Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

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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

Looking at the drawing revisions, adding the dimple is Rev B for the base.

The only other revs are that the hinges were originally done using a 1/8" dowel pin press-fit into the base, with a slip fit on the covers. This was changed to a 5-40 screw then a 4-40 screw, probably from the hinges breaking on the base supports.

Also, I updated the dimple per the drawing. New render below.

Attach file:

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  475065.png (45.63 KB)

I can see a slight difference between this and the original but it seems insignificant. Is there something I missed here?

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Referencing your Interference 2 photo in post #9 on the other page, while the dimple looks like it might have moved toward center slightly it appears to still be on the wrong side to do any good if its purpose is to add additional clearance for the turn signal indicator bulb socket which is directly below the duct.

For the screw, what about using a 2-56 x 1 1/2" stainless socket head screw. That shaft is just over 1/16" in diameter with the head slightly over 1/8". The pair would provide plenty of strength with only having to be pivots for the lid.

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Probably the absence of casting lines making things look slightly off on the model.

Technically the model is missing a slight "crown" but the curve is so slight, at 1/4 the material thickness itself, that I can't see it in the original housing photo even though I know it's supposed to be there.

I suspect it's there just to counteract flexure from bring mounted against a springy surface, but again it's so slight and leaving it out saved a good deal of messing around in my modeling software.

Howard, the dimple is in the same place but not as deep. Sometime I will ballpark the dimension in the interference photo and move it there.

Yes, I could use #2 machine screws, but ASA should be plenty strong even with a #4 hole in it. The other consideration is the hole needs to be large enough to pilot a tap through. A 4-40 screw has a minor diameter of 0.0849 so I would model the hole at 0.065 for printing to give a 20 thou diameteral tolerance. Already pretty small for 3D printing.

Ok everyone, I got the dimple moved over to the opposite side without much effort. I checked Pete's image and the conflicting area appeared to be virtually in the same spot as the original one is, just mirrored, so that's where I put it.

Part "475065A".