1940 Packard 120 Convertible Restoration

[Advanced Design]

Thanks for showing the steps you went through on this one. Nice work!

[Low Elco]

Man, that's nice. Please keep it comin'!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Thanks for showing the steps you went through on this one. Nice work!

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Man, that's nice. Please keep it comin'!

Thanks!


I started fitting the middle and rear floor pan sections last week. The edges needed trimming, indentions were added for the body mount bolts/washers, the outside rear corner was trimmed to fit around the inner fenderwell, and I also started drilling for plug welds.








I also offset the end of the rocker to make the B-pillar bottom fit flush. This seam will be leaded over once it's welded in. With the rocker offset finished I can extend that end of the rocker rearward 8-10", and that will finish the rocker.

[flashed]

Simply AMAZING what you do with metal ,you are a very talented artist .

[MP&C]

Beautiful work John!

[Bomp]

You got this!
Great work, will you do an indepth write up on leading?

[duallyjams]

I meant to call the shop to wish you and family Merry Christmas but got tied up verses here but I'm sure you will have a good one.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

Simply AMAZING what you do with metal ,you are a very talented artist .

Appreciate it flashed!

Originally Posted by MP&C

Beautiful work John!

Thanks Robert!

Originally Posted by Bomp

You got this!
Great work, will you do an indepth write up on leading?

Thanks, I posted videos earlier in the build but I can do a better/separate step-by-step when I get around to the other sections. It's pretty interesting to work with.

Originally Posted by duallyjams

I meant to call the shop to wish you and family Merry Christmas but got tied up verses here but I'm sure you will have a good one.

Appreciate that James, hope you guys had a great Christmas as well!

[theastronaut]

Been awhile since I updated this. Pretty much everything I've been doing lately is a copy of the other side so it was fairly boring/repetative. I didn't keep up with documenting this side as well as I did the first side since it's basically the same thing.

With most all of the new panel fabrication finished, I pulled everything back out to wash with PPG DX579 and DX520. This cleans any light surface/fingerprint rust off from handling the parts while their bare metal and preps them for epoxy. Forgot to get an after pic, this is before washing. The smaller parts were blasted before epoxy.




The center seam will be butt-welded down the length so it will apear as one piece. To butt-weld a seal like this it'll need to be plannished like I did the quarter panel seam to eliminate any distortion. I can't reach both sides so I'll need someone to hold the dolly on the other side. I marked both sides with the same layout so we can both stay in the same place.




I've started welding in the floors and inner rocker, same process as the other side.

[Advanced Design]

And that is how a talented professional does it. The reference marks are a good idea for the planishing work.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

And that is how a talented professional does it. The reference marks are a good idea for the planishing work.

I think it was on the show American Hot Rod a few years back, they were flattening a floor seam before applying seam sealer. The two guys were having trouble staying in sync with the hammer/dolly. Adding the marks should keep the reality show drama out of the shop.

[theastronaut]

I have the pans and inner rocker welded in, so I moved to finishing the A-pillar bottom. I tacked the inner A-pillar in place and stuck the outer skin over it to mark the size/location of the hinge holes. Used a carbide burr to open up the holes almost all the way, then a step-bit to get to the final size which also cleans up the edges.








Squared up the other opening with a rectangle file.




Inner A-pillar welded, smoothed up, and mopped with epoxy.




Used tape to locate the edge of the outer skin, this will help with trimming the outer layer to size without having too big of a gap.




Outer skin stuck in place, another layer of tape placed over the first piece. The bottom edge of the tape will be the cut line.




Outer skin welded in place, welds smoothed.




Inner A-pillar brace welded in.




Inner cavity mopped with epoxy after welding.




And a "work in progress" shot. Currently working on getting the outer rocker ready for welding.

[flashed]

Wow ,it's looking like a car again ,still amazing .

[swamp rat]

Just caught back up on this thread, as usual my head is spinning looking at your work!

I have been curious how often, if at all, you are adjusting the turn buckles?

Also the first time i have seen someone duct some heat on an area before welding, does that help stabilize the part??

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

Wow ,it's looking like a car again ,still amazing .

The cab section is starting to shape up. Won't be long until it's finished.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Just caught back up on this thread, as usual my head is spinning looking at your work!

I have been curious how often, if at all, you are adjusting the turn buckles?

Also the first time i have seen someone duct some heat on an area before welding, does that help stabilize the part??

Thanks! The only adjustments I made were back when I adjusted the turnbuckles to fit the doors. Once the body was squared up and the doors gaps and body lines were corrected I added more bracing to maintain that alignment. To simplify body mounting in the future I have used the same shim stack height at each major body mounting point. I do expect slight shimming to be needed once the bracing comes out and the current solid steel shims are swapped out for rubber mounts, but I'm hoping its minimal.

The hoses are actually for pulling out welding fumes. It's way too cold to have the shop doors open this time of year! I threw it together using an 8" fan and duct parts from Lowes. Works very well for a quick/inexpensive home brew job.

[Low Elco]

Beautiful as always. I dig the fume fan, do you find it drawing off your weld gas, or is it far enough away?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Beautiful as always. I dig the fume fan, do you find it drawing off your weld gas, or is it far enough away?

It has two speeds, if it's too close and pulling the shielding gas away I can lower the fan speed.

[theastronaut]

I have the rocker, inner and outer B-pillar pieces, and the lower cowl panel welded in.

Next step is to get the lower quarter panel fitted and welded in, then start leading the seams. To position the quarter I set the door in place to match quarter bottom to the door bottom and make sure the bottom edge carried the same line. The edge of the door (black) was blending into the black frame so I added blue tape to the edges of both panels to help visualize the line better.




Fitting and finishing the cowl panel:








B-pillar brace.




Rocker in:

[theastronaut]

Since the door was out I took a few pictures. You might want to make sure there are no children around when you scroll down, it's pretty scary...

They're patched up so bad that they won't fully fit in the door jamb without hitting the rockers. Now it makes sense that the old rockers were bashed in and bondo'd as bad as they were. Like the rest of the body, the door is fixable with enough work but it would make more sense to just start with a better door if we can find one.















And that's just the bottom... the middle of the inner skin somehow rotted out. Very unusual place to have rust holes.






If that wasn't bad enough, most of the inner front edge is rusted through.

[MP&C]

That door looks like a good project for Rock Hill! Come back with new inner door and new door skin...

Your work is looking stellar John, gives the owner a good perspective looking at the inner door next to it..

[flashed]

From what I have seen you do with the rest of the car I think you could build a door blindfolded .

[duallyjams]

The rust in the middle of the door is the water line from being submerged under water.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Can 1940 Packard doors even be found???

[Russell Ashley]

Makes me wonder if another restoration shop did the door like that. One thing for sure, the restoration that is in progress on this car now could be used as a text book on how to do it correctly.

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by flashed

From what I have seen you do with the rest of the car I think you could build a door blindfolded .

And before lunch. Packard or not, I bet it wasn't done this well when it was built.