1940 Packard 120 Convertible Restoration

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Continued nice work! Really enjoying following along.

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Amazing. That's he only word I can think of to describe this build.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Awesome! I'm enjoying following.

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Simply put REMARKABLE !!!

Originally Posted by Bomp

Every time I stop to check up on your progress I end up looking at the pics for 45 minutes or so.
Great job.
Keeps me on point with my little attempts.

Appreciate yall hanging in there!


Been working on finishing the driver side B-pillar inner brace. I layered three pieces of 1/8" x 3/4" steel to make the 90* turn (didn't have a piece of 3/8" x 5/8" laying around). I thought that a solid piece would be stronger than sheet metal, and that area needs all the help it can get to help keep the quarters in alignment. Just need to do some final trimming to fit it to the car. Making it solid also make it possible to "sculpt" the shape of the "bead" so I could blend from the round lower bead on the floor section to the square upper bead on the B-pillar, matching the appearance of the factory piece.





Both sides had be previously "repaired" so I only had pictures to go by.




Picture is from the car we were able to document in GA/NC. His shop is on the state line, not sure what side the car was on.






Also have been working on the driver side rocker. I made the front edge too round where it meets the A-pillar, so when I tried to test fit the door the front/bottom edge wouldn't clear. I had to make a couple relief cuts to drop the edge down. No pics but you can see the difference between the original shape and what I originally made. I should have made a template of the corners before I cut everything out. I'll know better on the passenger side...

[plainred65]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Appreciate yall hanging in there!

Can't help but stick with ya on this John, it's like a good book. Can't wait to find out what happens next!

Just worked with a guy the other day and showed him the panels you're making. He's a car guy so understands what you're up against, blew him away.

[MP&C]

The new parts sure look nice!

[duallyjams]

Basically your building a body from scratch like a coach builder back in the day of high end luxury cars.

[Clyde65]

fantastic work my friend!

[Lokin4AReason]

awesome progress, keep it up =0)

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by plainred65

Can't help but stick with ya on this John, it's like a good book. Can't wait to find out what happens next!

Just worked with a guy the other day and showed him the panels you're making. He's a car guy so understands what you're up against, blew him away.

Originally Posted by MP&C

The new parts sure look nice!

Originally Posted by duallyjams

Basically your building a body from scratch like a coach builder back in the day of high end luxury cars.

Originally Posted by Clyde65

fantastic work my friend!

Originally Posted by Lokin4AReason

awesome progress, keep it up =0)

Appreciate the comments!

I have the B-pillar bracing pretty much finished up. Had to extend the rocker panel 9" rearward so the outer B-pillar piece had something to weld to along it's outer and upper edges. This was rusted away on the original pieces so I didn't know it should have been longer than I originally made it. Didn't know exactly how it should look so I just made it functional, it won't be seen once the outer piece is welded on. Also pulled the rear floor pan back out to recess the area under the inner B-pillar brace. The rocker extension also had to be recessed.

I should have everything for the left side finished this week so I can pull it all out for cleaning/priming. Then it'll be ready to be welded in. All I'm missing now is one rear body mount brace at the rear inner fender; I started on it this morning. Also need to blast the original rear floor pan braces, hopefully they'll be nice enough that I won't need to make new ones.


Top half extended.




Floor pan and rocker recessed so the B-pillar brace sits flat.




Fitting the outer B-pillar piece.

[Advanced Design]

Nice! The B pillar piece in the bottom picture...is that one piece? There is a lot of complexity in that one.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice! The B pillar piece in the bottom picture...is that one piece? There is a lot of complexity in that one.

It's made out of 5 pieces welded together.

[theastronaut]

Started on the last piece of the driver side, the fenderwell/floor brace for the body mount at the end of the inner rocker. Still need to finish it up so I don't have any progress pictures but it's roughly shaped. I'll wait to do the final shaping once the rest of the panels are back in for good.




Pulled everything back out, then either blasted the parts or cleaned them with PPG DX579 and DX520 before spraying PPG DPLF epoxy. I'll start welding everything in next week.


Don't think I mentioned it before but I made a stainless table top for the bead roller. It's hinged at the back so it can be moved out of the way for round parts, and it's height adjustable to compensate for different bead depths. The table top makes it way easier to manage a floor pan section by myself. It's not always good to have two people trying to steer the panel around a corner...

[theastronaut]

One thing nobody likes to do is attempt to reassemble a car that another person took apart. Parts are usually scattered out, hardware is misplaced, labled wrong, or completly missing. Even if everything is there you still didn't take it apart yourself to really see how it was assembled. Since I wasn't familiar at all with Packards I was thinking that this could be a huge problem with the build when we first considered the job... thankfully I couldn't have been more wrong.

The owner completly documented the car before and while it was being dissasembled. All of the parts are in boxes that are labeled with the contents, and inside each box are all of the needed parts and hardware for that respective part of the car. There are full size color pictures in each box of how the parts go together- no guesswork involved. Many of the parts are already restored, with new hardware included, ready to bolt on and go. This will save countless hours once we start the reassembly. It's already been helpful with the few things we've needed while doing the metalwork. The owner definitely wins the "best customer ever" award for having everything organized to this level of detail.


