Good point. There were, in fact, many component parts commonly used on Packards back in the day that were common to other marques as well. Over fifty years after the fact however it is hard to cross-reference these parts. When and if you find any, please add them to the X-ref file.

The appropriate Hollander Exchange Manuals can be extremely helpful in some instances and in particular for the junior cars. A fair number of senior parts, I have found, were exclusive to senior Packards although, in rare instances and purely by accident, I have found that certain tractors and heavy equipment used some of these same parts.

PackardV8 - Will measure diameter of tires/look for tag on diff at first opportunity. Have a friend in rehab for hip replacement whose animals, cars and home I am babysitting just now. May be a while before I can get to it.

Weather's wonky all over the place. I believe that we, here in Central Florida (Orlando area) have broken every standing low temperature record for this time of year during the past ten days or so with three consecutive nights of below freezing temperatures the first part of this week. Temp, today, however is forecasted to be in the 70s. At least we haven't had snow or flooding detrimental to housing or cars but the price of citrus products may suffer, there have been several instances of folks either starting fires or poisoning themselves with carbon monoxide trying to stay warm and NO one is going to be pleased with their power bills. NOTHING in this area is constructed with below freezing temps in mind.

Although by '54 most had gone to OHV designs there were still plenty of full-sized, six-cylinder American cars throughout the 50s and 60s. I don't think a 55/56 six-cylinder Clipper would've been that out of place and can understand, fully, Randerson's goal to build one. As some have pointed out, at the very least it would be highly dependable.

Packard was losing its market share in 1954. It wasn't until the advent of the 55s that it lost its reputation for quality.

Those two commodities are, as is said in some quarters, "two entirely different sets of dogs." Market share can be regained. Reputation is much more difficult, once lost.

55PackardGuy:

The car was a bit of a bastard stepchild when I acquired it. It is my understanding that it had been in a museum in Ohio until shortly before I bought it from a dealer in Maryland in 2004 and it had obviously been used as a parts source with the intention of selling it off after it had been thoroughly mined. It came with a non-serial number matching 55 352 engine, a (aluminium-cased) 56 Twin-Ultramatic without push-button control and a 56 Twin-Traction rear end assembly.

The car had factory AC at some point because the original (frozen) compressor and bracket and the drier were still present although someone had cut all the refrigerant lines with a hacksaw. I installed a system from Classic Auto Air in Tampa with a Sanden (R-134) compressor and interior box that mounted in approximately the same position under the dash as the original. The heater box on the engine room side of the bulkhead was eliminated in this application. It is my understanding that the exact model/system that I have is no longer offered but that there is a newer, similar model.

I have no idea what the gear ratio in the differential may be but would assume that it would be whatever came with a similarly equipped 56 senior. I am running radial tires of as close to the same height and width of the original equipment tires as I could find and my speedometer appears to be about as accurate as was usual on 50s American cars. I had a friend check it on the turnpike using my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis as a chase car/comparison. The 3650 rpm coincides with 76 - 78 mph on both cars speedometers. I was using the car regularly, at that time, to drive back and forth from Orlando to Miami and back and didn't want any unwelcome surprises from the FHP.

55PackardGuy wrote:

"And get going quickly on some decent ADVERTISING! Nance moaned and groaned about the lousy ad campaigns and the need to change agencies from day one, but not enough happened. You can blame design and manufacturing all you want, but inadequate marketing--to customers and dealers-- contributed mightily to Packard's demise IMO. Packard had long rested on its laurels and assumed that Quality would sell itself, but that could not work in the new consumer economy."

I have long thought that, post-war, PMCC missed the boat entirely on their advertising, especially from 1946 to 1950. They were still building wonderful senior cars - equal or in many cases surpassing Cadillac and Lincoln in luxury and quality if, perhaps in some cases, not performance. They didn't advertise them however as in the pre-war years when they let the senior cars sell the junior ones. Instead, they ran their advertising campaigns as though they'd left the luxury field and were only building mid-market. A whole generation had matured during the war years and needed reminding that Packard's existence had begun in the luxury market and, though they built lower market product, that product was grounded in and based on traditional Packard quality.

Interesting. After reading all these posts went out and checked the headliner in my 55 Patrician. If it is vinyl, it's an excellent imitation of leather, still in perfect condition and an exact match for all of the rest of the light blue leather in the car. I'd almost swear it's leather and almost everyone who rides in the car remarks on it.

Of course (and I'm not being flippant or a smart-*ss) I bow to Owen_Dyneto's superior knowledge and experience. I've never had the opportunity to do much except admire (mightily)the pre-war cars from a distance. My 55 Pat came with the light blue genuine leather and dark blue fabric (Trim Code 60, I believe). The car was not in spectacular shape when I got it but I was impressed with the overall quality of the original factory interior - even after 50 plus years of use and abuse.

I do have a question however. The headliner in mine appears to be leather and is in most excellent condition. Is this usual, original? I've never seen a leather headliner before.

There is a great deal of difference in the Bedford cloth interiors in earlier cars and the Jacquard (I believe that's the right term) that's found in the 55 & 56 senior cars. The cloth material with the metallic threads that came in these cars was much more durable than the Bedford cloth in the older cars - if, to me, slightly less comfortable. It is also quite expensive nowadays but holds up extremely well especially when compared to most of the modern materials used. At age 55 the rear upholstery and seat in my 55 Pat is in better shape than that in many two or three year old modern vehicles.

As to your seats, Packard used coil springs, thick horsehair padding and quality underlayment between the springs and upholstery rather than the interlinked flat "spring" assemblies, foam and artificial underlayment commonly used in cars of today (and most of its competitors in the day).

The seats in my 55 Pat are constructed, spring-wise, like quality furniture and were upholstered for maximum durability in high quality leather and TOUGH material. When my upholsterer examined my front seat he remarked, "This is my first Packard but I've never seen seats like this in anything but a Rolls."

What 55PackardGuy says about the 13 mpg(US) is basically true.
I am no longer using my 55 Pat as daily transport but, for the approximately three years that I did, I found that it would average about 13 mpg consistently in combined city and highway driving on trips back and forth from Orlando to Miami, driving in fairly heavy traffic with the A/C running most of the time. My best highway mileage would run 16-17 mpg at approximately 3650 rpm (where I found that mine 'wanted' to run). At various times I monitored this with both a vacuum gauge and an electronic tachometer. With my multi-spark ignition setup, using stock points as breakers, I was able to improve upon this slightly - but not all that much.

My recollection is that this average 13 mpg was pretty much standard for large luxury cars of this era (except of course Chrysler Imperials). Even up through the 70s all of my full-sized Caddys averaged about 13 mpg - whether tuned or not, tires properly inflated or not - whatever.