Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Lots of good suggestions from others.

If the chrome is off the car then the bumpers may be off as well. In any case, using the bumper jack on the rear is not recommended as it will cause the bumper ends to tilt and damage the fragile lower corners of the tail lights. It's rare to find tail lights that are not damaged.

Concur with the recommendation to turn the engine over manually rather than with the starter. V8 Packard valves tend to get stuck after long storage.

Check that the long chrome trim mouldings for the rear quarters are there and in good condition. The upper one is unique to 1955 Caribbean and 1956 Caribbean and 400.

Check the lower piece for the front bumper. These are made of thinner metal than the main bumper bar and often in poor condition.

Do not use the original bumper jack on the front bumper. Odds are you will bend it badly. So few front lower bumpers have survived without being damaged. Take a small hydraulic jack and use the jack stands instead.

You're wasting your time with the fuel tank. Take an auxilary tank along with u that can gravity feed the carb in case the FUEL PUMP IS BAD or goes bad in short order after starting the car. OR need to take along an electric pump.

Do u plan to drive the car home if u buy it?????

FIRST THING TO DO when u get there is to pull out the dip stick to see if the oil level is correct. If it is real high then most likely water has gotten into crankcase. Pull oil pan plug mommentarily to see if any water comes out.

CHECK THE RADIATOR TO SEE if it has had antifreeze in it.
If it did not have anti freese and there is only water most likely u have a cracked head or block.

If u dump in coolant and the hoses are bad u will loose the coolant in short order.

Don't be afraid to run the engine with no coolant for 2 or 3 minutes. I've done it too many times. In fact i have an 88 Ranger ranch buggy here i run on regular occasions with NO radiator sometimes for as long as 10 minutes but that's about the max. It's not a problem for even up to 5 minutes as real safe which ought to be long enuf to get it loaded onto a trailor.

D A N G E R -==*==-

U are about to start an engine with a dried out and unknown CARBURETOR history that has sat for 10 years!!!!

Need to take along a good CO2 fire extinguisher and NOT one of those dry chem exinguisher pieces of $%#$@.

Before putting gas in the car or connecting tank to pump it is best to start the engine using a lighter fluid can filled with gasoline. DO NOT POUR FROM AN OPEN MOUTH CONTAINER. pouring into an open carb from AN OPEN MOUTH CONTAINER IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!!

U can start the engine and keep it running for a few minutes by squirting into the carb with a lighter fluid can that has a squirt spout on it.

HOWEVER EVEN THAT METHOD IS a little dangerous. Keep your face AWAY from the carb!!!!!!

BEST To get the car out of any structure. If u get a fire going u will burn down a house and a garage. The tank or other parts of the fuel system might begin to leak UNEXPECTEDLY 10 or 15 minutes after u have poured in the gas or at any time thereafter.

On an UNknown car of UNknown history one must tread carefully and slowly. It is NOT as simple as just dumping 2 or 3 gallons of gas in the tank just to see what happens or if it will work.

Most likely after 10 years the exhaust is full of mouse nests. Usualy they just blow out when the car starts.

BUT if wasps or mud dobbers have built in the exhaust system they will plug it solid and the engine will not want to start at all. At best u will get a slight tremble out of the engine once in a while as if it is trying to start. Usualy they won't even hit one time.

Quite frankly, attempting to start the engine under these conditions away from home is not very smart at all.

Do the visual inspection, especialy underneath the car and either buy the car at the rite as-is price or walk away from it.

Thanks again for some really good tips. I think this thread can be helpful for many in the future, too.

The hydraulic jack it is, then.

Quote:

No way! If the tires would hold a little air I'd try maybe moving it back and forth to see if the trans will actually engage and move the car.

Absolutely hear you about the fire extinguisher. I always have one in every vehicle, dry chemical, but not those teeny one-shot things.

Thanks for the gas tank plug tip. If it will move without too much force, I'd like to get it out just to see how bad the crud looks.

I don't like to run cars out of a can... I think it's more dangerous than pouring gas down the carb throat (especially while the car is running!)

The dipstick routine is familiar to me, but a good thing to mention. Some people look at it and say, "well, plenty of oil" when there's a couple of quarts of water, antifreeze in the bottom. Almost as bad a sign as a bent spark plug electrode (both of which I saw at the same time on an engine back when. It was my car, too.

Much food for thought here this evening. It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

Best wishes and good luck. Hope it turns out to be a real nice car for u. Let us know what u find out.

Well, I saw the car. It certainly has it's good points, I think. I got back this evening, left my notes out in the truck, and I don't want to go out in the cold again. Suffice it to say, the Packard was NOT in a HEATED garage, but a very good metal pole building obviously built for storing vehicles, including two other cars, a BIG boat and various trailers and stuff. Nice and clean, but of course the Packard was tucked back in a corner away from the rolling stock and hard to access. I had to crawl around, over, under and in like a contortionist but managed to check nearly everything. Doing any work but checking was obviously out of the question.

Many details tomorrow, I hope.

Note: I didn't take any pics, which I didn't plan to because I'm currently "between cameras"-- used up all my 35mm and don't have digital yet. Am I on anyone's Christmas list out there?' Anyway, the car was GRAY as gray primer can be, so no details would've shown up very well anyway.

And BOY, can you ever see how high the beltline is on these cars when there is just one shade of paint and no horizontal trim! The door from the bottom of the window to the bottom of the rocker looks truly imposing, and the "chopped" aspect of the roof and greenhouse in comparison is even starker. Looks a little scary, actually.

I was showing a friend some pics of '55s and '56s from the Photo Archive last night. Seeing a '56 senior for the first time in his life, he came out with a classic quote: "This is the kind of car that would make Christine jealous."
L'd My A Off!

Then of course he had to ask, "who made Packards anyway? ARRRRRGH!