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Not directly related to Packards, but we finally did some paving on our property. Up until now it was all gravel. It made it very dusty in the summer, very icy in the winter, and very muddy in the spring. Lots of gravel and dirt all over the garage and shop.

The asphalt will minimize those problems (though we still have several hundred yards of gravel to reach our property). And we were able to extend the pad in front of the shop. It'll be much easier to get vehicles in and out of the shop now.

-Kevin

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Asphalt melts off ice and snow much quicker than concrete!

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Definitely! Concrete doesn't do so hot here during the winter. Frost heave and salt tend to damage it. The black color of the asphalt should melt off the snow and ice easily. The kids will appreciate more space to ride bikes and play during the winter too.

Our previous house had a brick paver driveway. It looked nice, but was a pain in the ass to shovel in the winter.

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Gravel had the same problem. I could only plow the the snow above the gravel, leaving about an inch sitting on/in the gravel. That would freeze into ice and get worse throughout the winter. Then a mud pit in the spring. No fun.

Bricks sound like a nightmare.

I wish I could do that at my shop but the best I could do is the driveway. The roads themselves are gravel for about a mile to the first paved road.

I ordered some windlace samples from Restoration Specialties. I'm looking at projects for the winter, and windlace is one of them (as is removal of the dash in order to install the windlace). They sent around 6 samples of different blues and I narrowed it down to these three. I figure if I match/blend to the blue on the door panels that it will look good.

The carpet is dark blue, but it just doesn't look right against the doors.

Not sure which one I'm going to go with yet.

-Kevin

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You don't have to remove the entire dash to install the windlace. You can loosen the bolts at the bottom corners and that should give you enough wiggle room to install it.

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That's good to know. I'm debating back and forth now on whether or not I want to remove completely. I'm going to be pulling the rest of the interior trim, steering wheel, and steering column to repaint. I've paint matched to the glove box, so theoretically it should match the dash. But my dash has some imperfections in the paint, so a repaint would be nice. But then again, it is original and maybe it's nice to keep a piece original??

-Kevin

Looking ahead to having the seats redone at some point. Originally the upper parts of the seats were done with leather in Ivory (according to the parts list). What are guys using when having the upholstery redone? Are they using dyed leather or vinyl?

The vinyl used for the headliner is a match for the original. I used the same vinyl for the door panels. I don't think the door panels were leather on the original....maybe? So were the seats the only leather used?




-Kevin