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Did a quick project last night that I've been meaning to tackle for a while. I've noticed on pictures of other Clipper Super's that the additional front trim pieces had the "whiskers" painted black. I can't tell if that is original, or if that's been added by owners over the years.

Regardless, I like the look because it looks more finished.

I used wax remover and acetone to clean off the stainless, then covered the whole thing with masking tape. I used a new Exacto blade and gently cut out the lines. Then sprayed primer and gloss black. After I removed the masking tape I cleaned up anything that looked bad and put them back on the car. Once the paint cures I'll wax both pieces to help protect them.

They aren't perfect, but probably acceptable. I think it gives the front of the car a more finished look.

-Kevin

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I think black may be original and sure looks good to me too. Right or wrong, others must agree with us.

In addition to what appears to be black stripes in illustrations in the 54 Clipper owners manual and in the sales brochure there are a few of what appear to be original 54 Clipper photos in the archive that also appear to have that piece of trim with black fill.

Packard also used black striping on many pieces of trim found on 55-6 models so maybe that piece was a precursor to the later styling cues.

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Thanks for the attachment Howard. I've seen pictures of some cars with and some without the stripes, and I didn't see any evidence that mine had black on it previously. But if the brochure shows it, then that's good enough for me.

-Kevin

I like that look also. Gives them more "pop"

Finally had a few minutes today to deal with the annoying fuel leak back at the fuel tank fitting. It's been slowly dripping fuel since the last time I messed with the tank. I have to keep the garage door open all the time to let the smell out....very annoying.

I finally used up enough gas so the tank was empty enough to not come pouring out when I removed the fuel line. I lifted the car from the driver's side, blocked the wheels on the passenger, and held the car up with two jack stands and the jack as redundancy. Removed the fuel line from the tank and drained the line. Then used a tubing cutter to cut the fuel line a couple inches back.

Inspection of the old line showed what appears to be a split in the line, though I might just be looking at how it was made. The inside has varnish and junk on the walls. I probably should have replaced the whole line front to back, but the varnish doesn't seem to be causing a problem.

I used a new flare, fitting, and 2 inches from a pre-made coated steel line (NAPA), and connected that to the old fuel line with high pressure 5/16" fuel hose and clamps. The flexible hose makes it MUCH easier to get the flitting to line up with the tank. The old fuel line was incredibly hard and wouldn't bend or move at all.

As an extra precaution I coated the threads with gasket sealer for fuel applications (Permatex).

I did this same procedure on the front of the fuel line by the fuel pump and it has worked great. I let the car back down and watched for leaks (it was leaking before I lifted the car up). I took it for a quick drive to get the gas moving, then let it sit to see if it would leak. So far so good, and my garage smells amazing now.

As a side note, it appears that gas is coming out of the fuel filler if the tank is more than halfway full. I put MMO in the gas, so it is darker, and it's all over my fender and stripping the wax. The fuel tank is new, fuel filler looks okay, and the gas cap is new. Is this normal? How do I prevent fuel from getting all over the paint?

-Kevin

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Hi Kevin,
Check out Page 59 of my project Blog. I tried a few different caps, but still use the tinfoil/plastic cover so that any spillage stays off the paint.

Unless the tank is somehow becoming pressurized - and I can’t imagine how - there is nothing that should cause fuel to come out. Is it possible that there is something wrong with one of the one-way valves in the pump?

The fuel sloshing out of the fill pipe has been mentioned on various forums several times over the years. At least your tank does not seem to have the small notch across the smooth sealing surface that for whatever reason has been found on some tanks.

There is speculation that because there is no baffling in the tank fuel can slosh around and work its way up the pipe and many have noticed smelling gas after a sharp turn. Perhaps centrifugal force is causing a large mass of fuel to suddenly move. I don't know if either reasoning has been proven but as you can see from this photo Ross posted of the tank internals, there is nothing that would prevent a surge and movement from forcing fuel up the pipe.

Another possibility is the seal on the original fuel caps have either hardened, deteriorated, or shrunk back so there is a slight area fuel can escape around the edge. Of course that does not account for new caps other than maybe the construction has cheapened or design was changed over the years to fit more applications and the new caps are slightly different than originals. Looking at your cap the cardboard does seem a bit small in diameter and I would wonder if it completely covers the smooth surface of the fill pipe or is it thick enough to get a good compression seal. The wear or stain pattern would seem to indicate it is not making as tight a contact over on the side toward the retaining ear at the left of the photo.

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Kevin;

My ’54 also dripped/squirted fuel onto the ‘gas door’ and subsequently all over the lower portion of the fender. When I bought the car it came fully optioned with an aluminum ‘tuna fish can’ over the gas cap, but I just knew cars didn’t need such nonsense so I ran the car for a while until I realized the wisdom of the TFC option. Tobs also had the same experience, and solved the issue with essentially the same method, that is, a means to direct the errant fuel away from the gas door and ultimately down to the ground. Perhaps Tobs can tell us if the third cap he had ‘on-order’ solved the problem.

I can’t believe back in the day all cars without baffles in the fuel tank leaked fuel on turns, but I guess before the environmental awareness anything is possible. I think HH56 has hit on the true cause in that the original fuel cap may have had a feature(s) that helped knock-down the fuel for the very short period of time required to be leak free. My cap, and one of Tobs’ caps appear to have the worst design possible . . . that is, a hole straight through.

My experience is the same as others in that the cap leaks when the tank is near full. Physics suggests a right turn, especially off-camber, would also be part of the equation, however anything that would initiate a ‘slosh’, like abrupt terrain change, would also create the possibility of a leak. So we may not be talking about a high-g right hand turn is the only case, since I can attest that since I’ve owned the ’54 it has not been used in anything that could be described as ‘high-g’!

I went back to page 59 of Tobs’ project blog and tried to open the attachment I included in post #581. I was unsuccessful downloading and viewing the PDF attachment. Seems the extension of the file has changed to PHP. I found that if I open the downloaded file with an Abobe reader application the file is still intact and is viewable. The process I used was to download the PHP file, after ‘right clicking’ the file select the ‘Open with’ option, and finally select the Abode application. Seems to work but I suspect the extension was altered somehow and should be reset to PDF on the server.

dp

None of the Packards I’ve ever owned have done that unless fully topped-off to the top of the filler! Of course, they all have locking gas caps with a rubber seal so maybe that’s the difference.