Re: 1956 Clipper Radio

Posted by HH56 On 2020/3/7 9:52:31

The original factory radio came in two parts. The tuner section which was the part visible and the power supply and amplifier section was mounted in the space now occupied by the instrument cluster in your car. The front speaker was in that second section. An optional rear seat speaker was available and controlled by a fader switch with knob located (in LHD cars) in the middle between the ign switch and cigar lighter. The rear speaker was mounted in the trunk to the bottom L side of the package shelf behind the rear seat. If the car had an optional electric antenna its switch was in the other row of switches in the middle space between lights and wiper. R or L side locations for switches etc may have been different if the RHD cars had them mirrored. I believe the turn signals and gearshift locations are different on the RHD cars and maybe switches too.

I don't know how the RHD conversions were done. Possibly Packard had a reverse stamping of the dash available which would have had the cluster holes on the right and speaker cutout on the left side or maybe when doing the conversion they just cut the needed new holes for the instruments in the original LHD dashes and filled or covered over the old left side holes.