Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Update of the past weekends progress.

Removed all the left rear door inner workings and thourougly cleaned them. Surprisingly very little wear on the parts for the lock and window winder. Just old caked on hard grease. Also cleaned all rubber moudings on the quarter windows and treated with a rubber cleaner.

After a 2 day search found a size replacement for the oil filter locally. Will have to see if this is successfull, but it fits all right.

Noticed that the carburettor is a double throat Stromberg made in Australia!!?? Works fine.

Bled the brake system and the peddle is good, but the right front wheel cylinder seems to be frozen. At least I dont have to stop with the hand brake anymore.

Fixed the indicator stalk. Really only needed a cleanup.

Next will still be the cleaning and treatment of the door sills and cavities. Do not look forward to this!

Finally located a oil filter locally. It is a Donaldson P550179. Will still need to fit it during the weekend to see if its fine. Cleaned up the twin horns and painted with matt black high temp paint. I find the high temp paint in rattle cans to be tougher than normal ones. It has been raining a lot here and hopefully this weekend will get started with checking out the wiring. Fuel and temp gauges dont work.

Took the old girl for the first time around the block! My first drive of a Packard and man....what an experience! Obviously it is not perfect, lots of noises and groans, brakes pulling badly, clutch shuddering and no brake lights but - she has been standing for 10 years! But man...the power and sound of that 288! Beautifull! This makes me more determined to do a good job and get her running as close to original as possible for me.

Finally finished derusting and painting the door cavaties and sills. Still busy replacing window channels and cleaning door mechanisms. Also took some time to do some polishing and I think she looks much better already.

Obviously the chrome needs work. Also replaced and cleaned the rear light pods. Replaced the non existant rubber gaskets with one of my own inventions! Replaced the rear decklid rubber and painted the whole luggage space. I had a hard time finding globes for the map lights under the dash. As my car is 12v that bulbs was hard to find. Replaced the 12v alternator with a new one and is busy sorting the wiring. Here is some updated pics:

Attach file:

---

  (45.02 KB)


  (52.99 KB)


  (37.22 KB)


  (53.57 KB)


  (54.80 KB)


  (26.42 KB)


  (50.80 KB)


  (52.99 KB)

Had a good weekend cleaning and painting the interior floor. Removed all seats and carpeting that was left. Luckily no rust through, only surface. It is now painted a nice black anti-rust.

Had a few serious problems with the driver side(righthand) door. First off the quarter window handle broke clean off. Was rusted solid....then while trying to remove the glass to repair the handle shaft the glass cracked!!! Luckily a friend of mine owns a glass cutting business and he could provide me with a laminated cut piece. I repaired the handle last night and it seems to work OK. Tonight will install the new glass in the frame.

The door locking mechanism is in a bad state and has already been repaired countless time (probable why the door opens when taking a left lol!!) I will be searching for a replacement but in the meantime will have to make do. The winder mechanism is in good condition.

While removing the cover over the pedals noticed that the clutch pedal shaft has a huge amount of play sideways. Hope there is a bushing on the pedal shaft that I can replace. The mechanism is strange here and might be interesting cause it is right hand drive. There is a cable running from the pedal around a pulley and then this cable pulls on the clutch shaft. While the access tunnel is open will also replace the gearbox oil and clean up all around it. Surprisingly it does not seem to be leaking at all. Maybe there is little oil left!!

Will post pics soon.

Most if not all the Packards of that vintage had a grease fitting on the pedal shaft which was often ignored when the cars were lubricated, hence the play in the pedals. One of the PAC regions makes a kit with an oversize shaft to solve this problem. The pulley and cable arrangement you see is a part of the Electromatic Clutch system.

Hi Owen_Dyneto

I have a normal clutch with 3 speed on the tree. I will get a photo to show you guys. Thanks for the info regarding the grease nipple. I will machine a bushing myself as importing is waaayyy too expensive. Will also renew the nipple.

Here is some before and after photos from my rust prevention during the weekend. The product I used is called provonite fromhttp://www.abe.co.za

Please excuse the wiring and other things. I will be replacing the carpets and firewall padding off course.

Attach file:

---

  (37.01 KB)


  (38.18 KB)


  (52.07 KB)


  (45.57 KB)

Thanks to everyone that gave me advice on how to connect my wipers to the intake manifold. They work great! I also drained and cleaned the gearbox oil. It was really dirty. Replaced with 80W90 gear oil and it shifts good now. Attached the fuel door and installed the seats. Will get a professional to do some carpets for me at a later stage when finances allow. I really want to get good looking carpets as it will make the inside look much better. I am thinking of getting a lighter maybe cream colour? Any ideas on this? What would the originals have looked like? Cut or loop pile? I plan on keeping the reupholstered seats and the original headliner is intact although very brittle. This I will keep for nostalgia's sake!

Anyway also cut out a new masonite board for the boot behind the seat and this finishes it off. Tomorrow begins the long search for as to why my brake lights are dead. Will keep you posted and maybe ask some electrical questions in the post war forum.

Had great success tracing out my brake light problems over the weekend. Just shorted the 2x wires together and then off course it worked and I realised that the pressure switch was the culprit. Removed it carefully and went on a brake pressure switch hunt. Funnily enough my parts guy showed me that it looks exactly like an old Toyota part from a 21R Truck. This has since been discontinued so kept on hunting. At last found a switch from a early 80's vw golf/rabbit with the same thread. Just had to replace the flat bayonet wire fittings and my brake lights work wonderfully now! So if someone needs a cheap pressure switch, approx $6.00, look into the earlier vw golf/rabbit ones.

Replaced the ignition leads as I saw sparks on the old ones at night. This went very well and the product we get here is Bougi Cords from France. Bougi Cord Good reliable stuff.

A friend of mine is a good welder and we fixed the loose dipstick by CAREFULLY welding on a piece of wire we got from a old car antenna. This is rust proof and keeps its shape as it is spring steel...I think that is what you call it. My dipstick was loose inside the block as that piece was missing. Now it sits beautiful and tight.

Coming weekend will spend some time with my Chev Truck as we have a GM centenary coming up in May at my club and I want to drive the truck the 60 kilometers there. Hope I make it!

Barrie,

Good to hear things are going well with your Packard.

But my interest has been roused - tell us a little about your Chev truck and why you hope it will make the 60kms, approx 35 miles?

Hi Mal

Ja, the truck is another story. It is a 61 Apache c10 that had an extremely hard life. See my blog on the Stovebolt site:

61 Chev Truck

The engine has a nasty nock, presumably bearings or piston slap according to a oldtimer mechanic. So I have been very carefull not to drive it hard and far. No funds for a rebuild at present! This will be the furthest I have taken it in one go and it will also be on a extremely busy highway. There is not much appreciation for classic vehicles holding up the traffic here! Also the brakes has a funny issue - no leaks and good peddle when stationary, but as soon as the wheels start turning it drops alarmingly. This is the issue I have to try and solve this coming weekend. I am attending a GM centenary celebration at my club on the 18th of May. The other issue is that you do not want to get stranded alongside the road here in RSA without some kind of backup or help. It can be life threatening! Obviously this does take away some of the appeal for classic car enthusiasts to take a drive! I dont mind a breakdown but a holdup is not one of my favourite things.