Re: The Stripper Clipper (1955 Panama)

Posted by 55PackardGuy On 2014/8/5 20:19:18

I vote: Put the carb on. It looks great! Maybe it'll work great, too. It's certainly authentic. Looking at it in place might inspire you to go ahead with restoration. You never know.

What's so bad about the engine? Aside from any old repairs to the block from years back, sleeves and stuff like that, which would make it a basket case, it should be very rebuildable, and you'll get lots of good advice on it from this site. I think the 320 can even be bored to a 352, and you'll still have a "numbers matching" engine. (Better check with the experts on that, though.)

What you got now looks like a pretty good cosmetic restoration, which is nothing to sneeze at. Paint and interior are very expensive projects, and you seem to have a head start on them. Drive train is sometimes more economical than all that detail work.

Just some thoughts.