There is no conspiracy on the carpet. A friend of mine who has not been able to find the correct carpet is spending a ton of his own money to have what he needs manufactured. He is NOT a Packard vendor. I asked him how much he is having made and he is not sure. I supplied the green color I needed when he asked and YES I have a personal interest in helping him succeed in getting the product made. I am buying enough for my Caribbean, bronze color and for my 400 green color. He wanted a commitment from me to purchace enough carpet to help make it happen. If anyone goes through a lot of trouble and money to make something no one else would spend their money on, I think that is great. It is not a club project even though he is a proud member of both PI and PAC.

Ok, I've got the oil pan off, cleaned out and ready to be re-installed. Now, can someone give me the magic incantation to get the pitman arm ball and idler arm ball out of the steering cross-rod assembly? In the past, I've disassembled the cross-rod on my '41 limousine without any problem. The ball is in a keyhole shaped slot so when the adjusting plug is removed, the ball slides to the larger opening and comes right out.

On the '50 however, after removing the adjusting plug and the outside half of the ball seat, the ball stays in the cross-rod no matter how much I push, pull, squeeze, wiggle, rotate, twist, and swear. It isn't critical that I get it all disassembled, but I would really like to get the 57 years worth of black goo out and replace it with clean grease.

Could be that someone is going to offer the carpets at a much cheaper price than the clubs or dealers.

Randy -

There is some merit to what you say, but playing one's cards too close to the vest could scuttle a project that otherwise might succeed.

For example, a fella in the Cosworth Vega Owner's Association had done the legwork on having hood blankets repro'd privately. On one hand he could have them molded and die-cut as original, which was pricey; on the other hand, he could have had them simply die-cut (IIRC) for a lot less. This was put forth in a post at an independent online forum, but the project almost died due to a lack of response. Luckily, that fella went on to present the details during the Director's meeting at one of their national meets, which are open to the member rank and file. The Directors quickly crunched the numbers, figured the break-even, took a vote by show of hands on who would buy one, and then took it on as their own National Project AND gave the people who stepped up to the plate to buy one a substantial discount on their purchase. If it weren't for the open nature of that meeting, an exacting reproduction of part that had long been NLA might never have been made.

With membership in the hundreds, not thousands, the CVOA does a fantastic job on parts projects that no vendor would ever touch. In contrast, PAC's National Projects are awfully weak, and I have met more than a few people who have a real negative opinion of that organization. However, I have seen some fine stuff from the Mid-Atlantic and Motor City Regions and would buy from them. (Heck, after talking to Mr. Pushbutton at-length this past year, I am inspired to convert the one Patrician I have with manual selector to push button control!)

Yet, I digress...

I just checked the parts book and sure 'nuff, in addition to black, there's just grey, blue, green, and copper for '56 - technically five colors. I guess I was confusing some '55s I'd seen with red, turquoise, etc. carpeting, but I'm still thinking there was something special about the black (or even all colors of) carpet material that Packard used?

Meanwhile, I am confused as to the driving force behind this project when Kanters has been offering carpet for years. I just checked their color catalog from 2004, and the colors seems awfully close - except for the lack of a copper.

I believe there is a scrap that goes up on the firewall. I'll doublecheck tomorrow and mail you a swatch if there is.

Do you have a scrap of the grey you could spare?

If I had a tentative project with a big "IF" attached to it, I would keep it close to the vest also. Never announce a plan when there may be no outcome at all - you will be criticized like the boy who cried wolf. And if PAC financed it and gained some reward, so be it. Whoever forks over some monies to get a project moving should be praised. Getting anything done for so small a marque as Packard must be difficult. I do question the "four" colors however as I need grey the same as Brian does for his Carib hdtp.

Joel -

My personal feeling is that (if available) an answer to the "question" originally posed might have come quicker had news of this project been made more clear. Alas, none of my cars have blue carpet, but I could use a copper carpet for my Patrician driver project (povided it is both of good quality and reasonably priced.)

Given some feelings than several members here have, perhaps the only negative about such a project would be if the proceeds were to benefit PAC.

Yet, what's this about "all" four colors being made at once? Weren't there were more than four colors of carpeting used in '56 (even if you don't count basic black)? I was under the impression that Kanter offered carpet in all the colors for a long time.

Joel: Your second post in this thread may have been made in
jest, but as I think your answer to my post confirms, it was also made for personal reasons.

I agree that this forum is all about helping each other. That is the reason I made two major contributions to Packard info. Since there are so many 55 & 56 Packard owners, that come to this site, this is my question to you.

If you have known that there might be a possible new source for carpet and that it going to be produced. Why wasn't that information shared with the other posters in this forum
at an earlier date.

My reference to the PAC website forum was made to remind people, that this is the place to come for information and help.

John F. Shireman

Kevin, the 1955 senior series carpet is not the same as the 56 Mr. Pushbutton is looking for.