1940 Packard 120 Convertible Restoration

[theastronaut]

Rear passenger floor pan. Same process, pre-stretch and bead roll. Had to do a little shrinking around the corners of the beads to get it back flat.

[flashed]

Looks great ,I am constantly amazed at your talents and skills of metal forming .

[Advanced Design]

Excellent work! Thank you for continuing to share.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks great ,I am constantly amazed at your talents and skills of metal forming .

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Excellent work! Thank you for continuing to share.

Thanks guys!



Got the right front corner cut out. I cut it out in one piece instead of separating the layers like I did on the other side. This way it's all still assembled and I can see how it goes together better.






Front floors all laid in place.

[theastronaut]

Cut more of the left rear fenderwell out. This is the better side...










Inside of the outer panel stripped clean.




Initial fitting of the new panel.




Bump added.




Welded in and shot with weld thru primer, ready for the outer layer to be welded on.




Outer layer welded on. Still need to add the holes and slots for the fender bolt clips.

[theastronaut]

The next section down had the mount for the convertible top welded and bolted in place. I'm not sure if the 1/8" thick outer plate is original or not; it was brazed on and bolted. The bolt pattern wasn't square and the brazing looks the same as the other areas that were poorly reworked so it looks like it was added later. It did have tan paint and red oxide primer though, so maybe it was original. I'll have to check with someone who knows the cars better.






A little bit of rust in the outer rolled edge. Just a small spot though, glad it wasn't the whole lip.




Top mount cut off and blasted clean.

[theastronaut]

With the last of the old floors cut out I could test fit the toe board and front floors. Fits pretty good, needs a little tweaking in a couple areas still.






Also cut out and made a new section for the convertible top mount.




And cut the last section of fenderwell rust out of the driver side.

[Russell Ashley]

Thank you, been looking for more updates on this one. You have some SKILLS. How long have you been in the restoration business?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Thank you, been looking for more updates on this one. You have some SKILLS. How long have you been in the restoration business?

I grew up in it, dad did street rod upholstery for years and our house was beside the business so I was always in the shop as a kid. He got away from interior work when I was about 10 and started doing auto glass replacement but I was already interested in working on old cars by then. He helped me buy my first car when I was 8 years old ('66 VW Bug) and we started rebuilding it when I was around 11 years old. We had the chassis rolling by time I was 14-15 but had a really bad deal with a body/paint guy so it just sat after that. I always wanted to learn how to do everything myself so when I graduated in '05 I started Auto Body classes at Greenville Tech.

As far as working on other people's cars, I started restoring the '65 C10 in my signature back in '06 while I was still going to tech. It was a huge learning experience, taking the basics from Tech and applying them to a beat up truck. It's been almost ten years and I'm still learning from working on beat up old trucks...

[Advanced Design]

Looks really good! You are blessed with talent that has been developed more through a lot of hard work. Really appreciate your sharing here.

[plainred65]

Glad to see some updates on this, first place I check when I log in. Just fantastic!

[Clyde65]

It is amazing to me that someone wanted to put that kind of money in an old rusty car like that. It must mean a lot to the owner, because custom metal work isn't cheap.
I am truly amazed at your skills and attention to detail. My dad makes parts for 23-32 Chevrolet cars and trucks and I get to see some of the cars while in shops for full restorations and you sir out do any I have seen to date, My hat is off to you!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Looks really good! You are blessed with talent that has been developed more through a lot of hard work. Really appreciate your sharing here.

Originally Posted by plainred65

Glad to see some updates on this, first place I check when I log in. Just fantastic!

Originally Posted by Clyde65

It is amazing to me that someone wanted to put that kind of money in an old rusty car like that. It must mean a lot to the owner, because custom metal work isn't cheap.
I am truly amazed at your skills and attention to detail. My dad makes parts for 23-32 Chevrolet cars and trucks and I get to see some of the cars while in shops for full restorations and you sir out do any I have seen to date, My hat is off to you!

Thanks dudes!!!

[theastronaut]

I started cutting out the bad metal in the back seat area against the inner fender wells. This section isn't all that bad overall, just a few pinholes here and there. I also cut out the bottom of the dividing panel between the cab area and the trunk so I could get in there to blast better. There was rust between the layers that had to be cut out anyway.









More inner fenderwell rust at the bottom edge.





Trunk divider bottom cut out.



Beginning to make a new panel.

[theastronaut]

With the bottom of the trunk separation panel cut out I was ready to start blasting the body, but the rear half was way too weak to be mounted on the rotisserie like it was. I bought more 1" square tubing and used our tubing roller to make more bracing to keep the body in shape while it's off the frame for blasting.


The '68 Chevelle in the background is another shop project, I'll start a thread for it eventually.







I'm about halfway through blasting the body now. Once the weather dries up I'll be able to finish stripping it and shoot epoxy primer.

[nds1968]

I always enjoy checking out your threads. Thanks for posting updates.

[Advanced Design]

That is very impressive bracing! Nice work.

[shok]

It's a Packard with an exocage!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by nds1968

I always enjoy checking out your threads. Thanks for posting updates.

Appreciate it!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

That is very impressive bracing! Nice work.

It looks like overkill but it needs all that to keep it from folding up on the rotisserie. It's very weak structurally.

Originally Posted by shok

It's a Packard with an exocage!

That thought crossed my mind.

[theastronaut]

It finally quit raining after three weeks of almost non-stop wet weather. Body is now all stripped and I have most of the lead melted out of the seams. I left the lead in the left top windshield frame corner, and the top of the door jamb/quarter panel for reference. Those two areas aren't just leaded to hide seams, they're built up fairly thick to actually shape the area. I've never used lead as filler before so it will be interesting to learn the process.


There is a good bit of lead in the car from the factory. All of the overlapping panel seams in the door jambs were built up and shaped into an outside "corner" to mimic a one-piece stamping. The lower rocker seams were also leaded to hide those panel overlaps.


Cracks in the lead, these looked worse before blasting.









The whole top corner of the windshield frame is shaped with lead.







As is the top of the quarter panels.

[theastronaut]

After melting the lead out. I went back and blasted these areas to get them 100% clean.









After blasting.

[Lokin4AReason]

nice clean bare metal .... excellent foundation for any good paint work

[Advanced Design]

Clean, was the thick lead at the windshield post factory applied?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Lokin4AReason

nice clean bare metal .... excellent foundation for any good paint work

Got to get it bare and clean before I'll put anything over it.

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Clean, was the thick lead at the windshield post factory applied?

All of the lead was factory applied. Some of the seams were hammered to make sure they were lower than the surrounding metal... not neatly done at all. I will try to make some of the seams better before refilling them with new lead.

[swamp rat]

I just scrolled thru page 5 and my jaw about hit the floor.... Nuff said?