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Looking for help identifying the misc wires on our 1955 Packard Clipper Constellation. We bought at an auction and they said it started for them. We replaced the battery since we knew they had jumped it and the old one was ancient. lights, signal, wipers, etc work but she will not turn over or even sound like she is trying. The only other thing that looks amiss is these random wires leading to ??
Picture is showing a green wire that isnt connected to anything and the other is the red and black wire connected to nothing but leading into the dash.

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That is going to be a very difficult task and over almost 70 years and numerous owners who knows what might have been done or added. I can already see 2 items not stock without even taking the wires you are asking about into account. It has a Chevy electric wiper motor whereas the stock motor would have been vacuum. There is a relay mounted on the firewall. If the car has power windows or seat, a similar relay would control power to those items but there is a missing circuit breaker and it is not in the stock location if that is its purpose. If no power windows or seat, the relay was added for some other purpose and your guess is as good as mine. There was a 56 option of power door locks operated by a similar relay. Possibly somewhere along the line those were added to your 55. Are there any large chrome pushbuttons underneath the dash edge at either end?

Aside from those items noted, I think you are going to need to trace each wire out individually to find where or what the other end is attached to and report back before anyone can be of much help. If we know where one end of a wire is going we might be able to offer better suggestions as to where or how it might have been connected.

If the car has the Ultramatic there is a safety switch on the steering column to prevent cranking if the car is not in Park or Neutral. If that switch is present possibly some linkage wear or misalignment is not letting the switch close. If a standard transmission, no extra switch and on both transmissions, turning the key will send voltage via a brown wire to a terminal on the starter solenoid. You could use a voltmeter to see if anything is happening. Also, the stock solenoid would have 4 terminals and a green wire would be on one of them. If a different or aftermarket solenoid having only 3 terminals was installed the green wire might have been left disconnected. There is a temperature sender on back of the left head next to the firewall that also has a dark green wire connected to it.

You can download the 55 wiring diagram from the literature archive if you do not have a service manual with the written version.

Top photo note the wiring harness with 2 each of brown and green wires. With the trans in N or P have someone crank on it while checking volts across the brown wire terminals on the switch mounted on the steering column right there. If you have 12V across, the safety switch is no good. Stick both wires on the same terminal and just be sure the car is in N or P to start.

If no reading, check one terminal to ground. Should be 12V when cranking. If not, you have a wiring issue between the ignition switch and safety switch. The ignition switches also have been known to have occasional problems. Do you even have the original ignition switch? In many cars the ignition switch bezel breaks and someone throws a new switch in.

By the way, what's the serial number on it? Visible on the driver's door jamb.

This button is just under the right side of the steering wheel.

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That item is not stock so no idea what it could be. humanpotatohybrid brings up a good point about the ign switch though. The 54-6 ignition switches are a weak spot often having issues with the contacts used for starting the engine being a bit stressed and subject to burning or melting. That is more often an issue with large solenoids used on the senior models but it can happen with the smaller solenoids used on the Clippers. If the ign switch has a problem or is not the correct switch possibly someone added a push button and that is being used to start the engine. You might trace any wires going to that object and see if possibly it might be a starter button.

A larger picture may help as only a short segment of the wires is shown, not all the terminations. Looks like the wiring has been there awhile, added somewhere along the timeline and was painted over in an engine bay freshening.
I'd have to search out the electric diagrams and see what's going on, if they followed the color and gauge properly, and I've no time/interest for that, but you certainly can and have the evidence at hand to verify...ie track it yourself.
If I had to guess, they improvised a horn button, IF that's the horn relay as the red wire painted black goes into the passenger compartment. Easy test if the horn works normally or not.
ps: Makes my safety point of suspect wiring in these cars is rampant and often a source for fires, shorts, etc. A short cut repair, after many decades who knows it's condition either.

Horn works.