Re: 1956 Packard Patrician Rebuild Project

Posted by Ross On 2013/11/12 7:03:43

Since you are doing such a thorough rebuild and will have the car all apart anyway,you might want to think about a different body shell. I know that Mike Dulinski has had some good ones in the past, and I will examine my parts car out back when it gets light. It is a royal pain to rebuild those doglegs when the rust extends so far into the pillar. Grafting in the floor stringers and the seat braces is not too hard while you are doing the inner and outer rockers.

Take a few minutes to check your rearmost bodymounts at the back edge of the trunk and the mounts over the rear axle from both top and bottom. Also the seams where the right and left pans were joined to the trunk floor.In cars that have been heavily salted, as it seems yours was, they are often bad. Since you are aiming for a high end job you would do better with another shell if they are bad too.

The underfloor stringers and seat braces are pretty much universal 51-56.