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Thanks, Owen, they mostly all look familiar ('cept the thumbscrew type--ow!), but who knew the names? Not me.

It sure beats trying to tell someone you want "one of them clamps, y'know, with the slot in the middle..." when you can say: "I want a Sherman clamp" and get an even more blank stare.

The "double wire" is the only one that sort of speaks for itself. And the Wittek Tower, if you remember to say "tower."

So now everybody can get busy and have period correct hose connections. No more excuses.

Well I was able to get back into the garage for a little bit tonight. Luckily since I filled the coolant system before I went to Atlanta, nothing has leaked. So hopefully everything is sealed nicely now. I will know once the system is pressurized.

I had to do a little air-line maintenance as I had the rubber line that feeds by ceiling hose reel split open on me. That Goodyear rubber line was only 18 months old, but looks like it split open from dry rot. I guess my garage gets really hot, with very little humidity. I guess thats why nothing ever rusts in there once its stripped. So I replaced the line, and I am back up and running.

Here is a picture of the bottom side of the trunk lid almost totally stripped. It was actually shiny, but turned blackish color after applying the Eastwood Rust-Convertor. I still need to do a little more clean up, and then it will go into primer tomorrow.

Some things I noticed about the trunk lid; The tar-paper insulation looks to have been applied to the bottom side of the skin before the skin was crimped to the support structure. This made is very hard to remove it all. I used a heat-gun and a putty knife to scrape it all out, don't use a torch or you may warp the skin, and the tarpaper is flammable. Also Packard primered, and painted over the tar-paper, and there was no primer or paint under the structure, or under the tar-paper. I am going to primer the hood bare metal hood, then install modern insulation (cheaper version of dynamat). I will but the pieces a little oversized so I can work them under the structure to maintain the same look. Then primer and paint over that. This will hopefully make it last another 55 years.

Some other things I noticed when I was using an air-gun to blow out the debris that was under the structure after breaking up all the insulation, I found various pieces of nut shells, cotton stuffing, and other misc trash. I think at some point rodents were living within the shell structure. Crazy.

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What a difference a day makes.... Here is the trunk lid in full primer, both inside and out. Looks worlds better. I will let them completely cure for the next couple of days, and then bolt it back onto the car to get it out of the way.

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Well not that much got done today on the Clipper. Today was other car maintenance day. I day to replace to rear shoes on the Colorado. I must say that those shoes were almost twice the price of the ones on my Clipper. Plus when I pulled the drum off, I had to stare at it for a minute as it looked completely different. Only one spring, the adjuster. No primary and secondary spring. Just this horseshoe shaped piece of steel wire that binds them together and holds them in tension at the ends of it, and the middle clips into the backing plate on the bottom. Perhaps this is because of the ABS or something. First time for me. But I got it all done and adjust and saved $200 in the process over what the dealer would have charged me.

Last night was a clean up the garage night. Sometime in the process of doing projects the work bench gets smaller, and smaller with removed parts, and hand tools and other things. So I had to take a break to clean up and put everything were it was supposed to go.

I also had the kids help me wrestle the trunk lid back onto the car. So now I almost have an open 2nd bay in my garage with no large body panels I am tripping over. Just need to get the fenders media blasted (money, money, money) and into primer, and then those can go back onto the car also.

At one point I had both fenders, the hood and the trunk lid off the car at the same time and all of it in my 22x20 garage with the Packard, all my full size tool boxes, media blaster, full size standup freezer, mini-fridge and 16 feet of workbench. Things were a little tight, and I am not exactly what you call a small guy.

So it's nice to have a little more walking room back.

Also it's amazing how good the freshly epoxy primered body panels look back on the car compared to how they looked before when they were covered in surface rust. Only down side is that they make the other untouched rusty panels look even worse.

Here is a pic of the trunk lid installed. I still need to reinstalled the trunk lock mechanism and properly align it.

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With the trunk primed and reinstalled, this would be a good time to check and adjust the fit of the quarter panels, if needed. I've seen many 55th-56th Series cars where the right rear quarter was too close at the top rear of the deck, but I've yet to investigate whether that was the result of an issue with rear body mount issue (rust) or something else.

Then, you can work toward the front of the car, checking body fit. With other cars, I'd been taught to check rear doors first, then front, then front fenders and hood, but I'm not sure about these Packards. Perhaps others will chime in with their experience in that regard.

hey kev, mind if i put an idea in your head regarding the blasting of the fenders?

Sure, go for it.

i own one of these. this is from eastwood.

Speed Blast Gravity Feed Blaster
Item #22035

Speed Blast Gravity Feed Blaster
Only $ 59.99

as an experiment, i filled it with baking powder (as a sub for blasting soda) and tried blasting some rusty a$$ parts with it.

it worked like a charm! and cost a lot less than have'n it done! if you want the real stuff, they carry blasting soda too.