Re: BigKev's 1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Sedan

Posted by BH On 2009/5/12 15:41:18

Kev -

You bring up an interesting point that deserves a little background.

First and foremost, the index merely echoes the (vehicle) Application information as published in the article, where provided. When the application wasn't obvious, I inferred it from the time frame of the bulletin and working backward from any part numbers referenced or any other tell-tale information. Out of over 600 topics for the 51-54, there were some four dozen gray areas that took a lot of extra effort to resolve, but there are still a couple of entries that remain unresolved.

Yet, I digress...

Now, there were some cases where I took it upon myself (and based on personal experience) to extend application of a topic into the 55-56 Index, but it's hard to say where to stop doing that - at the risk of overextending yourself and being wrong. Mind you, though the 55-56 cars are a derivative, I'm not anywhere near as familiar with the 51-54 cars and have no examples at my disposal for inspection.

So, I took the route of generally recommending (via the introductory text) that the user take a look at bulletins listed for similar models from earlier Series and weigh the applicability.

Getting back to STB 50T-43, I don't think you could interchange hoods between the 55-56 cars and 51-54 cars with a perfect fit, the are probably close enough (especially WRT to the rear panel support) that the bulletin may be applicable. However, I've not encountered such problem on any of my V8s. IIRC, everyone of my cars (that wasn't mouse-chewed) had some felt installed there.

Though the 24th Series hood carried over into the 54th Seies, this information was never cited or reiterated in subsequent years. Could this have simply been a "new model" issue - for the sake of transition from the 48-50 style? I didn't check to see if the topic was covered in the 51-54 shop manual (my bad).

If enough people think the topic needs to be in the 55-56 Index, I can easily add it (thanks again to your programming).