Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

Here's the car in blue. Lots of trim variations were possibe, as Clipper in particular demonstrated. But they needed to have a purpose.

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  1955 Packard 127 4D Hardtop rich color.jpg (971.07 KB)

Here's a recipe for a 1955 Packard Coupe-Sedan.

Ingredients:

1 Four Hundred body and chassis, with chassis and roof extended 7.25 inches and made Formal
1 pair Four Hundred front doors, beltline removed
1 pair Patrician rear doors, beltline removed, and changed to be reverse opening and with lower B-pillar structure integrated into door. See Henney for detailed instructions on how to do this (if they are still talking to you… as in you, Packard).


Directions:

Combine all ingredients to create a 134.25-inch wheelbase car with rear legroom that is 2.25 inches greater than Patrician.

To access rear seats, open front door, then pull inside lever to open rear door. When closing front and rear doors, always close rear door first.

To roll down glass, push button downward on door. To roll up, push button upward.

To use as Formal Sedan, hire chauffeur and let them keep car serviced and fueled, open and close front and rear doors for you, load and unload your luggage, take you wherever you wish to go, and beep when passersby gawk.

To use as Enclosed Drive Limousine, add partition assembly and exterior rear door handles, and contort yourself getting in and out.

To use as open car, use Caribbean top and decklid & stowage assembly, and extend top 7.25 inches.

To park in garage with door closed, make sure garage is the length of the car, or 224.65 inches, plus a few feet to walk around it.

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  1955 Packard Coupe Sedan.jpg (1,050.69 KB)

2-door front doors are too wide, unfortunately, and mess with the visual proportions. The nicest so far is in the earlier post with image 8 1b having the belt molding, the stock rear window and roof.

That Coupe-Sedan was having fun. But I do think one of Packard's opportunities was something to compete with the Cadillac 75. Not a 3-row, instead a 2-row Executive sedan. The coupe's front doors together with the sedan's rear doors, the outer stamping of which might have initially stamped without a dogleg and so could be left fuller for this application. The five inch longer end panel between rear glass and decklid was a winner. Trimming the C-pillar back to open up the rear door glass was in the cards too. All of this and a forward cantilevered B-pillar with some deco trim could have made for a nice Formal Sedan on 139.25-inch wheelbase, with rear legroom that was 7.25 inches longer than Patrician. Maybe 50 buyers, and good catalogue eye-candy.

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  1955 Packard Coupe EDL Formal bw.jpg (1,061.47 KB)

I think Packard needed to get rid of those high pockets for '55. The designers never wanted them in the first place and the industry had moved away from that style. Mercury lowered the beltline on its '55 sedan to create a new Montclair series with a higher price than it had ever offered, and people bought'm up. Packard was tooling new front vent windows that year anyway, so might as well get rid of the beltline. The old-fashioned upright roofs needed to go too, the longer one replaced with a 5-inch longer version of the existing hardtop, with door uppers offered in both full frame and hardtop style. And reverse-opening rear doors would have gotten rid of the body insert between t the doors, and allowed the door handles to tuck in on the narrower part of the body sider rather than sticking out on the hips.

No Clippers, just Packards starting with a '55 Cavalier 127 wb sedan and pillared hardtop sedan. There would also be a 122 wb Three Hundred hardtop coupe with similar pricing. All with cathedral taillights but maybe with the familiar '55 Clipper's front design.

The 127 wb Four Hundred and 132 wb Patrican would use the 5-inch longer end panel, and the 127 wb Caribbean convertible would be offered too.

A longer wheelbase Executive/EDL car would have been helpful to the cause too, built in Conner.

Don, I just realized that I made a mistake on your favorite car by not accounting for the high pockets when positioning the rearmost part of the front door glass. It needs to end just forward of the door handle button so that it could go up/down. Sorry for getting your hopes up. A narrow fixed B-pillar would be needed.

As for the '55 line-up, what I really think was needed was Panther's styling and proportions put into production as a 2 and longer wheelbase 4-door closed car, plus an open car, with the V8 delayed until '56.