Finally got a chance to post pictures tonight or the 1957 Packard 400 that I am building. First photo is of the car as it sits right now. The body was done is acid etched primer on the outside to stop the surface rust. It can be see on the back sear panel.

Second Photo is the rear shot of the car. The rear bumper has been roughed out.

The Third Photos shows 56 Packard front bumper that will be used to make a 57 style bumper. The engine that you see is a dummy mock up with no inside parts in it.

The Forth photo is of the actually 374 engine that will be built for the car. The ultramatic tranny is built but needs a 56 golden hawk transmission tail stock put on.

The fifth photo shows the tin that will go on the front of the hood and under where the center shield is in the center of the grille.

The Sixth photo shows the front fender blanks. The crease has been put down the center and the ends that butt up against the doors have been beaded. The next stage will be roll forming the tops of the fenders.

I finished the Jeepster last week. The Nash Wrecker project is about 3 weeks ahead of schedule and should be finished in another 2 weeks. I will probably get started on this project again by mid March. That's all for now hope this answers any questions. Thanks for the interest - Denny

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I received a phone call awhile back about the request for info on the 57 Packard project. I have been having trouble getting onto this site. The car has been mothballed the past few years. The state road project kept my building longer than promised. I in the meantime started to restore a 48 Jeepster and 49 Nash wrecker thus losing interest in the Packard project. The Jeepster will be done this month which will loosen up time and money. The Packard had to have the bare tin sanded down and acid primer etch about 4 months ago. It is a primer green right now. Front fender blanks have been started. The tin work that goes around the grille is built along with the hood front edges. Back in Sept. 2016 I met a man who had the actual blueprints for the chassis. I was able to compare measurements and everything is pretty close to what Packard would have done. I was also able to see the Clipper split bar torsion bar blue prints. It was not what I thought it would be. I may go gung ho possibly in April on the car again. Thanks for wondering

I saw this happen about 3 times with a friend who had a 56 Clipper. The catch was he had a 4 speed truck transmission in the car and would pull a trailer to Hershey to sell his parts. He was a mechanic by trade and figured he had the rear end overloaded thus putting to much strain on the rims. He finally found some kind of truck rim to settle the problem. The worst ride I ever experienced was breaking a steering knuckle on a 55 Patrician while going around a curve at 45 MPH. It took out the steering and brakes at the same time. Being the wheels were connected together by the torsion bar it set the frame onto the ground. Oh what a ride!

I finally got a hold of my computer whiz kid. So here are the pictures of the Facel-Vega Packard that was at Hershey back in 1991. At least I think it was built out of one.

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I had this happen a few years ago were I couldn't get one out of park. It ended up being the park lever linkage in side the pan had broken a ear off. This was made out of diecast and age had done it in. It throwed everything out of whack enough to totally bind it up. Hope this isn't your problem. If I remember right from talk at a Packard meeting years back. Some of the last built 54S had the newer type 55 Ultramatic snuck in for test purposes.

I remember of the Facel-Packard story. After some thought I found some photos of a car that was built and then put up for sale at the Hershey car corral in 1991. It runs in my mind too that one of the car magazines run a story about this endeavor a few years back. That one I have not found yet. I'll post the pictures as soon as I can track down some computer whiz kid. After 4 tries I give up trying to post the pictures.

Hi Ross, to answer your questioned the original rack and pinion steering was a experimental unit built by the moraine company. I used a unit out of a chevy cavalier that come close to working like the original. The moraine unit had the outside casing move instead of the arms or tie rod ends like most units. It was a complicated affair. The pod sticking out front on the frame served a duel purpose. First to mount strut bars on and second to act as a quard to protect the steering unit. I,m hoping that it has enough power to work the steering as this car will go 3 ton easy when done seeing the body is built out of 18 gage steel.

The 56 clipper I bought with the Hydromatic tranny was converted over in 1964. It saw road service till 1971 when the body would not pass inspection. The man I got it off of owned a auto repair shop. He said that the main reason this was done that ultramatic repair parts were almost impossible to find by then. I can,t find oil cooling lines on it so it must be air cooled or something. It in away looks to be a after market kit of some sort.

While torching a 1956 Packard Clipper apart, I ran into a GM Hydromatic transmission attached instead of the Ultramatic. Has anyone ever run across this before? Included are pictures of the car and installation.

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Thanks to all who responded and suggested that I start my own blog. I will post pictures from the beginning to the present. I'll start out with the original Black Bess II with the Predictor at Warren in 1999. To save from boredom, I'll start out with the finished frame. This is what Black Bess originally had. And I used off the 80 some photos in my collection of the Original Black Bess being built. Sorry I can not show the original pictures due to a copyright agreement. The next batch of pictures will show the chassis being built in various stages. From there, I'll jump to the body being built. I have not been able to work on this for over a year. I was going to start on it, but due to road work in front of my building, I've had the opportunity to rent out to the department of transportation as an office and staging area. So it will be November before I am able to touch it now as the state has control of my building. The financial agreement for the use of the building was too good to turn down. Enjoy the photos. If you have any questions, please post, I will try to answer in a week.

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