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Got to steal some time today and visit the packard and install the side emblem I got from Emblemmagic. -Thanks to Big Kev for posting that they were available. I had bought one years ago at Perrysburg, and the other side was looking dull. Removed the back seat, the arm rest, window crank and the stainless section on the side. Now there is some more color to see. The quality of the part was really good. When I looked *really* close I could see a little bit of fingerprint in the red paint, but I am still very happy with the part, and the price is fair.
Here's a before and after shot!

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Got a chance to get under the hood of the car again take parts from the parts boxes and put them on the car where they can do some good -when the warmer weather gets here.

Took off the old spring from the exhaust manifold and replaced it.
A piece of old spring was stuck inside the slot on the hinge part, so I was using a hacksaw blade to cut it out and make room for the new spring to hook in. After installing the spring (1/2 rotation holding the door in the closed position) I put on a clip to keep the whole thing from falling of somewhere down the road.
Hope my warm up time is reduced a little bit!

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I guess a blog update is in order, gone are the days of small jobs on the packard. I miss driving the old girl, but am seeing progress in the repairs. After valve and cylinder problems putting the engine out of commision, I towed the packard to Kurt's (54 pacific) shop and we are taking care of the rust in the rear wheel arches, rocker panels, underbody is getting stripped and treated with rust converter, then painted (Branthox nitro fest) and will get a coat of underbody protection wax (UBS 220). Kurt is the welder and sheet metal guy, and his cousin is a bmw mechanic. Georgie will be doing the mechanics, engine rebuild, and changing out a bunch of seals so I am not leaking oil from axle/trans/steering etc... and I do the dirty work stripping the underbody and pay for the parts
Here are a few pics of the rust being cut out. The car was already patched with a half way decent repair that was rusting out already....
I've been working with a putty knife, wire brushes and grinding disks getting the bitumen rustproofing off the bottom of the car the last few weekends. What dirty work. I look a coal miner at the end of the day!
The chassis of Kurts 54 is there along with an NSU that is being worked on. We removed the engine from the NSU by dropping it out the bottom of the car, picking up the car and sliding the engine out on the floor. Can't do that with a packard!
Now trying to find place around Munich that will bore and hone my engine block at a reasonable price (best quote so far 600 euro!)

Here's something I've been wondering. When I took the head off, there were no washers between the head and the nuts. Are they only needed when the chrome acorn nuts are used?
Hope to splurge and get me the chrome/stainless acorn nuts to get some bling bling on the car when all this is done.
Tired after two full days of working on the packard!

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Quote:Mike,

Been there and done that with the scraping and the resultant coal miner look!

Regarding the chrome acorn head nuts, have a look at this recent thread. As to the washers I think there should be washers under each nut but the more knowledgeable and experienced here will be able to confirm this.

There should be a flat washer under each nut.

'Kurtl und Georgie' pulled the engine a few days ago, and it will soon be cleaned, bored and honed...Back at home I've been cleaning, derusting and painting parts that come off the car. Hope to get a few hours on saturday to make some forward progress...

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On saturday we got the engine totally apart and halfway cleaned up and redy to go to the machine shop for bore and hone. We found a piece of ring behind the number 8 exhaust valve, in the pocket behind the valve, and #8 exhaust valve was also bent. The rings on #8 cyl were also broken as well as the ring land. That would all explain the 0 value for the compression....Bottom half of the engine (mains and con rods) all looked nice, so it was a 'top end' problem that put me out of business for a while. The bare block can just about be moved by two strong guys, it's pretty heavy.
Anybody know what the '12' painted on the block refers to? That makes me curious. It's actually a 54 327 solid lifter block, if that makes any difference, and seemed to be painted a cream color, unless that is primer under the grey paint...Hope the bulk of the dirty work is getting near an end, well on the engine at least... Pics up in a minute....

Another question, shouldn't these tin strips on the flywheel be bent over the bolts so that they don't loosen up? Regards, Mike

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I'm glad to hear that the post-mortem is done, and it did confirm what several of us thought the problem might be - not that that eases the pain of repair. A broken ring under a valve (and bending the valve as a consequence) was not all that uncommon on occurance on high-mileage (or abused) engines of that era. But just keep thinking how nice it will be to have it done!

I'm not aware of Packard ever using a primer prior to finish paint on an engine.

Yes, the crank bolts on the flywheel should have at least one ear or tab bent over to lock the bolt. Those tabs should be steel, not tin which is too soft for that application.

I suspect the "12" is something post-factory delivery.

Ah, another question. Are clutch alignment tools (The plastic pin that normally comes with a clutch kit) available, or a standard-size readily available thing? I'd like to get one of these for re-assembly down the line to make things easier.
Oh, and yeah, i mis-used 'tin' as 'thin strip of metal' Steel is right. you got me.