47 Packard

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Some pics of the body after disassembly for cleanup and in bare metal. I had the inside and doorjambs sandblasted and scraped, sanded and wirebrushed the rest of it clean and ready for bondo.
 

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Lots of bondy work later, it's ready for colour, the hours really piled up and the doors and front end still need to be done..
 

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I don't think that roof line and rear quarter window lend themselves to being chopped too well, I like yours with a stock roof.
Not to get critical, but I would try and drop the back end down over the wheels more like the black one you posted on the first post, if that's possible. But that's just me. Other than that, I really like the body style, very nice.
 
Love the Packards. There is a 49 not far from me for 10k. Runs and drives looks all original. Sits by the guys house with a dead battery in a low spot by his driveway standing in a pool of water. Great looking car from the factory original blue. Makes me sick to think about it just sitting there. If I only had 10k to go save a beautiful car. I hope someone does. Guy wasn't doing good when I last talked to him. Hopefully his wife or kids will see it gets a good home.

Good looking build you have there. Obviously a lot of work and love in your build.
 
I don't think that roof line and rear quarter window lend themselves to being chopped too well, I like yours with a stock roof.
Not to get critical, but I would try and drop the back end down over the wheels more like the black one you posted on the first post, if that's possible. But that's just me. Other than that, I really like the body style, very nice.

Like I said above, my preference (if I had a do over) would be to chop it above the drip rail , or pancake the roof to reduce the humpback look a bit. That would also require sectioning the trunk lid or sinking it into the quarters. All theory and a lot of metal work. [S
In my first post where it's in black, that's the finished car so it's final weight brought the height down a couple inches from the mock-up version.

Now here's where my build took a swerve. I had a two tone paint job in mind from the start, seemed the trendy thing to do. Sooo I shot it with a newer Chev truck green and a silver lower half. At this point I had a lot of work into it and was still trying to convince myself I was on the right track (also known as denial)...... More pix to come..
 

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Here's how far I got in the two tone stage before sanity took hold. Not only did I hate it (the wife too...) but flaws in my paint job really killed it for me. Poor prep on the silver showed lots of flaws but the green was the worst. The guy at the paint shop screwed up and mixed it as a single stage and convinced me it would turn out good. WRONG !! The flake puddled and had weird effects in it and putting the clear on top only made it worse. Take a look at the trunk, you can see the big black spot! Besides the problems, the colour combo seemed to make it more humbacked looking, like some kinda hideous turtle....... Got really depressed at this point and parked it for a couple weeks to sulk...
 

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OK, after some soul searching and crow eating, I took it all apart again and wet sanded it down and shot it with 4 coats of PPG black. It doesn't even look like the same car !! Finally taking on that classy look that a Packard should have. The green is still lurking on the stool inside, a reminder of the mistake.
 

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I thought I liked the 2 tone and was going to suggest an Indigo Blue or Canary Yellow strip to separate the colors. And then you mentioned a hidious turtle and that did it for me also.
Black's definately where it's at. Now that's a nice car.

I'm like you when it comes to the painter screwing up.
My '50 Studie was shot with Sunset Orange Carizzma which has a chip in it that flips in the sunlight. The paint gun has to be held straight up and down and you cannot cock your wrist back and forth, you have to lock your wrist and move your whole body down the car. The painter, painted my car in pieces, doors, front clip, and trunk lid off. When he came to the front door post he turned the gun sideways to spray up and down which made the chip stand horizontally instead of vertical which in turn made the door post a different hue when the front clip and doors were installed. At $1200 / gal. x two, I was not impressed. The painter has agreed to reshoot the car at his expense.
 
Dang, one nice Packard. Are you planning on comming down to the Spokane Good Guys in August?

That would be cool, I love Spokane, I see lots of awesome rides up here in B.C. from your area, unfortunately I sold the Packard last August. It was a fun car to build and drove like a dream. I did however keep the straight 8 engine to use in as future rat rod project. Maybe one day I'll bring down my 28 Hennway...

Some pix of the rest of the sheetmetal on, I left the silver lower half on the dash to match up to the planned upholstery. Since the custom grille I made still has the Packard styling cues, most people didn't even realize the front end had been totally restyled as these cars are rare, few have seen them before.
 

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I thought I liked the 2 tone and was going to suggest an Indigo Blue or Canary Yellow strip to separate the colors. And then you mentioned a hidious turtle and that did it for me also.
Black's definately where it's at. Now that's a nice car.

I'm like you when it comes to the painter screwing up.
My '50 Studie was shot with Sunset Orange Carizzma which has a chip in it that flips in the sunlight. The paint gun has to be held straight up and down and you cannot cock your wrist back and forth, you have to lock your wrist and move your whole body down the car. The painter, painted my car in pieces, doors, front clip, and trunk lid off. When he came to the front door post he turned the gun sideways to spray up and down which made the chip stand horizontally instead of vertical which in turn made the door post a different hue when the front clip and doors were installed. At $1200 / gal. x two, I was not impressed. The painter has agreed to reshoot the car at his expense.

Ouch ! Yeah, I'd be pretty choked paying that kind of dough and getting amateur results ! In my case, I'm the painter so I should have know better than to use a suspect product and as for the poor prep, me again. You'd laugh if you saw where I paint in my 20 x 20 garage using a poly drop sheet to separate a small area for painting from the rest of my junk. I've gained my limited painting knowledge from just buying product and splattering it on (school of hard knocks), every time I pick up the gun is a learning experience. When I build a car my budget doesn't allow for paying others to do any work other than upholstery, that way when I sell there is actually a (small) profit to be had, as any screw ups I do only add material costs.
By the way, looked at your Stude build, very nice !!
 
Some pix with the glass in, still waiting on the hood trim from the platers. Also an engine shot, the 460 really fills up the engine compartment, had to put the battery in the trunk but everything is still accessable, plugs easy to get at. Couple shots of the underside, still shiny, at least until it gets driven..
 

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Looks great. One question, what brand of wheels are you using. You also said they were 18 in front and 20 in back. What are the dimensions, including the backspacing? I love them.
 
Looks great. One question, what brand of wheels are you using. You also said they were 18 in front and 20 in back. What are the dimensions, including the backspacing? I love them.

Thanks! The wheels are RT5's from Stockton Wheel, if I recall correctly, they were 18 x 7" and 20 x 9". I picked them because they had a clean outer lip with no steps plus they were way cheaper than most large wheels.
Look them up on their website www.stocktonwheel.com, you can find all the dimensions and backspacing there.
 
Got the hood trim on and upholstery done, also made a console to house the CD player and the obligatory cupholders. I used the stainless trim from the 4dr. parts car to dress up the door panels.
 

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Well, I guess that's it for this build. It took about 6 months longer than I'd expected but turned out OK in the end. Some guys felt that the wheels didn't work for it but I was going for a more modern look anyway. If it had whitewalls and caps I thought it would have looked too much like a stocker. They are easily changed though, but thats for the next guy...
As I expected, a couple of whiners complained that I'd defiled a classic Packard by making a street rod out of it but as I said earlier, it had been for sale for a couple years and all the Packard lookee loos had given it the thumbs down as not being worth the effort to restore.. Oh well, I have a clear consience knowing that I gave an old heap a new life that will last for many more years hopefully......
 

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