Roger Zimmermann

Again, this is a part more complicated to make as a model than anticipated. You saw the frame; I had to think about how to continue without creating a mess. First, the supports. They are silver soldered on the side of the condenser, not too complicated as a job. Then, I had to solder the top and bottom cover to one side; the threaded bores for the 0.5 mm screws are not very strong and the screws are turning but not clamping...A thicker material would improve the situation, but not the appearance. Then, I did the "tubes". Two of them will go through the opposite side, all the other are cut to barely touch the inner wall of the side member. The inserted fins will align the "tubes"; the assembly should be good looking. At least, I hope so! The next job will be to do a jig to bore the fins. I calculated there will be about 180 pieces; they will be bored by group of 10 pieces at once. Then the fun will begin: to insert them one by one on the 16 "tubes" which are, by nature, not exactly opposite to the holes of the fins! The second picture is showing the condenser installed on the cradle by the upper brackets. No, I did not an error with too short lower brackets: they are screwed on the horn's supports, which are not yet done.

Thank you Dan and Dale! You just have to be patient...The body work will begin after winter as I cannot go to my store room/workshop, it's too cold. I must take some wood away from the piece I showed some time ago; I cannot do that in the flat whre I do all the other tasks.

This is now the time to do the A/C condenser as this element is attached to the cradle, in front of the radiator. What you see is the frame with some tubing's ends at the rear of the condenser. They will be silver soldered to the sides. The front ones will go across the frame; they will probably be seen. As I doubt that the rear ones could also be seen I'm just doing the external tubes. I noticed that the tubes are not parallel with the frame's top to help the gas/liquid to go down. "My" tubes will be parallel, a huge simplification!

Yesterday I could finish the radiator; I'm satisfied at 70%. Fortunately, it won't be easily visible. On a much older car when the radiator was seen, what I did would not be acceptable. Fortunately, in a car from the fifties, the radiator is difficult to see, even with the open hood.

Probably it was not a concern at that time or the construction allows some expansion. Packard built already cars since some years and if a problem relative to the expansion would have appeared, a different installation would have been done. If I raised that question is because I had a minor problem with my '56 de Ville. As you probably know, the exhaust is coming through the bumper ends. At the base of each bumper end there is a large plate made with rubber to guide the exhaust tube and avoid rattles. When I restored the car, I saw some remains of steel part looking like a spoon at the base of the rubber pad. Not knowing for what they were good, I discarded them (one spoon each side). Some time after, by doing some maintenance, I noticed that my mufflers were crusched. Then, some light came on: the spoon was there to let the exhaust tube go out during expansion. Resting on the rubber, they could not move and the weakest element had to get crushed. I did new parts from memory and replaced the mufflers; they are still intact after many years of usage.

Chris, you should add a little bit grease at the large spring visible on your picture #2, maybe it will help too...

The sole method I retained is the same I used on the Toronado: paper. It takes a long time to fold small bands of paper: since one week I'm inserting the fins between the tubes, half is done. Honestly, the result is not first class, I know. Especially at the junction near the transverse bars, but once painted black and in position into the body, it will hardly be seen. The method with foil would have certainly be better looking but, as the distance between the tubes is not exactly the same everywhere, some difficulties could have been expected. Conclusion: nobody is perfect! The picture is showing the partially completed radiator and the tools I'm using.

Many years ago, I learned during apprenticeship the delicate work of doing a thread on a lathe. In the sixties, there was no computer to have the correct pitch, all was done with the proper gears...I'm probably unable now to cut a thread on a lathe as I never did it after the apprenticeship.

Ah! the joy of installing an exhaust system...I may be wrong but, on a car from this time, the exhaust system is rather straight, with the exception of the portion over the rear axle. With rigid hangers, how is the dilatation of the system compensated? Your adventure remind me the day I attempted to install an exhaust system on a 1948 or 49 Buick with the front tube going into the frame...The angle at the front was bad, rendering the installatin impossible. Fortunately, I had access at that time to a shop with oxygen acetylen torch. Of course, this shop was at 15 km from the car...The owner and me did several ways to correct the tubes. It was a long day (or two, I don't remember)!

