Re: 55-56 Patrician design ideas
Posted by Mahoning63 On 2020/1/5 9:42:18
That gets into Packard's ability to invest in those years, because the 1-1/2 inch body insert between front and rear doors didn't permit a 4-door hardtop. One solution was to reverse-hinge the rear doors and add length to them to cover the insert, that's the mock-up Creative did, which also included removal of beltline/putting handles on the body sides. The roof was from the Four Hundred, which meant 5 inches less rear legroom than Patrician. From what I've been able to deduce, the '56 Sedan DeVille had a unique roof that was longer the CdV but shorter than 62, so rear legroom probably fell in between too.
I think Packard had to wait for all-new body to do a hardtop sedan. In meantime they could have added 5 inches length to the Four Hundred roof, created new window frames and offered a car with hardtop-like style but with a fixed B-pillar.
Since they would have been doing new window frames anyway, for a few dollars more they could have removed the beltline and put the handles on the doors. Almost every clay model leading up to the '51s had handles on doors, it was only near end of design phase that Engineering forced the high pockets. And to really spice things up they could have used Four Hundred's end panel between decklid and backlight, which would have added 5 inches of rear overhang. That would have made for a car that could fairly well run against SdV and Lincoln.
Really what they needed was an all-new body for '56, which means the '55s should have been warmed over '54s except for the V8 and Twin-Ultramatic. A 127 wb hardtop sedan with fixed B-pillar could have been readied by Spring '53 just when Packard needed the sales injection, had Nance seen the opportunity. That model would have been very helpful for 54 and 55.
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I think Packard had to wait for all-new body to do a hardtop sedan. In meantime they could have added 5 inches length to the Four Hundred roof, created new window frames and offered a car with hardtop-like style but with a fixed B-pillar.
Since they would have been doing new window frames anyway, for a few dollars more they could have removed the beltline and put the handles on the doors. Almost every clay model leading up to the '51s had handles on doors, it was only near end of design phase that Engineering forced the high pockets. And to really spice things up they could have used Four Hundred's end panel between decklid and backlight, which would have added 5 inches of rear overhang. That would have made for a car that could fairly well run against SdV and Lincoln.
Really what they needed was an all-new body for '56, which means the '55s should have been warmed over '54s except for the V8 and Twin-Ultramatic. A 127 wb hardtop sedan with fixed B-pillar could have been readied by Spring '53 just when Packard needed the sales injection, had Nance seen the opportunity. That model would have been very helpful for 54 and 55.
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