Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Not sure if this counts as weird as much as obnoxious, but once while driving my '55 Clipper Panama 2 door hardtop (black over yellow 2 tone) I passed a slow poke in a Rolls on a sweeping 2 lane feeder ramp onto the approach to the San Fran Bay bridge...the obnoxious part is that I did it at close to 60mph while on the inside lane... glanced over at the driver of the Rolls (who looked like he just wet himself) and not only did I smile at him but took a hand off the wheel to wave!

I used to terrorize the young'uns who to this day probably still can't understand how they were beat by such an ancient jalopy. Packard V8 power and TL suspension baybee!

One time I was checking out a project. Dude said he redid the brakes but they didn't work. Ended up riding along anyway to test drive a car with no brakes. Fortunately this was in Smalltown USA in Flatland county...

Also he said it had an exhaust leak and you can hear it on camera. Though I'm not sure if that diagnosis is correct. Not that it matters now, this was like 2 years ago.

Believe it or not this was "fully restored" then in a museum not even 20 years ago. Tells you a bit about what "museum quality" means, as surely not much more than the atrocious paint job had been done since then...

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Someone did a good job of sanding the trim without damaging the rust.

Holy thread from 2009, Batman!

That poor Clipper! Were you expected to pay extra for that special custom hammered finish paint job?

I can't say that I've ever had a totally weird experience in any of my V8s, just the typical bumps in the road that just about any guy with an old car would face. It's certainly opened a lot of doors and allowed me to meet some really interesting people in the hobby!

Maybe the weirdest thing was the day in 1973 when my dad, his buddy, and I drove down from the Northeastern Lower Peninsula of Michigan to Detroit, and loaded up the 1955 Caribbean project car my parents helped me buy when I was 16.

The owner was middle-aged and still lived with his elderly mother. She looked to be in her 90s, still had a bit of a German accent, and was as sweet of an old lady as could be. However, it was obvious that they were cat hoarders and so their house, the car, and every box of spare parts we touched reeked of cat piss!

While we were loading the pickup and the trailer, she kindly brought out glasses of cold Vernor's ginger ale for us to drink on that hot August day. Once she was back inside though, my father whispered to me, "don't drink that" and told me to clandestinely go along side the garage and pour it out.

Very good people, though, both of them. I'm very grateful to her son for helping to make a teenager's Packard dream come true!

Don’t kiss and tell