That sounds like a truly excellent system. One of the greatest if not THE greatest tool for automobile (and I suspect other things as well) restoration has got to be the digital camera. I can well imagine that attempting to photo every step during the disassemble and label process during the old days of film processing, the lab costs could almost rival the price of the parts. Coming in for a close second is the zip-loc storage bags. Put the two together and, short of a total brain wipe, it's hard to go wrong.

With this car, I got it already taken apart so it was a little late. What I'm doing now is sorting through the bits and pieces with the goal of doing pretty much what you suggest. Perhaps in this case, one other source has come in handy - that of having two other '51 Packards as reference material. The guy I got this car from did have things bagged & labeled but I'm "translating" into my own system.

So when it comes time to put things back together I hope to have all the bits sorted, bagged and tagged with photos. And that should make things go quite a bit better.

As for the trunk mat, I think mine is made the same way but on finding a "just dusty" section, the color seems to be a reddish brown. As for "things holding up" my Patrician's body (even in parts) is doing better than my body.

Thank you for your suggestion - it's excellent.

It's not unusual for heads to get "mixed and matched" as I have the 288 head on my 327 engine on my 51 200 Deluxe. The number that will tell you for sure is the Motor Number above the starter. M600000 is the 359; M400000 is the 327 and so on. The the letter at the beginning is not an M then it is not a 1954 engine.

Greg, I've got to go with Ross on the brakes. My '51 200 Deluxe is a pleasure to drive just stock as it is and the brakes are excellent. OK, not by today's standards maybe, but fine for "non-competition" driving. Also have the "Bendix Treadle-Vac" on my '55 Patrician and comparing the braking systems on both, I can tell you changing over the brakes from the '54 to your '51 will not be worth the effort.

An interesting observation I've made on the '51s handling is that the faster I drive the car the more like a modern car it feels. No scientific evidence to back that up - just general "feel of the car".

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David, you may regret posting that you did the dash woodgraining. It is beautifully done. Both you and your friend should be very very proud of this car.

The last couple of days have basically been playing "Indiana Jones" with the car. Just going through and making sure I know what the parts are and where they go so if I can't, I can ask Mark before he forgets. There were a whole bunch of parts in the trunk and one of them I believe to be what was originally the trunk floor carpet/mat. It is sort of like thick paper with short fibers attached. Sort of like flocking but I can't think of how Packard would think that that sort of arrangement would hold up very long at all. I took everything out of the trunk and replaced the "mat" where the shapes seem to dictate before carefully laying parts back into the trunk (I've got to get more shelving). I'm attaching (I hope) a picture to see if anyone can clue me in as to what this is made of. The picture isn't as good as I had hoped and I should have taken it before I re-loaded the trunk but by then my back was hurting too much from pushing the car around and into the garage on Sunday. What can I say.

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I believe the VIN 5452 - 2990 reads that it is a 1954 Patrician and should have the one year only 359 cid 9 main bearing engine. If it is in fact the 359 you could probably sell it and recover the price of the cars so long as the engine isn't trashed. The way to tell if it is the 359 is by the engine number which I believe is stamped on a flat rectangular space above the starter on the block and should begin with M6xxxxx.

Good luck and have fun.

I'll second Howard's welcome and add that the '51 is a great choice. A look at my signature might suggest that I'm prejudiced.

The great thing is that Packard (by their standards) made so many of them that parts are hardly ever a problem. In addition, the '52 - 54 models share many of the same parts. When I was just getting into Packards 4 years ago the two fears I had was the price of parts and knowledge how to fix them. To my relief, I found that not only are parts still quite plentiful but amazingly affordable.

You've already solved the knowledge part by your discovery of this site.

Once again, welcome!

My pleasure!

Hey Gang,

Well, the latest member of the fleet arrived today. After a couple of conversations, I am now the happy owner of markincoosbay's 1951 Packard Patrician. Mark and a friend arrived at 1 this afternoon from Roseburg with the Patrician on the trailer.

The unloading went well, and she is now sitting easy in my garage. I'll be doing my own work on this one so I will begin a blog as soon as I have something to blog about. And yes, I will try and remember to pause and take pictures as this plan goes along.

I'll be adding all the pertinent info in the Owner's Registry before the evening is out.

This will keep me off the streets this Winter - and Spring and Summer and so on and so on.......

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Talk about timing!

My '51 Patrician arrived today and on mine, the window garnish moldings are OK but the glove box is going to need help.

The trim code on mine, thanks to the help I had from the group, is 503 and I think the paint name would be the Dresden Gray Metallic.