Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Great Project Blog Larry. You're doing a throughly impressive job on the '51 and in documenting it here. Your insights into the matter of burnishing bronze bushes was most revealing. Looking forward to further updates. And when you're in Sydney don't forget to drop by the workshop if you can, but give me a call beforehand on 0423 171 170 to ensure we'll be there.

Thanks Mal, I appreciate the invite to the workshop. Living out in Bathurst I feel I'm a bit far from the action! But I do get to the Big Smoke occasionally so it would be nice to catch up. Will call beforehand.

I have gained so much information from packardinfo already - not too many other sites I've come across are as totally well done, or have such enthusiastic members!

Much to be posted as I do battle with the rust, but before that . . . . .

Rust Problems in Coupes (24th Series Club Sedans)

My '51 Club Sedan had severe rust and I thought it worthwhile to post some comments regarding a modification that I intend to carry out to minimize water ingress.
No use at all spending big dollars on rust repairs only to have a repetition of the water ingress that caused all the rust before.

Background: The Service Manual makes mention of a special Mod Kit for Coupes, as a means of reducing the amount of water that enters the cabin near the back windows. See Section XIX Body (page 24): 'Rear Quarter Water Leaks (Club Sedans)' of the Manual. My car was a good example of the problem as the rust was extensive in the rear floors and sills on both sides of the car.

You can see that the water (falling vertically from the rear window) will drip onto the back of the trim panel, run down, and make its way under mats or carpet. The Packard modification appears half-hearted to say the least, as the water still sits inside the rear quarters behind the trim panels, and does its dirty work. I'm not sure whether there were drain holes originally placed in the required areas, as my car has been repaired extensively (and quite badly) in those areas. But lack of ventilation there would see rust form quite rapidly.

My planned modification is to fabricate a splash tray which will sit in the recess behind the rear trim panel, and will catch and divert water via a rubber (?) sheet that will be sealed / attached to the inner panel up high, this should direct any water into the tray. The tray will have a curved section that extends up and over the inner rear mudguard (fender) as water enters up in the area above the inner fender also.

I'll add a pic of the splash tray once I've made one.

A 3/4inch dia copper pipe has been incorporated in the frame sill just in front of the inner rear guard, and a hose from the splash tray will be inserted into this pipe to allow water to drain out of the car. (See photo).




This is one solution, and should work. A very necessary one I think.

I'd be keen to hear of other methods and workarounds for this problem that have been used by members!

Obviously it will be important to treat all the inner cavities with cavity wax (etc) as well. I am not sure as to which type or product would be best but am interested in the PPC DYNAX S-50. Apparently this works well.

Comments appreciated.

Rust Repairs and Reconstruction Repairs

I'm posting these pics to give others a sense of what can be done in terms of rust repairs. I have seen some beautiful cars that were initially just basically piles of rust - no floor, more rust than metal remaining. My next post will show a few photos of cars that were in that 'severe rust' category, and are now show winners.

The body has had work done on the following areas:

Front and rear windscreen surrounds (very minor rust)
Lower dogleg below passenger pillar - the driver side was not rusted at all
Passenger pillar
Passenger Subframe
Passenger floor - front and rear
Driver floor - front and rear
Sills (both sides, right through, extending to inners of rear fenders)
Quarter Panels:
Pinholes in random places
Spare wheel well
Rear panel of boot
Boot Floor
Corner of boot (Drivers side)
Floor of boot (minor rust)
Body mounting points in boot
Boot Lid
Around turret base


------------------------------------------------------

Passenger pillar




Passenger Subframe







Passenger floor - front and rear










Driver floor - front and rear










NOTE: Die for mtg point recesses:




Sills (both sides, right through, extending to inners of rear fenders)

i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz218/Larry5 ... /IMG_7032Passnewsillconstructed.jpg










Quarter Panels:























Spare wheel well




Rear panel of boot







Corner of boot (Drivers side)
. . . . with Ralph at work . . .




Body mounting points in boot







xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aside from the rust there had been some very poor repairs done long ago, and the problem with these was not replacing the sections affected, but not knowing exact size and dimensions of the new panels and areas to be replaced. Both sides of the rear quarters had been poorly repaired, but very fortunately much could be determined from the spats (USA=wheel covers) which I had and which were in excellent original condition.
Here are some very rough repairs, where the rusty sections were just covered with plate which was arc welded in place.
Bodgie Repair DF/side qtr: 7004,7026







The Spats . . . Glad I had these!
Ralph used these to determine the shape and size of the 'hacked' wheel arches etc. Here is a pic of the spats, prior to cleaning and stripping.




