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Hi everyone. I just purchased my first Packard at an auction recently. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. There were several 50s era Packards as well as some Henry J's there with this one being in the best condition of the lot. None were even bringing close to junk price and were being bought up by scrappers. This car has some rust on it, mainly the rear quarters, but the floor pans, trunk and frame are solid. It has a 288 with Ultramatic transmission. What caught my attention is how straight the car is. There is hardly a ding on it anywhere. It is in original condition and is complete, with no missing parts. The odometer is showing 61,000. I just didn't want to see this car go to the crusher. Anyway, I bought it for practically nothing, and hauled it home. The paperwork with the car indicates it has not been licensed since 1970. The first thing my dad and I did after getting it home was check to see if the engine was free. It wasn't locked up, but it wasn't free either, so off came the head. All of the pistons were free, but all the valves but one were stuck solid. So we took off the valve covers and sprayed everything down with lube top and bottom every day for a week. Long story short, with a lot of sweat and elbow grease, we finally got all the valves out. I ground all the valves on my dad's valve grinder (they all needed just a little touch up), and that's as far as we've gotten so far. The starter does work and will turn the motor over. This weekend I'm hoping to clean up the valve seats, put everything back together and see if it will fire. This is going to be a pretty big project I think just to get her roadworthy. Pretty much every wire has been rotted off or chewed off the car, so I know its going to need complete rewiring at somepoint, but for now I just like to see if the motor and transmission are good. I'll keep posting as I go along!

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Welcome and congratulations on your "new" car. It does look to be in decent condition so a great start for the project. Stuck valves do seem to be an issue with long sitting cars so glad that you have the will and expertise available to get it running again. Am sure many people here will be following the progress.

I'll second Howard's welcome and add that the '51 is a great choice. A look at my signature might suggest that I'm prejudiced.

The great thing is that Packard (by their standards) made so many of them that parts are hardly ever a problem. In addition, the '52 - 54 models share many of the same parts. When I was just getting into Packards 4 years ago the two fears I had was the price of parts and knowledge how to fix them. To my relief, I found that not only are parts still quite plentiful but amazingly affordable.

You've already solved the knowledge part by your discovery of this site.

Once again, welcome!

G'day gregb,
to PackardInfo and for including your '51 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan in the Packard Owner's Registry. I noticed there wasn't a photo attached and, in my capacity as Registry Ambassador, tried to add one from this thread but without success. Maybe if you email me a photo I could try to add it for you?

I tried to post a picture along with my registry entry, but I couldn't get it to work for some reason. I will email you a photo when I get a chance. Thanks.

Remember. as you work on it take lots of pictures. It will help in the long run as you work on your car and think to yourself was this turned this way or was it flipped that way.
Wes

Again, congrats on the 51 200. Good choice - fairly easy to work on and parts aren't too hard to get. Check the Packard website for vendors on the wiring harness. I bought one for my 39 from Potomac Packards; price was around $600. It will make a huge difference on how well the car works, especially on the lights. I haven't redone my 51's wiring yet, and the lights (and everything else electrical) works much better on the 39.

Suggestions:
1. Buy the 51-54 Shop Manual. The Parts manual helps also.

2. Join the national Packard Club and a local club if there is one in your area. Here is their website:packardclub.org
3. Take lots of photos, and put the nuts and bolts in baggies and label them when you take stuff apart.
4. Keep visiting this site!
5 and most important. Drive the car and have fun with it!

Thank you all for the welcome and the tips. Today we got both the manifolds and the carburetor off. Blew out all rust and gunk and generally cleaned things up. I did find out the fuel pump is working so that's a plus. Bad news is after cleaning things out a bit we discovered a cracked valve guide. Has anyone out there ever had to pull and replace one. Is there a specialty tool for this. If I could see a pic of the appropriate tool, I could probably fabricate something, but right now, I can't quite visualize what its going to take to get it out. I also should have mentioned earlier that I also have a 1954 parts car. Not sure what model. VN# on doorplate is 5452-2990. maybe someone can give me some more info on that. I'm not sure what all will interchange from the 1954 to 1951. One of the things the '54 has is power brakes. Does anyone know if I could make the power brake booster from the '54 work on my '51?

On the brakes, yes the 54 unit can be made to work in the 51 but you will have to transfer several items in addition to the booster. There is a procedure detailing the procedure to install the unit in an earlier car in a service counselor article Note the units are not quite identical. The 54 unit is slightly different internally but functionally the same. It has a built in air vent instead of the remote item connected with a hose detailed in the 52 article so less work to install. The Easamatic as Packard called it is a Bendix Treadlevac used by several other manufacturers and you will read many different opinions on its reliability. After reading some you might give thought to keeping the manual system.

On the fuel pump, if the car has not been driven in many years the rubber in the pump will be old. Todays gasoline with alcohol does a quick job on the old rubber so you would be advised to get a rebuild kit or an exchange pump with new rubber before driving the car very much.

On the guides, new are readily available and several have done the job. Someone should be posting before too long to detail the procedure.

The 5452 is a Patrician sedan on the senior or longer 127wb chassis. Senior engine and running gear so many of the mechanical parts will not interchange with your smaller or junior chassis. Some but not all of the body items will interchange. Trim is different so while it might fit, it may not look the same.

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I believe the VIN 5452 - 2990 reads that it is a 1954 Patrician and should have the one year only 359 cid 9 main bearing engine. If it is in fact the 359 you could probably sell it and recover the price of the cars so long as the engine isn't trashed. The way to tell if it is the 359 is by the engine number which I believe is stamped on a flat rectangular space above the starter on the block and should begin with M6xxxxx.

Good luck and have fun.