Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

How in the world do you get a new trunk keyhole cover installed on the crest? Trying to put the cover on with the spring and brass keeper with no success. Is there a special tool for this?

Can you post a picture of the back?

I've done the 55 ones with common hand tools but I don't remember if 56 is the same.

I have instructions for the 55 here somewhere but I want to see if it would work for a 56 before I send you that.

A '56 is totally different from a '55. There is no chrome "handle" but a "V" and gold ring. In the center of the ring is a crest with a key lock. You rotate the keyhole cover (looks like a knights armored helmet embossed in it) out of the way, unlock the trunk and rotate the crest in a counterclockwise direction to open the trunk. I will post a picture today a little later.

Here are 4 photos of the 1956 trunk lock details. You somehow have to compress the spring to get the brass "keeper" on it so that when you rotate the keyhole cover it'll spring back to close over the keyhole.

Attach file:

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Packard Trunk Lock 1.pdf Size: 77.62 KB; Hits: 116
Packard Trunk Lock 2.pdf Size: 185.10 KB; Hits: 92
Packard Trunk Lock 3.pdf Size: 193.04 KB; Hits: 82
Packard Trunk Lock 4.pdf Size: 213.96 KB; Hits: 101

For my own reference, would this apply to 1956 Clipper too?

Been a lot of years since doing mine but I vaguely remember making a tool to hold and insert the cup over the shaft. Don't think I ever looked at a Clipper emblem up close so can't answer Don's question.

Not sure what I used -- maybe a short length of wood dowel or steel rod that was slightly under the cup diameter but had a hole in the end large enough for shaft clearance so the shaft could slide into the end of the tool a small amount. Might even have been metal tubing.

If a wood dowel was used probably had contact cement on cup back and dowel but might have been double stick tape. if the cup is magnetic then possibly steel rod was used and cup and rod was just held on the end of a strong pickup magnet -- the kind that is mounted on a telescoping rod. Like I said it was a lot of years ago.

Anyway something gripped and held the cup while I pushed it down and then twisted it to lock onto the end of the shaft. Don't remember it being too hard to do or to get the tool free but probably took a couple of tries before I got the technique down.

Packard probably had some kind of thin walled tool that fit inside the bore and partially slipped over the cup so it could be pushed down and turned.

I know the 55 and 56 are not identical but it looks like it may be close enough to use the method I showed in my video about the 55 lock.

youtu.be/wdpoHrOsG04?t=983

Don IIRC the 56 Packard and Clipper locks have the same mechanism, just different appearance.

Question: Is it best to have the keyhole cover (knights head) closed or in the open position, or another position?

You will need to twist the spring enough to hold the knight in the closed position and I don't recall if one direction is easier when doing this than the other. Getting the spring right may have been the reason it took me a time or two to get it done.

Pete, see my video, but if you can't twist the escutcheon itself, have it in the closed position and then twist the piece.