Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

The development project finally came together. It just goes to show that if you throw enough money at something, likely as not you can "solve" it, especially when it was gummint what caused the problem.


It's been a pain in the hindparts to corner these folks to make arrangements to haul off their junker Packard for them, but I think that we're all but there. They need to send me an address so Google/Siri can do her thing. Thank God for alternate routes around DC.

Address obtained. It's only been a year. "Needs gone" the ad says. I reckon it wasn't as urgent as all of that. She did say that she was glad that I'm getting the car. I had no idea that Wat was this kind of a model of patience.

It had what I thought it had:

Attach file:

---

  IMG_2859.jpg (376.72 KB)

There was an ad online for a “free to a good home” anvil with the one-year only engine, assuming that it hadn’t been swapped out at some point, so Wat crossed his fingers and contacted the people after some pondering. The damned car was sitting on the edge of a field and looked quite rusted and forlorn. No chrome goodies. It’s only other (besides the engine, we hoped) redeeming feature is that the glass is good.

Yesterday was the day. It literally took a year of nagging and reminding the woman that, “hey, I’m still interested.” We finally got a date. They preferred afternoon, so we hit the road before oh six hundred to get there. The drive was pretty. There were some mountains and the leaves were turning, so the vistas were scenic. The car was, as frequently happens, out in the middle of No Damned Where. Packards seem to hide there and wait for Wat to find them.

Got there and checked it out - there was the engine! Best news of the day. The worst was how everything was more mired in than the weeds around it made it appear. We knew that there would be rust, but sometimes one is still surprised at how far things can deteriorate. There was even a tree growing in it. The state of Florida wouldn’t allow it to come in - invasive flora and such. The man, the owner, the woman’s dad, had a D4 Cat and it’s a damned good thing that he did, because that’s exactly what it took to get it out of the hole it was in. Two hours to load the damned thing between pulling it out and then dragging/pushing it onto the trailer while trying not to destroy the trailer, the body of the car being beyond all hope of any kind of reclamation. The driver’s side doors started falling off during the loading process because what they were fastened to existed in name and ferrous oxide only by that point.

The bright bits had been removed years before because Dad harbored delusions of restoring it. They were stored in a barn across the street. There was a family fight over stuff (how materialistic) after the patriarch died, so Dad’s sister apparently either sold or tossed the stuff out of spite. Seems they still are contentious.

Dad is interesting. He told me that he had had two strokes, a heart attack, and had been struck by lightning. I looked him in his clear blue eyes and told him that I suspected that Allah isn’t done with him yet. He said that he thought that I was right and observed that, “I’ve still got shit to do.” After we were loaded and he was ready to retire to his shop and its accumulation of old well-drilling equipment and assorted machinery and trucks, he told me to keep in touch.

I reckon I will. Car is home. I’ll unload it later.

Attach file:

---

  IMG_2861.jpg (616.00 KB)

Quote:

That must be due to Fred's influence on you.

Quote:


Hmmm, maybe. Fred is a killer. Don't be a cardinal around the farmlette. Moles, either.

If it can be made once, it can be made again so why not just restore it? 1954 Patricians are fairly rare and to find one with the aluminum head is unusual. Just kidding as this is obviously too far gone unless Fred has some special skills that she has been hiding which the rest of us are unaware of.

Oddly, the big glass is good. The door glasses are good. I think that there's a broken wing vent.


Wasn't there something special about the '54 slushbox trannie?


If you blow up the picture on the trailer, that's a fender "repair" hanging over the edge.


:rolleyes:

No, nothing special about the transmission unless it is a very late 1954 with the Gearstart Ultramatic. If it is, there will be a dipstick for it under the hood on, I believe, the passenger side but I didn't see one in your engine compartment photo. The Gearstart was the predecessor to 1955's Twin Ultramatic and even shared some parts with it.

That was a one-handed picture taking event. The other arm was holding the hood which, although rusted, was affected by gravity and influenced to fall on my head.


This makes three 359s. This one is the first with an intact starter.