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Unless you're talking about pre 1955 Chrysler Imperial, there was no such thing after that. Imperial became a separate make starting in 1955 up to 1975 so saying Chrysler Imperial is like saying Chrysler Dodge or Chrysler DeSoto.

Anyway, the one conversion kit I recall from decades ago was, in fact, the Ultratorque which replaced the Ultramatic with a Chrysler product Torqueflite.

Hi Howard,
I wouldn't say it was a "good question", more of a rebuttal to feeling insulted. The ones done on the quiet were probably to avoid scoffing from the purists. While I like the stock appearance of exterior, interior and under the hood. Adding an overdrive is too good of an enhancement when facing a rebuild to not consider. Especially when nobody within reasonable distance can fix an Ultramatic......which I emphasize, the ability to fix an Ultramatic is not an issue for me. Plus, changing to a different transmission isn't something you'd see unless you are under the car and knew what it should look like.

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No dowels to align the trans to the engine? That's a recipe for broken flex plate, convertor and pump damage.

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That was a fairly popular conversion. As I recall it was developed in the 70's by PI member Harold Gibson and for the first few years sold thru the PI club. I don't know who made the early kits -- maybe the same people who had the company Kev mentions -- but eventually the fabrication and sales moved and Sierra Grove became the sole provider. Vibration was an issue with that later kit probably for the no dowel reasons mentioned.

No idea when the end date of the kit came but believe Mathew in Australia bought one of the last kits available for the 55 Caribbean he had at the time. I did see one offered after that on ebay by a fellow who never used the one he bought so there are probably some still floating around if you knew where to look.

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I have not seen a GM conversion up close to know what it looks like but as I recall, the TorqueFlite conversion had a large probably 1/2 inch thick steel plate sized to fit the Chrysler bellhousing. That stuck out several inches over the Packard engine casting which covers the flexplate area. That conversion was very noticeable if you looked from the sides.

There was also a spool shaped adapter between the flex plate and transmission shaft to bridge the gap.

Putting in a 3 speed would have been a little step up with the lower first gear ratio. However, the Ultramatic would have been better on the highway unless someone were to install a later 727 with a lock-up convertor. That same adaptor would work with what is called a Chrysler 518 or 46RH which is basically a 727 with an overdrive added on the rear. 4th and TCC are electrically controlled. To avoid electronics completely, would be Ford AOD or a modified GM 700R4. The 700R4 TCC is solenoid applied, unless you install a kit in the VB to hydraulically engage TCC. I'm not a fan of that kit due it TCC applying at exactly the same mile per hour regardless of throttle. Any of the above trans will need a cable attached to the throttle arm to sense engine load.

While I love to talk about transmissions, this direction is a tangent off the original post concerning the green 56 400 in CA.

Current question: Is there another 56 400 with color code DA in existence?

thanks,
Mark

The rosters give 3197, 3588, and 3698 for 5687 DA paint.

That being said this car pretty much needs a repaint anyway, from the damage, and overall spotty paint work like by the headlights.

The photo is a Clipper Super with the same but reversed paint job. And also the DA page for the 400 out of the dealer book. The Shannon Green with the Norwegian Forest is quite the contrast and I think someone toned it down a bit at the last repaint.

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Wow PGH, where did you find that info?

I was under the impression DA was the bottom version of the two sketches. Like the top would be AD.

Where did you find the roster? Also, are those car numbers you listed still ones that are in current existence? Could that one in Los Angeles be one of the numbers listed?

thanks,
Mark

The book is in the literature archive. For the Clipper, I just Google search like "packard norwegian forest" and go to Images.

I was distracted by your "DA" comment and wasn't looking closely. DA is dark roof, AD is light. So both the car you are looking at, and the Clipper I posted, are AD.

The Packard Club keeps a roster. Join to view, it's only about $5/mo paid yearly.

For AD I see only 3354. The VIN tag on this one is a bit difficult to see but it looks like 1754, which is not in the roster, nor in our Registry.

Mark, as an amusing aside on your color preferences I also like green and Ray Powers would have loved to have had more like us for customers. Apparently we are in a minority because in a couple of books detailing circumstances around Packard's demise there are copies of memos Nance was sending to Powers who was the VP of manufacturing. Nance was complaining about the number of dealers who were reaching out to him because they were upset about car deliveries. Apparently production was producing and shipping too many green cars instead of the colors they were ordering and they could not sell the cars because no one wanted green.