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Closed up the shop this afternoon as I'm leaving early tomorrow afternoon to go back home to San Jose, CA.

Still haven't gotten the seat actuator's roll-pin out but will take Howard's advice and make a tool, which I can possibly do at home, then bring it with me when I come back next time. I did come up with something I found in the shop that suited the bill perfectly just as it was for shape and size but unfortunately it was too weak or the pins too tight although I did manage to move it another eighth inch or so. Looking at available c-clamps that I had, they were either quite tiny or far too huge!

Cleaning up the parts car's floors, I am curious why both of my cars have pink carpet and so did the 1953 Patrician that I used to have. I'm sure that originally they were color-keyed to the upholstery color but it seems odd that age would make them consistently and evening pink even in hidden areas!

Back home now but some questions remain.

My parts car has had four 1951 Patrician chrome scoops installed, apparently professionally, to each of the rear fenders that I would like to remove without breaking any of the pins. They have round press-on retainers on the back side and I have a tool I made decades ago for removing the rectangular type press-on clips but these round ones have such tiny locking tabs that my tool won't work on it. Are there special tools or tricks for doing it?

Also, according the service clip that Howard so kindly attached a few posts back, it indicates that the seat actuator pins came in three different sizes but it did not elaborate. Does anyone know what the three sizes are? I understand that it was only the length that was different but I want to be sure so that the tool I am making will work on any of them.

I've got a 1951 Patrician Project so I've been reading your blog this evening. I too wanted to remove the scoops or vents on the rear quarter panel. I used a wood chisel with a very fine edge to work under the sides of the vent then did the same going around and around each time raising the vent a little more from the body work. It took a little time but managed to get all six vents off with pins plus retainers intact with no damage to the body.

I hope to get back to my Patrician this year and make some real progress. I managed to remove all the grease/gunk from the outside of the engine with a thin putty knife and lots of Easy Off Oven Cleaner. That's as far as I got before a stroke, heart surgery and then brain surgery to clean up after the stroke and heart surgery. There was a request by my "Significant Other" to remove the Old Car part of my brain while they were in there but if they tried they failed.

If you have a spare rear seat and back rest frame left over I'd like to talk to you about it. Mine looks like it was from a Patrician Hauled out of the Andrea Doria.

Good luck with your project and I'll be following it closely.

And Howard, I do remember that I owe you a tear down report for the Fuel Pump on my '55 Patrician.

By the way, the Dual Action Pump used by Nash on the Packard 352 V8 is still working great and so are the wipers. I did add a small vacuum reserve tank out of a 70's Lincoln so there is never a slow down in wiper action even if I punch the "Go Pedal".

Cheers!

Jim

"There was a request by my "Significant Other" to remove the Old Car part of my brain while they were in there but if they tried they failed."

Best laugh I have has in ages! God love ya.

I'm afraid that tests I've had concluded that is in the genes so not operable.

Anyway, JIm, feel free to PM me if you want to talk about your seats or even post here but I'm not sure what I could do to help. As I recall, they were quite different between 1951 and 1954. You could also start a blog so that we can all help! On the clips, I would prefer to remove them from the back but may try your method if all else fails.

64Avanti, while we were unable to get into the Murphy's Auto Museum in Oxnard today, we did drive over too it. Found the gates open so went in to peer through the glass where two Avantis could be seen.

I'm back at my Oregon shop now and have gotten more disassembly done on the parts car. It seems to have been virtually untouched with most of the copper 359 paint still there under all the dirt. The head was replaced by a cast iron one (the running car still has the aluminum head) and I could see that the water pump had also been replaced at some point as was the distributor. This was a complete car when I bought it other than a missing radiator so I'm not sure why it was parked so many years ago.

I'm going to have a logistics issue with where to put all the large parts as the shop is only so big! The goal is to replace the body on the running car, restoring underneath and in hidden areas as I go which means that two complete cars' worth of large parts must go somewhere and I already have an extra set of doors stored there so eight now and soon to be twelve, not to mention a set of 1956 Patrician door shells and three 1953 Patrician door shells that are there in another corner.

The first day here on Sunday was just doing some other logistics as one of my newer cars (1985 Mustang 5.0) is going to be taken to California and one from there (1985 Plymouth Voyager with rare Magic Camper option) is replacing it at the shop so I had to make the Mustang accessible for easy pick up. It was very hot that day too but cooler now. I was out there all day yesterday and got the front fenders off (only a couple screws were holding them on so it took only a few minutes), then started disassembling the 359 engine. So far, accessories and the head are now off and, as I had never checked as long as I've owned it whether or not it turns over, I did so but it is stuck, which is not surprising or unexpected. A stuck engine is actually not usually a big deal and they are not difficult to get un-stuck but that will be for another visit.

With the work yesterday, I noticed that the distributor in the parts car is a Delco-Remy 1110841 which apparently is for a late 1953 300 and a few others. My running Patrician has the proper Delco-Remy 1110848. In researching these, I noticed that the parts book appears to have an error in that one of them is missing a 1 but I don't recall off-hand which it was but I have the Delco-Remy catalog which cleared it up.

I will append some photos to this message just as soon as I figure out how to re-orient them here on my Linux PC but I want to send it before I get timed-out.

Here are a couple photos of yesterday's work. This is just a parts car being disassembled but there might some tidbit that is useful so here they are and I alto tried to take closeups of bolt heads in place so that I would know what goes where. The other Patrician has been apart many times so isn't a good indicator but this car is.

Note the condition inside the engine so it would have been more surprising if it did turn over! Although it's been in indoor storage for many decades, there was even an inch or two of water in one cylinder.

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Here is the pin press for removing the roll pins that attach the power seat cylinders to the seat frame and body which will remove them without damage. There are two stainless screws: one for removal and one for installation but I've not yet tested it either way although it should work like a charm. It will be here sometime on Friday.

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Today was a very short one as I had to go into town which, due to how rural it is here, is a half-day affair!

Managed to get the front bumper brackets removed from the frame but don't recall it ever being so difficult as it was impossible to get a wrench or even a thin-wall socket onto the bolt heads of the two front bolts! They are inside a u-channel and right up against them so I ended up using a nut splitter on three. I should have plenty spares with all the parts Packards I've had. Also removed the fuel pump which turned out to have only one bolt so it took less than a minute as the lines had already been disconnected yesterday.

As for removing the 1951 chrome fender scoops that some previous owner had installed, there were four per side and I managed to get seven of those off intact. The eighth wouldn't budge, then shot across the room without warning! The tool I used was a device used for tile work which is like a scraper but short and stout with a bend near the end for prying and the blade ground down to get under thin edges. Other than the stuck one, it worked quite well!

I'm trying to take out the rear seat backrest but can't get it to lift out. The two screws below the armrest were removed and the tabs at either bottom corner detached but it won't budge upward. That is the way it's removed, isn't it or is there some trick to it that I'm forgetting? Any ideas appreciated but it's hot in here today with no breeze so not sure how long I'll last.