Rusty_OToole

Old Cars Price Guide says a 52 Packard sedan like yours is worth $680 to $2160.

Probably meant for garages to use in testing brakes. Notice the red triangle emblem at the bottom. When 4 wheel brakes became popular in the late 20s such cars were equipped with a red triangle "4 wheel brakes" emblem on the left rear fender. The gauge may also have been used as a sales aid to demonstrate the superiority of the new 4 wheel brakes to the customer's old car with its 2 wheel brakes.

Another remarkable facelift was the 1963 - 64 Chryslers which were based on the tailfinned 1960 design. I don't think any other car changed its character so much in a facelift. The 63 Chrysler is a sophisticated design that is unjustly overlooked on lists of the best styling jobs of all time. In fact BMW's top luxury models of the 1990s look like copies of a 30 year old Chrysler.

I guess there is no accounting for taste. To me the 1960 is one of the best looking Pontiacs ever made while the 1959 is one of the worst. The 60 is a sleek well integrated design that flows. The 59 seems to be fighting itself especially the tailfins. Likewise the 1960 Ford is much better looking than the 59 which was a facelifted 57, or the 1961 that was facelifted to look like a 1957. Some experts at the time felt the 60 Ford didn't sell because it was too sophisticated for a low price car. Call me nuts but the 1960 Ford station wagon is especially sleek, one of the best looking station wagons ever made. Possibly the worst looking redesign ever was the 1948-1950 Packard "pregnant elephant" facelift of the 1941-47 Clipper.

It's a pet peeve of mine when people expect accurate information but can't be bothered to give any. I dare say if we had to guess what kind of car it was a 1920 HCS would be pretty far down the list. Please everyone if you expect good answers give us a fighting chance. The Amazing Kreskin hasn't posted here for a while.

Have not been able to track down the serial # on the distributor because my books only go back to 1940. But the dist is probably off a 38 or 39 Dodge or Plymouth. Engine, 1941 Plymouth 87HP six.

The only number that counts is the serial number. It is stamped into the block. There is a pad on the block at the top, left side, about 3" back from the front of the block. I assume we are talking about some kind of flathead six. PI2A*3I402* *= A STAR P12 - 1941 Plymouth 201 cu in 87HP 3 1/8 bore and 4 3/8 stroke. According to my Motor Repair Manual your distributor should be model 1GS-4111-1 or 1GS-4204-1 Also your engine # should be P12 followed by a 7 or 8 digit number. Is it possible this is a pickup truck, or a Canadian made car or some other offshoot?

I checked some lists of serial numbers and there is no P13. They just skipped the 13. So did Chrysler and Dodge. There is an S13 DeSoto, for 1949.

Just to throw more fuel on the fire none of these is accurate. Factory weights are usually shipping weights which are understated or at least, dry weight for a vehicle with no fuel, oil, or even washer fluid. Add the normal fluids and the usual accessories plus a driver and the actual weight could be hundreds of pounds more. Makes no difference. A 57 Chev could beat a 58 Chev and that's all that mattered.

In places where there used to be cork I like to use neoprene O rings if posssible. I find they seal better and last longer. Or, in some cases old corks can be restored to use by soaking in hot water. This makes them soften and expand.

I would check the plug wires and the distributor cap and rotor and put in a set of spark plugs. What you describe sounds more like weak spark to me.

Thanks Carbking. Evidently Zim1 is one of those birds who think it is easier for someone else to type out the answer to every question in the universe, than for them to type out 5 words of information.

The 57 Chev was so popular so long for a couple of reasons. The55-57 series was the first with a V8, making them easy to hop up. The 58 and newer models were larger and heavier making them less desirable for performance. Of the most desirable for hop ups, the 57 was the newest. So it was a combination of things that made them desirable, and once they got the name for being "cool" it stuck, even among people who know little about cars and hot rods.

Was told years ago about a 1937 Cord cut down to make a buck rake (for loading hay) on a local farm but never saw it.

Studebaker should get some kind of prize too. The last all new body they had was in 1953. It was restyled over and over, then turned into the Lark in 1958, after that it got a new front one year and a new rear the next year until the end of US production in 63, then went on in Canada with minor changes until 1966. They were still using the front suspension they introduced in 1951.

Running too lean for some reason.

Neat old car. It is hard to tell from the photos but it looks like a lot of rust around the bottom edges?

Slide them on with a big screwdriver. There is a knack to it.

Possibly not as much as you might think. Considering they shared the B body with Olds and the C body with Cadillac, and Buick was a perennial best seller to boot. It does puzzle some people that a Buick Special's body parts will not interchange with a Buick Roadmaster of the same year. This may be one of the reasons they wanted to go to one body for all full size cars after 1959.

By the way the 55 chev was all new, the 56 and 57 represented major face lifts of the 55 body. The 53 and 54 Chev also shared the same body with each other. 54 representing a minor face lift. The difference between a major and minor is one has only trim differences while the other has new sheet metal such as fenders and hood.

58 Chev was a totally different body from 1955-57 and 1959-60. This was part of GM's long range plan to change from a 3 year styling cycle to a 2 year. In 1959 they wanted to make every car from Chev to Cadillac use the same body shell, suitably modified. This would allow them to amortize the tooling in 2 years and have an all new car every 2 years, with a major face lift in between. To bring the A body (Chev and Pontiac) into line with the B and C body models, they had to either stretch the old body out for one more year or make a one year only 1958 A body. Ironically the new plan only lasted one year. In 1959, indeed, every GM car was built using a version of the same body. But in 1960 they brought out the Corvair meaning they now had 2 bodies. Within a few years they had a whole variety of bodies in various sizes, some of them used for more than one make of car, others exclusive to Chev.

Not sure what you mean. If the wheels are true and the hubcaps installed properly there should be little or no wobble. If it is that obvious the hubcaps must be defective.

So far as I can tell the station sedan roof was a special stamping for that one model. It must have been the most expensive part to tool up for, of the special body. Other than that the tooling cost was low although there was a lot of expensive hand work in building the body, but this was typical of the woody wagons of the time.

Here in Canada we have been calling them Robertson screws all my life. According to all the info I can find on the web it is Robertson. Robertson Screws

Copper scrubbing pads and Pledge are excellent for cleaning rusty chrome, and they don't scratch. Finish with Simichrome or Flitz.