Hi Folks. I own a 1940 Packard 120 4dr streetrod. I bought it several years ago with new paint, upholstery, 350/350 under the hood, new exhaust system, ac, new wiring, Denman wide whites on the ground. Sounds great, doesn't it? Unfortunately, not one piece of work on the car was done right. The former owner spent a wad of cash getting a very rough car patched up and covered with a slick paint job.
I was aware of the rough underpinnings, and I paid accordingly. Sad to say, there was even more problems than I was aware of. The car barely ran, the brakes were borderline, the front end was worn out, and worse.
About this time, a body man who worked at the same auto dealer where I work learned of the car and volunteered to restore it. I had seen his work, and I felt he would do a good job. Five years later, much had been done, but the car was less than half finished. I decided that enough was enough, and got the car back from him. Today, it has a Firebird subframe under the front, 350 Iroc engine out of a Camero with 700R4 on the back, and still has the original Packard rearend. The car is in prime, the interior gutted, all chrome trim but the grille removed, and the front sheet metal hung on loosely. The body is basically complete, but there will be much smoothing to finish it. All the glass but the doors is out. Rewiring will be needed, because of the fuel injected engine. The wiring that came with the car (what there was of it) was done all in 14ga. Blue. I hope to be able to reclaim most of the trim from the body man who had the car for so long.
My first plan is to try to get the car in running condition. I can't decide whether or not to keep the Packard third member. It originally had 16" wheels, and I have not been able to find a match for the bolt pattern so that I could update to modern tubless type wheels. At present, the front end has 15" wheels and tires off a 1986 Pontiac Parisienne. I plan to go with plain steel wheels with baby moons and trim rings. I measured the width at the outside of the brake drums where the wheels mount on the rear end, and I came up with 61 15/16". The condition of the gears in the unit is basically unknown, and I have not been able to get my hands on a puller which would allow me to remove the axle mounted drums.
As you can see, I have a dandy project on my hands, and at age 66, I hope I have enough time left to finish it. My income will not allow me to jump in with both feet, so I must chip away at it bit by bit. I do have a nice concrete floored garage and a good air compressor and plenty of tools left over from the years I worked as a mechanic. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Scruffybeast, Winter Haven, Florida