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Did some minor adjusting to the driver's rear quarter window. It was very hard to roll up and down, and the top front edge kept rubbing against the upper weathering stripping. So I took off the door panel and readjusted everything, as well as lubed up the track. Everything moves smoothly now.

Took it out for a 15 minute drive to warm it up and snap a few pictures with some nice trees. Started to rain, so back inside it went.

-Kevin

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  Fall 2023.jpg (475.07 KB)


  Fall 2023 rear.jpg (633.67 KB)

Looking good!

Are there any plans to add back the rear fender skirts?

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I had plans to, and actually have the skirts stripped and prepped for primer. But I found out while trying to fit them that the previous owner had done some body work to the area.

Evidently the arches had rust issues and the PO had welded in new metal and done some work with Bondo. It looks presentable as is, but he did not pay attention to the radius of the curves. One is bad enough that the fender skirt does not fit. Plus most of the mounting holes were either lost or covered over when the body work was done.

So I'm forced to run sans skirts for now. But I keep considering redoing all the paint to the correct factory color.....which would mean stripping everything and fixing all the bodywork issues. I'm just not sure I want to open that can of worms just yet.

-Kevin

Gotcha! Yours would not be the first 54 I've seen that lost its skirts due to creative body work.


There was a guy here locally who had a car just like mine who asked about my skirts as he swore his car never had them, and there were no holes for the skirt pins.

But I showed him the boss at the rear where the skirts bolted to on his car, and you could feel the bondo blobs on the backside where the holes were filled.

Skirts were still optional on all Clippers in 54 so certainly not wrong for a car to not have them.

It may just be an illusion but it looks as if the height of the rear opening was also raised a bit with the creative bodywork. To me your car really does not look bad with a higher opening and without the skirts. Packard did that same treatment in the 54 Caribbean only they outlined the opening in chrome and did it on a car that cost a lot more.

I thought they were standard on the Deluxe trim level and above, which would have included the Panama.

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From what is on the 54 RPO code list Brian compiled and posted, code FS was optional on the Clippers including the Panama.

Interesting, as cars without them sure appear to be in the minority.

I'm sure they were probably like Ultramatic's. Tagged as a option, but were part of the normal options most cars were made with.

Howard - I'll have to measure the wheel opening on both sides, to see if one side is higher than the other. I don't think they are though, as the upper mounting holes are there, but just covered by either metal or Bondo (or both). The problem is with the forward radius on the driver's side....it's too sharp of a curve.

Two recent pictures to compare both sides. I think they are pretty similar and the problem is small enough that it's not easily noticed. I didn't catch it until I tried to fit a fender skirt.

Interesting discussion on fender skirts. I didn't realize they were an option either.

-Kevin

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  Drivers side.jpg (188.53 KB)