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I was at a car show today in Connecticut and spotted this custom rod. Based on a 1948 Pontiac 2 door club sedan, it features a radical chop, a 1956 Olds front end and 1956 Clipper taillights. I've heard that '56 Clipper taillights were actually very popular with car customizers back in the 1950's.

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Appears to have rear bumper from senior car

acolds, I think you re correct. The rear bumper appears to be off of a '56 Patrician or 400. The toothed grille insert appears to be off of a '56 or '57 Corvette.

I was really impressed with the quality of the bodywork on this car, even though I don't normally appreciate customs like this. A lot of time, money and effort went into this project. After seeing this car, I would like to see someone build an all Packard leadsled, Here are some ideas:

Base car: 22nd Series Club Sedan. Use the short wheelbase model, either a Standard or a Deluxe will do. Do a mild chop, maybe 2-4 inches. Remove lower rocker mouldings and shave the door handles.

Front end: Replace horizontal grille bars with the grille center section from a '51. Your leadsled has to have some teeth! French the headlights. For good measure, use a correct 22nd series cormorant hood ornament.

Rear end treatment: Use the same combination of rear quarter panels and taillights from a '56 Clipper with a '56 Patrician/400 rear bumper assembly.

Drive train: Keep it all Packard with a 352CI dual carb setup from the '56 Caribbean. Tranny could be the pushbutton Ultramatic.

Color: How about jet black? Very dark metallic maroon is another possibility.

Interior, I'm thinking red leather with white pleated inserts. Duplicate the pattern from a 22nd series Convertible Victoria, or something close.

This would be one awesome ride. Anybody interested in taking on this project?

How about this one?

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder or so someone has said at one time or another. That one looks like it could have taken inspiration from one of the rejected facelift proposals Dwight showed in his new book. The dual headlights might work but whatever is above them -- parking lights maybe?? -- and the paint scheme is a bit much. IMO, the parking lights would have worked and blended in better in one or maybe two grill squares just below the headlights.

On the Clipper style tail lights, I seem to remember in the 70s or 80s some discussion about them. No question it was a popular mod and there was even a lowrider or two locally that had the treatment. I think some hot rod place or maybe it was JC Whitney that made a copy of the basic design but it was not an exact repro to the Packard item. IIRC, the assemblies were a bit narrower or shorter and were made to fit some GM body such as 55 Chevy or other similar style a bit better. Think there was a mention in a Packard club or region newsletter that someone had tried to use them and because they were different they were not a direct bolt in fit.

Quote:

"Suddenly it's 1960!"

The headlamps and turn/parking lamps look like they came off a 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser.

The lenses for the 1956 Clipper tail lamps and backup lamps have been reproduced by various Packard parts vendors.

I recall seeing relatively recently some new complete 1956 Clipper-style taillight assemblies made for the custom car world but can’t locate them now. They were not exact reproductions to where they would fit a Clipper but were close in appearance for custom use.

I've been "working" on a similar project(23 series) - but more resto mod, but they say design is an iterative process, but it seems to go round in circles sometimes.
The current era issue is finding the sheet metal of sufficient quality to do these type "grafting" projects. The pile is shrinking. It takes much longer to make and requires more tools. eg: I made a stock cowl cover for my other project that suffers the common water holding rust out, and it took about 20 hours all in. Multiply by the number of pieces here and one needs an army of bodymen /welders/painters to turn them out in reasonable time, where you don't lose interest along the way. That's one reason I scaled back my "radicalization". It's nice to dream and surmise, but find the parts and the work involved is much more than most are willing to take on. And then you might have a car that no one is willing to pay the price for. Best if you live on the wet coast - better survival of the "tins". And the skill necessary to carry it out to the "Ridler" quality of some of these is expensive to farm out. You're in >$250K regime. It's not your father's hot rod era, plenty of cheap parts, not even mine and I was in it.
The "bath tub" design does not lend itself to major mods compared to some other cars.
I'd suggest, you take a copy of your "dream car" in the rough and blow it up, print a bunch of copies and then stylize to your hearts content and then you might get something you can live with.

Some major issues with this stated design; the x frame is not able to support modern HP. It's a $20+K bill to get a modern frame and suspension. So if you're budget is not 6 figures and many years rethink. "Bumper car" bumpers need major rethinking, but I think I've a solution. That might be the motivation to graft in something else's front and rear ends. But to cut and customize, then rechrome will set you back a months salary for the chrome.
Anyone wanting to discuss or possibly obtain a work in progress, email me. I'd trade or sell or whatever, offer support/suggestions. My other "driver" project took over the budget when it didn't drive so good. I'd sell or trade it as w/ or w/o.
Or you can buy one for half what it cost to build, once they're tired of it.

About the only junkrod I can appreciate is the Munstermobile because they chopped up three junkrods to make it.

The rest of these junks are always the same dreadful formula. There must be a charity somewhere that could make better use of that unwanted money.