Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Friend Chris had a 56 caribbean with an underseat heater and he marked exactly where it was mounted. He sold that car when he got a better Caribbean and mounted an underseat heater as shown in this pic.

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Very interesting--although it does look a little vulnerable to someone bored and sitting in the back seat. I can see where that "footrest" that's just at the frame edge in cars with regular seats would provide a lot of protection.

He apparently put in a "pocket" on the floorboard--looks like about an inch. Would be interesting to see the underside but must have just cut out a flap on 3 sides, pushed it down and welded in a piece to fill and level. Would your friend still have the procedure and dimensions he could share?

I tried to mount without doing anything like that, but unit was tilted and too high at tunnel side so didn't go further.

Maybe just put some blocks between seat and floor to raise the seat up enuf for clearence????

Guess you could put in blocks but seat is just right now and not sure how blocks would look--let alone the tilted heater.

Great job Brian, many thanks! On the subject of underseat heaters, I owned an early 56 Caribbean hardtop, 1009, and it had the underseat heater. Someone suggested that only the convertibles had a problem fitting the underseat heater.

Thank you all for your compliments. I'm glad that my work has been so well-received and is of use to so many. I hope visitors look a little further to see that there is also a chart for 55th Series.

Be advised that I have received copies of factory documentation from Dwight Heinmuller that will require me to submit a revison to the 56th Series charts for a couple of points on Executive (5670) equipment. Though I don't yet have a copy of the Trade Letter (#56-1001, Dealer 1, Supplement 2) regarding the change in underseat heater availability, I'll clarify the footnote.

Before I can do that, however, I have to finish cleaing up the wreck that remnants of Hurricane Ike made of my folks' yard last Sunday. While we lost power for only a few hours, many homes in the region are still without it.

More on build codes later...

No, there is no pocket in the floor and he didn't cut anything to make it fit. He said he mounted it in the exact same position as it was in the first convertible he had based on the template he made.

Here's an update on additional info I received this past week.

Four pages forwarded by Dwight Heinmuller come from a document, though not printed on letterhead, that is titled "APPROVED CODES FOR 56TH SERIES" and was sent to all dealers, Zone offices and Regional Managers. Because it includes the 5670 models, but appears to treat Torsion-Level as option, this document was likely prepared, or at least updated, in March or April of 1956. Organized by categories, it shows additional codes that may be of interest.

Export:

EC......Special Export Equipement (details not specified)
SA......Heavy-Duty Shock Absorbers
CXH.....Canada Low Compression Motor
XH......Low Compression Motor
XK......Kilometer Speedometer
XS......Heavy-Duty Torsion Bars or Springs & Shock Absorbers

Tires:

SP......6 Ply - Black Sidewall (5670 not listed)
SW......6 Ply - White Sidewall (5670 not listed)

Special Equipment:

CS......Suspension Spring Conventional - 5622
4.1-1...Optional Gear Ratio (specified as example at left)
HD......Heavy-Duty Battery
HK......Hassock - 5682 only
HR......High Speed Car Equipment 5680 only
MS......Transmission Manual Shift
RC......Racing Car Equipment 5660 only

Unless otherwise noted, equipment is available across all models. A couple things caught my eye, however, which were not listed in the Trade Letters that I have. Manual transmission (MS) is listed as being a available for ALL models, including Caribbean. Conventional Suspension is listed as an option for Clipper Deluxe. Unfortunately, no other details are provided.

You might be interested to know that this document shows that the three-character radio equipment codes are actually a packaged combination of equipment codes:

A......Rear (Electric) (twin)
E......Front (Electric)
M......Front (Manual)

RP.....Radio, Push Button
RU.....Radio, Universal (Wonderbar type)

Yet, that raises some questions. For example, RUE (with Wonderbar radio) is shown in Trade Letter 56-1001, Supplement 2 to be not available on Clipper models, though it was clearly (with same Clipper-style buttons) available later, on the Executive. Yet, this document shows that radio as available on Clippers, as well.

To be continued next post...

Dwight also forwarded a copy of production order from 1956, which differs greatly from what I have for my Caribbean Hardtop. What I have shows only the build codes used for my car, key codes (handwritten), and notes on disposition of the car. What Dwight sent includes a table of Special Equipment Symbols. Codes not referenced in the Trade Letters that I have include:

BL......Back Up Light
TTO.....Tubeless Tires
CK......Glove Box Light
TWST....F(ront) S(eat) Power Track - 2-way
SP......6 Ply Tires
WW......Windshield Washer
CL......Trunk Comp(artment) Light
AIR.....Air Condition(ing) Unit
TM......Black Top
WM......White Top
HR......High Speed Equipment

It also lists Other Items, which have no codes, but appear to be check-off items:

Tool Kit
Extra Wheel - Tire
Cigar Lighter
Accessory Kit
Two-Tone Paint

The codes specific to the vehicle as built include one that was not listed in the table - PERMA F, which I believe is for permanent type anti-freeze.

However, while AIR is shown as the code for Air Conditioning on the production order, it was not listed in the Trade Letters that I have for the 55th Series, but shows as AC for 56th Series. A few other codes that changed from 1955 to 1956 were also not shown correctly on this production record; for example, Window Lifts (electric power windows) was still shown as EWL. I suspect the plant was merely using form stock leftover from the 55th Series production run.

I'll wrap this up in the next post...

These additional codes seem to correlate with many offered by Owen_Dyneto in his opening post to this thread.

In conclusion, I decided to leave my code charts reflect what is published in the available Trade Letters as sent to dealers. However, in addition to the two corrections for Executive models, I did add codes (in the Equipment description) for the three individual items that make up the (AG) Clipper Convenience Group.

I'll be forwarding revised charts to BigKev to post here. I'm sure he'll let you know when they're up, but look for a Revision date following the copyright notice.

Of course, I'm open to revisit these charts again as additional Trade Letters become available. After all, I only have Supplements 2 and 5 on this topic for the for the 55th Series and 1 and 3 for the 56th Series. Though I know that Supplement 2 for the 56th Series deals with the withdrawal of the underseat heater equipment for the Caribbbeans, we don't know what else is out there until we have all the missing pieces of this puzzle.

Until more information comes along, those with a keen interest in these codes might want to cut-n-paste this this above posts and print the text as a companion reference.