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Henry, I can understand your confusion. Early on in the blog I said the postings were after the fact as I had done this work earlier. I probably need to remind readers that these are past activities. Thanks for the reminder. So, your Constellation is going to sport a 374 cu. in. V-8. Should be a great performer. My project is not nearly as involved as yours. All I am trying to do is get the car back to a condition where it might have been in 1980. Hope to bring it to Salado in 2012. Take care.

(o{I}o)

yes 374 all ballanced out. gonna be a really nice motor and its all packard pistons still.

taking the block in this weekend i hope.


i was all excited thinking that Salado had something coming up soon. LOL! darn it!

Hank

Hello All,

I thought that before I continue with the story of the work I am doing on the Clipper, you all might enjoy these photos from the former owner, Dwight Heinmuller.

As I mentioned in the first posting the Clipper had been in the Heinmuller family for 40 years (1970 - 2010). According to Dwight, it was purchased from the original owner who bought it from Zell Motor Cars, the long-time Packard dealer in Baltimore, Maryland. The first photo is of the Zell show room taken in 1953, a couple of years before the 1955 Clipper may have occupied one of the spaces pictured.

The next photo is of James Nance departing the Clipper at the 1978 PAC national meet in Annapolis, Maryland. Dwight provided transportation for Nance and his assistant in the Clipper when they were guests at the meet. Dwight told me that Nance said: "Dwight, I don't remember these cars riding this smoothly." And, this is a regular suspension Clipper. Anybody recognize others in the photo?

The next series of photos were taken when Dwight took the Clipper to Detroit in 2003 for a "Grand Tour" to visit the Plant, Proving Grounds, and the former engine and transmission assembly facility. The Conner Avenue plant was long gone by the time this photo was taken, having been demolished by Chrysler in 1961.

While on this journey, he had a passenger for part of the way, Carl Altz, a former PMMC test driver (1934 - 1956). There was a story about the passing of Mr. Altz in the November 2009 issue of The Cormorant News Bulletin. He served as a resource in the early days of the Proving Grounds restoration project. I like the one with he and his wife at their home in front of the Clipper.

There is a photo of the Clipper in front of the Visteon plant. The plant, which is next to the Proving Grounds, was built in 1951 for GE jet engine manufacture and was later used by PMCC for the assembly of engines and transmissions for the 1955-56 models.

The photos from the proving grounds show progress beginning on the restoration project in 2003. Note the blue tarp covering the top of the water tower and the construction on the other side of the fence.

The PMCC plant photos capture the facility before the worst of the destruction and vandalizism that was yet to come.

The final photo is of the Clipper being delivered to me in Austin, Texas.

I am pleased to share these photos with you. It gives me a sense of admiration to know the Clipper has traveled to these sites and had these two distinguished passengers. Thanks, Dwight.

Take care.

(o{I}o)

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nice pictures and jealous of the documented history!

that is not the water tower though, it is the timming booth. fyi.

Hank

John,

Great photographic history of your Clipper, especially having Packard people and places as part of the photo's subjects and backgrounds.

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Henry, thanks for catching this. Of course, it is not the water tower. Sometimes the obvious is just not obvious (to me anyway).

(o{I}o)

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Mal, the Clipper had an interesting life and I am pleased to have a Packard with this known history of people and places. Dwight was especially generous in sharing images and stories about the car.

I have good information on the '37 Convertible Coupe and the '47 Clipper Custom back to the mid-1980s; although, their backgrounds are not nearly as interesting as the Fifty-fives.

One of the things I look forward to each day is to see what happened at Wade's Workshop. Thank for keeping the story going.

(o{I}o)

Hello All,

This garage session account was written after a week hiatus due to Salado, income taxes, and other matters that required attention and took away from the time usually spent in the garage.

The last session before going to Salado was somewhat of a setback. Regardless of what the shop sign says, mistakes will happen. The mistake was caused by using too long of a sheet metal screw to fasten the ground wire to the voltage regulator body. There was smoke and an electrical shorting sound when I connected the battery prior to polarizing the generator. The voltage regulator was quickly turned into junk in just a couple of seconds. Then it was off to NAPA to order a replacement.

Installing the new voltage regulator was the first task after getting back into the garage. This all went well. Also found a new home for a mysterious green wire. The wire mysteriously appeared after getting everything back together in the engine compartment. The two wires for the backup lights were obvious, but where in the heck does this wire go? It had a push-on terminal on its end. My guess was it had been attached to the neutral safety - backup light switch along with the backup light wires when that was used with the Twin Ultramatic transmission. But what was its function?

Another puzzle was there was no power to the ignition switch. Hmmm, maybe there is a connection (or should be a connection) between these two. I followed the green wire under the dash and it was attached to the accessory terminal on the ignition switch. I wondered what would happen if I connected the green wire to power? I got a long test lead and attached one end to the battery terminal of the new VR206 voltage regulator. When there was no fire and smoke I went into the passenger compartment and turned on the ignition switch and the car came to life, electrically! I don't know where Ross had attached the wire when he changed out the transmission, perhaps I should have called or e-mailed him, but didn't want to bother him with this. I decided to connect it to the positive terminal of the battery. I found a 30 amp in-line fuse for protection, connected one end to the green wire and made up a terminal on the other end to fasten on the battery terminal bolt. Then, I wrapped the green wire into a branch of the wiring loom for neatness and safety. A better way would have been to connect it to the battery terminal on the starter solenoid switch. I will make this improvement later.

Between the last session and this one I began asking around about changing the battery ground polarity from positive to negative. I wanted to change to negative ground to conform to the modern convention of 12-volts and negative ground. With this change I could plug-in a cell phone and/or a navigation device and other accessories that would not function with a positive grounded system. Plus, if I ever needed a battery boost there would be no fooling around with cable connection protocols. I figured it would be a simple thing to do since this car has no solid-state electronic components. All I would need to do would be to turn the battery around, switch the ignition coil leads, and re-polarize the generator. I asked around and had my procedure confirmed. The Clipper is now a negative grounded car. Simple.

Well, things were going well yesterday so I decided to try and get it running. I filled the cooling system with about a one-third mixture of antifreeze and water. No need to go to the common 50-50 mixture which brings the freezing point down to -34F as the weather here does not get that cold and there is more cooling efficiency with a lighter antifreeze and water mixture. I used the old green type, not the new extended life type that is now occupying store shelves. Some people have commented that the new extended life antifreeze is not compatible with older vehicles like our Packards. I filled the system and no leaks appeared. Okay, let's get this thing going. I turned on the battery cut-off switch, got in the car, turned on the ignition switch, and turned the key to the start position. It cranked, but only for a couple of tries. After that, nada from the starter. I thought maybe it was a weak battery as it had been sitting for a couple of months. Put the battery charger on and let it charge over night. Tried again this morning and more of the same, nothing.

Solving this problem will be the job for the next garage session. Will it be the wire connection, the ignition switch, the starter relay, or the starter? Please stay tuned.

Take care.

(o{I}o)

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John, the pleasure is all mine! Photographs, history, people and car - everything perfect! Hard to top!

That green wire looks small to be carrying power to the ign switch if I am understanding what you had to do.