I needed to make sure that the seat mounting brackets were in the correct location before welding in the floor pans. So I pulled out the seat frame and "seats" box, and found already-stripped/painted seat tracks, new hardware, and clear pictures of how they're assembled. Had it together quickly since I didn't have to hunt for random parts scattered in boxes.

I also double checked the location and height of the floor braces. All of the body mounts are shimmed with the same amount of spacers to keep the body braces level with the frame. This will make it easier to mount the body for the final time- no guessing with how many shims go in each location. It's all solid mounted with no rubber bushings at this point, hopefully this will help the body to remain in the correct alignment once the bracing is cut out.











The driver side seat bracket had alignment holes through the floor braces on both ends so I went ahead and welded it to the cross braces. The passenger side didn't have any way to locate it so I bolted the seat tracks and seat frame in the car and positioned the right side with clamps to hold the passenger seat bracket. Tested the tracks to make sure they weren't in a bind, then welded the passenger brace in and coated the top side of the braces with POR15. Took a little extra time to fit it all up but there won't be any surprises later once the seat is upholstered and ready to bolt in.






I've started re-fitting the panels so I can mark the spot weld locations. I like to prime the panels, then mark and grind the primer off only where the spot weld will be. This keeps more of the seams protected from rust in the future.









Used the patterns I made earlier to mark the location of the convertible top ram bracket.

[flashed]

I think you and your customer are cut from the same cloth kind of thing to be so well organized ,something Im not good at.

[Advanced Design]

Impressive organization...and am sure it save a tremendous amount of time.

[Low Elco]

I've been known to take a flattened drill bit and go through the spot holes and buzz off the primer/POR. Don't have to unclamp that way. Beautiful work, man.

[MalibuKasey]

Im really looking forward to 2035 when you restore Buttercup!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

I think you and your customer are cut from the same cloth kind of thing to be so well organized ,something Im not good at.

I'm nowhere near that orgainized!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Impressive organization...and am sure it save a tremendous amount of time.

Yep, it saves a ton of time.

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I've been known to take a flattened drill bit and go through the spot holes and buzz off the primer/POR. Don't have to unclamp that way. Beautiful work, man.

Thanks! I tried that, works great!

Originally Posted by MalibuKasey

Im really looking forward to 2035 when you restore Buttercup!

I'm ready when you are!

[theastronaut]

I have nearly the whole left side welded in; everything except one rear body mount brace against the inner fenderwell, the outer quarter panel, and lower front cowl panel. Lots of final fitting/trimming/reshaping to get it all fit together well. This is where good patterns would have helped a lot, but the original parts were in such rough shape it was impossible to make 100% correct patterns. There were 308 plug welds so far. Next step is to fit the outer quarter and cowl panel, then lead all the door jamb seams.

[theastronaut]

Front lower cowl side welded in.




For the quarter panel, I modified a set of panel clamps for a tighter gap between the panels. The "divider" piece was originally ~.045", which I ground down to around .020". I also tried Robert/MP&C's tack/planish/grind/overlap technique since I was able to access the back side of the panel. Great technique that really helps to reduce shrinking/warpage and keep the shape of the panel while welding. It'll only need minimal work to get it ready for bodywork.

[flashed]

Just AMAZING .

[MP&C]

John, you make it look easy, nicely done! What wire are you using? Looks like EZ grind..

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

Just AMAZING .

Thanks!

Originally Posted by MP&C

John, you make it look easy, nicely done! What wire are you using? Looks like EZ grind..

Appreciate that! It's .030" ER70S-6. I'd like to try -7 like you mentioned in the '55 Wagon thread, the gas tank is nearly empty so I'll check into it at the welding shop next time I fill up.

[Bomp]

What are you using to grind down the welds? I use a cut off disc like what MP&C use, works awesome.
After all the welding is completed what do you use to blend in the area with the panel?

Amazing work.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Bomp

What are you using to grind down the welds? I use a cut off disc like what MP&C use, works awesome.
After all the welding is completed what do you use to blend in the area with the panel?

Amazing work.

Cut off wheel to knock the top off, then switch to a 3" 36 grit roloc disc to flatten the welds, then 80 grit for the final smoothing/blending. I like starting with 36 grit so you can use lighter pressure and just hit high the high spots- same as doing body work (rough paper to shape/cut high spots, finer paper to smooth). I was out of 80 grit discs on the quarter panel so I just used the 36 discs, so it still has deeper scratches. Finish with 60 or 80 grit on a DA sander if you want it really slick.


This was two pieces welded together, then hit with a cutoff wheel, 36/80, then a DA. The darker stripe is where it was welded.

[theastronaut]

Got the passenger side quarter panel and B-pillar bottom cut out and cleaned up. There was a turn signal stalk and a few other random pieces of metal brazed onto the B-pillar to help strengthen the rusted out section. I'll get it outside when the weather clears up and use the spot blaster to finish stripping the B-pillar.

[Advanced Design]

Turn signal stalk...wow.
That pillar will be much better soon.