Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

The fiberglass blanket fell off the hood and onto the engine. It is not reusable. Are these worth replacing? I can understand they would insulate the hood thermally, but do they deaden the engine noise? I do seem to hear more engine noise than I remember previously.

What is used to replace them?

Thanks,
Bernardi

55/56 used a vinyl-skinned pad and these are available as repro items from at least 2 sources, regularly advertised in The Cormorant Newsletter and elsewhere. A bit less than $200 as I remember. I believe the 51-54 used a plain fiberglass pad, quite a bit thicker but w/o the skin. You can also buy this material easily but I don't believe this style is correct for the V8 era.

EDIT - Oops, I should know by now to check the parts books before trusting my memory. The parts books shows part# 463232 for all 55th series and 5640 and 5660, and 6481472(presumeably the vinyl skinned one) for 5670-5680 and 5688. Not sure of differences but it also shows 442855 for all 26th and 54th series except the 5431 which calls for 438778.

Here's one source for the pads--about halfway down the page.

packardparts.org/parts.htm

I thought the black, vinyl-skinned ones were '56-only.

I've personally never seen an unrestored '55 with original hood blanket in place. I suspect a lot of those hood blankets were yanked when they started to come apart. My dad recalls pulling wads of that stuff out of air cleaners.

Many years ago, I had a '55 Pat that was missing the hood blanket, and I purchased a repro from PI. It came in a roll (bagged), but was coated on both sides - one side was plain, for '55, and the other had some sort of pattern, for '51-'54. I sold the car before I ever installed the blanket.

Yet, I've seen the skinned repro pads installed in restored cars all the way back to '51.

Believe you're right. I've only seen the vinyl ones on 56. Dwight H's site also lists the vinyl as 56 Senior only. Separate one for 51-4 and then another for all 55's and 56 Clippers. I didn't realize the 55 was originally gray. Thought they were just dirty.

The 1955s were a grayish color fiberglass. I had an all original 55 400 with the original pad. I also years ago had a 1955 pad new in the box. You don't see many cars restored correctly with the proper pad. I suspect 30 years from now everyone will think the yellow fiberglass ones are correct because that is all the ever saw.

there are also repo's on e-bay

HH56 is correct, the vinyl coated under hood blanket was used only on the senior cars in '56. The Clipper line used a fiberglass only pad.

glad i saw this post. couldn't one get the pad for the 55 and paint it gray/black to make it look right. probably wouldn't bee to hard to do.

Guess you could try the paint but I just don't think a paint could be found that wouldn't scream paint because of the heavy pigment.

One possibility and I've never tried and don't know how the fiberglass would take to it is fabric dye. RIT makes several colors you mix with boiling water--don't know if the pad could be saturated without falling apart but maybe sprayed. If sprayed though, you'd only be coating the top layer so any de-lamination or holes and the yellow would show thru.

Another thing to consider is color--would be almost as obvious as paint or the yellow if the gray color is terribly wrong.