Re: Vacation Car - 56 Patrician

Posted by Brian Wilson On 2020/4/27 17:10:48

Hello Carfreak

Leeedy's right of course. Better to revive the original engine if you can. Hopefully it will turn out to be not bad if it was running when the car was put away. It will start getting expensive if you bore out a 352 block. That's what prompted my comment.

Guess it will be easier and cheaper for now to retain the manual box. Which was how your dad had it. No major parts problem there. You'll want to figure out the diff ratio. It may be too low for vacation driving if it's still one of the lower ratios which the Ultramatics had.

Rigging up electric wipers is fairly easy using a period motor and fabricating a mount on the firewall. Someone did a pretty neat job on mine and they work a treat, even in monsoonal rain. Will post a pic if it's helpful, but my car is right hand drive so you have to stand on your head to view it. Working wipers are required for roadworthiness here, but the electric setup is pretty obvious so better avoided on your Caribbean if you can get away with it.

By all accounts, the Oldsmobile pump conversion works pretty well. Mine predates that - I think from Packards International? Not all the V8s had this problem, but better to take care of it while you have ready access. Someone here on the forum suggested to add an extra quart of oil to the sump to keep the whole pump unit submerged. I do that as insurance, with no obvious ill effects.

Cheers Brian