Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Kelvin,

Just for clarification, you have a 1953 "Standard" Convertible Coupe. The Mayfair was the hardtop, only. In '54 the hardtop was called the Pacific.

Hi

Regarding the rear quarter panels possible patchwork in the area ahead of and behind the opened wheelhouse. The forward section might be visible by looking down into the folding mechanism towers with the liner removed. The inside surfaces should show rough brazing work, not smooth like it would be if die formed. If lead is present in those areas, it should be more difficult for a magnet to stick. The rear sections would be visible in the trunk with any liner removed. I'll be interested in what you discover.

Steve

A couple days ago I went to visit a friend. He was not at home, so I went snooping around his Packard hulks. I spied a shadow outline of the Packard script on the quarter panels of a 53 300. With paper and pen in hand, I did a rubbing and mapped out were the holes were. When I got home I laid out the map over the holes in on my drivers side front fender. A perfect match. The script on the quarter panels had four mounting studs, so with the use of the map I located where the fourth hole should be located. A few minutes of sanding and yippee there it was, the fourth hole.

My conclusion, The script that was used on the rear quarter panels for 53 senior cars will fit on my front fenders. Is this proof positive that my car is the prototype? No, but it is one more similarity.

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HH56 wrote:

Quote:
Such sheet metal parts are run through a series of dies. Several may be required just for forming (depending on the complexity of the part), followed by one or more for punching and trimming operations. Multiple punches may be employed in one die for the press to accomplish in a single strike. Though individual punches can be disabled in such a die, I suspect it was less time consuming to leave the holes in the process and plug them afterward, leaving one less part choices for service - at least until SC Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 11.

Brian, thank you for your reply. The link was very interesting. If you refer to the diagram,look at the three triangles at the rear of the fender and drop down about three inches that is the location of the four holes. They are quite small and have been filled with a different filler than the upper trim piece holes.

Matt

IIRC, holes for script plates were NOT punched in 2 or 3 examples I've had of NOS service replacement fenders (all for 55-56 models). I suspect that was likely due to the difference in nameplates (with different pin locations) used on a fender that was common to 3-4 models. However, all had holes for the moldings (spears).

Have you inspected the back side of your fenders to see if any sheet metal was applied to back up the filler?

I have not. This car spent the last fifty plus years on several family farms. Lots of mud caked up inside fenders and other places.

Here is a photos of interests on the subject of hole punching of the panels for mouldings. Here is a New Old Stock fender that we are planning to use on our limo project. As you will see their are various symbols painted on to the fender to represent placements of the mouldings. They used triangles, squares, circles and plus signs.

<a href="http://s671.photobucket.com/user/JamesRFrom/media/Packard%20400/KIMG0489.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i671.photobucket.com/albums/vv72/JamesRFrom/Packard%20400/KIMG0489.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo KIMG0489.jpg"/></a>


Thanks
James From
Kanter Auto Products.

James, thank you for the photo. I wish we were not on different sides of the country. Here is a photo of my fender with tape over the four holes. This was done for visual assistance. I believe the holes on fender are lower than those indicated on your photo. What do you think?

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Thought you may enjoy a picture of two sports cars offered by American manufacturers in 1953. The one on the left is the one we are researching and the other is our Nash Healey roadster.

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