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There is a big "dimple" on the bottom where the pickup tube goes. I don't see that on the top. Perhaps it was stamped in when they were matching up halves and stamping out the holes in the proper half. I remember my lock ring being copper plated??

Randy,

The bottom side of my lock ring is copper plated. But the top of it had all the plating worn off.

Well not much progress since last update. But I did metal blast the hose clamps and replace the vent hose on the tank (3/4" is required BTW).

Also sniped a good deal on eBay and got this Ultramatic test gauge that was actually listed under the title "Packard A/C Test Gauge". Even if I never get around to using it, it makes a neat vintage piece for the garage. It looks to be missing the adapters as there are spots for where they would go in the bottom of the box. But I figure I could just bur and needed adapters. I am glad it came with the original "KRW" wooden box.

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nice find! i always look around for stuff like that and all i come across are the electric Packard tools. sometimes old 30s tools too. nothing from the 50s yet.

Nice score Kev! Perhaps you can lease this out through the Packard Info. tool rental program!

Hey not a bad idea! I would eventually like to start a collection of other Packard service tools. I believe Kent-Moore and KR Wilson were two of the main Service Tool providers to Packard dealers.

I wouldn't mind finding one of the those old Sun engine testers like we saw at the PI Swapmeet.

I was finally able to track down the last registered owner of my Clipper (from 1986!). He only owned the car from a couple of years and had it running. He sold it back to the guy he bought it from when he closed his repair business. I have managed to locate this gentleman also, and I am waiting for a call back from him.

Looks like the Clipper spend a good portion of its life in El Dorado County, CA.

It took me so long to find this guy as the registration slip has his last name misspelled. This is always why I turned up nothing then I searched before. I finally made the connection after searching by the address on the registration slip (which turned was a PO Box in El Dorado (City), CA). That then pulled up a newspaper advert from the mid-80s for an old car repair business with the came address and the name with the correct spelling.

Now with the correct name, I was able to locate his correct phone number (in a different city), and I got him on the phone. He was able to give me a little bit of history from the 3 years or so he owned the car. Hopefully this other gentleman will be able to fill in more of the missing pieces.

I was finally able to get my fuel tank bolted back underneath the car. I also tape wrapped the original sender wire as the fabric insulation was chaffed in a couple of places, but the vinyl core was still intact. The rubber boot that covers the connection on the sender was pretty much rotted away. So I used an right-angle spark-plug boot to replace it. Worked perfectly. Also the original sender wire came out of the grommet in the rear of the trunk floor, and then went through a small hole in the middle of the crossmember and to the sender. Not sure if this was original or not, but if so the wire contacts two sharp edges on the crossmember and this was one place were the fabric insulation was chaffed. So I rerouted the wire over the top of the crossmember where there are no sharp edges, and used a wire tie to secure the wire to the crossmember using that original hole. This keeps the wire from moving around underneath the car. I then checked the sender wire to make sure I was getting a good ground from the tank mounting. Everything looks good.

So next it was onto removing the old fuel line. I unclipped the line from frame rail and front cross-member, and removed the line clamps near the steering box, the parking drivers side parking brake cable support bracket, and on the frame right before the tank. The bolt that holds the clamp to the parking cable bracket was the worst. It is the only one that has a nut on the backside, and the nut was so rust that it simply spun in place on the bolt shaft. So I had to use a nut splitter to break the nut off the bolt. I will replace with a fresh nut and bolt.

To get the fuel line out, I had to cut the line just forward of the firewall. Then I was able to bend and work the line out from underneath the car. Since the body is not coming off the frame, I will have to replace the line with a multi-piece line similar to what I had to do with brake line. There is really no way to replace the fuel line as a single piece with the body of the frame. BTW the length of that original fuel line is almost exactly 16 feet.

Great job on the '54, Kev!

When I had the car in the early 80's it was one of 6 Packards I had at the time. Four were post-war junior models: a '52, 2 '53s and your '54, as best as I can recall. One was a '58 hardtop. I got all running (to a "repaired" but not "restored" level) except one of the '53s. My real project car at the time was a 1940 120 sedan that I had picked up in New Mexico several years previously. I had started a long-term frame-off restoration on it.

As you mentioned, I had a repair shop back then and a mail-order old-car parts business. During that time I was especially interested in Packard parts. As a result, I had accummulated several rebuild kits for UltraMatic trannies. I bought enough clutch discs to rebuild the trannies for three of the post-war cars, including the one you now own. Hopefully the years have not been too unkind to it and it will still operate for you. I see that the pan had some goo in it, but no metal. That should be a good thing... I think it's likely that the person you bought the car from actually drove it to the storage yard where you picked it up.

When I closed my parts business, I liquidated all the cars I had as well, except the '58. Most went back to the fellow whose name I gave you on the phone. The '40 went to another fellow in Northern California whose father had once owned one. He got it with the frame, engine and transmission mostly done and the sheetmetal still off the frame.

Keep up the good work!

Doug

Doug,

Thanks for adding some more background information. Glad to know the transmission has been gone through at least once. Hopefully the "goo" is not from the owner before me's neglect. The transmission status will be know to me soon as the fuel line and a fresh oil change on the engine is the only thing standing between me and starting the motor.

I changed the oil when I dropped the pan a couple of years ago, but I need to put in a new drain plug gasket as it's seeping there. Since I have to drain the oil to replace the gasket, I will just refill with fresh oil since it's now three years old.

Do you still have the '58?

It was a pleasure speaking to you on the phone, I appreciate all the information.

Thanks!