Stunning. I am assuming that a complete repaint of the car was included in that price--or was that just for the metal work?

In the last twenty years I have put new bottoms on at least a couple dozen 51-56 Packards. By that I mean: new metal at the back lower corner of the front fenders, new inner and outer rockers, new rear wheel openings and doglegs, and if needed the first several inches up of the rear quarter panels. It has not taken longer than 80 hours to do that down both sides of the car and there is no benefit to removing the body from the frame. Oh, and I make all those parts myself in that time.

Any postwar sedan that needs more rust repair than that should be abandoned as there are more than enough of them to go around.

Could we have some photos of the damage, especially the backside of the rockers where the floor braces meet the inner rockers?

More shopping is going to be necessary!

If you need to remove a lot of undercoating, wait till a freezing cold day and attack it with a needle scaler or just an air chisel set on a low pressure. Cold=brittle=falls off when the sheetmetal is vibrated.

If you just want to unscrew a few things, choose the correct size socket from an old set and grind (6) 45 degree chamfers on its edge in line with the hex. Drive the socket on with a hammer to clear the undercoat away.

The 51-4 mirror's base is contoured to match the profile of the molding. 55-6 are not. Will probably wobble unless you grind the base. Those things go for a pot of money so I wouldn't recommend that.

Check that your system is not putting out more than 7.2 volts.

If the points are burning, then replace the condenser.

I have also seen it on the Henry Joy Tours--but like a real Packard it never made any fuss to be noticed in a negative light. Love the yellow and maroon. Visor MUST go. Interior is tired. I think you could do a lot worse.

This is the Autolite distributor where the vacuum chamber turns the entire distibutor? In which case, just loosen the screw that fixes the vac advance pull-rod to the bracket on the periphery of the dist. body and rotate the dist. to achieve your desired timing. Retighten the screw. With this style there is no need to move the bracket bolted to the engine block.

Sorry, I had sedans on the brain.

There is a 55 Patty on ebay just now that is worth a look for all you AC fans. It is the tan and white one in Oregon. It is equipped with an older AC unit, and the belt drive is worth special note.

It is always an agony to find a third pulley to run air on these engines, and these folks neatly skipped the entire problem. Notice in photo #20 that the compressor is fixed on the right side of the water outlet and the power steering belt is brought up and over to run the compressor.

With this system no idlers or extra pulleys are needed, and the PS pump serves as the tensioner for the whole thing. Aside from parking maneuvers the PS belt has very little to do so I doubt if it is ever overstressed--especially since a new Sanden draws so little power compared to an old v-twin. Clever, out of the box thinking!

I have parted out a 57 that had power windows. Stude didn't seem to push them as hard as Packard did so they are rather rare and were snapped up the minute I had them off the car. Somewhere I have a price list--I think they were in line with everyone else's.

Then also, not that many 55-56 Clippers came with power windows. I see them pretty much only on the Constellations.

But every 57 came with the supercharger. The 58s of course did not.

Unscrew the suppressor mounting screw a few turns and I'll bet she'll spin like she should. It has gone in too far and jammed into the armature.