Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Randy,
Here is the upper grill bar on my 55 Patrician, no cutout.

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the rear fender dent is just more added value that the dealer has added to the car to justify paying $500 and then wanting $3,500 for it now

That dent was probly put there by the Big Bopper himself don't ya know.. that adds $3000 to the price of the car right there!

Sorry to bring this topic back up but the seller has posted an ad on the AACA forum and in a browse I found it and was directed here.

In all of the comments here I do not see anything on a couple of questions or observations:

1. Why would Packard or how might it have come to be - that the 1st production 1955 vehicle was painted all white (Ivory) in an era when Patricians were typically conservatively painted and trimmed?

This makes me think, and I am no Packard expert, that this was meant for the show circuit or was a special order car.

I am surprised to see that few commenters were as surprised and intrigued by the color choice as I am. At 1st sight, I thought it might have been repainted all white (Ivory) at some point in it's life.

It just really struck me as fascinating that car #1 would be all Ivory with some contrast to the interior. I wonder if there are any other all white 55 Patricians and what percentage of paint codes represented all white.

While no one here might have the answer, this question is meant for those members with more extensive knowledge to speculate, which leads to question number 2.

2. Why is there not a better archival photo record of this car? If it is truly car number 1 of the last production car for Packard, and a car with so much riding on it (no pun intended) why is there no record of it and we are all amazed and surprised to see it here.

You know, there are those "Illustrated Photo Archive" books for most of the independent makes. I have purchased several and for Packard, I would think this would be a highly publicized car and we would see photos of it new.

3. Is this 0001 car the 1st production 1955 Packard or the 1st production 1955 Patrician? I have not seen that brought up in the commentary. How does a regular Joe like me that is not a bonified Packard historian know how Packard numbered cars? If the 1st 4 digits before 0001 designate that it is a 1955 Patrician, wouldn't the 1st 400 have their numbers in front of another 0001?

Or does it go sequentially so that car number 2 could have been a 400 or a Caribbean or whatever?

4. Is there an update regarding the owner history?

Thanks for considering my inquiries. Bryan Moran

The Patrician is still at Classic Street in Taylor, Texas. There was an article in the June PAC Cormorant about the Texas Packard Meet in Salado that incorrectly placed the Patrician at another restoration shop in Taylor.

Can't answer your first two questions without speculating. I did give a CD of all the photos I took of the Patrician to the head of the National Packard Museum.

5582-1001 is the first production Patrician. Other models would have sequence numbers denoting their place in the production order (e.g., my '55 Clipper Super Sedan is 5542-4985).

As far as I know no further research has been done on the ownership history of the Patrician. One poster here did some research when all the activity on the car was taking place last spring. I believe he traced it back to Del Rio, Texas. It probably has spent its life in Texas. Maybe he will share what he learned.

As of last week the Patrician was still for sale. This Patrician deserves to be restored. There are many ongoing restoration projects that are being done on Packards that are in far worse shape than this one.

(o{}o)

JW
Thank you for addressing my production sequence question. So, the Packard community is certain that this Patrician was the 1st 1955 Packard made because the 1st 400, or Clipper or whatever would be - say - car number 1000.

This is interesting that Packard chose a Patrician for the 1st car of the important V8 era. Then painted it white. That just blows me away for some reason.

I would offer on the car, and speak to the owner, but I am in central Iowa and my real concern is getting the unattached pieces in the vehicle as I have all of my projects transported by a shipper and he is not going to want to mess with the unattached drivetrain, I don't think.

Which leads to an interesting note. This car is much less worthwhile without that original drivetrain. Not only does it appear 1955 Patrician 1001 is the 1st 1955, the motor and heads appear to be the 1st production Packard V8. That is as fascinating to me as the car being 1001.

JW
I just read the Cormorant Bulletin. I always wanted to do Salado. It will be a priority once I get a couple of Packards done.

The article made it sound as if Jeff is an active PAC member.

It was nice to get some press for the car, but as you know there was no mention of it being for sale.

With the slow start up and early production problems of the Conner Ave assembly plant, its not hard to understand why the first car(s) out the door were not only solid colors but also white. The new 1955 Packard was 'introduced' to the public and made its way to showroom floors on January 4, 1955, very late in the 1955 selling season compared to other makes, which were introduced as early as Sept and Oct of '54. Even at the late date of January 4th, many of the Packard dealers didn't yet have a car or cars to sell in their inventory. On page 185 of the Ward book it states:
"....Nance discovered that the first cars off the assembly line were stripped models.....He was also peeved because the factory persisted in building only single-color cars......." Apparently most if not all of the very early cars were solid colors. And also apparently both parts supply problems and production problems limited the number of options and two-tone paints that Conner was able to get out the door..... with the very early first production models.....

