Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

(My 1,000th post! Kinda cool...)

So, in the quest to make it so that I can wash my car again without getting the interior all wet, I'm fixing some of the weather stripping on my 1937 120 touring sedan.

I ordered a cowl vent gasket from Steele rubber. What was on my very orginal, never restored car is rubber weather stripping on the body side. It was very petrified, but clearly attached to the depression in the body for the cowl vent.

What came from Steele appears to go on the cowl vent, vice laying down in the body cavity. Based on looking at the cowl vent, I don't think anything has ever been attached there, and I think the cowl vent would not lay flush with the body if I glued that gasket on.

I've looked through the parts manual (book calls for weather stripping, part number 308805) and the service counselors to see if this was a mid-year change or something, but didn't find anything.

Of course I noticed this on Friday night, so I can't call Steele or Max Merritt to see if they have any information on the difference.

Has anyone sourced the correct weather strip for the cowl vent that sits down in the body channel? If so, where did it come from?

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  New cowl vent gasket.jpg (233.57 KB)

Quote:Congratulations! May there be thousands more!

Iam in the process of putting my 37 together again and my rubber was definetly attached to to the body and not the vent. I put in some universal weatherstrip that is quite soft and it seems to compress very tight. It will be al least a month before I get it all together and be able to test for leaks.

Mine is a '40, but the rubber from Steele is on the body.

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Thanks all for the info, looks like it goes where I thought it did! I’ll post pictures once I have it glued in.

Here is mine, all installed. Glued right in once I got all the old gasket cleaned out. Thanks again for the help guys!

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Hi KenP,
Looks good; should seal and keep any moisture out. Just as an aside, not sure what kind of shape your rubber grip for the inside handle for the vent is in, but it is identical to the hand-brake lever grip and can be had from Steele as well. I had to replace both on mine and their repros fit perfectly. Chris.

Thanks Chris! Might be a model year change - the ventilator handle is just a chrome rod with a little ball on the end, and the parking brake handle is also metal. Thanks for the tip though; I bet someone can use it!

My error KenP, for some reason I thought you were dealing with a '39 Six; got my posts mixed up! Chris.