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Wow where to begin Oct 2009 My family and I picked up our project after almost walking away after driving 2 hrs to see it. It has been said that brave or dumb man would modify a Packard. The top had already been chopped and the car had major rust. I must say from an early age the custom cars say chopped 48-51 Mercs have attracted me. Most of the car had been disassembled. The first step was did the motor started which I did after taking all precautions including soaking, inspecting, flushing and setting up an aux fuel tank and electric fuel pump and rebuilding the carb. After some trial and error I had her purring with wires and hoses everywhere. The rad was pulled for rebuild and the thermastate housing was mia so I pulled the cooling plugs and ran the hose in the head. I need to purchase a therm housing with therm and retaining clip, I think Kanter quoted me around $135.00 . Is this my best option? I have appreciated Ken's & Kev's blogs for covering much of what I am doing. I am planning to convert to 12v with petronix ignition and the self regulated 10SI Delco self regulated one wire alternator. Ultimately I will swap the rear axle for a. Ford 9 & 3/4 disc brake 3.73 ratio and perhaps a standard tranny depending on the Ultramatic run out. I thus far have not found a reasonably priced if any disc brake front conversion. Let me say I love the purist Packards as Art in motion and wish not to offend anyone with my project. I really want to restomod her into a safe dependable luxury tourer. I am making design changes like the top and trim. I want the front side spears but will not reinstall the rear fender fin trim. I prefer the 51 52 front treatment without the grill trim mounted on the fenders. I invision a tastful two tone with a black and tan or copper. Elegant not boyracer flames if you will. Well that's a start so please let me know if I am not welcome here and thanks for the history and wealth of info you represent.

Welcome and we do have a mod forum and several others with some significant changes to their cars so don't think too many will have an issue.

The housings were very prone to rust so originals are scarce but you might be able to find a serviceable one used. David Moe at Seattle Packards maybe or Mike Dulinsky (although I think he's mostly V8). Otherwise, the SoCal region of Packards International has repro cast brass for less than Kanters price. They don't have an online store and these prices may be out of date but an email via their merchants policy will work.packards-today.com/catalog.php?CID=7

Thank you for the welcome and the info. I will get some photos up as she has been in real craftsman body shop (ex. English Wheel) since late Nov 2009. Lots of metal replacment due to rust so plenty of before and during pics but unable to upload from this iPhone

Hi Packrat, you are welcome here for sure! We have a modified discussion forum and a number of people with modified project blogs. There are a number of threads concerning front disk brake options. As for making modifications to make a Packard safe and reliable, some here would agree, some would disagree. That is the beauty of this site, those who wish to preserve their car to the strictest degree are welcome, those who wish to make minor changes are welcome, and those who wish to modify heavily are welcome. With that said, occasionally someone my share there opposing viewpoint but that is to be expected in a (semi) public forum.

Best of luck,
Jim

G'day Joel,
A broad range of Packard viewpoints are represented amongst the participants here on PackardInfo, mine is one of them as is yours. Interested to see the pic's when you can upload them. Would love to follow along on this blog as your Packrat comes together.

And a request, could you please include your '53 Clipper Custom Deluxe in the Packard Owner's Registry here, together with a pic, any known history and the story of how you acquired it?

Finally I am going to try and post some as purchased pictures. She was/is in rough shape.

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That's gonna look cool!

Oh yeah she is rough, but from the first time I laid eyes on her I could see the potential. The beautiful dream I call it.

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I am trying to post two pics here which show the hacking that had been started on the top. Now if I had found the car would I have chopped it??? I can not say that I would have yet the improved profile and fastback like design. Better lines if you will. Think custom coach builders back in the day. We will just have to see how she turns out. Notice the short quarter window, that has been changed/improved for better proportions.

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Packrat,

I merged all your picture threads together into your project blog thread. Please make sure you are in your blog and use the "Reply" button instead of the "New Topic" button. This will keep all of your entries together.

Thanks!