Re: Ultramatic or Manual?

Posted by HH56 On 2016/12/10 18:05:35

The Ultra shifter arm was the short straight type only in 50 and 51. Standard trans had the longer curved end arms. For 52-54 the arms were all the same. Ultras also went to the longer type.

Ultramatic script was only used for 50 and 51 then dropped for 52 and later cars.

Floor plate is hard to nail down. Typically they would have had a plate with two holes for clutch equipped and one with a single hole for standard brake but it is possible they used the two hole plate and covered the extra opening with the water resistant asphalt material they were fond of. The Korean war was putting a crimp on a lot of parts availability so you will see odd things from time to time as they made do. The war chrome on 52 cars was and is a big issue.

If it has power brakes, that was a new option for 52 and there was a concerted effort to have it installed in cars as a new safety feature. Packard had a promotion and issued a kit and instructions so dealers could sell it to customers and modify existing cars or add it to cars still in dealer stock -- even retrofit to 51 models. It is hard to say what a dealer might have done with an original plate..