Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

That looks like a brace I had on my Caribbean. It was located in the front fender well towards the front and was bolted between the inner front fender and the inner fender as I remember.

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of your input. Jim/Randy, the brackets are definitely not steering column support. Howard is correct about being single piece and a 'lazy U' shape and it is a much larger section than these pieces. These are just short of 9" long, 1 1/8" wide and only 5/16 thick. I have fully overhauled the front power seat frame and mechanism and am fairly sure is not part of that either...

I also have a nagging feeling that I have seen something similar on a Packard inner front fender...

I am thinking that these may be indeed supports for the dash or radio. I'll be putting the dash in very soon. I finished polishing it on the weekend and when it is assembled i'll be installing it in the next week or two The radio is very heavy so makes sense that it may have a support under the dash...

On the subject of dashboards, you guys might like to see what a 56 dash looks like when converted to right hand drive... See photo below...

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Thanks for the dashboard picture, I'm curious to know if the conversion to RHD was done locally at the time of sale by the importing Packard agent? The only RHD 55/56 Packards I know of were converted by the London agent, Leonard Williams & Co. and I assume the needed parts were supplied by PMCC. British publication "The Motor" of June 27, 1956 has a drive report on one of these conversions, a 1955 Clipper. The drive report is interesting reading, power steering was not available with RHD, nor was the traditional Packard heater. A top speed of 115 mph was noted.

Owen, Packards were sold here in Australia (in Melbourne at least) by a Company called Kellow Falkiner. I was always under the impression that they also converted the cars, however exploring further I'm not so sure... Maybe some of my more learned Aussie colleagues can add to this.

Post war, I believe that only junior series cars were sold here. My 56 Clipper was sold here new as right hand drive. My 400 was originally a California car and now uses a dash from a locally assembled Clipper. It's interesting to note that this dash was originally left had drive. It has been 'cut & shut' to reverse the instruments etc from one side to the other. It was oxy welded and the job is terrific. The mesh screen is the original US dash one, simply reversed. It fits all of the instrument holes etc perfect, however the gold finish is not the same on the back. It looks OK but I have been seeking a local screen from a RHD Clipper, without success, so will use the US one reversed

Steering box is from a 70's local Fairlane/Falcon with power steering which required chassis mods but the rest of the column is 56 Packard. Drag link is original LHD Packard reversed. Ram is LHD Bendix but the hose connections are fouling the tie rod ends, so may ultimately use a local Falcon ram or similar... Sill working on that. Other mods, I had to cut the heater box up to enable the extended throttle linkage rod to reach the far right hand side and used modified Packard accelerator set up. Used Packard handbrake linkage also. Original LHD wiring loom has been extended to reach instrument cluster etc and body harness reversed to put the power windows master control in the right hand door. I still have to modify the steel door panels where the switches are mounted on the front doors to swap the window switches from left to right etc. I will leave the power seat switch on the left side of the seat... A few more photos below...

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Ignore the last photo guys as ia inadvertently attached that one...

Packard Downunder, thanks for the information. Kellow Falkiner is a name well-known to many Packard enthusiasts and it has been discussed here several times, including some current photos of their facility - search if interested. As I know the RHD history, RHD production was moved to the Canadian assembly plant and remained there until it closed in 1939; both senior and junior cars were assembled there in RHD though I'm not sure about the Twelves. During the years of the Canadian assembly plant (1931-39) they also produced some LHD cars, and the Detroit facility also continued to make some RHD cars though not those intended for the Commonwealth as there was a great tax advantage to the Canadian card due to their high Canadian content (see article).

After the Canadian plant closed the RHD models were made in Detroit and the data I have available shows that only junior models were made and those only thru 1954. This is partly supported by the fact that the 48-54 parts listing shows both LHD and RHD parts, but the 55/56 listing shows no RHD parts that I've ever noticed, hence my particular interest in 55/56 RHD cars. In the last year of the Detroit-assembled RHD cars, only the 5400, 5401 (except the Panama) and 5411 were offered (see chassis symbol line in the chart).

Any further info you can get about whether the RHD conversion was performed by K-F would be most interesting.

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G'day OD, maybe I can shed a little more light on this project as it was actually a project of mine that I (regretfully) onsold to Warren. It was taking me too long to complete and I was feeling older! The car was a straight, rust free, CA car which came out of a garage of a house that had been sold. It seems the buyer of the house hadn't looked in the garage so didn't know it was there until after taking possession, but didn't want it. After it was bought and imported to Oz, it was sold to the person I bought it from. He is a very clever panel shop owner and set about doing the RHD conversion. He said it took many hours of trial and error until he got it, in his words, perfect. He reckons too many RHD conversions don't steer or handle properly and he didn't want that. He also has other businesses eating into his time so decided to sell it. I had him paint the body and fit it to the already reconditioned chassis and took possession. Warren now has it and is getting stuck into the restoration. When finished, I reckon this will be one 400 that is out of the box. Cheers, John

JP, thanks for clarifying. Thus it remains that the only known Packard-authorized RHD conversions of V8 models were done by Leonard Williams of London. I believe there were a total of 2 done, and apparently neither survives but if someone is aware of a survivor, I know we'd all like to hear of it.

damn that is some shiny black!

I've come across the attached diagram of a '56 front assembly and I can't identify those bits that Warren was asking about, but maybe the diagram will be helpful in the assembly process anyway. It's for a 4 door but 2 doors are probably the same, although maybe they have something extra. Cheers, JP


Sorry, can't get the diagram to load - will try again later. Had to go for lesser resolution so hopefully it can still be read OK.

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