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I am looking to purchase a 1954 Packard Patrician. The car belonged to my friend's father, due to break failure. I have never seen the car run.

I would like to know from members with experience with these cars.

How available are parts like break parts that I will need for sure

Are there any things that I should look for when I go take a look at the car again. From what I remember it was rust free.

The car is all original and all there, the tires are still inflated. Black original paint and interior (light blue) looks good just dirty mostly dust. I would call it a true barn find.

I know it difficult to come up with a value with just a little description but any help in the rage of what this car is worth will help.

There weren't that many Patricians made in 1954 and I have two of them along with several sets of spare doors and lots of trim. Brake parts (not break) are easy to find other than perhaps the drums but I've never had to replace one so not sure how hard they are to locate.

I cannot speak for value (check out Hagerty Insurance for their online value calculator) but consider what accessories it has, such as power windows and seat or factory A/C among others. Power brakes and steering were standard on the Patrician but some people special ordered them without although I'm not sure what that does to value but to me it would lower it quite a bit. The paint and trim codes on the driver's door frame will tell you what the color was originally and which interior it had which can be viewed in the Literature Archive here on this site to see samples.

All that said, sedans do not have a high value so restoring one is done for the love of the vehicle and I am glad that others here, such as the site's creator BigKev, has beautifully restored a 1954 Packard Clipper sedan.

And a few more comments. If no paint and trim code is on the door jamb, believe in 54 paint and trim codes were on a paper label affixed to one side of the glove drawer.

You asked about specific things to look for and one would be the transmission. With late 54 production Packard introduced their upgraded Ultramatic called the Gear Start Ultramatic. That transmission was the first Ultramatic with an actual gear shifting action done by the unit. The GS could either work the same way as the original which was essentially a one speed and torque converter no shift transmission or by choosing a different selector position, start in low, automatically shift to high and then have the converter go into direct drive. I don't know if there is an estimate of how many cars might have had the GS Ultra but to identify whether one is in that car look at the selector quadrant. The original Ultras had 5 positions, P N D L R while the upgraded units had 6 positions with a dot in the quadrant denoting the extra position.

The 54 one year only 359 engines had an aluminum head. If yours is still on the car that is probably a good thing because due to issues over the years many were replaced by cast iron heads. If the original is still on the engine, hopefully poor storage conditions has not cause any problems. The aluminum head has slightly rounded corners and edges while the cast iron head has fairly sharp square corners and edges. Good used aluminum heads are somewhat hard to find today.

All brake parts are easily available.

We love photos so please try to add some to your original question while it is still editable!

In Packard-Land the early 50's Patricians have some of the best combination of cost, parts availability, features, documentation, and ease of repair. As always, caveat emptor when buying a car that has sat for a while, but in general parts and resources to help you out are essentially as available as for any much more well known classic of the same period.

One of the benefits to Packard ownership certainly is the rarity/obscurity to most people, yet few significant "rarity problems" as there might be for say, brass era cars excepting those made by a certain four-letter F word.

P.S. Post some photos. Sites like imgur have a smartphone app where you can take as many as you want, then post the link.

will post photos this Thursday

Funny to see this, as I just dragged home a '54 Patrician last Saturday. Mine, however, is a bucket of rust, so what is usable will be either used or will go for parts. The rest will go to make 8 Nissan Versas.

Quote:

Ross mentioned to me one time, I think it's the top of the rear fenders have the same form as some of the lower fenders on the car, so if you cut those off and keep them, you can weld them on at a different location to repair the rusted lower ones.

That’s interesting! I’ll need to remember to look at mine when I’m at the shop next month.