Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

I took Kathy over to the shop today to see Birdie. She hasn’t seen the car since it’s been painted. They painted the hood, headlight buckets, tail light buckets, fender support arms, radiator housing, and side mount covers. They still have to paint the front fenders and the cowl vent. The fenders wouldn’t fit in the paint booth with everything else and still leave room to maneuver. They were also working on polishing the doors and had one done.

My son and I are going to go over next week and remove the exhaust manifold. Then, I’ll install the NOS heat riser I got from the Dallas office and get it down the road to be ceramic coated. It’s going to be much easier to do while the front clip is off the car.

Quote:

I’ve heard other references to this but what is the Dallas Office? I know I’m decades out of date, only getting back into cars in general and Packard specifically about fifteen year ago, so I’ve lost touch with who does what.

"Dallas Office" aka The Flackmaster.

Ah! Thank you!

I've been searching for one of these for two and half years....finally found it at Tucson Packard. Ordered it about a week and half ago and it arrived today. It's in nearly perfect condition and works perfectly.

It's a small item, but I'm happy about it.

I spent part of the day at the shop with my son. That made the time extra special. He’s wanted to help with Birdie, but until recently, he lived out of state. He’s back int he the area now.

He helped me pull the intake and exhaust manifolds. Then, while he removed the old heat riser valve, I painted that side of the engine.

The manifolds came off quite easily. The only mis-hap was in removing the three bolts that connect the intake and exhaust together. One of the bolts broke. The shop is working on extracting the broken bolt from the intake manifold for me.

The exhaust manifold looks to be in good condition. The intake manifold also looks good. I was originally planning on just ceramic coating the exhaust, but I found that the intake still had the original porcelain on the top, but nothing but rust on the bottom. So now, I think I’ll have both ceramic coated.

I meant to add that after close inspection of the manifolds, I don’t see any signs of cracks or warping. That’s always good news!

I got to work in my air cleaner today. I stripped it down, primed it, and painted it. Then added the last little detail.

This is the “before”




After stripping…




And the end result…




The shop was successful in extracting the broken bolt from the intake manifold. I’ll get both manifolds to the place to be ceramic coated on Friday.

I also repainted my heat shield for the fuel pump, the throttle linkage from the carb, and the “overflow” tube from the carb/intake manifold.
Regarding this tube, I have a question….

I know that the excess fuel just dumps on the ground. At the tail end of the tube there is a brass piece that has a cotter pin through it. What is the purpose of the this? Is there something missing?







For clarity, it’s the tube with the red arrow…

There should be a ball inside to act as a check valve to prevent a vacuum leak when the engine is running.

Quote:

Thanks, Ross. That makes sense. I’ll take a closer look tomorrow.