Diamondback Tires vulcanizes white sidewalls of any size on modern radial tires made by major manufacturers. The set of radials I bought from them for my 1956 Patrician were mounted on Firestone tires. I am very pleased with them and they handle MUCH BETTER than the old bias ply tires. Packard would have used radials if they had been available from U.S. manufacturers in 1956.

okay.....now i am officially pissed the F off!!

look at the last picture of the torsion motor mounted and then look at the solenoids.......THEY ARE MOUNTED BACKWARDS!!!! the nipple end of the solenoid goes to the front of the car, not the back. F!!!!! @@#$%@#%@#%~!!!! check this old pic out and you will see what i am talking about. https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/uploads/newbb/491_4913ab4a82808.jpg

the reason i know is because the limit switch does not get touch at all by the bars. reason is because the way i have the solenoids makes the limit switch sit too far back towards the back of the car. witch is wrong! if i flip them it moves the limit switch towards the front of the car and that will work. the long arm slams right into the front of the torsion limit switch toggle arm....@#$@#$~!!S@#%$@#$$~!!$@#$%!$~!!#$!@$!#$!!

now i get to take it all apart...all that nice painting and sealing for F-ing NOTHING!!!

i have never been more pissed....call it on my youth,....but F!@!@!!!!!@#@#%$R@#!

I came across this site, ken-thornton.com, advertising Packard Parts, but there's only an e-mail address and no one responds. Does anyone know if the site is still in business, and if so, how to reach it?

In Ontario the government is offering $300 as an incentive to owners of cars built before 1996 to have them scrapped! The argument is of course that pre 1996 cars pollute more than newer cars. I think the real agenda is to encourage people to buy new cars to help the ailing auto industry which is the number one industry in this province. It would not surprise me that if this incentive programme fails the next step will be legislating old cars off the road altogether with the exception of antiques which will be regulated as to where they can be driven and when. I drive a 1983 Volvo 240 which I realize is a more polluting car than anything being built today but I live in a small city and drive it about 5000 Kilometers (3000miles) per year or less. Where and when I can I walk or bike and really am concerned about our global environment. Will I help save the world by buying a new car? I think if the government wants to really get serious about auto pollution the first concern should be to develop more urban passenger rail systems to help alleviate the traffic volumes commuting in and out of cities. A old parked car isn't polluting when it isn't being driven but is a convenient scapegoat.

Another senior moment! When I saw the heading Clipper Custom I only had a few moments before going off line and assumed incorrectly that we were discussing the original 1940's Clipper Custom in my rush to offer constructive advice. My apology for any misleading statements. I have deleted or amended my posts. Sorry.

I just restored old skirts for my Clipper.

How are you all attaching the skirts? I see it's a 5/16" bolt. Are you putting the bolt from the bottom to the top, with a wingnut on top? Vice versa? No wing nut?

What about the thin rubber strip to protect paint on bottom edge of fender? Is that 1/8" thick? I need to buy some and put it on.

Glad you're pleased with Ficken's work, I've always found it top-notch. I think you'll be glad to have the vacuum system which IMO is superior to the two-speed electrics.

OK, I'm confused. I thought since this was in the V8 forum we were speaking of a 55/56 Clipper Custom which would have 7:60x15 tires. Or is it a 46/47 Clipper Custom which would have 7:00x15? (These are from two different sizing conventions, I believe the 7:00x15 is actually the larger tire with higher load rating.)

If the former, the best measure of whitewall width is to look at original factory photographs, and there are plenty of them. If the former, I agree that at best whitewalls walls were almost impossible to obtain in those years.

Packard sourced tires from several tire manufacturers during any single year and I doubt that each manufacturer's whitewall width was identical to the others, so just general period norms should apply.

My Ficken rebuilt wiper motor came in. I installed it, and it works just fine.... better than ever!

Thanks, guys, for referring me to the right place.

I am not 100% sure the 3 3/8 whitewalls are not correct for your car. If you find they are supposed to be 4 inch for sure, I thought I saw 4 inch firestones in the Coker catalog. I find the actual catalog a little bit more user friendly because you can see all the different tires with a flip of the page. I am hoping someone else here can confirm this for you.

My personal experience with tires is this: Radials work great, but age out after about 4 years. At that point, they are as likely to throw the tread right off the casing and or, blow out. Bi-plys do not seem to do this at the ripe young age of 4 years old. Radials do not look correct, the aspect ratio makes them disproportionate. The Diamond Back radials have a fairly good aspect ratio, but are essentially light truck tires. They are industrial strength, but may not ride quite right. They are also significantly more expensive than the original mold bi-plys.

Another interesting little situation I have seen with radials is they can flex the wheel so much that the wheel will habitually throw wheel covers. I have seen this more on slotted wheels than with full ledge wheels.

Between myself, and friends with old cars, we probably have close to 100,000 miles on BFG Silvertown tires. I took a month vacation on a set, traveling through 4 states. Another friend basically went coast to coast on a set on a month long trip. No reported trouble.

Here is the catch, radials will mask a worn out mis-aligned front end. Radials also resist grabbing the grooves in the highway. On a properly maintained front end bi-plys work adequately.

I really respect your thoughts on wanting the full experience of the car the day it was built. I share that feeling, and as a result, my collector vehicles have correct tires. They are a bit more money, but look fantastic. I also understand why folks run radials, and respect that choice.

Jim