Edited as requested.

Fred at Max Merritt is selling his 1956 Patrician. You can see our newsletter with details and our website with lots of pictures, both linked below. Please give the shop a call if you are interested. Thanks! Max Merritt Auto Parts, INC.
Newsletter with details:https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Max-Merritt-Packard-Information.html?soid=1122025810105&aid=KygE5MdoJPc&fbclid=IwAR1R1B9qeIfGrbDojei3vcdTyxoZFL11Z-niUQ09T3EXMVOWNp2R3u7orOM

https://packardparts.com/packards-4-sale/

Finally made it back Out West with this weekend's Packard bits scavenging complete and bits on the trailer. Heavy bits.


The 356 is a '47 with block, crank assembly, valve train assembly, clutch and bellhousing, water pump, damper, oil filter and lines . . . and no head studs. The other pieces were looted from it to be eBayed for maximum fun-n-profit by the seller. He bought it because he needed the head. Wat has other 356 bits here and can always use another block in case one has a crack or something else wrong with it. That's the thinking.


This particular piece of Packard fruit over ripe in the tree is a complete (or all but) 1954 327 Clipper engine, rated at 165 horses. Yeah, okay. It was bought for the bellhousing and clutch pieces to be used with one of the 359 engines so it can have a manual trans instead of a slushbox. There is a 3-speed non-overdrive transmission included with it, and I can assure you that it can be had quite reasonably by anyone who wants it. The engine is loose and still has oil in the crankcase. Hell, it might fire off with a bit of tinkering. We'll see.

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Welcome aboard!!! It's an interesting ride, the entire Packard Experience. You'll meet some decent folks and a couple of twits, but that's almost anywhere.

Hint Number One: don't overpay for Packard parts.

You will need to change all of the fluids in the engine, trans, and rear end, both to get out the old stuff and the water and to see what's living in there. All long term storage cars are not the same. There are rodents in the crankcase stories, and their tiny bones make a lousy lubricant.

The brakes will need to be sorted thoroughly. New parts, including the flex lines, and new fluid. The fuel system could be an issue, depending on the amount of crud in your tank, if any. Same with the cooling system.

Obviously, the more you can do, the less it will impact your wallet.

Try not to take the entire process, or yourself, too damned seriously. Murphy owns several Packards. Yeah, that Murphy. Use lots of penetrating oils - they have improved remarkably over the years. Use fire quite judiciously. Invest in a good grinder, a reciprocating saw and blades, and plan to replace a lot of bolts-n-nuts. Packard often used 14 fasteners where 6-8 would have gotten it done and Ford would have used 2 and a couple of folding tabs. Of course, that's also why my 1946 barn find (one of the lines on Old Car Ad Bingo) doesn't rattle after all these years.

You have found the correct website for lots of knowledge and lots of help, and lots of outside reading to figure out what you want/need to know. Ask away. Odds are, you're not the first guy to encounter whatever silliness you find in your car.

My very best wishes to you!!!

Went and picked up the 356 "short block" today, still with a bellhousing and clutch bits. No manifolds. No matter, as Wat has all of that. The old guy had stripped off the goodies and pitched them. So Wat made him a low-ball offer, which was rejected outta hand. Then Wat went to what he would pay, cash on the barrel head, which was also rejected.


"I've got them for sale on eBay."


"Unh hunh. You still have them. I'm standing right here in your garage with cash in my pocket."


No matter, got the engine bits. Here's wagering that I hear from him in 6 weeks with something more along the line of what he thinks that Wat would spend. Of course, Wat will be returning to his original offer, price of gasoline what it is.


The moral of the story is: never overpay for Packard parts. The supply is dwindling, but the demand is dwindling faster.


There's a 327 to score come Sunday.

271 to 0


Bueno, amigo!!!

The Clipper was a winner, period. Not a fan of the name, but they could have named it Fred and sold some. It's a spiffy design and put Packard in a great position after the war when everyone had to put their five-year-old designs back out there. Best looking girl at the homecoming dance.


That said, the Clipper was Gilman's baby. But he dipped his pen into company ink, and got caught and railroaded when Father Alvan showed the world his puritanicalism. One wonders what he, Gilman, might have come up with post-war if he'd had the chance. Instead, Packard got George Peter-Principle Christopher, a production guy with virtually no other redeeming features.


Christopher, in all of his cluelessness, built the Hell out of sixes after the war when a monkey could sell cars, squandering the luxury car customers and the company name. Then the bathtub facelift for '48, while mechanically adequate for the era, was a nausea-inducing styling cluster%$#@. But his biggest disaster was in his celebrating Packard's 50th with another "re-styling" of the tub. His towering home run would have been an all new V8 in an all new car, but instead he acted on every fear he owned and fumbled the opportunity and then kicked the ball out of bounds. And the dottering old fools on the Packard board allowed this. As long as the dividend checks kept rolling in . . . . It hurts my mind.


I'm with the CCCA. The last classic Packard was the last super/custom Clipper. Speaking of, there's an article in their latest rag on the Darrin Packards. All seven paragraphs and five pictures. :rolleyes:

Off tomorrow. Bought a tractor (my first Ford anything - ever!!!) which I have to pick up, and there's the older truck I am gifting to the landlady. It's time for it to get its own set of Farm tags.


We'll score some engines on this weekend's drive, the ones I mentioned in the previous post.


I got a job offer I don' refuse. I took it. It means I'll be migrating back to VA for awhile, and I'll be tending to Mom some more. Couldn't convince her to move here no matter how many lies I told her about how badly the horses wanted her to. Anyway, I'm not sure what Packarding is going to look like for the foreseeable future, but I'm sure it will be something.

I'll see your 2 messages and raise you 269.

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That should be the problem. Replace (at least) the coil wire.