Here are pics of the pieces removed from my car! This is about 80% of the bits and pieces, there are still the driver-side sills (inner and outer) to be cut out, and added to the pile of rusty scrap shown here.

Ralph's Restorations

I've mentioned that a local 'Bathurstian' is the ace rust repair chap that has been doing the repairs on my Packard. Ralph started restoring cars and building rods way back in the 1960's, and has quite a number of full restorations to his credit.

Here are a few pics of what he has 'in the shed' currently.

Ralph,s town car is a '50 Ford Single Spinner equipped with a Lexus engine, Jag independent rear end, 9inch diff etc. The car has power windows, auto trans, aircon and everything that opens and closes. Very comfortable . . .











Here is his '32 Ford Victoria. Powered by a blown Chev 350 it gets along very well. Ralph's great attention to detail makes this car a joy to behold.







Another couple of cars in the pipeline . . .

Ralph's son has a considerable amount of work to complete this project. The '36 Ford 4-door (Oz made) will be chopped, slightly shortened and converted to Victoria style, with conversion to two lengthened doors. The new doors are the US 'rounded top' versions.





Another project well under way - Ford Pickup.






Ralph is able to take virtually any rusty auto remains, and craft them into something brilliant. His '51 Ford pickup was a very rusty proposition yet has been rebuilt strong and true and now presents as a beautiful restoration. A true credit to the metalworking craft.

I have enjoyed your posts. I hope my project looks as good as yours as it moves along....

Thanks Gregg, likewise have enjoyed your blog, we are moving along similar resto paths by the look of it.

That totally 'true barn find' pic (- your first photo)is amazing! Did you have chickens roosting in your 120? Interior looks to be in good condition. I had rats nesting in mine for a short while when it was stored.

The blue - a very nice colour, will look great.

Replacing the Rear Axle Seals

Replacing the rear axle inner and outer oil seals was fairly routine and as outlined in the '51-54 Service Manual, with a few exceptions.

Thought it might be helpful to others to describe where I sourced my 1951 seals, and also the method I had to use to remove one of the inner seals that was very reluctant to shift.

Firstly, rather than order from Kanter I was able to obtain seals in Australia from ABC Bearings. A phone call and emailing a few photos of the genuine Packard seals I had removed, together with accurate dimensions assisted ABC in sending me the appropriate ones.

As is seen in the photos here, the original Packard outer seals consist of three parts - the grease guard plate, a 'cow-hide' seal and a retaining ring. The retaining ring is a tight fit in the plate and care needs to be taken in removing it to avoid damage to the plate.

If using the type of replacement that I used then the retaining ring will not be required. The new type neoprene seal should be a tight press fit into the plate, tapped in using a socket, or piece of pipe almost the same diameter as the seal.


Rear axle outer seals











Removing one of the inner seals was very difficult. I had checked in packardinfo.com the type of Packard tool that was used in the Manual. J-943-B is the recommended tool, and no photo is available in the manual, however a diagram of the tool can be found in the Packard Literature and Manuals, it is on page 34 of the
1950 Packard Kent-Moore Service Tool Guide.
NOTE: Index towards front gives page numbers for a particular area, e.g. Rear Axle is indexed on page 65. Diagram of the tool is on page 34.

When I saw the picture of the tool I noted that it was unlikely to be good enough to remove the seal I had that was tight. So I modified a slider hammer (see pic) and tried for ages to 'hammer' the seal out but to no avail.

Next I bent up some steel strap (heavy stuff - 3/16inch thick, see photo) so I could apply pulling power via a 3-pound hammer. Even using this method it took a long time to get the seal out. I gave up on moving the effort around the seal evenly, in the end I just kept using my fabricated puller in the one spot. The photo shows just how much effort was needed to get the seal out.









Slider hammer (which removed the RHS seal easily), and the special 'heavy duty' puller I fabricated.

'The persuader' - this one did the trick (eventually).




When it finally came away the LHS seal was very distorted. Yet the RHS seal was removed very easily.




Inner seals





Replacing the inners was straightforward, using a suitably sized socket and piece of heavy-walled pipe.

The Australian ABC product codes can be seen in the photographs.

Glad ABC Bearings were able to source and supply the seals for you Larry.

It was very good to get the bits locally! Thanks again for putting me in touch with ABC.
I found they have some very helpful people working there.