Greetings from the peanut gallery! I have been writing nothing because nothing has been done, almost. I got my actuator ?in-nerds? back from Mr. Pushbutton, who I can't thank enough! He told me that I have to get the shifter back to ?R?. It has traveled too far clockwise! He told me about an easy way to do this by applying current to one of the leads of the electric motor.
Well dummy me, tired that and nothing happened. I took the motor out and found that I had nothing to turn the worm gear with. It took me a week but I finally realized that the motor could not work because the other leads were not grounded. So I made up patch cords and a bus bar so that I can work this magic from under the car. I am also taking a small piece of PVC pipe that has been notched as a plan ?B?.
I just got a call from the guy that is building the radiator for me. It will be ready on Saturday! (My friend can only go up to his building on Friday night.)
I want my car off of his lift! It has been there for nearly two months. This Saturday is our clubs car cruise and there is an all day show this Sunday. I might just be closer to August getting her back on the road than I guessed.
An important point. When I ordered the radiator with shroud and an electric fan, I was sure that I had plenty of room for it once I took my old fan off. I had not counted on the water pump having that long of a shaft coming out of the front like it does. The radiator guy says that he can rig two 12 inch fans. One will be high on the driver's side and the other low on the passenger's side. These will be puller fans. Does anyone think that this might work? We are assuming that the original fan was reasonably centered on the radiator. Is that true? What a time to ask, huh?
He says that it will still be pulling about 3K cfms, any idea what the original pulled? He also said that he will be attaching the sensor onto the bottom of the radiator which will cause the fans to go on at 190 and off at 170. Any thoughts about that?
Since the transmission lines go up the side of the block to the front, I assumed that I should cut them there and flare them, then just run transmission hoses to the radiator and back.

Is that the 21st?

Plain and Simple: Who is going to be attending the car show, at the Packard Museum next Saturday.

Is the Packard V8 Club going to have an East Coast Meeting there?

Rain or Shine I will be there, hope to see the same people I did last year and many more.

John F. Shireman

At least it doesn't have the extra weights/dampeners that some of prewar cars had in fenders or end of front bumper. There were a few articles/fixes on cowl shake for 22nd series which apparently had different frame members, extra fender bolts and radiator brace as well--all to be correctly tensioned and tightened with no missing bolts.

Randy, my 56 Caribbean, a "late" (post #250) car, has the brace on both sides and I do believe the parts book calls for 2 per car so I think that clears that up. As to the really good question of whether its use was related to the heavier hoods used on Caribbeans, it would be enlightening to see if the 51-54 standard convertibles, and the 53-54 Caribbeans, had the same bracing. I think we'd all enjoy some feedback on this.

As to the fiberglass hood that was observed, the only postwar Packard I'm aware of that used a fiberglass hood was the '54 Panther Daytona and with only 4 made, I doubt there were many spares produced.

Just 2 cents worth and agreeing with Owen Dyneto, the hood of my 54 Caribbean is steel /lead and much heavier than my 53 Clipper steel hood. I would suggest that the brace is an absolute necessity given the lever effect of the modified heavy outer hood (scoop) end, and the marginal upward push of the standard hood springing. Peter Toet

You are probably right. I could have sworn about a year ago there was a fiberglass hood on eBay advertised being for a Caribbean.

Come the think of it (trying to remember back), that eBay hood did look more like the 53-54 styled hood.

Maybe it was an old proto-type for one of the showcars.

I'm quite certain the 53/54 Caribbean hoods were modified standard steel hoods, with the air scoop section added and leaded; thus the need for the hood support rods. 1955 hoods may indeed also contain considerable lead as they too have the support rods which 1956 Caribbean hoods don't; 56 hoods are VERY much lighter than 55s. Someone who has stripped a 55 hood in the course of repainting could confirm this.

BigKev -

Actually, the 1955-56 Caribbean hoods were steel stampings.

Not sure about 1953-54 Caribs, but the 1955 Packard Request show car had a fiberglass hood.

Randy & Robert -

There was barely enough room at my offsite storage to get to my Carib Hardtop to get another part that Randy needed study for his car, but I think I can clear this up from my chair.

I cracked open the good old factory parts book and started scanning thorugh the body section looking for things unique to the Carib. No luck in the "Front Fenders" subsection, but I found something interesting in the "Radiator Grille & Splasher" subsection.

Check out Group 30.874932 for a "Radiator Side Splasher to Frame Brace". The hardware listed seems to match details that Randy provided to me (privately), and there is a LH and RH version of the brace.

Also, this bracing is used only on 5588 and 5699 (convertible) body styles, but NOT the 5697 (Hardtop). Actually I'm not surprised about that since the Caribbean Hardtop body is essentially a Four Hundred shell. So, there's probably no need to check my Carib.

I think Robert is right about the purpose of this brace. When I have had my Hardtop up on a lift or four jackstands, I see a change in the gap between the trailing edge of the door and the leading edge of the rear fender. I can only imagine how much more the deflection would be on a car without a fixed roof.

Hence, this is very likely one of those things that was added by the factory to accomodate an open car configuration. I'm sure there are other measures employed throughout the convertible body and chassis.

My only explanation for the lack of the RH (passenger side) brace on Randy's car might be an omission made during some past collision repair.