Packard made their own transmission in those years.

unlike my 56, my 54 will not downshift to converter when I press the gas pedal to the floor below 50mph. Is there some adjustment I need to make? The trans is silky smooth otherwise.

Could be you have the wrong cap. If it doesn't seat at the base of the neck, you will get water going out the overflow.It happened to my friend with his 54 Cavalier and that was the problem.He obtained the proper cap and the problem was solved.

I had tubeless tires on my 1948 Custom 8 for over 25 years.
Not only did they not leak, they rarely ever took air even after sitting all winter.

Mike Dulinsky in Duluth MN has 90 or 100 55-56 Packards.He should be able to provide you with a nice used switch.

I have to agree with BDC, that is not a standard 37 dash.

I recently bought a 1954 Convertible.It has the correct factory Air filter but while working on the car, I noticed it was converted to a paper air filter.The one in there only goes about 1/2 way up so essentially it is useless.Has anyone out there ever done a conversion and if so, what paper filter did you use?

If power brakes, your pedal will say easamatic power brakes.If it failed, send it to Ed Strain in Florida for a rebuild.

Same temp as the one I took out-I believe it was 160

I bought a NOS bellows type Thermo in a Packard box.I put it in my 48 Custom 8 to replace the one that was in there.It functions OK but I notice the car runs a little hotter than before ie: Temp guage ran at 1/2 now its more like 3/4s.