Someone can yell at me if I'm wrong but I doubt the graft had anything to do with the senior rear portion of the fender since it clearly isn't one. The tail light bulges are totally different than any other Packard of the era so were clearly added to the Clipper fender. The seam must have simply been a lengthening of the rear fender to accommodate the rear spare, grafting in a spacer panel to give a built-in recessed look to the spare rather than making it look like an aftermarket piece that they often were. I understand that the trunk lid was also shortened or moved forward for the same reason.

Yes, these things seem to have worked wonders!

Although an old post that I'm sure must have been resolved by now (no followup was posted), I've always used 8.20 X 15 tires (Allstate Guardsman) on my 1954 Patrician and have never had trouble installing or removing them. I don't recall which shocks are installed but they were from a local auto parts store. Even my 1953 Patrician with L78 X 15 tires had no real trouble getting them on or off although they did drag a bit during the process so they were not a loose fit. It might make a difference if lifting the entire rear end vs lifting only one side but I don't recall any problem either way.

As far as tire size is concerned, I seem to recall reading years ago that the standard size for the 1954 Patrician was 8.00 X 15 as stated above but that 8.20 X 15 was optional. I am not sure now after all these decades where I read that but perhaps in was in the specification section of the Service Counsellor.

On tire pressure, I've always put in 30lbs front and 32lbs rear, or even both 32lbs. I don't know where 20lbs or 22lbs came from that someone mentioned (and I didn't double check the specifications) but I know that with so little pressure they would look quite flat and would ride very mushy. Perhaps the original tires were stiffer to work with lower pressure.

As far as I know, the cormorant ornament was standard on the 1953 Patrician so I suspect that someone changed it to the Clipper ornament. You could get the cormorant on a Clipper as an accessory but I don't think it worked the other way around!

For the person who asked about a 1951 cormorant, I have one with the base in my Oregon workshop so PM me if you still need it. It would need restoration.

Old post but just to clarify that there is no way that a Henney-Packard rear end would fit into a Caribbean! The Henney's springs and axle mounts were outside the chassis while Packard's were inboard; the Henney rear end is about 5" or 6" wider than Packard's (going from memory for the number); the brake drums are very deep and 14" diameter! Here's a Henney drum.

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Are they straight arms or is there a left and right? My cars are hundreds of miles away and I may need to find a pair before my next workshop visit to have waiting when I get there.

That's not likely to happen but at my age just getting them running and driveable might be the difference between someone later restoring them or getting scrapped once I'm gone. My goal at this point is the former.

Recently I asked a couple questions here after getting excited by some things for Packard that I never knew existed but which were apparently commonly known to everyone else. I was asked if I had been snoozing and the answer is yes, I have been. Here's why:

After having up to 22 cars at home in a residential neighborhood when I lost my storage, they were so packed in that I couldn't actually work on them so they sat untouched for nearly thirty years. Seven were packed tightly into the garage including both of my Patricians that I still own and two other Packards that I no longer own (a 1948 Henney-Packard Laundaulet and a 1940 110 Club Sedan - yes, it was a 110) while most of the others were in the high-fenced backyard, with a few of the more presentable cars, such as my current 1956 Clipper Custom Sedan and former 1952 Henney-Packard Nu-3-Way, sat in the front yard, also fenced to 6'.

Finally when I moved to a larger house but with no yard about eight years ago, I built a new workshop on family property in a rural area and since then I've bought equipment, done some organizing of tons of parts and started work on my 1965 Cadillac just to get it running and back on the road again. It runs and drives finally but still needs some tweaking to get it running properly and to be fully road-able! I have driven it around the block on gravel roads but that's it.

Next in line is my 1965 Imperial LeBaron which shouldn't be too difficult (knock on wood!) as it was one of those in the garage, then on to the first Patrician, which is where some of the parts and tools I commented on come in. Presuming it cranks at all, it will need at least a full cleaning/rebuilding of the brake and fuel systems and, of course, coolant and oil changes. The workshop is in Central Oregon while I live in California so my visits are for a couple weeks at a time, every couple months, but slowly progress is being made!

The Patrician, just like the two 1965s, was an every-day driver and had been rebuilt mechanically but never actually restored before being parked. It was missing most of its trim when I bought it back before there was an Internet so parts were a bit harder to source, especially as I am hard of hearing and do not readily use a telephone. I managed to find a nearly complete parts car with all the trim along with power windows that mine did not have and would love to find a stock A/C unit that is at least good enough to use as a pattern to reproduce but so far I've not found one. I have an uninstalled after-market unit that supposedly came from a '53 Mayfair but I prefer stock appearance on things like this. I'll likely even use the parts car's body but the debate is whether to use its two-tone blue which I really like or the original car's two-tone gray. It would usually be a non-issue as I love the blue but the gray car's dash is beautiful and I have a set of excellent seats and doors with panels that are also gray (a Packard Club friend totaled his identical '54 Patrician when I used to be active in the club: the doors and seats came from it) that I don't want to have to re-do to change color.

Anyway, for what it's worth, there you have it and here are some photos of the move. The car carrier could handle eight or nine modern cars but only five of mine would fit, prompting the sixth to be delivered separately. My favorite shot is the first one where I caught the car carrier passing by the neighbor's (my parents) house after I got news that they were on their way. I had to run from one five acre property to the other and got there just in time! The last shot shows the very beginning of the sorting out of parts from many boxes and crates, using the hoods and trunk lids as sorting shelves. When the pieces went to a particular era, I put it onto the lid of the appropriate car.

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Thank you for the great and detailed description! As I recall, my 1954 Patrician does have a Gen light rather than an ammeter.

I don't think there's a forum here for owners who are not firing on all cylinders or otherwise I would have posted there. Sorry to repeat what everyone already knows but I didn't see it mentioned in several posts about valve work and I've been away from my cars for almost three decades until recently when I finally built a shop that accommodates them with room to actually work! I'm just trying to catch up so my apologies.

As a journeyman prototype machinist, I made my own gauge but I don't recall if it was for my 1954 Patrician or the 327s in my '51 and '52 Henney-Packards or 1953 Patrician, but I think the latter. I never owned a 356. At the time, if these were available, I couldn't find one and making it to very close tolerance was quite easy in the shop where I worked.