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I have a new project under way, a '42 160 Convertible Coupe that I purchased from the estate of Charles Blackman. It needs a lot but is very solid. I'm going to need a lot, including most of the front end sheet metal, but I'm picking away at it.

I will have many questions but my first question for now is the correct finish for the interior metal surfaces that will be below sound deadening/interior panels/carpet. It sure appears that the car only has that salmon-colored red oxide primer on the interior surfaces under the now rotten sound deadening (except where a previous owner hit it with some gray primer after sandblasting... should this metal be body color or would it be left in this red primer?

Thanks,
Zach

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They only painted the exterior and visible portions of the cars. Even at 82 years old it's still not rusted from atmospheric exposure, so that's why. Just primer will keep it from flash rusting, and there was simply no need to apply actual paint in those areas.

Good engineering includes not wasting money on what is essentially perfectionism.

Another question: the patent plate on this car shows "F-94-X" in the "city" field. The actual city, Greensburg, PA, was squeezed in under the dealer name in the top line.

I assume the F refers to paint code, so Legion Blue above the moldings and Algiers Blue below... where could I find what the 94 and X refer to? I assume it's the trim code or something but I can't seem to locate that information for a 42 (or even for a 41).

Packard didn't stamp those areas of the plates. They were left blank, and the dealer was supposed to stamp that with the dealership/city and the date of delivery, as that was supposed to mark the start of the warranty. But many cars left the dealership unstamped. So, repeated letters were sent out to dealers over a 10-year span, reminding dealers to stamp those plates.

My '37 has an original unstamped plate.

So that stamped number could have been anything. I doubt it had anything to do with paint/trim codes. It could have been an inventory or sales invoice number from the dealer.

Well, I have been plugging away at this project. I managed to pick up a parts car that will provide me with essentially everything I need except, it seems, for exterior door handles. Are the open coupe handles different than a closed sedan?

The closed cars shafts are longer, but can be cut down. I cut jr.s for my 42. I have a set of side grills that can be repaired. Also great to see the correct hubcap.

I have a nice non-locking 1941 senior handle in my Packard / IMPERIAL page's Classified Ads. I can't say for sure but it's probably from a closed car.

Wow, awesome. My 160 coupe project is about the same status. Do you have a projection of completion?

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Nice project! I do not have a projected timeline for completion of this project. I do this for the satisfaction of bringing cars back from the dead and forcing an arbitrary (and often wrong) timeline into the project lessens the enjoyment of the process. The only time element I enforce on myself is to at least one small thing every day, one medium thing a week, and one big project a month. That ensures that it keeps moving without burning myself out.

I do have another question that has popped up: the car does not currently have a wiring harness installed but I am able to get the car to turn over by jumping the starter terminals and manually pushing in the relay plunger. However, when trying to get it to turn over via the Autolite starter relay (positive to the left screw, negative to the right screw), the relay just clicks but does not pull the plunger in/engage the starter as I expected. Would you suspect a bad relay (it looks pretty darn new but has been sitting for an indeterminant length of time) or am I doing something wrong?