Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Howard, et al: I can pretty much confirm what has been said about the carpeting in the Custom Clipper. The front carpet fits the floor area but is not fastened down by the door threshold trim nor the kick panels. It extends under the front seat, but is not held down by the seat. The smaller side carpet pieces do not have any padding and fit under the front and rear carpets. On my Clipper they are not held by the threshold trim. The rear carpet like the front fits the floor area and extends under the seat which hold it in place. Like the front, it does not go under the door threshold trim. Front and rear carpets are too thick to fit under threshold trim. I did not remove seats to see exactly what the pattern was around the frames and foot rest. My Clipper still has it original interior an it is in very good shape.

Howard, have you considered having your AC return air go through a grille in the package shelf? I was looking at a 54 Cavalier with a FrigidKar unit fitted and this is how they solved the problem. Outlets with clear plastic horns going from the package shelf to the roof, and a centrally located grille for the return air.

Let me know if I can help more.

(o{}o)

John, I had originally considered the center return as was done 53-4 and with all the trunk units available at the time. Even have a vintage 55-6 ARA unit I have been hanging onto all these years for the purpose.

About the time I started seriously working on adding AC found out Joe was thinking of reproing prewar units so that kind of opened up possibilities. After some thought, finally decided I wanted a modern system and aside from the compressor, would make the unit look more prewar as if the AC was also an updated postwar continuation of the Packard unit just as the bodies were continuations.

The prewar units had the outlet in the center of the shelf & figured Packard would have kept it there so kind of ruined any more thoughts of making a postwar unit with return air in that location work.. Bought just the case from Joe to re-package my modern "universal" system, made the controls look vintage to match and you know the rest of the story.

I also have never seen a pre-war set up in person, I know someone who has a very nice 41 120 coupe with AC but of course the return situation is completely different. I have seen pictures of a 41 limo and pictures of a 41 LeBaron limo, in both of those cars there were grills on both sides of the seatback on the "columns", I assume (which is always dangerous) that those are intakes, the rear floor may be raised but I really couldn't tell from the pictures. We are trying to approach the installation from the idea that a 12 buyer in June of 39 might have
been able to have AC installed since across the street the planning and engineering was certainly going on for the 40 models.I know there
had been other cars equipped for some years on a custom basis, but of course Packard was first to offer it on regular production. I have written Joe and he sent me some pictures of his unit and it looks like it would serve very well.among the problems we are looking at is our car is a Club Sedan, there isn't a lot of room, to start with, between the rear and front seats and there is really no package shelf at all .I had toyed with the idea of the vents in the "columns" being the supplys and the returns in the rear seat fronts.

Quote:

Some measurements for the front carpet backing pad (without carpet) that may help:

The back edge of the pad is fairly straight and the distance to the rear of the cutout is 20-3/8"
The cutout is not symmetrical and the distance at carpet center from the rear to a line drawn across from the ends of the cut is 2-3/8" with 1-1/4" to the front of the cut for a total of 3-5/8"
Distance from the front edge of the cut to the front of the pad is 8-7/8"
The sideways width of the cut is 10-3/4" to each side from the carpet center for a total of 21-1/2"

Here is a picture with the dimensions:

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Thanks again for the work to provide the measurements. It was a help but I did find what appears to be a couple of more differences between the 21 and 22-23 series carpet. The biggest one appears to be the slit is not quite the same in both directions on the 47. For anyone contemplating a new carpet from scratch, the 47 slit on mine appears to be about 18 1/2" long and 2 3/4" wide and more symmetrically shaped. They could have just changed the carpet design but when I get around to it will check the manual to see if they might have changed the tunnel slightly in anticipation of the Ultra so needed a different slit.

I decided to make mine a combination of what I could see that might have shrunk some and the measurements which were a bit larger than the opening. It will have to be fine tuned when the carpet is attached but gives a starting point for layout.

BDeB-- Well, this is really embarrassing! I don't know how I missed your response with the attached PDF. So here I am six years late thanking you for your time and effort. I've downloaded your PDF and again... Thanks!

Good morning I’m working on a 49 sedan, I’m
Looking for a replacement floor mats and I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction
Thanks
Barry lowe
336-516-7009

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You might try these guys... I've no personal experience.

runningboardrubber.com/Packard.html

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