I restored a Series 23 Deluxe 8 over the last 4 years and have a number of good parts available. Please send me a list of your needs and I will check on it. Email fredpuhn@cox.net or call (619)475-1155. Fred.

I totally agree with the economics of restoring a Series 23 Packard sedan. I have about $50,000 in mine and its probably worth less than half that. I did a lot of the work myself too. It is a fine car, almost without issues. I have learned that the cheapest way to own a collector car is to buy the best car you can afford. The low purchase price for a car with issues usually is what throws us off.

The most costly issues in my experience are:
1. Rust
2. Body damage
3. Missing parts
4. Paint and chrome needs
5. Mechanical

I had similar issues about 4 years ago when I bought my 1950 Deluxe 8. I wanted a Packard in nice driving condition that I could have weekend fun with. I got a pretty original car that was rust free, but it needed everything. That was my fault because I got a false description and misleading photos and I never physically checked out the car. I have been repairing and restoring it bit by bit as I drove the car, and that kept it from becoming a "pile of parts." However it is very inefficient to do that. For example I had to rewire the car. I replaced the headliner before I realized it needed rewiring, so that prevented me from rewiring the wiring under the headliner. There are many other examples.
The problem was that I never expected to spend over $40,000 restoring the car, but it ended up that way. If I had a clear goal and budget in mind I would have bought a restored car. That would have been cheaper and I would not be so horribly underwater.
My advice is to make the car run reliably, shine it up, and drive it. If you want a restored car, sell the one you have and buy a restored car. It is cheaper and faster to do that.

You are lucky you do not have to pay for bodywork. The rust repair will probably be the big unknown cost adder. In my recent experience I have spent the following amounts for paint and bodywork in professional shops:

1950 Packard Touring Sedan - $8000 for paint but nearly zero rust repair required

1948 Alfa Romeo coupe - $100,000 for paint and massive rust repair in hidden places

I hope your Packard is not anywhere as bad as my Alfa.

My 1950 Packard had low oil pressure after I got it. I put in an auxiliary gage and found the pressure on that gage was not low and about double what the original gage said. I bought a nice Stwart Warner "wings" gage set that looks correct in the car and mounted it under the dash.

I am concerned that some of the advice you are getting may not be correct. I totally agree with getting the excess clearance out of the oil pump. However shimming the pressure relief valve will only change the pressure when cold, and the problem is when the oil is hot. Excess oil pressure when cold puts more stress on the pump and could create leaks anywhere there is pressure. I would not do that.

The oil you are using (straight 40 weight) would have more viscosity change with temperature than a multi-viscosity oil like 10W40. You could even try a higher viscosity than that depending on the weather. The multiviscosity oil should be used on any car that has a large viscosity change with temperature.

Also another thing I learned over the years in engineering is to make only one change at a time between tests. If you change more than one thing you will not learn what change did what from the test.

Good luck.

About a year ago I got a set from Joel Ray for my 1950 23rd series 4-door touring sedan. They were expensive (about $700) and had a defect from the original part in the mold. My decent original ones were destroyed by the paint shop using a pry bar on the wrong side of the strip. That bends the steel and cracks the rubber and bends or tears off the clips.
The replacement set I got were the rubber only. Since my steel parts were bent and broken I decided to mount the rubber directly to the car. I used stick-on velcro tape that worked well. The rubber parts did not fit the car perfectly and had to be trimmed a bit to fit good. It was quite a project but it looks OK with the doors open. They can be removed easily because the velcro peels off without damaging anything. Adhesive would be a bad idea if you ever had to remove the carpets.

I love driving my 1950 Packard on club tours, but my wife does not like riding in it. She says she is bothered by the fumes from the engine coming into the cab. I think the source of the fumes is the oil breather which does not recycle the vent fumes like a newer car. Also the hood release linkagage on both sides have a crude imperfect seal to keep fumes from leaking through the firewall.
Does anyone have experience in curing this problem? My first thought is to design a better seal that fits tighter around the hood release link.

Make sure you check the manufacturing date on the NAPA battery. I had 3 of them go bad when I put them in the car and found they had been sitting on the shelf for several years with no float charger. I finally gave up and bought a battery from a large battery warehouse.

Here is the source for the "Genernator" for Packards and other vintage cars:
Don's Starters & Alternators
(541)902-2255
www.gener-nator.com

Don is very knowledgeable and easy to work with. He knows what "restored" and "original" means. His work is great and he does what he promises.

Originally I was put off by the cost, but if you add up these items I spent money on it was well worth it:
1. Buying a proper generator and regulator so the car will look authentic (my car had a Chrysler generator and a later model regulator).
2. Restoring the generator and regulator including the proper ID tags (Don has the proper tags for show quality).
3. Fixing the generator and regulator so they work (the Genernator is new inside).
4. Having the regulator adjusted by an expert so it keeps up with the engine rpm and charges enough to match the accessories (not required becuase it is a one-wire alternator, and the original regulator is only for looks).
5. Buying a new battery becuase it won't hold a charge after it went dead trying to start the car with a low charge (should not be a problem on my car which is only driven on short trips).
6. Towing the car home when it would not start at a car show (nightmare should be gone now).
7. Figuring out how to get enough amps when driving at low speed to power the add-on accessories I wanted to put on the car to make driving more reliable and enjoyable (cooling fan, electric fuel pump, radio, fog lights).


I got the Genernator because I wanted my Packard to look authentic but work properly. At first glance the cost seemed high, but if I had gone for the Genernator from the beginning my cost would be half of what I actually spent.

This sounds like a repeat of what I had go wrong with my 1950 Series 23 Deluxe 8 Touring Sedan. When I got the Packard it had a new NAPA battery. The charging was poor so I had the generator rebuilt, got new (big) battery cables, and put on a new regulator. The charging was marginally low (negative charge at idle)and the car was hard to start. After a dead battery I fixed the short in the electrical system by replacing the entire wiring loom. I bought another new NAPA battery, which was dead when I put it in the car. After 3 NAPA batteries I finally got one that was not old and dead from sitting on their shelf for years. Then the battery would not charge so I gave up on NAPA and bought a new Vintage battery. The charging on that was low (negative at idle) so I had the regulator checked and adjusted by a specialist. The charging was still negative with the headlights and radio on unless running at 60 mph and the battery went dead after any long cranking. Finally the Vintage battery would not take a charge. I bought a new Interstate battery and had to widen the holder slightly to make it fit.

Since I have headlights, fog lights, a radio and plan to add an electric cooling fan I needed even more charging. I finally got a "Genernator" which is a one-wire alternator inside an original Packard generator housing. Now everything seems to work well, the car looks original, and the car starts easier. The output of the Genernator is up to 20 amps at idle! However it still cranks a lot after sitting for a week. The next step is to install a hidden electric fuel pump so I can start it with only a little bit of cranking. The fuel apparently evaporates out of the carburetor if the car sits for a week. This entire episode has cost me $3000 and I had to do much of the work. The bad wiring loom was the most expensive and difficult.

I hope my trial and error experience is of some help. Good luck on your Packard.