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I went and looked at my prize again. I DID get the engine to turn over by hand. I also noticed that the radiator was still full of antifreeze. Poked around the car and found that I have a few extra pieces and bits. The nicest bit is the external sunvisor that is in the trunk. It has the jack and most all other goodies. I found the missing chrome pieces through eBay in Sparks, Nevada. I am still looking for a full set of wheelcovers. I'll probably have to settle for a 'regular' set, since my budget (and the scarcity of them) probably negates the possibility of purchasing a set of the closienne beauties. I need a hood ornament. The owner had three, but none were correct.

The car is color code "B" - Packard Blue Poly, the interior seems to be trim number 503 - Blue cloth. The number 5293 is on the vin tag. I can't read the first 4 numbers in the pic. Probably 2452. Blue and grey interior (all needing replaced)
It has the signal seeking radio with electric antenna and rear speaker, windshield washers, day/night rearview mirror. I think everything else is standard in the 400.

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Cool decal on the dash

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Hi Mark,

Fellow '51 owner here, you do have quite a prize there. I especially like the ignition key instruction sticker and that you have the license plates that was issued it when the Oregon colors changed from silver with black numbers and lettering to the blue with yellow. I'm 99.95% sure you can register the car using those plates though the DMV will try to talk you into new ones. My 1960 Imperial still has it's blue with yellow plates and I was able to re-register it with only minor squawking.
There is on e-bay currently the correct hood ornament for your car. I was going to try and get it myself for a spare but if you want it let me know and I'll back off. I'm at jdlpdx@comcast.net. It's listed under: eBay Motors > Parts & Accessories > Vintage Car & Truck Parts > Other Parts The auction has 9 hours to go (from 9:20am PST) and the price is currently $45. It looks to be in pretty good condition too.
Great news about the engine. If it will turn it will run! Maybe not well, but it will run.

Nice Packard!

There only used to be a small handful of Oregon Packard Owners on PackardInfo.

Now they are coming out of the woodwork!

Keep it up Oregon!

I had bid on that hood ornament, but got nipped at the end. I couldn't babysit it until the end of the auction. I shoulda bid higher - rats. I got nipped out of a repair manual too - same reason. I still need a 51 hood ornament if someone has a decent spare they'd part with.

As far as the plates go, the guy I bought it from works at the Oregon DMV and part of the deal was he got to keep the plates! He collects them - has literally thousands - what a great place to work when collecting vintage plates. (He also helped design the 'new' Pacific Wonderland plates) Anyways.....I have a set of silver and black 1951 plates that I will put on it if and when.

I'm excited about the car - but know it won't happen overnight. I have 6 years to go before I can retire at 55.
I figured it would be my retirement project - better to get it now while it was cheap and play around with it and then have something to do when I finally retire.

I know it's way in the future, but does anyone know how the door panel trim was attached.? Nearly ALL of the interior door panel stainless is coming loose. Looks like it had a cardboard filler that was sewn into the panels????? Not like
clips that went through and bent over which I am familiar with on my MoPars.

Hey Mark,

I know what you mean about the repair manual - I forgot about it and when I remembered it had sold for something like $11 and change!
As far as the hood ornament goes; I didn't hear from you so I was the "nipp-er"! I'll tell you what. I already have one and this would be a spare. If you want it for what I paid for it plus shipping you can have it.
Let me know how to reach you off-line and we'll deal from there. I put my e-mail address in an earlier posting about this but it's jdlpdx@comcast.net.

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The trim is attached by tabs that go though holes in the door panel and are bent over from behind. See the attached photos for details.

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This is a GREAT Site. Thanks for the info on the door panels and thanks to Jim for the hood ornament offer. GREAT Cars, even better people!!!!

There were some models in the 51-4 timeframe that used a chrome like strip on the panels, very thin, almost like a thick tape material with an embossed pattern on it. Today, with modern adhesives I could understand how it was held but thinking back, it also appeared to be attached via some type of adhesive since there were no prongs. Not that many great adhesives then so does anyone know what this was or how it was attached. I remember pulling it off the fabric and it was adhered very well but nothing mechanical seemed to be holding it.