Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Quote:
I had photos and some dimensions Joe furnished to work with but no original to copy so using the photos I made a wood pattern out of balsa, bondo, and heavy surfacing primer in the correct shape but in a size customized to what my setup needed. Made a silicone mold of the wood pattern and then a wax copy from the silicone mold.







Used the wax in the lost wax process to make a mold from casting plaster to pour pot metal into. Because I didn't have a kiln and only an oven to get the plaster up to near the temperature for proper wax burnout and pouring, it was a couple of hundred degrees shy and because it was a gravity pour, it took a few tries to get a decent piece with no holes or problems where the pot metal didn't flow or cooled too quickly. If anyone is interested, pot metal doesn't flow well in the mold unless the plaster is very near the pot metal pouring temperature and it cools rather quickly.







When I had a decent housing then made the 42 style adjustable louvers and tilt mechanism out of strip aluminum. The knob is from a modern door lock assy but looks very much like the original.

Fantastic job!

Nice work Howard.

The second picture is the problem I had with the interference between the lower vent piece and the R/H turn signal lamp plug. The dimple is on the wrong side of the lower vent and inquired if it ever had been rectified later but no one knew. The only answer I could come up with is that Just Dashes who did the top pad did not put a thick enough pad on top to "raise" the lower vent enough to clear the lamp plug. Leedy thought my opening was too far rearward, but I measured it off Caribbean Hardtop #263, which was an original car ordered with factory air in it, and mine measured the same as the factory car. When I cut out the openings in the top of the instrument panel, I used the original Packard drawing template making sure it was located properly