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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Quite a regular
 
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Gerry sold that Caribbean about a year or 2 ago. I am familiar with the car. The A/C on that car was a dealer install done a long time ago, not factory. Gerry is the gentleman that took my engine and trans out of my car and shipped them for rebuild to Jack Vines and Ross Miller, respectively. I know Gerry very well getting parts, advice and services from him.
In 2020, there were only 1 '55 & 2 '56 Seniors listed in the local San Diego area per the PAC club roster. Anything beyond Oceanside to the north (Orange County) and Alpine to the east I didn't try to contact. I got in touch with the gentleman that owned a '55 and "56, neither had A/C at all. I Left a message for the owner of the other '56, but he never got back to me after a few tries. I agree with you that it is better to check out an original factory installation. All I can say is I did the best I could with what I had. All the cutouts I used the templates for came out correctly and had no problems, except this one.
Posted on: 2023/11/24 16:05
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Home away from home
 
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I have a 1956 factory A/C dash that I can try to measure the next time I'm at my Oregon shop but that won't be for a few months. It still has the outlets installed so might be a little tricky.
Posted on: 2023/11/24 18:50
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Club rosters are merely club rosters. But there are always, always going to be cars not listed. Most of the A/C cars I ever knew of were not on anybody's listings– except for the one I made up. Ahhh. All I can say is that I've been involved with these cars a long, long, long time. And I lived in SoCal and was involved with Packards there for a long, long time. I was a founding board member of the Earle C. Anthony Packard Club region of PAC. I once worked in the very building that was the Earle C. Anthony dealership at 1000 S. Hope Street. I knew the people who operated a business in Santa Monica known as "Automotive Classics Parts Department" which was 100% Packard Parts. This was in the early 1970s. I owned numerous Packards and even got one of them serviced at Frost & French– the last surviving SoCal Packard dealer. I made a list of all known factory air V-8 Packards in SoCal beginning in 1973. That's 50 years ago. I often drove the very Caribbean that Gerry recently had– only I was driving it back in the 1970s. This was even before the factory air got installed. And long before it got so sadly customized into a black car with a black canvas top. Whoever did that customizing job trashed our expensive, hand-made pink-lined grained white vinyl top, and apparently tossed the nice original pink interior cushions– changed the color. Wow. Anyway. The term "factory air" in the case of V-8 Packards has nothing really to do with where or how it was installed. Just that the system is the factory-designed system intended for these cars. These systems came two ways: 1.) Installed at the Conner Avenue factory in Detroit. 2.) Installed at any Packard dealer, distributor or authorized service facility. You say you're familiar with the car Gerry had. Then you should know that Caribbean certainly did not have "dealer installed" air. How do I know this? Because I was there when it was installed! As I said... I've been involved with these cars for a long time. The system in that Caribbean was indeed factory air... only it was yanked completely out of a 1956 dark blue Patrician. It was transferred, lock, stock and barrel. I also had two factory air Caribbeans (my convertible was stolen and never recovered). And I owned a 1956 Patrician with factory air. I sold that car to a man and his son in the San Diego area. My buddy, Joe Clayton had two more factory air V-8s. There were two more in the San Fernando Valley. Another in Hollywood that was running... and two more in Hollywood in storage. And another in Los Angeles (a 1956 Patrician) that was for sale on eBay in recent years. So how many is that? And this is just out of memory. There were and I'm sure still are more. With old cars and paper specs– even if claimed to be "factory" I always go with matching to known good examples. I can personally tell you from experience that, for instance, a convertible top frame and height specification for a modern production car I was involved with changed numerous times. Had you gotten the paper specs/drawings for that vehicle but they weren't verified "final production specification" you could have ended up with anything. All kinds of things out of whack. I'm attaching a photo of how Gerry's Caribbean looked back in the 1970s...right after the A/C installation, but long before it morphed into the black color with the black canvas top. I took this photo at Griffith Park. Attach file:  Praigg'sFactoryAir3.jpg (337.80 KB)
Posted on: 2023/11/24 20:32
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Quite a regular
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I measured the distance from the tab on the vent to the edge of the dash edge, it comes out to approximately 2 9/32". Don't know if any of you can take a measurement on a dash you have but if not, does this look about right?
Attach file: Vent measurement.jpg (309.36 KB)
Posted on: 2023/11/25 14:39
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Forum Ambassador
 
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I don't know if these photos would help since my unit is in the car and it was not a factory install but rather one I did using the dimensions in the templates shown in the AC install manual. The pad is also not the original and as I mentioned earlier the upholsterer spent a lot of time shaving the foam to get the contour to match the center dip in the dash top.
I know Leeedy said the pad contour and thickness does not matter and if the vent is properly positioned it would not. To my mind if the vent is positioned closer to the driver on the dash top or if something like a too thick or poorly contoured pad at the wrong spot is causing the front opening side of vent to tilt upward that would make the bottom half of the vent move closer to the cluster and socket. The frontal photo was take as straight as possible thru the steering wheel to get a good relation to instruments but because of the wheel opening was taken a little to the left of center of vent. It shows though that the left edge of the vent looks to be almost center of speedo. That looks to put the indicator light about in the center of the vent. The tape measure shot was taken thru windshield with the end of tape touching windshield above the trim strip. Front to back I believe the vent opening is positioned at the center of the dip in the contour of dash top. I don't remember where or what the round depression in the vent bottom was clearance for but do know there was no issue in connecting to the rubber duct. Attach file:  IMG_2675.jpeg (145.03 KB) IMG_2678.jpeg (100.58 KB)
Posted on: 2023/11/25 15:14
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Howard
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Quite a regular
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Are those Speakers in the kick panels?
Posted on: 9/27 19:55
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Hey man, it was the 70's! These weren't $100,000 cars back then -- they were barely 15-20 year old used cars of special interest! LOL! One thing that I'm surprised you didn't mention, Ayden, is that this photo shows the presence of those bright stainless A-pillar moldings that so many V8 Caribbeans are lacking. I didn't know they existed before you told me about them, and now I see what you were talking about.
Posted on: 9/28 13:00
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Re: Interference of R/H turn signal light socket with A/C duct
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Quite a regular
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Aldrich put speakers in Fred Bruners 55 and I like how it looks honestly, it’s not too bad plus louder music.
And yeah that stainless was lost on a lot of the cars I’ve seen Fred Bruner thought me about that piece
Posted on: 9/28 20:50
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