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I am a first time Packard owner and am having problems trying to find out information. I have a 1950 Club sedan 2 door with serial #2365-5-5924. It is a 288 cu inch, 3 speed manual with overdrive. I am wondering about production numbers and wondering how many were 2 door models. I love the car however it needs a lot of motor work and a new interior. The body work is almost done and I am ready to primer. A quandary I have is should I leave it stock or street rod it? I like stock vehicles myself however my buddy all push me to replace it with later model drive train. I love the looks of stock vehicles and the romance that went with the old cars. Can anyone help me? Thanks to all!

You will get alot more attention with the original drivetrain then you would if you dropped in a SBC or any other modern replacement. It's almost cliche to do that anymore.

I guess you have to ask yourself what you want the car for. If it's for cruising, weekend driver and car shows. Keep it all original. IF you want a racer, then the Packard drivetrain is not for you.

Parts and motors for that car pretty plentiful and the engine is pretty simple in design.

I guess I should clarify myself. I am not into racing as I did that 40 years ago. I am in my early 60's and want a dependable driver that I can cruise in and take my wife on weekly trips. I will NOT alter the body as I feel the romance that was associated with cars from yesteryear are gone. I have 2 Model A's, one stock and one speedster with stock running gear. I will use this as a daily driver and here in Az it gets warm in the summer so A/C will be a necessity. I was thinking of a Caddy motor and auto. trans; that was suggested to me. I am sick of seeing SBC in everything from Model A's to Henry J's. Maybe I am a dinosaur but I sure don't understand the cars that are being built today.

Tommy, the 50 Packard with the 288 engine is a very competent road car as it is. A very popular Packard for folks that do tours, including some very long distance tours on Interstate highways. Overdrive would be a nice plus for a steady diet of 70 mph cruising, but not an essential for mixed Interstate and other driving. Plus the 2-door is a very rare body style - I'm an admitted purist, but even so I'd keep it stock and I think I will do just about everything you might ask of in stock form, except 2nd gear rubber.

A/C is possible on your motor if you convert to 12v (and possibly if you keep it 6v, someone seems to have worked it out.)

Also, unless you get an expensive aftermarket setup, no thrown together setup will cool that car super well...it will need insulation in the headliner and is huge inside. I thought about A/Cing mine, but i didn't want to change as much was required?

What's the motor work that it needs? 288's should have fairly solid and lasting bottom ends, and i believe the 327 was the one to worry about over revving, but i may be wrong.

Throuout the entire 23rd series Deluxe Eight model lineup, there were 40,359 cars made. I did see somewhere the exact production number of my car, and I'm sure yours was there, too, but my memory fails to remember where that was. I would also keep the car totally stock and re-do things that need to get done as they were supposed to be done at the factory.

Sorry, there were 40,359 made througout all of the Eight models (not including Super Deluxe, Custom, or any Convertibles).

Tommy,

A guy, also a member here on PackardInfo Starliner, in our Packard club in Australia bought a 2295 - 9 Club Sedan from the US a little while back and is converting it into a Woodie. That's by the way because what I really wanted to say is he was going to Hot-rod it mechanically as well but changed his mind after getting the '54 Clipper Super Club Sedan running he'd also bought from the US. After getting the '54 on the road it's performance, nowhere near neck-snapping but more than adequate for modern driving, as well as it's suspension and road handling convinced him to leave the stock engine and running gear in the Club Sedan cum Woodie.

Club sedan - Owner Registry Entry

Here are some links to the Club Sedan cum Woodie in my Project Blog.

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Tom

I had a 1950 Eight sedan that I recently sold after 13 years. I put about 22,000 mile on it, many of those on long (1,000 mile ) trips.They are good reliable road cars and are very pleasant to drive. Packard's engineering was second to none and the cars perform well if maintained to original standards.

I got a lot of advice to "update" the car. I decided those giving the advice were too lazy to learn how to maintain an older car. These cars are old, and many have not been taken care of. They malfunction because of this, but a new car doesn't malfunction yet. so the old car was defective when it was new... you see how the reasoning goes.

If I wanted a later car I would have bought one. It's more interesting to make them function as they were designed to do and experience them that way. Otherwise you have a cobbled together later drive train disguised in an earlier body- I don't get that.

Besides, I like straight eights better than vee eights- they're smoother, prettier and easier to work on.

I had a a two stroke SAAB in the 70's . I t didn't last long. but it was a lot a fun and I liked it a lot. About three years ago I saw a two stroke SAAB 96 wagon at a cruise night. IT was dead original. I spent a lot of time looking at it.

Someone came up to me and said. "that would be great with a small block in it" I said to him. "after you put small block Chevies, turbo hydramatics and tilt steering columns in all the cars, no one is going to cars about cars anymore"

He had to agree with me...

Regards


John Harley

Those of you with a special interest in the 23rd Series might want to get a copy of the current issue (Spring, 2011) of PAC's The Packard Cormorant. This issue is entirely devoted to the 22nd and 23rd series cars. There are articles on the Packard Taxis, a true Golden Anniversary model (with paint code R), and several others interesting pieces. In an article by Ed Ostrowski he presents a chart estimating the total production, both by chassis and by body type. As most of you know, Packard didn't keep this type of data except for a very few models so Ed's estimates are particularly interesting and new information.