Dave Mitchell

I have one. packard12s@hotmail.com

I think I have one of these. packard12s@hotmail.com

Look for rust in the rockers, check the engine - do a compression check, look for weak suspension. If the car is solid and has a decent interior, you can fix the engine and suspension.

They are factory parts

I might have them for you. Dave Mitchell packard12s@hotmail.com

I like 39s because they have the classic wide grill and you can get a factory overdrive. They are modestly priced also, particularly the Super 8 sedans. I've owned 39s since 1986 and if you get one, I'll be happy to help with advice etc. 1940 is also a good car and if you get the Super 8, they have the newer type engine. People here look down their nose at the juniors and post 1934 cars, but they are great cars to drive, and the low priced sedans are a lot of fun. Dave Mitchell packard12s@hotmail.com

I believe 7/16 is correct. I found some a few years ago from a plumbing supply company. It is pretty simple - makes a 90 bend after connecting to the tank and goes forward to the fitting at the bottom of the radiator. Some years have a small angle bend from the frame over to the rad.

Starter?

I can get you photos and probably also have all the parts. packard12s@hotmail.com

West, Selling off some things that I didn't think I would ever sell. I have too much stuff. I had to move a lot of it this year and it is time to sell things and put money into restoring the cars I have.

I can help you. packard12s@hotmail.com

I would respectfully say that I was on the CCCA national board for 9 years, I was membership, long range planning and awards chair, sat on many committees - including Awards and Classifications for 12 years. I was also on the museum board for many years and reported to the National board about the museum. I was the coordinator of nationally run Grand Classics and worked on the Experience for many years. I have been to many annual meetings, grand classics and a couple of caravans. I volunteered and was paid nothing ever, and went to a lot more meetings each year than are held now. I know how Caravans are planned and paid for and the resources put into them, and I know the difference between one put on by a region and one done by National. I can also read a financial statement. A great deal of money and time is also spent on things other than publications. I know what it takes to create a positive image for the club, which I also know has deteriorated badly in the years since I was on the board. I also know that this has hurt the membership numbers of the CCCA which I know is far smaller than the AACA, so attracting and keeping members is so much more important. I know that this is a topic that comes up quite often, and yet I see a lot of excuses and not much improvement combined with a condescending attitude which drives people away. I just have a very different view of what good customer service to the average member is. I submit that I know just as well as most members what a classic car is and what place in history they have, where they fit in the social setting when they were new, and I also know what a really good restoration is now and how much that costs. My cars may not be as nice as some, but they look good in front of Burger King, and I am not too good to eat there. We just have a different view of what the club should do.

I know that the 16 had an emblem, and I think I have a V12 one somewhere. packard12s@hotmail.com

I think I have a lens for you. packard12s@hotmail.com

I might have a drum for you. packard12s@hotmail.com

I recently took apart an original 37 120 sedan and the antenna lead goes to the chicken wire in the roof, even though the car had no radio. On my 37 115 coupe roadster it went to the top. Other antennas were usually installed by dealers at extra cost. They may or may not have worked better, but certainly made the dealer more money than plugging into the existing lead left by the factory.

I agree that the volunteers do great work and are the only reason the club survives at all. Perhaps instead of putting money into a European caravan for a few members, the club should pay authors like Walt to research and write classic history for the magazine and put more color for the photos of members cars not ads. The club at the top needs to think about better events that more people want to attend and help the volunteers at the regional level put them on. Telling people smartly that they just aren't good or rich enough for the club isn't the way to welcome more members or make the present ones proud.

Convertibles usually had the antenna sewn into the top. Sedans often had a lead that used the chicken wire in the roof insert for an antenna also. The cowl mount antenna could also have been used if the customer didn't get good reception from the top antenna.

Very nice

I can send you a photo

This is a complex process, and no one commercially does them correctly. If I were you, unless you are dead set on total perfection, I would clean up the outer wheel and clear coat it and live with the chrome. This will save you about $1500. No one that I know of is able to replicate the hard rubber with woodgraining integral in it that was used on the 37 accessory wheels. The woodgrain look was actually multicolors of the rubber material mixed together when it was molten. The closest I've seen is that people have the rim painted with woodgraining and it never looks right and certainly doesn't feel the same. Nothing against D & D as I have had them do a plastic wheel for me, but to my knowledge he doesn't do the 37s the way they were originally done. If you do decide to chrome the hub, you need to melt the rubber off the rim, make a jig that holds the center in place along with the spokes and rim before you cut it apart. Then cut the spokes from the rim and take a small grinder and cut the weld out the hub where the spokes go in so that they will come loose. Then polish the spokes or have your plater do it. Plate the hub making sure that the spokes will go back in, make sure the horn button surround fits, then weld the spokes back in, weld them to the rim etc and then have the new grip put on the rim. A lot of work. I would sand the outer rim, clear it and see what it looks like and decide if you can live with that. When they are clear coated, they look great.

You can buy the proper thick head bolts, but they are expensive. The original fasteners had hardness markings like B 2 on the top or no marking at all, and many are fine thread. The B 2 bolts are not available, nor fine thread bolts with no markings, so you have to put each bolt in the lathe and cut the markings off if you buy modern hardware or stainless. The parts manual, back in section 50 gives the specs for each fastener. If you don't care about the markings or head thickness, just buy bags of hardware at the local farm store, otherwise bead blast or clean them with the wire wheel on your grinder and paint or plate them.

There are quite a few people who have 37 parts. Feel free to email me - packard12s@hotmail.com

We match the engine green and custom mix Dupont Imron for the engine paint. It holds up to heat as well as oil and gas. Any of the top line paints will do a good job - Sikkens, Dupont, PPG, etc.

I disagree with the cheapest paint available theory. I have done several total frame off restorations of Packards, have owned quite a few and done work on many more, including very low mileage originals. I have not seen a Packard with a flat black or semi gloss frame, that hadn't been repainted. Sure the gloss may have dulled over the last 70 years, but when you take pieces off and reveal the original finish which has never seen the light of day, it is glossy. Packard had high standards, even on the juniors, and putting on crappy paint wasn't in the spec book. They cared about paint lasting and I have dealer letters where they took cars back or repainted them because the exterior paint didn't hold up on the early juniors, later letters apologize to the dealers and assure them that the paint quality would be back to what a Packard customer expected. To further test the frame paint, on several cars that had original paint on the frame - including Super 8s, 12s and the 37 120 we are restoring now where the paint was largely covered by a thick coat of Iowa farm road mud which caked in the frame rails, the paint held up well and was definitely gloss. I took some compound and polished it and there is no question. Several frames had paint good enough that the chassis designation stenciled on the frame was still there, including this 120. Gloss paint, be it automotive or house paint, will hold up better than flat paint, due to the hard shell on the outside, and for that reason, it was specified on the frames. If these frames were flat finish, the paint wouldn't have lasted in everyday hard use like the car we are doing now had. If you want to do it right, put a good quality gloss paint on your frame. Also when I have cleaned up these frames, they were well painted, no places were missed and there weren't huge runs in them - it wasn't a quick and dirty job on a Packard. I have also seen a number of Packards which had body color frames, which was definitely gloss and in those cases the paint on the frame looks now to be the same level of gloss that the original black was. I think people get confused because there wasn't underlying surface prep done to give a totally smooth surface to apply the paint to and therefore it doesn't look as good.