55-56 changes

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2017/7/7 19:07:56

I did not want to highjack the two members who each made a remark, this week, about some rather expensive, if not significant, changes between the 1955 and 1956 years. These days, the automotive accountants would riot if a manufacturer did something similar, especially in a down economy with bad press circulating around your brand.

Some of the most significant changes (and there are many more, apparent to some of you) are:

The switch to negative ground 12 volt electrics (and to almost everything it affected, including the Delco-sourced radios)
Wheel lugs and nuts instead of bolts (no more interchanging of brake drums)
Rear deck lid metal stampings for both hardtops, sedans and convertibles.
Two types of front fenders with soldered peaks on the Seniors.
Brand new front and rear bumpers.
Brand new tail lights and fenders for the Clippers/Executives (living to see another day on the South Bend Packards and countless hot rods)
Brand new dual cowl hoods without soldered pieces.
Dana made rear axles and TT differentials.
Revised front end geometry and shock absorber mountings.
Torsion Level controller packaging.
All sorts of stainless and chrome trim changes

What did not get changed that should have been:
Oil pumps with integral vacuum pump
Interior door handles and cranks that fall off

All in all, the Greatest Packard of Them All might indeed been the ten thousand or so Packards of 1956. The accountants were left with the final verdict in June 1956.