and another pict from a different year.

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From all I remember reading, you are correct in all your observations. I think they envisioned several scenarios but believe ultimately the reason the 55-6 body could not be used was the production move to South Bend. The assembly lines there were too narrow for the wide Packard chassis and body. They elected to use the best or largest Studebaker sedan model and make it as much a continuation of Packard as feasible by utilizing design schemes and what existing parts were available.

One thing on that ebay car is no supercharger and a wrong air cleaner. Wonder if it had one and was removed or were superchargers an option on a car with dual exhausts. I thought that was one of the givens on the Packard version. Radio is aftermarket too for a low mileage original.

At the Berkeley PAC meet in the 80's, the owner gave a small group of us a lecture on the state of the car as found. IIRC (and it has been a lot of years), he said car had hit something and the bumper had been bent as well as shattered. Parts of the bumper were in the trunk but don't recall if any other damage was mentioned.

He and his people had spent many hours reassembling the front and there were some pieces missing they had to make to fill in those spots. Had missed the mark on a couple but the effort was what they could do at the time and in a short time frame.

He had barely completed that much prior to the meet and there was still work to be done elsewhere. Said to do the bumper right, would have entailed a new mold and complete casting which he could not afford to do.

Another thing I wonder if ever got fixed was the early trans linkage problem. He had parked it and went to move when he couldn't get out of park. Spent several minutes trying to move the lever before it finally went. Classic symptom of the straight linkage problem SC's mentioned some early 55s had. Would be interesting to know if the present owner still had that problem when he got it and if so, fixed during his work.

O_D, Did the car have a restoration yet or did they just take care of essentials.

It looks very good in the current pict but I remember you mentioned the current owner was going to do extensive work and one of the one off pieces was extremely expensive. I ask because that large gap on the L side of hood/grill/bumper is still there. I thought I remembered reading or maybe hearing from Mr Dobbs at the Berkeley PAC meet it was caused by some kind of accident. There was resulting misalignment but if it had the restoration, maybe it was there from a hurried original build??

Rowdy, When you do remove it, I would really be curious about the gasket and that relief port discussed earlier here and in one of the other BTV threads.

Missing fluid was my symptom except no failure because I rarely drive the car. Was starting my AC change and decided to pull BTV for access and do some other work down there. Checked fluid, mostly for the heck of it and was surprised reservoir was only about 1/2 full since the car has maybe 100 miles on it since the BTV was installed. After pulling unit and opening vacuum side, found a considerable amount inside.

Its a question for sure. White is listed as one of many colors for 54--although only for the Pacific and Caribbean. What's interesting is the deluxe wheel for 48-53 is the only one called out as being plastic. Again, even though Packard didn't list it, bet there were lots installed on 54s. The translucent ivory would probably look more upscale than painted white.

Did anyone ever respond about the 54 color. Parts manual has the deluxe wheel only listed as an option thru 53--although I'm sure a dealer would have sold one on a 54 if requested. I was under the impression all wheels 54 on were painted in the appropriate colors as listed available.

Interesting research. I don't think Packard ever had more than 5 or so% even back in the day of the three P's. Packard made some miscues post war, no question. A couple of threads are here early on about some of the reasons why but believe stodgy styling vs the Earl machine and lack of or quality of dealerships were the main ones.

Pre 55, Packard really was conservative. They catered to the older person who really wasn't into flash while Cadillac and to some extent the others was going the opposite and attracting younger buyers or those who wanted to be or thought they were. Seem to recall that Cad also had some very aggressive pricing as well and could make relatively small profit because they had the other divisions to carry the load.

Dealerships were an issue Nance tried to tackle almost as soon as he arrived. Many were run down, or had multiple makes & pushed those they might see more profit on. Believe one of his memo's on the subject said they didn't deal and would only settle on list price while the Cad or Lincoln guy would do whatever it took to move the merchandise. Location was another. I grew up in a rather sparsely populated area. Lincoln, Imperial was represented in the small town, Cadillac maybe an hour away but Packard was 2-3 hrs away and that probably was the norm for them in more than one area.

The City of Detroit forecloses on the Packard Plant in 1997 and promptly evicts something like 80+ jobs

No doubt a typical bureaucrat/political move.

Kick the tax paying businesses out, clear the land for re-development because some fat cat came along and said if there was XX acres, he would buy the land for a few dollars and tax breaks. Big promises of something having 100 jobs for every one displaced and new businesses paying huge property taxes--except they always seem to run out of money before much happens leaving a big mess at the site and in the courts or there is a loophole giving them an out none of the city minions caught.

That's been the Fresno mode of operation more than once but in this case also, after they foreclosed, didn't the owners take the city to court and it was tied up for years with no one able to do much of anything?

I don't recall any problems with the Hydrovac either. One difference -- at least in the Studebaker version -- it was conventional piston/cup hydraulics not the displacement ram.

I did find another ram type unit and that was used on "some" 53-4 Buick applications. Don't know who actually made it but it is labeled as Buick. Neither it nor the Moraine version of the BTV (also listed as used in various Buicks and other GM as well as BTVs) has the same compensator valve setup as the Bendix.

The fact that Buick/Moraine copied the basic ram principal but not the compensator valve might say something. Since GM seemed to mix these things up quite a bit using one unit part of a year, another the rest, and a different one the next makes me wonder if they had supply problems or operational problems.