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I would vote for having new hoses made rather than trying to find 60 year old NOS where the rubber is probably not in the best of condition anymore. Return side is low pressure, held on with clamps and should be available at any parts store. If you take your old pressure hose in, any good hydraulic shop should be able to make it up using modern hose and fittings -- although the modern fittings may not look exactly the same. In worst case if no modern match is available they should be able to cut the hose off the old fittings and add new crimp ferrules to reuse the old fittings. I don't know about your part of the country but out here there is quite an assortment of shops that custom make hoses for the farm and low rider crowd.

There is one fitting about a foot from the bottom end where the pressure hose changes size. In addition to making the size change it also has a function to act as a restriction which is supposed to help with noise and sensitivity. I don't know how important it actually might be as far as controlling either but it would be good to see if the shop could try and incorporate it in the new assy.

I'm not sure what my neck of the woods has available, I've only been out in Utah for about a year and change so now is as good time as any to find a hydraulic shop. Shame that it's not as straight forward as buying the hoses and replacing, but at least the system is practically empty now so I don't have to worry about anymore smoke...that was fun lol

I had Pirtek duplicate my original hoses. Two years ago it cost me $145. They have a location in South Salt Lake City:
https://www.pirtekusa.com/locations/pirtek-salt-lake-city-4/

Ok, new hoses and new rear shocks on the way.

Does anyone have pictures of the rear suspension setup, everything I find is specific about working on the torsion level but I just need to have an imagine in my mind of how the rear shocks are attached at the upper point. Haven't been able to find anything on the site.

There is a threaded stem on the shock which slides up into angled holes in the frame cross piece mounted high above the rear axle. A couple of metal plates on the stem hold a pair of rubber bushings compressed with the metal of the cross piece between them. All held with a nut on top. It can be a real pain to get a wrench on the top nut and also hold the stem if the nuts have rusted.

Until a photo comes along you can check out the frame plates in the parts manualpackardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/parts ... ist.php?cat=22&partslist=1955-1956& As an added view, the photo of a front shock that is in figure 1 of the suspension and steering section of 55-6 SM has the same upper mounting as the rear shock. Only difference is instead of straight up and down the rear shocks are mounted at more of an angle and have a different bottom mount.

EDIT: Here is a not too bad a photo. Click to enlarge and the view of the rear shock upper on the right side is pretty good.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=4709

Perfect, thanks - that's what I needed to know. Last car I did this on was a 1985 W123 with direct access to the top of the tower in the passenger compartment, so no real accurate frame of reference haha

Looks like I'll be on my back cursing out the car shortly lol

Mechanic's gloves are a great idea...until you need to blindly feel around for things. One missed un-tightened connection later and I've got power steering again. Unfortunately now the pump is moaning, but at least I have power steering.

I tried to get at the rear shocks but I couldn't break the bottom bolts free, or even get a good grip on the tops. An overnight soak in PB blaster didn't help so I soaked it down again and I'm hoping a few days'll help.

Otherwise its going to be more extreme solutions...none of which I'm equipped for, yet.

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I feel for you! Working on four different cars including two Packards over the last week I know exactly how you feel! My hands (and the rest of me including my clothes) have looked like that more often than not and it never occurs to me the get mechanic's gloves.

An overnight soak in PB blaster turned into over a week due to a family emergency back in NJ, but there's always a silver lining; my father had a breaker bar that he didn't need anymore so now, hopefully, I'll be able to break those lower bolts loose.

Question is, what about the tops? Anyone have a measurement on those or a suggestion on how to get that off?

Lastly, in the world of it's always something; I've noticed that my exhaust hangers are kaput, so add that to the list of things to replace - though I am debating just replacing the entire exhaust system since one side has no resonator and the other side the resonator is swiss cheese.

What was that I said about no more work on this car for 2019?

Maybe Ross has a secret for getting those top nuts off or remembers the size but like you, I fought them on one car I owned as apparently others have too. On mine I had little access to the nut and had to hold the shock rods with a pair of visegrips so good thing they were not going to be reused.

There was a car that passed thru when we were disassembling cars where someone had drilled holes in the trunk shelf so they could insert a socket from the top. As I recall they were about 1" holes neatly done and they took the angle of the shocks into account since the holes were positioned inward. I think there were rubber plugs in the holes but can't remember other details. My friends and I thought that was a neat idea though. Might be an option if things get really out of hand.

Along with providing an access hole for the fuel sender IMO, that shock mount is something the factory was a bit remiss on but I guess no other mfg worried much about access to hidden items either.