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Long time no hear from Al. Do you have a place to work on your Hot Rod Packard in the winter? Or is the project on hiatus? Not trying to push you, just curious about your plans.

Well things have been a little slow. Back in Novemeber I got the carbs back and it was not until Dec. that I had them put back on and hooked up. The weather has not been much help either, as well as other things getting in the way. I am going to have to get cracking on it because as soon as I find a body and fender shop that does not think I am the sucker de jour I have got to get it to that shop to get them started on it. My wife and I have decided to skip Branson and set our sites on Gettysburg next year. So I have a whole 1 1/2 years to complete this project. I have done a little patch work on the floors. I also have 99% of the chrome off and piled so all I have to do is take it to the chrome shop to be done. I just got back all of the brackets for the front and rear bumpers from the powder coating shop and they look good and it was not expensive. I am considering having the whole car sand-blasted but I am holding off on that because I have heard some not so nice things about that process. I have also heard about a new process called soda blasting that I will have to look into. Since I last posted, I have also had the brake booster rebuilt and it is installed. So we are down to body work. I had a guy come over this morning who must think my name is Rockefeller or Astor or something like that. He looked at the car and quoted my $8,400 to sand and paint it. To me that was a "I really don't want to do it but if your dumb enough or rich enough, I'll do it for that" price. so I will just keep on looking. I still have to shell out about $500 for the correct seat material from SMS. I swore I would not pay their exorbitant prices, but the rest of the material is in such good shape I don't want to change the whole pattern. So that is about where everything stands at the moment. It's slow going especially when you consider the economy. This really is not the time to be doing a major restoration, but sometime we really don't get to chosse that do we??????????????

P.S. In my initial post I had reported on finding some very nice grey upholstery material with some unique
Fleur-de-lis designs thru out. I thought it would look great, however there was not enough to do all of the seats so back to SMS for the correct stuff, OUCH!!!!!!!

Im looking into soda blasting for my 56 too! As per my research, you can leave the windows in, theres less risk of warping the metal, and its all around a bit less damaging.

I am bummin about the weather too. It has snowed for the past 4 weekends so i havnt gotten anything done. PITA!

Thats a nice car you have there! I wouldnt be against putting a dual quad setup on my police car. I think it would be a great addition.

Check out cli55er's blog starting here
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... ic.php?post_id=15170#forumpost15170
He had his frame soda blasted and can give you first hand impressions of pros/cons.

Well time is getting on and I had a stroke of luck over the weekend. I found ante shop and had him come over last night to look at the car. Now this was a Custom and collision shop and after talking to the guy Friday about how his shop does it vs what I wanted done(which usually translates into more money out of my pocket) I was fully expecting to hear an estimate between $9k and $11.5K. I love to be surprised this way. To do the whole car including patching up the floors and painting it the two-tone black and Jamiaca Yellow............ $4,750. Now that left me speechless I can tell you. Now I have to get the grille and the tail-lights out, get it running again, and then get it over to him. I told him he could treat it as a back burner project as I did not need it until Oct. 1. We shall see how it goes. I still have about $2 grand worth of chrome to be done and most likely $1k for the interior.

Find a build sheet anywhere in that hotrod yet, AL? There's a spirited discussion going on about whether Packard ever sold any of their "speed equipment" options, and if any cars exist with that code. I can't remember, but I think I've heard build sheets are where you find them, including under the back seat and tucked somewhere by the glove box/radio area... someone here can surely provide the details.

If you don't find the build sheet in the car, for many (but not all) V8 models you can get them for a price from the Studebaker Museum.

I will certainly give the Stude museum a try. I will also go back to the car and try to look around the radio. miracles do happen.

I know this was answered on another thread, but just to add it here for future readers, a common place for the build sheet was taped to the TOP of the glove box cardboard.

AL,

Sorry to be a pest, but I just looked up your description in the Owner's Registry. What an interesting history! If your Clipper was customized by a Packard Employee, I wonder what his motivation was. If he wanted a "sleeper" he would've just left the exterior plain Clipper. The hood scoops would be a dead giveaway at a stoplight.

It seems that the effect sought was both racy looks and the best power-to-weight ratio. As I recall, the Executive was quite a bit heavier than the Clipper series, though lighter than other Seniors, so an Execu-Clipper would be the best looks vs weight combination. The addition of the 374 dual quad would add the Caribbean power, with the scoop hood as an honest cue to what was underneath.

I suppose it's possible that the engine displacement is original 352 Clipper. If there is a stamp or other code on the block that would verify this, it could be one more piece of the puzzle.

Anyway, it's the car I woulda wanted if all the pieces were available to me... that is if it includes the Twin Traction differential option... a must-have to take full advantage of the hotrod potential.

It'll never be a "stock" Packard but could very nearly qualify as a "factory one-off." The mods might've even been done on the line. If Packard was generous with customer requests, they could've been so with employee requests--if said employee had enough "pull."

It'll be interesting to see what else you might find out about a car with such a potentially colorful history.