Minor update: Came back the next day and couldn't get the engine to turn any farther, which was expected. I poured a few ounces of Evapo-Rust into each cylinder. I don't think it will do a whole lot but I'll find out when I check it again on Friday.

That's about what I was thinking. I would say around 9k would be a fair price for the blue Packard in today's market, based on a few recent sales of similar cars.

I meant that it's warm so there's no road salt, not that there's no rain

On my car the rust is in the 4 fenders/rockers, and at the bottom of the panel under the fuel door. Check around the rear shelf for rust / water damage. Other than that they seem to be pretty solid. For Cali cars I would expect very little rust aside from around the leaky spots (as mentioned earlier). See pictures below (obviously, aside from the fuel filler, the points are symmetrical even though only one is shown).

Though I don't actually know, it seems that Packard used thicker steel than some of their rivals, so the cars tend to not rust out as easily. Even where I have rust holes in my car, the surrounding area still feels solid.

P.S. Be sure that the red one doesn't "just barely" run and drive; in other words, $8500 is overpriced for a car that may need the whole brake system redone, carb rebuilt, etc. in the near future.

COMMON RUST SPOTS:


COMMON LEAKY SPOTS / WATER DAMAGE AREAS:

Looks very cool Ross. Amazing progress so far and I'm excited to see how it turns out!

Broken parking pawls seem to be a very common problem on that transmission. It's like that on my car too. I don't know why... whether they just break easily, or somehow wear out over time. As you have seen they have very good brakes (aside from being susceptible to brake fade) so as long as the parking brake works properly it will never actually be a problem.

The red one seems pretty good for the money assuming they're in comparable mechanical condition. For most of the car, attaching trim is not hard. Just make sure it has the hubcaps.

Do you mind linking the original CL post?

When you say "doesn't stay in park" do you mean the lever itself falls down, or the car rolls in park (parking pawl is broken)?

As Ross said, you should test the leveling. Have the seller check that the torsion-level switch is on, then open the trunk and sit in it (or otherwise add 100 or so pounds to the back of the car). After some time (under a minute IIRC) the car should raise its rear to level out. When you remove the weight, after some time the reverse should occur. Note that the car doesn't need to be running to do this, or even have the key turned on.

It looks in pretty good shape overall.
Some things I notice:
- Front seat looks pretty sun-damaged like it was parked outside for a while. The 1955-56 years had some pretty bad watertightness problems in places, so check that the rubber seems good around the doors and rear window. The door panels look a bit water-damaged in the front but that's actually pretty normal for these years unless they were garage-kept their whole life.
- You're in Cali so this may not matter but it looks like that car is probably not equipped with a heater as I don't see a heater core in the engine bay. However, there may be one under the front seat; just peek down and check.
- To me 12.5k seems a bit high. However, if you're trading for your truck that obviously doesn't matter and prices for 50's Packards are all over the place now anyway.

BTW Ross, what do you mean by "With the indicator in the mark just to the right of the D do feel 2 shifts?" ?

Definitely look into Ross's suggestion. Can't recommend him enough.

I mean this in the kindest way, but my family has 110 year-old engines used as lawn art for the past half-century or more that I would have higher confidence in rebuilding than that. Judging by the level of pitting, you'd have to get not just the cylinders re-bored to probably 30 over, but also the valve seats and guides, and the the gasket surface milled back to smooth, not to mention obviously replacing all pistons, rings, and valves. You said you need an oil pan; does the crankshaft look that rusty too? I'm really not sure that this engine is the way to go.

P.S. Please post more pictures of the engine if you can, so we can see more what we're looking at.

There's a couple things with taking the heads off; first, the exhaust manifold bolts and other HW in that area are very rusty (see pictures). So getting those out without them rounding out or snapping would be a challenge in itself. Second, I need to remove the heater core and transmission dipstick which will take a little while. Third, if I can get the engine running without taking the heads off then that's what I'd want to do for now, as my car has 93k miles and I'd like to be confident the transmission works before investing too much time into the engine.

I'm certainly not against it, it just seems like something that maybe makes more sense to do later than now. Looks like honing tools are pretty cheap and the process is not that difficult. We'll see how it goes; if I can't get my engine to turn around with some time then I'll be taking the heads off anyway I think. Planning on putting a few oz of Evapo-Rust in each cylinder to try and dissolve the rust. Evapo-rust only disintegrates ferrous rust so I don't think it could hurt anything. It's water based so it should sink below the Diesel fuel left in from last night.

Picture 1
Picture 2

I have an update with my car here:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=24406&post_id=243509#forumpost243509

I recommend setting a torque wrench to 150 ft-lbs and using that to turn the crank bolt. That way you won't damage it by accident. Start clockwise and tighten until the torque wrench clicks. Then use a normal ratchet or breaker bar to turn it the opposite direction until the bolt unscrews (or use the torque wrench, but some torque wrenches are damaged when unscrewing so double-check that that's okay on yours).

That's what I did on mine, it didn't budge when turning it CW but I was able to turn it CCW without much trouble. It turns 1/6 of a turn back and forth now. Remains to be seen how I'll get it to turn the remaining 5/6.