Mines were supplied by YnZ's Yesterdays Parts for all 3 vehicles I have. Pricey, but I don't regret the expense. There were some errors which is undertandable with more complex wiring. Especially for the Brougham, I checked and compared the old and new wiring carefully. It did not prevent that I had to do some correction when the harness was installed, like a wire too short or a wrong connector. For the Brougham, I did not replaced the wiring for the electric windows/seat memory, nor the harness at the back of the car as they were still in good condition. Did you kept the old wiring to see if the wires had different colors? The person who told you that the wiring is not going into the frame is right; sometimes it is useful to have some knowledge about vehicle manufacturing/assembly!

Pat, I have no experience with cars from this period. I'm just surprised that most wires have the same color with the exception of the tracers which differ a little bit. I suppose that it's correct for that time...Who supplied the harness? Regarding the routing: I replaced the engine's harness from my '57 Brougham. I did many pictures but, when installing the new harness, I still had questions and doubts! OK, I know that a wiring for a Brougham has two or three wires more than on your Chevrolet!

Ah! the pleasure to have different paints on a part! The best way is to remove all to avoid incompatibility...

If I understand well, the bushing is not completely seated. I doubt that you will seat it just with the center bolt. As the bolts were not tight, probably the wheel alignment will be upset when all the bolts are torqued.

Winter has hit Switzerland; it's a good time to stay home and do modeling! The radiator story went further. Once the upper and lower tanks were attached by the side members, it was time to continue with the tubes. Of course, I'm not doing tubes, for what? And, another liberty, there are no 3 row-tubes, but just one as in my application only the front and rear can be seen. What is in the middle is not important... Two rods will keep the "tubes" together, they will not be seen when the cooling fins will be installed. The first picture is showing the "special" tools I did to assemble the tubes together. The assembly of the tubes is on the second pictures and the third one is showing the core which is ready to be adjusted and installed between both tanks. And the last pictures are showing the almost end result. A light coat of primer was sprayed on the radiator because, depending the material I will be using for the fins, the cleaning will be next to impossible. By the way, I relocated the filler neck... Now, the challenge is to find a suitable solution for the cooling fins

I only can say you are right!

Oh Bernie! You are also looking at my travel? I do appreciate it, especially considering the comments you did some days ago about cars from the fifties.

Thank you Chris! the construction of a model is like going somewere: you have the travel and the destination. Here, the travel, even if it's taking years, is more interesting that the destination. I had more or less the same attitude when I restored my cars. The work involved was interesting; when the car is ready it can be driven but in my opinion the way to get there was the main motivation to buy the car(s). Not everybody is sharing my point of view, I know!

Ah! Chassis and torque...Recheking screws and nuts is mandatory after a while if you painted the chassis elements. Usually, paint applied during a restoration is muck thicker that the light coat done at the factory; when elements are installed at the proper torque, after a while the paint is collapsing and the once correct torque is no more exact. I experienced that on all 3 cars I did, especially the lower "A" arm shafts and spindle.

It's good looking!

Well...it looks good but this detail was no more up to date in the fifties! By the way, if it's too worm in you country, come here: snow is not far away!

It looks good, very good!

Thank you Jay! The picture would fool most people if the parts were painted. That time will come; I just don't know when!

Last Saturday, I took some wood away as the will be pattern is too wide. With some machines from a woodwork the correct width could be done in 3 minutes; I had a couple of hours to diminish one side by 5 mm with hand tools which belonged once to my father. No need to do some body building after that! I still have to do the other side but, as I can only do it at my garage/store room, it has to wait a bit; I'm not going there each day. The last few days, I continued with the radiator and front end cradle. This "U" shaped part is responsible for holding the whole front clip; therefore I did it thicker as I would do otherwise. As you can also see on the pictures, I did also the "brace - front fender apron to radiator support" as it's labeled on a drawing I have. This brace will be bent downwards and rearwards; this will be done when I have the front fenders. When I positioned the radiator on the cradle and brace assembly, I noticed that the radiator neck is not in the middle of the upper water tank! Despite all the measures and attention I still can goof! I'm not totally sure, but I will probably correct it by grinding the neck away and soft soldering another one. It's frustrating to spend hours to get the proper shape to notice days later almost by accident that the thing is misplaced... The next job will be to do the radiator's tubes; I will have time to think about the neck. <o:p> </o:p>

You are lucky not to have more serious trouble. My father, who was woodworker missed 2 or 3 fingers...

It seems that is was a practice to change or modify a body in the twenties and thirties. Therefore, your car is in line with the habits from then, even if the modification was done during the 21. century.