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Some pictures from today. i started to pull the dash apart. First out came all the switches. Then I broke loose the bolt at the bottom corners of the dash. Then remove the trim strips at the top of the dash.

The radio came out next, it wasn't to bad coming out once you found the bolt and screw at the bottom that secured it. Still haven't figure out whats holding the speaker/heater control grille in place. I have most of the dash cluster loosened up, and removed the speedo cable. Still need to remove the fasteners that are holding the bottom of the cluster in place. Since all the wiring is getting replace, I went ahead and cut the main harness at the firewall grommet so I could pull it through. I found a majority of the wiring under the dash was gnawed bare from rodents. I also need to finish removing the vent cables.

I also dropped the hand brake support and removed the bolts along the upper edge of the dash.

Is anyone reproducing the firewall insulator pad? Like everything else in the interior, it's falling apart.

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Quiet ridehttp://www.quietride.com/catalog.html#other lists for a 51-4 convertible which I think would work but would have an extra hole or two up high for the hydraulic stuff. Might be worth an inquiry to see what they can do.

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Howard,

Thanks for that information. Pretty pricey.... hmmmm I may just end up using a modern foil backed insulation, as one is going to see it anyway.

Is yours in good enough shape that you could take the jute off, cover the back of the cardboard with some type glue and then a layer of canvas for strength--maybe even fiberglass or even the foil acoustic stuff if flexible enough-- and then put the jute back on to keep the depth correct for the standoffs under the pad. Maybe after that some spray vinyl or fabric coloring would at least make the lower third you will see passable if there are no large chunks missing.

I arrived back at my office today to find a box sitting on my desk. With all the travel from last week I had completely forgot about buying a vintage neon timing light off of eBay for less than $10.

Not sure the age of the this light, but it looks more like a flash-light than a timing gun and only has two wires. Basically you remove spark plug #1, one wire snaps over the plug, and the other wire snap into the plug wire. So it connects in series with the plug wire, instead of using a pick-up wire. This worked on the Clipper where the inductive type did not.

The light is made by Sears (R and Co.) and came in the original metal box with the original instruction sheet. I wonder how old it is?

Anyway with a working timing light I was finally able to dial in the timing. It was running at 8 deg, and now is at 6 deg BTDC.

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Was just thinking (dangerous, I know) if you plan on keeping the air vent louvers, think you will have to fabricate something like the cardboard cover to mount them. With just the foil, if memory serves, nothing will be there to hold them as they have little clips that sandwich the cardboard. Also, as mentioned above, there are several welded on screw posts for the heater plenum, valve, etc that are about an inch deep. Those will still be needed -- but the foil only bit will leave a big gap and might be noticeable.

Howard, good point there. I wonder if I can just use the old one as a pattern and make a new one and cover it with either black vinyl, or just paint the cardboard black. Then cardboard on the current one just comes apart in your hand when touched.

I'll know more when I get the entire dash out.

Right now I am still battling the yuckness that all the rodents left in the car. I moved the sun visors and got rained on. Time to break out the shop vac....again.

Probably wouldn't be that hard to make since there isn't a huge molded hump area to worry about like older but would take some fitting for the one there. Biggest problem will probably be finding the heavy cardboard in a large enough piece. Unless you have a good upholstery place close by where you can buy retail and pick it up, shipping will cost more than the material. Maybe an art supply although think the stuff they have is thin--more like poster board.

Kev, you might try to buy an oversized unfinished blank pad from the folks that remanufacture them for other models, and then cut/punch to fit.

Great ideas! I was thinking of trying to use that same kind of fiber board like the door panels are made of.

I could have sworn someone else was making these for all the different post-war Packard models other than the vendor Howard listed.