Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

The hoses off the wiper switch do the "speed" select. One has a vacuum source from the wiper hose and the other activates a valve in the wiper motor. Right now the valve is not in the wide or slow sweep selection & needs vacuum. You need the "tee" fitting shown to hook up the other hose. They also have to be hooked up correctly. After you get the vacuum source hooked up, if you hear a hissing noise when the lever is turned to one extreme or the other, they are backward.

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Thanks Eric, but no, the hoses for the washers are inside the car. A sort of thick rubber hose comes out from the washer reservoir, through the firewall, and then to a T, from which the hoses to the washers are fed.

The two hoses I am refering two come from inside the car, apparently both from the wiper switch.

Ahh, sorry, I misunderstood you. This may help:

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Thanks HH! I hadn't seen your post but that solves my doubts. I will find a proper T and install those hoses.

This is the label showing the fluid level on the glass container on the SP50049 brake fluid reservoir kit

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Thanks for posting that decal. Looks great... I would certainly love to find that accesory some day.

One additional doubt comes to mind: I had a chance to take a look at a parts car and grab a few things. I saw a small bracket meant to hold the rubber hoses going from the wiper motor to the windshield washer reservoir and back to the coordinator. It goes at about halfway between the engine and the fender, just in front of the steering wheel, of course, on the firewall.

Question is: is it supposed to be painted black or left in zinc plated or galvanized finish?

The parts car had it fixed to it's firewall by a flat head sheet metal screw. Does this sound correct?

Thanks,
Victor

I believe they should be "cad" plated. They were installed after the car was painted.

Car is now as back to stock as I understand that it should be!
(from all of your postings). I am only missing the inner fenders in body color, as they are now black, but that will have to wait for some time. Thanks for all the help!

Victor

Following with my original post, time has come to do the inner fenders in Scotish Heather... I need to do some work on my adapted transmission, so we took the hood and fenders off and took engine and transmission out. While my mechanic takes care of the heavy work, we will be doing the cosmetics...

I want to use the opportunity to redo the whole area, now that is fairly easy to do it. I will be painting the chassis, as most of its paint is gone anyway, and also painting engine and the inner fenders we discussed before, so a few questions come to mind.

As Ross pointed out in message #33 in this same topic (sorry I don't know how to use the quote option):

"According to the Feb 55 "Finish" magazine article on the new Connor Avenue plant, fenders, hoods, and skirts were all "flow-coated" with black enamel and then baked. Afterwards they were mounted on a finishing conveyor line with the fenders draped in pairs over something akin to sawhorses about a foot apart from each other and canted slightly outward at the bottom. In this position they were sprayed, finish sanded, and buffed before going to assembly. That is why all 55-56 unscrewed with cars have body color on the inner fender portion. It is a natural result of the way they were fixtured for painting. That is also why the paint fades away to black towards the bottom of the air duct as there was no way or desire to spray there. The hoods were laid flat on the same carriage, along with the skirts. That is why the hood and skirts are black on the "off" side, but with plenty of overspray.

No one at Connor had the time or inclination to mask off the inner fenders in any way."

If I think of that process, and considering the black baked enamel on the full parts, I would imagine that the internal part of the fender (facing the tire, and the internal part of the engine bay panel in the fender (again, facing the tire) would have to be black, probably oversprayed. Can anybody confirm on this? This part would be visible only when looking inside the wheel well area or from under the car.

If that is the case, then probably the fender, on it's inner side, where it goes to meet the firewall, would have to be black also, perhaps showing some overspray but not fully painted. Any opinions?

I am enclosing a pic of my fenders inner side, today... where the scotish heather is seen in the upper part but not so clear on the lower part which would seem to confirm Ross' post.


On chassis, a couple of doubts:

Chassis black? Should it be high gloss or a sort of satin?

Brake lines: I guess they were installed after the chassis was painted (may seem obvious, but Continentals of the 40's were painted with their brake lines on), so I guess they should not be painted but natural... but I prefer to ask and confirm.

Thanks!
Victor

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Chassis, satin black.