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You can scuff and spray, that should not be an issue.

But you may want to give it a quick sealer coat as you don't want that darker blue affecting the shade of the lighter blue you are hoping for.

Made some slight progress tonight. Been busy with a bunch of other stuff so haven't touched the car for a week.

A package came in from the good folks at Max Merritt. I finally replaced the missing antenna grommet, which will keep the antenna from rattling around and scuffing up the paint. Looks much better with the grommet in place. The motor on the antenna works, but the mast and nylon were broken off long before I got the car. Eventually I'll figure out a replacement or repair option, but that is the lowest thing on my list right now.



I also replaced the four missing bumpers on the front of the hood. The hood hardly rattled before, since my side bumpers were in decent shape, but these front ones will keep it rock solid.



A trim screw kit also came in. All of my interior trim was already removed from the car when I got it, with pieces spread all over the trunk. The screws (what was left of them) were all mixed together in various containers. Many of the screws on the windshield trim were nearly rusted in half. So I figured I might as well replace them with new. Problem is I have no idea where all these screws go since none were there previously. This set is for the rear window. I think I figured most of it out, but not everything. The screw heads are definitely larger than the original ones. Not sure they make smaller heads now. But most of the old ones are not useable now.



I also spent a solid hour and a half at an automotive paint store (also an hour and a half away) to try and find a good match for the exterior paint. Looking through every possible cross reference to the original code didn't yield anything remotely close. Paint matching camera gave me an old Toyota color that turned out not to be close. So we had to resort to flipping through binders of paint chips to find something. Eventually we settled on one that was really the only color in the ballpark. From some angles it's right on, from other angles it's too dark. But that's the best I could do. Testing it on the car it looks much closer to the existing exterior color. Not perfect, but better than the bright blue I sprayed.






Talking to the guys at the paint shop (only automotive paint..they knew their stuff), they recommended that I not shoot another layer of sealer/primer. With the underlying paint being a blue color it will take less of the new paint to cover correctly. This paint should cover the incorrect blue without any issue according to them.

Started scuffing all the door jambs again tonight. Great fun. I hope to mask this weekend and spray Monday.

-Kevin

I had bought the same screw trim kit when I was putting the 54 back together and had the same issue. The original screws had undersized heads realtive to normal size for a given screw width.

The screws provided are not undersized. So they fit awkwardly and will end up proud of the surface. I ended up cleaning and reusing most of the original screws.

You can find the undersized screws out there, but you make have to buy 50 or 100 count boxes of each size and style.

One piece of advise is to use a manual screw driver to install as its easy to strip put the holes where the screws install if using a powered driver.

On the screws, check Restoration Specialties to see if they still carry the chrome tapping screws with reduced heads. Here is a partial page from one of their catalogs but I blocked out the prices because it is a few years old. You will need to call or download their latest pdf catalog for current. When I bought for the 47 they were available individually if you only need a few.

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Kev - yeah, they definitely sit high in most of the holes. The sill plate screws shouldn't be a problem, but I haven't tried them yet. I'll have to go through my inventory and see what original screws I have that can still be reused.

Howard - Thanks for the heads up. I hadn't thought to check Restoration Specialties. I'll measure the screws I need and see what they have. I'll use what I can from the Max Merritt kit (sill plates, non-visible areas) and then hopefully supplement the rest with ones from RS. Does the "W/6Hd" represent a reduced size head?


-Kevin

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Yes. The shank and threads will be whatever size the screw is sold as and only the head will be the size the description mentions -- usually 1 screw size less but on some larger screws occasionally the heads will be 2 sizes smaller or barely larger than the shank.

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I have the same "problem" on my car. I thought I have seen slimmer screws for sale before somewhere, but could not find them when ordering last year. The hunt is on...

I believe I saw in Group 50 that they are called 1/2” size heads or something like that. It would be nice if there were a source as I will be needing some eventually too!

I just had a look on the Clips and Fasteners site and while they don’t specify, many appear to have the smaller head. Difficult to tell for sure, though.

Don - a quick glance through that website showed plenty that had smaller heads than the shaft. #8 shaft with #6 head, etc. Not a bad price for those either. I'm going to check a couple places locally to see if I can find some that are the right (or similar) size. I'm not sure what size are original to the Packard, so I wouldn't be sure of what to order online. The trim kit from Max Merritt doesn't have them labeled by size, just bagged according to location (windshield, rear window, etc).

-Kevin