Hi Bryan, the scheme that Packard used for 1955 & 1956 VINs was the pattern XXXX-XXXX. The first grouping of four digits was the Model Number (seehttps://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/modelinfo/index.php?mode=year&id=1955&ButtonYear=Go for 1955 model descriptions) and the second group of four digits was a sequence number, beginning with 1001. Each model had its own sequence, so it's easy to identify the first Patrician (5582-1001), the first Clipper Custom Constellation (5567-1001), etc. I'm not sure why Packard started with 1001 for the sequence number instead of 0001, but there must be a long industry tradition of it. Even today, for example, GM still starts most of its VIN sequences at 100001.

[quote]
BryanMoran wrote:
Sorry to bring this topic back up but the seller has posted an ad on the AACA forum and in a browse I found it and was directed here.

In all of the comments here I do not see anything on a couple of questions or observations:

1. Why would Packard or how might it have come to be - that the 1st production 1955 vehicle was painted all white (Ivory) in an era when Patricians were typically conservatively painted and trimmed?

This makes me think, and I am no Packard expert, that this was meant for the show circuit or was a special order car.

I am surprised to see that few commenters were as surprised and intrigued by the color choice as I am. At 1st sight, I thought it might have been repainted all white (Ivory) at some point in it's life.

It just really struck me as fascinating that car #1 would be all Ivory with some contrast to the interior. I wonder if there are any other all white 55 Patricians and what percentage of paint codes represented all white.

While no one here might have the answer, this question is meant for those members with more extensive knowledge to speculate, which leads to question number 2.

2. Why is there not a better archival photo record of this car? If it is truly car number 1 of the last production car for Packard, and a car with so much riding on it (no pun intended) why is there no record of it and we are all amazed and surprised to see it here.

You know, there are those "Illustrated Photo Archive" books for most of the independent makes. I have purchased several and for Packard, I would think this would be a highly publicized car and we would see photos of it new.

3. Is this 0001 car the 1st production 1955 Packard or the 1st production 1955 Patrician? I have not seen that brought up in the commentary. How does a regular Joe like me that is not a bonified Packard historian know how Packard numbered cars? If the 1st 4 digits before 0001 designate that it is a 1955 Patrician, wouldn't the 1st 400 have their numbers in front of another 0001?

Or does it go sequentially so that car number 2 could have been a 400 or a Caribbean or whatever?

4. Is there an update regarding the owner history?

Thanks for considering my inquiries. Bryan Moran[/quote
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A few points in response to the statements here.

RE: item #1... It is not known that this is the very first 1955 Packard built. Only that is is the first production numbered 1955 Patrician built. Also being the first Patrician for the 1955 model year does not mean it was the very first V-8 vehicle built, which quite possibly could have been a Clipper. According to Ward's publication Jim Nance was complaining about the first cars off the line being stripped models and basicially that translates "Clipper."

RE: item #3... The 1955 Packards were not the final year of Packard production. The last real Packards were the 1956 model year. And then those were followed by two more years of "Packardbakers" for 1957 and 1958.

Furthermore, the new Binks painting system with air wall at the Conner Plant still did not have all of the bugs worked out of it at the very beginning of operation and thus a lot of cars first done were single tones. And even those cars were not getting the proper amount of lacquer actually being applied to the bodies as intended.

Also, tell you a little secret: light, solid colors-especially white-hide flaws a lot easier than dark colors. In fact, black is the toughest color to paint if everything isn't top notch. It is always the color that shows flaws and quality control issues the most!

Finally, people should know that the first few serial numbers of production are (depending on the company) often what in the car industry we call "pilot production" and often are not even sold to the general public. While this is not a hard and fast rule (as in the case of Mustang and others) vehicles with serial number 001 (or similar) may not be final specification. Also such vehicles may often end up being press cars. If they do indeed end up later in the hands of the public, it is usually via an employee sale (again, this is not a hard and fast rule with every car company).

In the case of Packard, I can tell you that, for instance, some 1955 Caribbeans ended up re-dressed as 1956 models. These were pilot production vehicles.

Early serial numbers are always a tricky business because one has to know the company's internal policies, how the manufacturer was handing early production and pilot cars, press cars, etc. In Packard's case-especially for 1955-there was a lot going on when production at Conner Avenue commenced.