphazard right now. I haven't gotten the glove box open yet (lock is missing) so I don't know what's inside, if anything.

-Kevin

Since you need some serious repair and are unable to tackle it yourself, you might contact Metalworks Classics in Eugene, OR which isn't far from you to see about getting the header properly repaired. They would likely want to dip the whole body but maybe can be persuaded to fix only the damage. There is also another restoration shop in southern Washington but I've forgotten their name.

Also, don't be afraid of pressure washing with a cleaning agent as it will dry quickly and so won't make the problems any worse or promote more rust.

Don - I'll certainly keep those places in mind. I'm going to check around with a few of my friends/aquaintances around here and see if they know of a local place or person who does some metalwork.

First things first though I need to see exactly what I'm dealing with. I think I'm going to try getting off the interior windshield surround so I can have a better look. I was going to pressure wash the inside of the roof today, but it's raining outside and I don't feel like getting the rest of the car wet.

In other news, I did at least make some progress on the car today. I got the title transferred, and registered the car with original '54 plates. Which in Washington means I never have to register it again.

Hopefully I get something done tonight and I'll post pictures tomorrow.

-Kevin

I'm going to try attaching the photos directly instead of putting them in body of the text. I'll see if I like it better.

I had an hour to work on the Panama tonight and was able to do a bit more digging on the roof rust. I removed the interior windshield trim without issue. The upper trim was catching a ton of rust flakes and a good amount of mouse poop. Should clean up okay.

The lower trim was in good shape, but it looks like someone put some sort of fake wood shrink wrap on it. It looks terrible. I think I might be able to remove it pretty easily. For whatever reason much of the chrome on the dash is covered in it.

With the trim removed, I could see the damage much better. It doesn't look good. I took a small needle scaler to the worst areas to knock off the major pieces. It came apart pretty easily. I then used a wire wheel to clean up the remaining surface rust on the worst areas.

The channel (I have no idea what the actual name is) is pretty bad from the driver's side to about 2/3rd's over to the passenger. It will need to be replaced, but I'll for sure have to get someone to help me.

Also shown is the passenger side of this channel and the sunshade mount, which appear to be in good (enough) condition.

My guess is the windshield needs to come out now in order to properly treat this and repair the damage. The windshield is broken anyways, but I was hoping to deal with it later. Now it looks like my timeline for it will move up. Sourcing a windshield is tough though....can anyone confirm that the Panama uses the same windshield as the Pacific or Convertible??

-Kevin

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Yes, it is the same windshield for all '51-'54 hardtops and convertibles.

Thanks Ross. That's what I suspected, but wasn't sure if the Clippers were different. Not much out there, but I did find this:

https://www.autocityclassic.com/1954-convertible/1951-1954-packard-convertible-windshield-w234/

Should work. I'm going to wait on purchasing until I figure out how to get this rust fixed.

On that note, how do I remove the old windshield?

-Kevin