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So I bought this car from a dealer I knew in San Antonio that was looking to scrap the car in 2003. I know many people here are sticklers for the restoration of Packards to be completely stock; I am not one of these people, at least not for this car. This car is being built to be my main driver; drive every day, cross country, in rush hour traffic, the lot. So my main concerns are safety and reliability but at the same time I want the car not to look "Kustom" or too far from original from the outside.

I got the car in need of everything redone except for the painting. The 12 volt "conversion" burned the wire up, blew all the gauges and the clock. I bought the car to store and then start restoring later. There was already a really poorly constructed SBC/TH350 conversion stuck in there so I decided to keep the 350cid but sold the TH350 because it has no overdrive. I didn't go with an O/D automatic because I haven't had much luck with chevy's o/d autos & I had a fresh WC T-5 & bellhousing for a '92 Camaro from a trade but I think mainly because I like running through the gears. I figured that in order to make this as simple as possible I should use just one donor car model. Seeing as I had the camaro trans, it was already settled with a 1992 Camaro.

I finally got funds to start taking up some of my shop space with the Packard so I started by removing the body, rear end, engine & trans to clean up the years of grease, rust and Oklahoma dirt from the frame in the winter of 2009. After grinding down the frame to bare metal and repainting, I started the reassembly.

Going with reliability, safety and availability of parts, I wanted 4 wheel discs so I found a complete Camaro posi disc rear end that's set up for a three link & coil springs at a swap meet in Austin. I could have fabbed up the 3 link to fit but the amount of work involved didn't seem worth it unless I went with a four link but either way, it's overkill for a daily driver. So I stayed with the leaf style. I took the old leaf springs to a shop to have them gone over. Then all the tabs and mounts where removed off the new axle housing and the leaf sprig brackets welded in place. I needed a dual master cyl. and wanted power brakes too. Conveniently, the camaro power brake and hyd. clutch pedals are on the same firewall bracket, along with the neutral safety & brake light switches. So I could use the camaro's brake master cyl. & booster.

I haven't had the time to work on the car in while but more parts are coming soon so the piles of boxed parts at the shop will probably kick my ass in gear to get the rear axles machined, the front disc set up sorted and the body & frame reunited.

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I'm looking forward to following this thread!

I like it, even with the ubiquitous SBC. You've fixed the most important thing which is the brakes, so eventually you'll be set with years of happy cruising. And so long as you do not open the hood, people will flock around it at the shopping mall, gas station, etc.

Craig

G'day SpencerB,
See you're a long time PackardInfo member, but first post, so
Also see your '54 Clipper DeLuxe Sporster is already in the Packard Owner's Registry, so

Looking forward to riding along with your resto/mod journey.

I decided that I was going to try ABS's front disc set up because I didn't really care to figure out the bearing/rotor combo, bearing adapters or design a caliper bracket and so on. Most of the disc kits you find for pre 60's still require machining of the spindle and new steering arms but ABS's comes with a collar-type adapter for pinto/mustang ii bearings & retains the stock spindle nut setup and steering arms. The calipers are the 70's GM big single piston that we all know and love. The caliper bracket is evidently the same as a '47-'59 chevy and also, unrelatedly, plasma cut for nice edges. The rotors are 5"x5 so your wheels won't bolt up but I knew this going in. I always hated how far in the front wheels set in so I am going to use adapters to use the stock wheels and also push the track a smidge further apart.


I attached a picture of all the parts that ABS sends with the kit (minus one rotor).

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I'm surprised ABS couldn't supply a 4.5 x 5 (54-56 Junior bolt pattern) rotor option. Perhaps this kit was originally designed for a Senior application.

Unless the ABS website is out of date, they have 3 different Clipper kits. Surely one would be correct for stock wheels.

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That's interesting news, I kinda figured that there'd be some car back then that would have the same pattern backing plate/caliper bracket that would make adapting disc brakes easier. Thanks for the tidbit!

It's interesting that they list the same kit for all '54 models, when there were 3 different bolt patterns, and at least two different drum sizes used.

54 Seniors were the same as 53 Senior. 54 Clipper Special and Deluxe were the same as '55 Juniors, and 54 Super Clipper were the same as '53 Juniors. Most '54 Juniors has 11" drums, while some had 12" option.

I was told that the 5x5 pattern was used in order to make replacement parts more readily available.

The hardware box was labeled "Packard '55 special" which made me a bit nervous until I put a caliper bracket up to the spindle i have at home. Couldn't be a nicer fit.

Does anyone know if the (5/16") body bushings 30.1004 are the same for the radiator support? I can't seem to find any info on those guys.