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I'm new to Packards having previously restored MGs and a Corvette. a coworker's father recently passed away and he is giving me his father's 1951. I went and looked at the situation. The car has been sitting for 35 years in a single car garage with about two foot of clearance at the sides and rear. Needless to say the tires are flat and rotted. I need to get it on some good tires and then winch it out of the garage. I'm looking for some advice on how to best jack the car up to removed the wheels in this restricted space. My plan is to use jackstands to support the car while I get tires mounted.

I currently have a floor jack but if a bumper jack is the better way to go I can purchase one.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Glen

if it was me I would hook it up to my truck and drag it out with the flats and then change the tires when it is out of the garage. any 1/2 ton truck should drag it right out.

IMO a bumper jack is never a better way to go.

If things are really that tight in the garage you might be better served, despite flat tires, to drag the car outside to where more space is available.

And depending on which way it is pointed in the garage reach way in to connect the winch to a solid portion of the frame or crossmember in front or onto the rear axle. Possibly toward the side of a bumper would work in the area where they are attached directly to the frame but if the wheels are locked and you drag instead of roll the bumpers could bend.

There is an easy to reach stabilizer bar with fairly thick brackets in front and a fairly thin cross piece between frame sides in the rear. DO NOT be tempted to use them because they are BOTH way too flimsy to use as anchors and will bend.

Use a floor jack to lift, and jackstands to hold. In the rears, jackstands under the axle tube right behind the backing plates. In the front, either under a-arm pockets or my preference, which is under the frame where the x-crossover meets it, between the firewall and the wheel opening.

If you can only use a floor jack, then under the diff pumpkin in the rear, and under the engine cross member in the front. That's usually how I lift the car to place jackstands.

Bumper jacks are window makers, and dent the bottom edge of the bumpers.

I made the mistake of leaving my cars parked in the garage for decades with the parking brakes on. The 1940 110, 1948 Henney-Packard and two 1954 Packard Patricians were okay but my 1964 Ghia-Imperial limousine had the rear brakes locked which is worse than flat tires, especially on a car so long and heavy as you can see in the photos linked above. To get it out, I put a floor jack under the rear axle, then pulled it out but fortunately it was backed in which made it easier, especially as it had only about 1/4" clearance on either side to the adjacent cars!

In your case, all the advice given was perfect. Pull it out by brute force if necessary, then fix the tires outside. Be careful to pull only by the frame or by the rear axle if parked in nose-first. If pulling from the front, use only the main frame cross member under the front of the engine, not the smaller one ahead of it and don't use the stabilizer bar. Under no circumstances use a bumper jack!

If concrete inside and out, you can use a wheeled floor jack on one end to make it easier or get a set of wheeled dollies and put one under each wheel. Mine are self-jacking but are difficult to get under flat tires so you might just get the solid non-jacking type, then lift each wheel onto one. Once installed, one or two people should be able to push it out by hand but just be careful to have a plan for stopping it if the driveway is sloped downward!

Whatever you do, good luck and I for one would love to see photos of the process you end up using and of any work you do on the car as time goes by.

If the floor is concert, jack it up and put rollers under each wheel and push it out, that is if outside of the garage is paved.
My question is do you need a bumper jack to just lift the body enough to remove the tire after the car has been jack up high enough to remove the tire?
Wes

have you tried to put air into the tires, just to see if any of them hold air for at least a bit? we were lucky that 3 of the tires on my car held air and the 4th needed to be refilled every few minutes, we had a gas powered compressor that we used while we pulled the car out of the shed (sat for about 40 years) with a tractor and chain. Check the filler valves for leaks (dab of spit on the end, bubbles = leak), the guts of those can be replaced cheaply. Your mileage may vary of course but worth a try.

G'day Glen(Gus2015),
to PackardInfo and good luck in removing your '51 Packard from the garage. Plus, I invite you to include it in the Packard Owner's Registry.

Try pumping up the tires. If they will hold 20 pounds even for a short time, it will be easier to pull it out.

If brakes are locked and/or tires flat get some planks or plywood and cover with plastic. Jack the car up with a floor jack just high enough to put the planks under the tires. Lube with shampoo and slide out. Buy the shampoo at the dollar store for a $1 buck. Do not use your wife's $45 stuff. She will get mad.

Once outside it will be easy to jack it up and change tires if the lug nuts will come loose. If I recall right, the bolt pattern is the same as Ford. Ford pickup or RWD van tires should fit. Even throw away spares from the junk yard.