1956 Patrican revival.

Posted by Ian Gabriele On 2022/8/3 21:49:45
Hi all,

This is my project blog on a properly derelict but special Packard. I was very fortunate enough to purchase my 1941 Packard 160 convertible sedan deluxe 3 very long years ago and while I’ve made minimal progress on that car I have been thoroughly bitten by the Packard bug and love every moment of working on these cars. The subject car of this project blog however is my 1956 patrician. Peggy, as she is now so named is serial number 4760, and has been spoken about on this forum in the past. Seemingly she is the 15th to last car to leave the Detroit plant. I’ve got long term family history on the car and love the story and the impact that she’s had on the people around her.
She’s far from perfect but after many months of not getting to it yesterday evening I was able to finally spin some wrenches on her.

I was told by the pervious owner that the key switch was bad. I sort of cross referenced the ignition with the general 4 pole divided switch that GM(?) seemingly used for forever. So I got her cranking last night. For the immediate future before my local radiator shop can boil my tank, subject to inspection, I’m going to try and run her on a boat gas tank.

I do have some questions, I am getting zero life from my torsion bar suspension. Is there a typical smoking gun? As in something simple I’m missing? I know about the toggle switch on the underside of the dash… Also I’m getting nothing from my power windows. I am getting gauges, radio and headlights.

I also still need to do a full brake rebuild and I’m a touch nervous about the ultramatic. I don’t have a push button. Are there any immediate ‘hey do this thing!’ pitfalls or other tips? (Besides fluid changes)

I should also perhaps provide a disclaimer. I’m not in a position to “restore” this car. What I want to do is make this car useable. I want to be able to throw a bunch of friends in it and enjoy and old car, something that’s becoming way too foreign for people of my generation. (Peggy is 43 years my senior) As we all know it would be prohibitively expensive “restore” her and too many cars are getting parted out. I know some may need to die in order to preserve others but my bandwidth for what’s savable is different than others. If you’re here for a restoration blog please look elsewhere. I will be rehabilitating component systems in order to get her back on the road. That’s my goal. Nothing more nothing less.

Thank you all in advance for your help and guidance and I look forward to updating you all again soon,

Ian

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