All this was done during an 8 week vacation where I stayed home and worked on the car after my honey do's were done. I then thought to tackle the firewall. The wife wants the car painted white with a lilac top, it will be her car. So I thought I'd try and paint the firewall. I have an HVLP paint gun and a nice compressor so I thought the worst I could do would be bad and have to strip it down and do it again. This car won't be a show car, but I want it to look good.

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I thought I would work on the brakes. I pulled them all off and cleaned the wheel cylinder of each wheel. I then blew out the brake lines and the gas line. I then found my gas tank was clogged. The brakes were easy compared to the gas tank. The gas tank sending unit was stuck so I put it in my can of carburetor cleaner for 5 days and it worked after I pulled it out. I thought if the carburetor cleaner worked on the sending unit, 2 gallons of carburetor cleaning solution might work in the gas tank and clean it out. After a week of waiting, the gas 3tank was still clogged. I put a wire in the outlet and put it on my drill to clear the clog. After the 5th wire, the wire finally broke. I took it down to a local garage and they removed the wire and cleaned the gas tank.

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With the engine out I decided to clean the dirt and grease off of the front end.

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Then I removed the engine and transmission in one piece.

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I put the car in the garage after storing the other 2 Packards ( a 40 160 Sedan and a 55 Clipper Custom) in a friends garage. After getting it in the garage I took off the front clip, 1 piece at a time.

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I thought I would start my blog on my wife's 1953 Packard Patrician. We have owned it for 10 years and I have finally gotten around to it. So I will start with what I have done. When I bought it I drove it and the transmission leaked. A mechanic wired up a bucket under the transmission so I could drive it home so it sat for the last 6 years.

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I am 55 and 15 years ago, back when I had 6 kids at home and 2 of which had a drivers license, my wife said, "We need a 3rd car." So I started looking. I wanted a car from the 50s and not a tri-five Chevy, too easy. I did not know much about Packards, but I found an ad for a 1955 Packard Clipper. I fell in love with her at first sight and she made my wife gag. I thought I could fix her up for $5k. Boy did I get a lesson in fixing a car! It took me 4 years and lots of love and headaches and an empty wallet. So far I have over 55k miles on her and my wife and kids love her. My wife will drive the Clipper. Since then I've added to the stable a 1940 160 Sedan and a 1953 Patrician that I am currently working on for my wife, because she wants one. You gotta love a gal who wants you to fix her a Packard!

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I have a 1955 Clipper Custom with the 352 V8 and I had the 727 installed in my car. I have over 45,000 trouble free miles (at least with the transmission being trouble free). The car runs and shifts great. I do know people say it would be great to have overdrive, I say I also miss disc brakes, but that's another forum. It was expensive to have someone convert it for me, $3695 in 2003. But my wife enjoys driving the car. So for us it's a thumbs up.

I know this post is 6 weeks old but...
Is the car worth it? Only if it has sentimental value. It is cheaper to buy a car done than to restore it. I have spent $35,000 on repairing a 1955 Clipper Custom Sedan and it is not worth any where near that much. Since then I have put on over 55,000 miles and I am having fun. Yes I could have bought a car cheaper and done the same thing, but I did not know it at the time and I thought I did not have that kind of money. I still don't have that kind of money. I just bought a 40 160 Sedan and put that kind of money into it and I am not done yet. The 40 160 is beautiful, but not done yet.
If the car has been in the family for years then yes it is worth doing and the guys here in this forum would love to help you by giving advice but you get to do all the work.
Good luck and have fun. I am!

My 55 Clipper was vapor locking. After trying various things, I finally found that my gas line, by the rear tire where it crosses through the frame, had a pin hole in it. So my mechanical fuel pump on the engine was sucking air and the electric fuel pump near the gas tank was pushing gas out the pin hole. After replacing just a short line I have not had vapor lock since and I am still driving in Phoenix when it's 110F, of course not every day just on the weekend to a car show and it cools off to 100F for the ride home at 8pm. Keep on checking the fuel lines, you may have to get under it and look for somewhere wet.
Good luck.