Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

thanks alot! i'm feeling better about the show, well until i put the hood on last night and i knicked the paint a time or two and one of the damn side inserts popped off. That hood is a TOTAL PITA to get back on!!! HOLY ##$# I hope I NEVER have to take it off again!

you can see why the one insert fell off.....I had not had a chance to look over the hood inserts yet and i knew one or more were goofy, but man...they did a number on slapping that one back on didnt they? geesh!

hopefully i can get it back on. the tabs at the bottom of the hole in the hood are broken off...the top ones are there..so i see why they glued it all in, but they could have used less. the driver's side inserts have all the slats, but some are crooked and broken on one side. the passenger's side is not so lucky...it has missing slats on some of the inserts. bummer.

I had not got to checking the spark plugs since i still have a miss for some reason. My dad stopped by last night and we pulled the plug wires one at a time and listened to the motor. we found out that number 1 and number 8 were no buenos.

pulled all of the plugs and cleaned them up and gapped them to 30 from 28 and put them back in. switching 7 and 8 around to see if the problem followed. it did not. All 8 are now firing.

I think i may have had an issue with grounding from the paint on the head. i will probably pull the plugs again and make sure to check the threads in the head for paint.

dad played with the carb a bit, but we could not get the stumble to go away when blipping the gas. come to find out where the accelerator pump linkage connects to the throttle shaft is wobbled out. so when you pull the gas it does not start to push in the accelerator pump until way too late. unless i'm wrong and that is how it is made...but i doubt it. seems like something they should have fixed when i sent in for restoration.....which i still have not heard anything back from them. its not like i'm ever needing to "rev" the motor like some hot rod and it does drive fine normally.

and as you can tell...i have some MAJOR cleaning to do

Attach file:

---

  (21.73 KB)


  (37.78 KB)


  (37.87 KB)


  (29.62 KB)

before and after. using the vinyl again....it was NO easy task and I hope the other 3 turn out as well.

quick question....and I'm sure I know the answer....but when locking the doors from the inside...the handle should click into place right? I have one that clicks and the other three just slide up smoothly, which results in them easily moving down. The driver's door wont even stay up half the time.

Attach file:

---

  (36.42 KB)


  (41.70 KB)

No "click" when locking 33-36 senior doors using the inside door handle, just a smooth motion until the handle reaches the limit of its travel.

33-6 seniors are completely different mechanisms than 35 up juniors. inspect your mechanisms and i think you'l find the coiled spring broken

Coiled spring good in the latch on driver's door and it is the worst one. I took it apart and cleaned it up and adjusted the spring a bit. The latch catches way better, but the outside handle is still floppy and the lock on the inside doesn't stay up.

I can't get the inside handle part out due to the window. But I don't see any springs on the inside handle side of the linkage.

And the drivers rear door is the only one that clicks when I lock and unlock it.

Went to my shop and took off the 36 handles and latches. I see the spring you are talking about on the inside handle.

Spring that was broke was on the inside handle bracket. I had to get creative on getting it out as the window crank had a bolt the was broke and they are flat blade tipped. I had to loosen the top two and move the crank out of the way with the bottom bolt still in. This allowed just enough room to get the inner mechanism out of the door so I could replace the spring.

I used the spring from the 36 and also used the door latch from the 36 as come to find out my original latch was rigged pretty bad when compared to the 36.

Outside door handle is now solid and the inside door handle locks with a click now.


Just need to make or obtain two more inner springs for the passenger side so they click when locking. I would only need one more, but one of the 36 springs was already broken.

Glad you got it fixed, or are at least making progress. Any pictures? I am a little hesitant to take my door panels apart for this kind of work if maintenance is needed in the future, so some pictures now would make a useful reference later. Thanks!

taking the door panels off was easy, but mine are not original and are held on by modern plastic christmas tree style push retainers.

to get the handles off i just pushed in on the decorative trim piece and pushed the pin out of the handle and it comes right off.

there are holes all along the edge of the door, which i assume where used for the original style retains as well. the plastic retainers on my panels use these holes as well.

you may have to loosen the bottom of the window trim to get the top of the panel out.

I did take some pictures, but i'm not sure if they will help you or not.

i also took a picture of the spring on the mechanism for the inner door handle. this spring is what provides the click noise when locking the door on the inside. i took this spring off of the 36 door and put it on my driver's door. the reason i couldn't just replace the whole mechanism was due to the linkage being for a back door. to change the spring is a mater of peeling back a couple of bent over retainers on the back and loosening things up enough to slide the spring in.

the 36 doors i had were both rear doors and only one of the springs were usuable. the other was broken already.

so i have two doors that click to lock and two that just slide until i can get or make new springs. probably get.

I only have one more door to finish the vinyl overlay on. ignoring the black marker "driver" i see these were made by M.P.C USA. a quick google search returns a few metal fabrication places, but i couldn't tell you for sure what it means.

i would do the window trim too, but i dont have enough vinyl left over, i need to get more.

I also replaced the latch mechanism on the driver's door with one from the 36, but for some reason the latch had an more then 90 degree bend at the end as seen in the photos. i'm assuming becuase they were from a rear door and not a front. they did not look bent by man...but by machine.

So, i bent them to a 90 degree and worked it over till the latch would move smoothly again. i know have an outside door handle that is solid and doesn't sag.

Attach file:

---

  (42.00 KB)


  (27.89 KB)


  (30.08 KB)


  (25.69 KB)


  (51.37 KB)


  (47.24 KB)


  (58.10 KB)


  (40.42 KB)


  (19.40 KB)


  (21.76 KB)

last one done. i'm getting pretty good at this LOL!

Good thing this vinyl is cheap, i went ahead and ordered more to do the window moldings. we will see how well that turns out.

Attach file:

---

  (29.78 KB)