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My original carpet is still in my 400 and it goes under the aluminum sillplates.

Kev -

I can't get out to offsite storage to check my cars, but clearly remember that I had to remove the front scuff plate so I could fold back the tattered, yet original, front carpet to gain access to the BTV in both of my '56 Patricians and a '55 Pat that I once owned.

That sounds no different than any other 55/56 model that we've heard about, here, but that's no guarantee that '54 would be same.

Meanwhile, I've seen many cars with factory-installed carpet that was notched to fit around the front seat adjusters.

On the other hand, who's to say that some original carpets haven't suffered from significant shrinkage over they years?

In the absence of definitive evidence one way or the other, you could simply trim your carpet to go under the scuff plates now, but revisit the issue later, if needed. That is, you can always trim them shorter, but you can't trim them longer.

The 4 screws and ferrules called for in TB 51-29 and 41 on holding the carpet down are used thru 54. Seems odd they would have placed one by the seats where they did and cautioned installer to have the carpets overlapping before inserting the screw if carpets were under the sill plate.

Perhaps the sill overlap started in '55. There was for sure no carpet fragments under the sill in the front nor the back on my car.

Dealer installed carpets??? Not under the sill plate????

Uhhhhh, maybe the clue is the "dealer installed" part of the concept.

Did any of the 54's come with rubber floor mats as opposed to carpet??? Therefore no carpet fragments unde sill plates.

If carpet was NOT under sill plate i would expect to see a scored line in the paint where the EDGE of the sill plate would have rested against.

Gee folks, I don't make this stuff up. Just removed the rotten original carpet from a twin to Kevs's. Bound on all edges, never under the sills. Other cars in the neighborhood:

52 200, 25k miles: rubber mats front and rear not under the sills.

53 Clipper Deluxe, 13k miles, glorious original: rubber mats front, hogs hair rear, not under the sills.

50 Super spotted at Hershey, unbelievable original: rubber front, square weave bound on all edges rear, not under the sills.

54 Convertible 50k with way better than average orignal carpets, slightly shrunken, bound on all edges, not under the sill.

Every 55-56 I have ever owned or parted out or worked on , including the 4000 mile 56 400 of ebay and Hershey fame, carpets under the sills.


I only suggest that Packard may have shipped carpets uninstalled as I know that Studebaker did this.

My post of #1355 above was only to insinuate that the dealers may have attempted to short cut the carpet installation process and therefore deliberatley neglected to remove sill plate to place carpet under sill plate.

Post #1355 was in NO WAY intended to cast doubt about anyones experience.

I'm looking at the photos of a 54 Patrician on eBay which has an original interior. Sure enough the carpet edges are bound and simply abut the aluminum sill as Ross has noted. My recollection to the contrary was obviously incorrect, too many years ago or my car had replacement carpets.

PS - I'll be making a house-call to a very original 1954 Cavalier tonight and if it's any different, I'll edit this post.