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I got all the seat skins off with only the back center armrest to go but I think I’m going to be seeing hog rings in my sleep there were so many! The armrest’s skin is held on by many tiny staples so that will also take a while to get apart, then it can head off to SMS.

Although I’m not at my shop right now, I am still active in gathering parts together that I know I’ll need which includes the interior. The door cards were sent off long ago but when I was at the shop last month I sent in the seat skins which to my surprise are already done and ready to ship back! In the meantime I have located and purchased replacement springs and front seat frame as mine are too bad to attempt to repair. Of course, the car is nowhere close to getting these installed.

In the meantime, trying to get the front license plate bracket off immediately started causing the bolt head’s chrome to start flaking off and, as the nuts were also seized, the slots started distorting. I had to resort to drilling off the nuts so for replacements, I bought stainless bolts, washers and nuts with built-in lock washers.




In the meantime and as the rockers need repair, I noticed that there were screws holding on the driver side trim while the passenger side’s was missing entirely. I have replacements for both trim pieces but not enough clips. Looking at Restoration Specialties’ online catalog, I appears that their part number 2756 looks close but after speaking with them and sending a sample, they suggested part number 2757 which is not in their catalog. The order arrived but unfortunately #2757 is nearly 1/4” too narrow even though I had specified it as the critical dimension! Merritt is sold out of these and Tucson Packards has not responded about them yet so are there other sources for new ones?




Any finally, when I was last there I had the beginnings of a front to back partition put in the shop and afterward did a little rearranging which included relocating the Clipper for better access to it while allowing more space around it for my current projects. The partial partition can be seen in the background of the first two photos below and where it ends in these views will be a 10’ door before the partition continues to the rear. It will be a pocket door which I need to have made before continuing with the partition.







It is now just inside the walk-in door and put there immediately before shutting down the shop so it is still startling to see it there when I open the door. This is a parting shot that I took after the power to the shop had been disconnected in preparation to leave so unfortunately it’s a bit dark. Note that this particular Clipper was an earlier one and did not originally have the Packard script but the lid was replaced with one that does have it. It will not remain.




One of our regular parts dealers seems to be having difficulties as getting parts out that were ordered and paid for months ago which is proving to be an big issue for me. I know that one piece was damaged while it was being buffed (I would have preferred it un-buffed anyway) when it got caught by the buffing wheel and lots of little bits and pieces are long past due. It’s a lot of money with no results. A few things have tricked in but even the latest wasn’t up to the quality I expected and many others, I’m told, they have but no invoices have arrived in spite much time going by. It is very frustrating. I know there are health issues in the family but still, no communication is a problem, especially when I am not told of the status of an order. Even when parts are shipped, I am not told and no tracking is provided as in many cases I need to me sure that they get taken inside when I’m not there.

Can someone please remind me which original key was for what? That is, is it the round one that’s for the ignition and doors while the faceted one is for the glovebox and trunk? I have some NOS ones (or maybe reproduction) that I want to have cut and need to be sure to use the proper one!

Round is ignition and doors. Octagonal is glovebox and trunk.

Thank you, Howard! That’s what I thought but wanted to be sure.

As I mentioned in another post, the door panels were sent off long ago to SMS and the seat skins were only recently sent, I didn’t except the seats to be done so quickly! The first photo is the front backrest as the skin looked before.


And the new one


I’m still waiting for some replacement springs as a couple of mine are unusable but I guess I’ll have to get the seats back together once they arrive. SMS said that when they get a pattern like this that they didn’t already have, they save it so I hope all the work in getting these off and shipped will help someone else down the road who also has a Custom sedan.

I suspect SMS has 1 or 2 "guys" that get all the door panel jobs and get backlogged accordingly. Whereas seat upholstery and sewing I figure is not as specialized of work.