Janousek

Bob, I don't mean to sound elitist. Maybe I am???? I learned a long time ago the cheaper the job/ lower expectations that market more often than not had problems paying me. It caused me to quickly drift away from that market wondering if they are going to pay. Doing quality jobs in a timely manner is hard enough and throw in a couple dead beats into the mix and you'll go broke in a hurry. I haven't explained why the expensive cut and buff of modern urethanes is needed. It's necessary to look good because the paint dries in waves that have to be cut flat with aggresive paper/blocks. Laquer and enamels never layered into waves like the urethanes do. So were comparing the old paints like laquer that could be 1500 sanded and buffed with a wool pad and look great without this "wave". Factories had to buff their laquer finishes back then. So back in the day a laquer job would have looked flatter than a spray/1500/buff urethane job will look today. Factories get away with it today because the finishes are electrostatically applied to a mininal film thickness and they don't build up the wave like we get trying to refinish modern cars. The more coats of urethane, the more wave present. Collision shops usually do a 2 coat application with the goal of no polishing and the wave isn't noticable. Restorers are putting 4-5-6 coats of clear and each coat amplifies this wave and we have to cut it flat for a good finish. We almost have to over restore the paint today as a shop. We can't make it look like laquer without a cut and buff. If I remove the orange peel and buff it still looks like crap and nowhere near as flat as laquer. Just trying to explain some of the why we do certain things.

I get what your saying Bob. As a guy that does this for a living I just disagree. For me their isn't enough meat on the bone to properly go through the steps required for the best foundation. The foundation is the paint job. I laugh when I see these dumb tv shows where they feather back 4 layers of 50 year old paint and go right back over it. I feel sorry for the guys that buy stuff like that. Al's regal would be a much easier car to do than this Packard. The shop doing the job has a chance to make some money at the 10k if they hustle the Buick through. Once again it will probably be shiny and nice but the money is not their to cut the urethane wave out. Block sanding by hand through 5 different grits of paper before switching to a da and going through 2 more grits of paper. With those later da grits costing 10 bucks or more a piece. 10-15 hours can be spent on a hood doing this procedure. All hand work, requires extra coats of clear, and every high end showcar is done in a similar fashion with some guys using different grits to achieve similar end results. Expectations surely need to be discussed with these shops. You can't have it all when it comes to paint. Either you pay top dollar or you settle. The test to do on this Packard is look at the side of the car and ask yourself if you just want it to shine and look nice. But.. if you want to stand at the front of the car and look down the side and see a flawless/flat surface then it's going to cost you dearly. Besides the quality foundation that flawless/flat surface is expensive. If you don't know what I mean by looking down the side of the car then your good to go with a regular paint job. I'm glad some shops can accomodate these types of cars. I used to when I was learning and just getting started. But.. once you build a reputation for quality, shops are no longer interested in painting these types of cars. Our reputation goes on them. The owners always tell you it won't be shown. Those are the first to bring it to a show. The owner of the car will gladly tell the public who painted it but never tells them they had the shop do it on the cheap. There goes your reputation.

That extra 10k is spent on sound fundamentals and using the best materials. Are they solvent wiping the car between each step or just blowing off with an air gun? Are they maintaning proper temperature in the shop all winter or using urethane accelleratos to get the products to cure? Are they taking it to bare metal covered with epoxy and solvent rags wiping the car numerous times until the rag is crystal clear. They might do a DA and buff the orange peel but their surely isn't enough money for a proper cut and buff to eliminate urethane wave. I'm seeing alot of information from armchair quarterbacks that don't understand the details that go into a quality job. This Packard has a lot of trim and detail on it. So a shop says they will paint it for 6 grand when the materials bill will be half of that. Lowered expectations is probably the only way he is going to be happy at the end of the job. I paid $1800 for two gallons of paint/activator without clear a few weeks ago. That is paint only. Those of us doing high end paint jobs are earning every dollar. Collision paint jobs and old car jobs are two completely different industries.

A friend is looking at a 58' with factory air. Are these cars like the Caddy where just springs are replaced or do the control arms need replacement also? I've searched all over today and spoke with a few parts guys but nobody knows. Are 58' Pontiacs leaf spring in the rear? Thanks for any help.

I use a lot of Cerakote ceramic on a lot of manifolds and exhaust pipe. They don't do gloss black just flat black along with a couple other colors. I've never had a failure with it. This picture of the packard manifold is fresh and I sprayed that probably 4 years ago. Those things get hotter than blazes also. Manifolds done with this coating still reach 6-700 degrees when running so I don't know about the heat aspect. It doesn't burn off but they still read high surface temps with an infrared gun. The porcelain manifold is off our 42' Cadillac. You can see the difference. Porcelain looks rich. I will probably do cerakote on this manifold as it's a driver, application is cake, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I can reblast and redo for minimal if I have to.

Heres what I use for our 31' 90 series. I had to make the extensions which are just 2 grade 8 nuts welded together. Thread the extension bolt in one end and thread the other grade 8 nut to the lug stud. This was the quick and easy fix when I already had the hub puller. Our car needed lots of heat on the rear hub along with the puller the first time. It was on there probably 30+ years. I just pulled them off last fall for service and they popped right off.

If everything is truely new and tight then I'd focus on Toe in. 1/4 to 3/8 works well on these cars to keep them in line.

