Looking for head gaskets for my 352. Any opinions on where to go & best quality or price?

Don

Such a beautiful 400!

Your shots certainly highlight some of the best aspects of her, against a beautiful Arizona Background.

I hope to see it in Hemmings Classic Car Magazine someday. Your car is just screaming for a cover picture & big spread article.

Quote:

Absolutely not. If this were '55 Patrician #3036 in this condition, it would be either a parts car for a Four Hundred/Caribbean or $500-$700 dollar car.

This cars worth/asking price is for the future owners bragging rights to owning "The First '55 Packard/Packard V8 Production Car made".

Cars are worth more for any number of strange reasons. Some cars are worth more because they are one of only 3 with rally stripes and bucket seats without a console & column shift with a straight 6.

But to own the first production model of any year certainly ads more to the value amongst any car marque collector.

It certainly ads more than $3,000 to the final restored price at auction, I guarantee.

I'm a little disturbed by some of the comments in this thread in regards to the new purchaser of this car.

Nobody bought the car advertised for $1500, even after lowering the price to $500 dollars, nobody in the Packard community would step up and buy it for "posterity"?

Yet some here crap on this guy for buying it for $500 and asking $3500?

He's allowed someone here to take detailed photographs in order to document this first production car. He saved it from some scrapper or someone chopping the ass off of it and making it into a couch.

Why shouldn't this guy try to make 600% profit? He's done all the work of buying it, dragging it home, storing it for who knows how long.

If he is a "car flipper", a '55 Packard 4 door isn't the wisest car to invest in if you want to be a successful one. The asking price is clearly reflected in the fact that is the first '55 Patrician made. If it were #1001 '55 Four Hundred I imagine the price would be $7500. I'd bet if this were #1001 '55 Caribbean Convertible people wouldn't bat at eye at the price being quite higher.

This new purchaser saved this car from a certain death, and even if he did little more than add a few more years to its life and it does rot into the ground, it was more than any of you did for this car at $500.

Is that Bikini blue?

I think a well deserved honorable mention should go to Jack Vines, who has so many great answers in regards to the V-8 Packards.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2013/11/25/thieves-target-massive-water-tower-packard-plant/

via Motorcitymuckracker.com

Brazen scrappers are trying to knock down the enormous water tower at the abandoned Packard Plant before a potential new owner takes over the sprawling ruins.

"We spotted the thieves grinding down rusted metal supports over the weekend as the massive tower creaked and shifted in the wind. A nearby resident tipped us off because he fears someone will be injured or killed if the tower collapses.

The small group of scrappers has been tearing apart the Packard Plant for years, showing little concern for the safety of passersby and motorists. In October, they were responsible for a partial building collapse that sent large concrete chunks onto Concord, causing the street to be indefinitely closed.

The scrappers have been remarkably casual and unimpeded by law enforcement.

The iconic tower was built in the mid-1920s and rises high above the concrete ruins of the Packard, which has been largely vacant since the 1950s. The tower was designed to hold 75,000 gallons.

The plant was designed by famed architect Albert Kahn.

We'll continue to monitor the scrappers."

Thermal Socks, BigKev.

I rather enjoy seeing someone spending $250,000 + to have a car restored. Do you know how many different shops/businesses/craftsman benefit from this? Chrome shops, engine shops, paint, body, upholstery, the list goes on and on. It boosts our economy.

It benefits ALL of us in the long run. The knowledge gained and many long abandoned techniques are kept alive by those who have the means to restore these cars.

Guscha,

All I see is people in that picture. Where is the car?