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After a year of slight overheating where it seemed I tried every possible solution to the problem, my radiator popped a seam and I then learned my car had been recored by a very cheap person--and that core was too small and that was what was causing the overheating.

It occurs to me that our cars could easily have incorrect parts like distributors, radiators, plugs, generators and more.

Have you been stymied by this kind of experience? Share your story with us. How did you discover that something was wrong (and how long did that take?) and what were the consequences? Funny? Sad? Infuriating? Unfixable?

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Innocence? Embarrassment? Shyness?

Come on now; you are among friends here....

Okay Pat, here's my contribution. My '55 Clipper Super came to me with a Delco generator. These junior Juniors came with Auto Lite electrical equipment. I bought an AL starter and generator off of eBay. I overhauled the generator and installed it as I wanted to have original type equipment. Interestingly, the Auto Lite and Delco generator brackets are different. The bracket had to be shimmed to fit the Delco generator.

Not uncommon to have a mix of parts on the almost 60 year old Packards, the 55s and 56s being the youngest ones. Scarce parts, uninformed mechanics, owners just trying to keep the cars running, and whatever else contributed to these situations.

Next?

(o{}o)

I've had a number of surprises...

1.)A year after buying my 2271, the block developed a crack. So I replaced the engine (which wasn't original anyway).

2.)I knew that the car was "restored" some time in the 90's... As I started removing everything to get the engine out, everything that I took apart/off NEVER had two of the same type bolts. So whoever did the restoration, apparently couldn't keep track of ANY of the bolts.

...and three. Let me preface this by stating that when I bought the car, wasn't all that knowledgable on the numbers on these cars...

3.)I purchased Mr. Neal's book in preparation for my restoration (which I planned on being a much better quality that was performed previously) I was running the numbers and looked at the Brigg's body tag. ...it said "2392". So along with mismatched bolts, they lost the correct Brigg's body tag. While at least the dataplate on the cowl appears to be correct.

Mark