Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

New to the Forum - my first post.
I looked at a 1940 120 Club Coupe over the weekend. The car had a restoration completed 20 years ago. I noticed inside the trunk on the floor a very rough looking texture that had been sealed or painted over. Almost looks like corrosion. Inspection from under the trunk area shows nothing at all like rust or corrosion. Very clean and no signs of any rust. The floor in the trunk seems very solid with no soft spots noticed. I am unfamiliar with the restoration tactics for this area of the car. Is this something to be concerned with or is this normal from restoration.

Packard used an asphalt based sound deadening compound which was sort of like a layer of tar on certain parts of the body. It could have been sprayed or troweled on the sides of the trunk and around the floor edge and wheelwells. Not sure if much if any was directly on the floor center but it could be fairly thick around edges.

In the trunk, in addition to any sound deadening they also sprayed a coat of adhesive and then over that some rayon flocking material was added to provide a sort of finished carpet look. The flocking covered almost the entire visible surface of the trunk -- floor and sides but not the top or the lid. Am not saying that is what you are seeing but if the metal underneath seems solid then it could be the sound material or adhesive layer was extra thick and has dried or cracked and that is what you are seeing under a coat of paint.

The flocking material was subject to objects in the trunk scraping or banging against it so was easily worn off in places. Over the years it often started looking very derelict.. It could be someone scraped what old flocking they could off and just painted the trunk over the sound material or adhesive to make it look presentable again.

Take a very good look at everything, inside and out, poke with your finger (I doubt anyone will let you use a metal tool) too, to see if there are any soft spots. Whenever you see thick undercoating, there could be holes hiding underneath. Moreover, it is not uncommon for the common "restoration" specialist to weld new metal right over the crusty one. Make sure that what ever you are inspecting from both sides is not a multi-layer sandwich, and does not have hidden cavities from the factory. When you see that some work was done to something, always expect that it was not of very good quality. This will save you a lot of disappointment, later on

Also, feel free to post detailed pics of this car (undercarriage, especially) for everyone to take a look. You might hear some good pointers.

EDIT: took a close look at the first picture - I am willing to bet money there is a hole in the trunk! Any takers?

Does anyone know anyone know if there is a double layer skin in the trunk floor? I can say now that the underneath metal does not have the ribbed impressions. There is no indication patching or metal rework under the car. I think if you really wanted to you could flake off the material on the top of the floor. There could be some surface rust...

I've had a 1939 and three 1940s and there was not a double floor that I recall. Most of the trunk was covered by the spare tire which had plywood sheet over it for luggage which I saw more than I did the actual floor so I don't recall whether it had ribs or now but I would expect it should.

Do you have some pictures from underneath? A dual-layer floor is technically possible, but I've never heard of it on regular cars. Besides, what's the point of making the reinforcement ribs on top and having a flat metal at the bottom?

G'day MRMcKee,
to PackardInfo.

I invite you to include the '40 120 Club Coupe in PackardInfo's Packard Vehicle Registry.

Hold on, there, he just looked at it. Let's not make any assumptions here, just yet

It's of course presumptive that MRMcKee becomes the new owner.

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The last one was sold some years ago and the others were sold in the '60s so unfortunately no photos.