Re: Was this typical of new 1950's cars?

Posted by jfrom@kanter On 2014/9/4 14:09:20

several points.

Virtually all cars were warranteed for 90 days in the early 50's, that was industry standard. The internet and federally mandated recalls did not exist so owners and the general public were not aware of many problems. The transmission was the V-8's Achilles heel and this car got various factory recommended updates at teh owners expense: rear pump driver and front pump rotor kit but I do not know of any bell housing problem. Today with 3, 5 or 10 year warrantees it would cost nothing.

The car was obviously in a very rusty area as it needed rocker panels after 2 years. Note a short was fixed in the levelizer system, very common on '55's exposed to salt where the wire connectors were in the open. Packard issued a mini-harness to retrofit a '56 control box (switch) to '55's and the wires were under a sealed cover to eliminate that problem. Both years suffered from shorts through a rivet in the bottom cover.

As far as getting anything fixed for $113.60 today like the windshield bill, first you must consider inflation which has been 880% since 1956. That bill in today's dollars would be $995.04.