Given the example of that '53, is anyone working on a '58 Caribbean?

I've never seen one either, but I like it! Even better that now I see that Owen says it's a stock option. The body color is Orchard Green, the color I intend for mine (which was originally the metallic green whose name I forget, used on '54 Caribbeans), with a tan top.

Do I recall correctly that the factory tops in '54 were nylon?

Most interesting, thanx for posting. Is this why it's called PAKistan?

So now it seems that the founders of at least two present countries were Packard owners. The George Washington of Finland, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, also had a Packard - a '38 V-12 limo - during WWII along with a M-B (gift from Hitler, with whom the Finns sided not without distaste vs. their greater enemy, Stalin, until the war was safely against Germany). I understand from Nordic friends that he preferred the Packard (which is extant, having been restored in the '70s-80s from a complete wreck).

I would be surprised if there were five of them in the US. Total production of the "'42 180" ZIS was around 2500 from what I understand, and the "56 senior" ZIL was only around 100. (There are other ZIS and ZIL models as well.) Earlier this year I saw the ZIS that Johan Berg in Stockholm, mentioned above, is restoring. He told me that he had a ZIS ambulance parts car, and when he was finished with it after some years, the remains went back to Russia and it's undergoing restoration now. That tells you something of their scarcity. If you really, REALLY want a ZIS, I would get in touch with Johan, who has connections into the Russian ZIS world. His came from Estonia.

BTW, from Johan's experience there are some small parts of the ZIS that are actual Packard, but the body is definitely not. You can reach up into the front fender and feel a seam where the front and rear halves were welded together, and if you examine side views of the fenders, the rear halves of both front and rear have a shape far more like C____ac. I felt this myself both on Johan's and earlier on one that turned up (from NJ, if I recall correctly) at the Centennial in Warren in '99.

Thanks, I'll get to that. I just retired & am looking fwd to getting back to things I largely dropped 30yrs ago once I get all of my stuff out of the workplace. My '51 300 & '54 convertible, both 3spdOD, have been waiting patiently.

Definitely '53 convertible door panels.

One further item to look at - I remember judging a '54 Pacific at the Pittsburgh National in '86. A lovely car, all red and made out to look like a fire chief's vehicle with a huge siren mounted on the fender, the only thing unusual in the interior was that the ignition lock was at the left, as per '51-3, and not on the right of the steering column, as per '54. We looked at the S/N, which was an early one, and concluded that the change in position must not have come with the exact start of the 54th Series. I can't tell from the photo but predict the ignition lock is at the left.

Also noted: there seems to be a V8 senior in the garage, so it's likely that the seller is in the club. From his location, it might be possible to figure out who he is, and get further info before the flatbed arrives, or at least have him relay all of this interest to the buyer. The car looks very restorable. Hope it will be.

This Cavalier was on display yesterday at the show associated with the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, and I had a good chance to examine the mechanism and talk with the owner.

As shown in one pic, there's a huge hydraulic cylinder (presumably activated by a hydraulic pump as used on convertibles, cars with power windows and hearses with Level-draulic systems, but the hood was closed and I didn't think to ask). Anyway, with the car nosed into the intended parking spot, that cylinder forces the continental spare down to the ground and then lifts the rear end off the ground. (Imagine the angle the Cavalier would be at, by this time, and particularly if the pavement is uneven, in order for both wheels to clear the pavement.) At the same time as the rear is lifted, a complex lever system connected to the mechanism engages a drum into the rear of the right rear tire. That drum connects turns the largest fan belt I've ever seen, which turns 90deg under the corner of the right rear quarter. By putting the car in gear - D or R depending on which way you want the rear end to go - the rear wheel turns the drum, which turns the fan belt, which turns a gear at the other end of the arrangement. That gear is engaged with a much larger gear wheel behind the continental spare, moving it slowly in the direction of the parking space. If anyone's interested in the specs, I'd estimate the drum as 8" diameter, the drive gear at maybe 2", and the driven gear at 14", but at the time I looked at it I wasn't trying to estimate sizes.

I guess on a non-level space, the contact of the spare with the ground keeps the car from lurching forward or backward, but there must be some unwanted movement of that sort in such situations. Also, when non-level left-to-right, I imagine that getting both wheels off the ground might be problematic too. Further, knowing that those bodies are not absolutely rigid, I can imagine that if you opened the door to see how things were when the rear end end was off the ground, the door would at best not close well. I imagine that these may well have been reasons why Packard declined to take the patent.