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Vaughn and Joe,

Great back stories, your involvement and passion for Packards is most evident. Incorporating Packard recognition skills as part of schooling certainly paid off, I like that!
for sharing these memories with us.

DASHBOARD; Wood grained yesterday and clear coated tonight amidst fireworks. I was just hoping nothing hot landed near me. I tried a little trick I use with patterns in Photoshop which is to roll the pattern, then turn the graining plate around so your next roll starts with the part of the grain where you ended on the last roll.That sort of works to help the blending. I'm happy with the result and can't wait to assemble the dash once it's wet sanded and polished.

SOUND AND HEAT BARRIERS: These are not difficult to install because the floor is so flat. Now when you knock on the car it sounds like a piece of solid oak.

DOOR: Still having problems, but installed the strikers and dovetails.

CONVERTIBLE TOP and WINDSHIELD: Expected Tuesday or Wednesday. Back to the shop after that to finish these 2 items, the trunk, and carpet.

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It's always good to see progress, especially on your own project.

DASH: Pre-wet sand and polish. The opening for the ashtray seems almost a 1/2 too tall. Looks like I'll need more plastic pieces.

CARPET: The Wilton wool carpet will look great once installed.

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Forgive my ignorance. Is the clock in the wrong side of the dash, or does it go just above the steering column?

The wood graining looks great! My '37 115c will be in Idaho in a couple months... do you hire out? Joking, joking...

Great work- it's an inspiration to those of us just starting the long slog.

Ken,

The clock on the 40s is on the left so it's easier to see how fast you can go from 0 to 120 with that 356 cu.in.Super 8 engine. Actually the speedometer and clock sort of match except the 12 on the speedometer is on the lower right.

I did order a new circle of plastic from Yesterday's Radio for the speedometer. I will have to win a few drag races to pay for the one on the clock when it goes wonkie.

Thing is, Ken, woodgraining is still not a cake walk, but you get better at it. If you bungle it , you can wipe that part off and redo it. I'm going to redo the windshield moulding, which was the first piece I did, because I can do it better now and because I have the center strip and cap for the windshield to do as well. The rear armrest ash trays look really superb and really 40s because of that grain.

It's been 26 years since she was on the road, aside for a couple of spins around the grassy area across the street on Memorial Days in the past, minus fenders, hood and grille. My trip permit goes active in a couple of days, but since the seats haven't been installed, she'll have one final tow to the upholstery shop.

A SALUTE TO THE PACKARD YEARS It was quite a party and it's been a long time between celebrations like this in conjunction with PI's national tour. Another one is due, right here in Portland.

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Wow! I'm now even more impressed. I had no idea from reading your blog how long the Duchess had been off the road (I may have missed something!). After 26 years of mostly sitting, many congrats to getting it back on the road, on your terms. Seems like a lot of people have cool old cars in their garage that they never get back together and sell off years later. We'll be following along through these last few steps!

Pure frustation with the window mechanisms. I can't even talk about.

A few more things got done today.

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Quote:
I've been away for about two weeks. Did they need the woodgraned trim to install the windshields???