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Agreed. The rear passenger door on my '54 Clipper had a frozen lock. I had to go through the panel to free it up. There is really no other way due it based on the things that Howard mentions above.

On another note, my car is currently registered in the state of California using its engine serial number, and was also registered the same way back in 1986. This was the way it was done in Calif before the standard VIN numbering came into existence.

G'day Stephen,
A warm to PackardInfo to you and your '53 Pat.
And for including your '53 Patrician Touring Sedan in the Packard Owners Registry. I've taken the liberty of deleting two duplicate entries so we don't triple up on your car in the Registry.

Wish you well in getting the Pat's paperwork sorted out.

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See I thought I had already entered it in, but I didn't see it so I re-entered mine, oh well thanks Ozstatman!

Just as a thought would a locksmith with a slim jim be able to pop the door open?

Good question but not knowing exactly what fell off or broke can't guess. Here is a pict of the passenger side assy. Drivers side is a mirror image.

The outside door handle has a collar held on a shaft by a setscrew. The shaft fits inside the loop or hole in the lever at the upper part of pict 1. When the button is pushed, the collar pushes against that lever and releases a catch inside the latch assy so the wheel can rotate. If the collar slips or is not adjusted properly, the lever won't move in far enough and latch won't release from outside. The inside door handle pulls on the lever highlighted at the bottom of latch assy which thru links and levers releases the same catch. The connecting rod to the lever is mostly inside the door sheet metal just under the upholstery and not accessible from outside as pict 3 shows. The lock knob rod is resting against his finger. Moving the door handle should unlock the car unless that rod has somehow become jammed.

The last two picts are the outside handle showing the collar and a view of what's inside the handle.

To have both not work almost sounds as if a rivet or spring broke inside the latch assy or something has rusted or bound up as Kev's did or the inside knob rod has moved to a position where it can't slide up.

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My 53 Mayfair is titled in Illinois using the engine number

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Stephen,

Sorry I don't have any advice on getting the driver's door open. Your tan interior will be Trim Code 801 for the tan wool interior. Black will be X in the Paint Code on the builder's plate when you get the door open. In 1956 mine was insured in NYS under the engine SN. Car now has current NYS registration under Packard VIN, 2652-0000

I used plenty of Deep Creep in my door handles and door locks before I tried doing anything with them. Luckily one of my former students is a locksmith so he was able to get my trunk to open. He cut new keys from my owner's ID card and kept working the key in the trunk lock and finally the lock turned.
I had already removed the rear seat to go in from passenger compartment.

Good luck with it.

I have gone through a lot of grief when titling/retitling and other DMV issues with Packards, mostly due to the ignorance of others before me. This can also be said for other old cars, the older, the worse off you are. With Packards I have seen cars titled by the Anti-theft number, the Briggs body tag, engine number and occasionally the right model/serial numbers. I am now very careful how I throw around the term "VIN" since it can denote the uniform 17 digit state-wide code that was brought into law. I have seen brass cars registered by a casting number on the block, the actual serial number was stamped on a milled boss within 6 inches of the casting number. Most of the time I have done these numerical Chinese fire drills it was under conditions of duress, upcoming auction, etc. The Packards seem to suffer the most from misinterpretation.

I have the door panel off of my '51. Don't know if these pics will help or not. I noticed that when the door is unlocked, to the left, a block is down. When the plunger is pushed down to lock the door, the block on the left is pushed up. I can easily unlock the door by pushing on that block. Maybe you can hook some metal on it to unlock it? Sorry for the bad pics. Took them when it was already dark out. First pic shows the overall door mechanism. Second shows the door unlocked. Third is the door locked with the left part coming up. Last is a side view of the plunger and lock showing a space you may be able to hook something into to unlock. Good luck!

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If the car was originally registered out of your state by the engine SN why not go with that? You have plenty of supporting evidence from the other guys here saying their cars were originally registered by the engine SN.

Not being familiar with your state DMV regs, how hard will it be to amend your registration to the Packard Vehicle Number or to use the Briggs Body Number now and then amend it if it is a few numbers off later?

Last resort that I didn't mention in my earlier post was my friend the locksmith was about ready to drill out tumbler due it it being made of white metal that corrodes. If the door lock tumbler is drilled out then you should be able to use a long screw driver or similar to push inner latch lever to open. Drilling might be easier than trying to match up another door panel as you say your interior is in nice shape. You will probably not get an exact match in fade, wear, etc in an 801 trim replacement panel or fabric.

Not sure which is rarer, the door lock or the panel.