34' Auburns have to have a satin frame/generator/starter to pass judging in the ACD club. That's enough for me.

Brake shoe riveter I restored last fall. Done two jobs with it so far. It was built by the Chicago rivet and machince co. It has a drum sander and an adjustable coutersink bit. I bought it locally for 100 bucks. Already paid for itself and I don't have to ship these out anymore.

Chris, satin paint was around during that period. I know Auburns used them on their chassis and such. I don't know when it was first utilized.

Thanks for the catch. That didn't come out right. I was thinking the joys of Solyndra when I typed it.

I think you will be happy. 2" is a lot of drop on the nose of that car. It will look tough yet should have enough clearance not to drag over everything. I used take my floor pots and pull the vehicle down to the stance I liked and never went over 2" on anything because they started getting unusable. Thats why the TV shows airbag everything so they can look at it in the weeds but still drive it.

Glad to help. Swaybars are the next step. My chevelle with Hotchkis stuff had a 1.25" front swaybar and a 1" rear. It cornered like a slot car even though it was a tank. The ride was never great but thats the tradeoff for cornering. Kinda pricey but look into the Wilwood disc kits for the front. They can accomodate the stock wheels but the calipers are so much better than the single pistons stoppers that come with the lower priced kits. I've installed a couple of those inexpensive kits with single piston calipers and was never that impressed. A nice oversized caliper with multiple pistons can grab that rotor with so much more force and feel to it. More like a modern sports car. It's a must if your building even a mildly performance orientated muscle car.

Let the companies invest their own money in this fantastic new "coal fired technology". It will work out for them if it's better. That is how it works when the government keeps it noses out of every aspect of our lives. They will have to sink or swim without pissing everybody else's money away without any accountability.

What a sham. Tax dollars keeping these clean energie companies afloat. Except solar, most of those couldn't make it even with free money.

In the picture your car definetly looks sacked out in the back. You could just drop the front and get the right look. I wouldn't want the rear any lower than it is. Of course if your springs are sagging that bad then you get the associated handling/ride problems. I'd replace all 4 springs. Most of the time 4 coils do a better job than drop spindles and such. Your springs are almost 50 years old. New spindles leaves you with 50 year old springs still. Disc brake conversions are cheap and everyone makes one so don't let that sway your decision. For the money of drop spindles you could probably have 4 news springs with the desired bottoming resistance and a disc brake upgrade on the front.

Mechanical pump diaphragm torn leaking gas into engine is about the only logical explanation. Especially if the car runs OK.

Your going to be easilly North of 20-30k to do the upholstery and make it a safe, enjoyable driver if you do nothing but write the checks.

It's variable based on tractor RPM's but the pump specs max them around 100cfm's at 175psi. I run about half throttle and do most of my blasting around 30psi so I always have plenty of air. Even if I bump the pressure up to 100psi for a frame I have plenty. I built this because I didn't want to purchase another piece of equipment with an engine when I have a tractor just sitting there. That and my 5hp+7.5hp compressors running tandem couldn't quite efficiently keep up with a 1/4+size nozzle while blasting. I originally ran the pto direct drive but the tractor had to run 540rpm pto speed and seemed to scream the old 2 cylinder tractor. I then geared it up with a maximum of 900 pump rpm's and run about half throttle putting the pumps around 600rpm's.

Matt, I'm sure you noticed the extra gussets on the rear axle that hold the lower coilover. That is a pretty big modification for a lot of people. The front lower control arm is custom also where the factory shock mount on a stamped LCA would need a plate welded across it to support the car. At least I would want that. Coilovers are cool but most people won't want to swallow the cost unless they are willing to fab their own mounts. The picture shows my dads 442 before we restored the frame. The mount where the rear spring mounts to the frame isn't exactly a strong area to hold the car up. More fab work for safety. Just some food for thought.

Rgauthier, I've never been able to use their install kits though. The front spring donuts are always to thick for me to get them into the upper front pocket. Just went thought it again on my dad's 68' 442 with new springs all the way around. Could use the rear rubbers but not the front. Steele rubbers always fit though. I've had fantastic results with Kanter's heavy duty shocks. Every car from the 50's -60's has been a big improvement. I think Gary at Eaton spring has shocks now. They never used to so I haven't used what they have.

Pair of 1960's Quincy's with a 51' John Deere "G" for motivation. Work in progess as the air dryer is now incorporated onto the tank.

This sounds much easier than lining the drum with 80 grit and fitting the new linings like I currently do. A lot of time required to do this. This looks like another tool to watch for. My research came across your old post selling the above item with a good description. Thanks Ed, you helped me years ago with the Napa points on the Aero Coupe Pierce at Northwoods. Still appreciate the info you gave me. Brad

Eaton Detroit spring is what I'd do. They are a great company to work with for new springs and you will probably have the new springs in a couple days. I'm a believer in putting coil springs into the stock locations for cars that aren't built to take it. I used to daily drive a 72' Chevelle with Hotckis springs, swaybars, and urethane bushings. Fun car but road a little rough.

I see this machine matches the surface of the shoe to the drum. When did they start arching the shoes for ramping up the shoe into the drum? Just curious as some the info I've found about this machine was in the late 40's and I thought they were all getting arced by that time. Appear to be an interesting tool I'd like to have. Imagine the asbestos death's caused by this thing back in the day.