Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Hi all, especially John and Warren. I have collected and been in the Packard Club of Australia since 1966, I would be pleased to know of any corrections, however, I do not know of any Senior Packards sold new in Australia after 1939. I should qualify that slightly as I found a 1951 Patrician in the Werribee tip in mid 1970 and purchased the nine main bearing motor and Ultramatic for $2 from a very low mileage $10 vehicle, Ex Carters Egg Farm Barn clear-out.( there was also a barn clear-out 54 Eldarado Coupe and a 49 Jaguar Drop head coupe there for $50 each, both of which I was informed were bulldozed into the tip.). I have never seen an Australian Delivery 356 equipped car. I have also so far seen only one RHD converted Senior V8 and that is the 56 Patrician which I purchased from Kevin Andrews. The car came to Australia in 1966 and was registered LHD in South Australia. Kevin took the car to Sydney in 1985 and had it converted to RHD using 1984-85 Ford fairlane power steering and a bucket of money. I have just replaced the PS High pressure hose which burst and had to shorten the pipe considerably to get it to fit. The car has a much diminished turning circle from the OEM system, but you get used to it. It surprisingly has the Esamatic brake and original heating AC system fitted which was accepted as the main reason for non conversion of the Seniors. In 1969, I went to a wholesale trade-in, wrecking, yard in Pascoe Vale, Victoria, to pick up some s/h rear brake linings for my 53 Clipper and there, all with fully pumped up (tires) tyres, were around thirty traded in 55-56 Packards, all Clippers, most in excellent condition, but almost unsaleable as orphans. As an 18 year old youth supporting a prestigious 53 Packard and with limited resources I was not in a position to alter history, so, they would probably have been crushed in the early/mid Seventies and returned as Datsuns or Toyotas.

Best regards Peter Toet

G'day Peter. Long time no speak.. Hope you're well. Interesting stories re the Werribee Tip and the V8 Packards in Pascoe Vale... Not very far from where I was brought up, I'd be very interested in a few photos of the power steering set up on your 56 if you have any. My car has an earlier Ford box in it with original ram set up. I looked at using a similar integral type box to what your car uses but based on my measurements it was higher than the earlier unit and I thought it would hit the exhaust manifold. I installed an engine block with heads and a manifold on it to check the fit with the early box and you will see by the photos that there isn't any spare clearance there,so I thought it'd stay with the early box. Are you using the original pump?

Interesting that your car uses all the heater and AC from factory LHD cars. Just last weekend I trial fitted the RH dash with the original heater plenum in my car and was pleasantly surprised that there is tons of room. So, I am using the original heater, power brakes with the original steering column, hand brake etc and all fits very well. It's nice when stuff works out...

Warren

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G'day Fellas, I too was going to fit the later integrated Ford box when I had this project in my shed but got stymied when I found out its three mounting bolt holes didn't exactly line up with those in the modified chassis. This is why I decided to leave the earlier Ford box fitted. I thought about modifying the chassis to make the later box fit but was advised that when the chassis was modified for RHD, crush tubes were welded in place for the mounting bolts to pass through, and further modification now seemed a little beyond my level of expertise. I actually had bought a fully reco'ed integrated box for the purpose and still have it stored somewhere in the shed. As you know though, The earlier box requires a hydraulic ram to provide the power assist and reusing the Packard one means that it has to be flipped 180 degrees which then results in the hydraulic hoses being fitted from underneath, rather than from above like they do with LHD. I was going to suss out whether an earlier RHD steering ram might be able to be fitted instead, but didn't get that far.

By the way, if I recall correctly the fellow who did the RHD conversion was quite specific in wanting to retain all surrounding fittings in there correct positions. I think the only concession was that the steering column had to pushed a little further into the cabin because it had to be angled a little lower to clear the air/heating system (I think). Cheers, John