Re: Survival revisitted

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2016/4/5 15:51:41

Here's a pic of Patrician body from the '56 Data Book. At left one can see inner structure that supports the roof by connecting it to the wheelhouse, which in turn connects to the lower body structure. This inner structure probably also connects to the package shelf (not shown) behind the rear seats, which supports the end panel (also not shown) that fills the space between decklid and rear window. The end panel is what supports the decklid. On the Four Hundred, a standard 122" wb hardtop roof is used, moved forward 5 inches to sit on 127" wb frame. The extra 5 inches between roof and decklid are taken up by a 5 inch wider end panel.

This is just a guess but to save tooling costs, perhaps Packard simply used that same inner structure roof support twice, the forward one connecting to a wheelhouse forward section only, to connect the roof to the rest of body as in the sedan. The second wheelhouse, a full one, would have then been positioned 5 inches rearward, and above it a second, identical inner structure providing additional support to the wider end panel. For those folks who have restored these cars does any of this smell remotely familiar?

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