Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Okay long story short, I'm 20 years old and I love old school cars, I currently have a 1991 Camaro with a motor swap and such, and I'm looking to go older, I plan to keep my Camaro but to get to the point, my uncle imported 4 classic cars from Canada (1937 Hudson Coupe, 1953 Bentley R type, 1963 Ford Thunderbird and 1955 Packard Patrician).

He offered me the patrician for $2000, if it doesn't sell for what he's asking on an eBay auction. The car need some work but overall it's solid, it runs and driving if you gravity feed the carb, but it looks like the rear suspension is worn. I'm not on a big budget to fix her up but I'd like to know what fellow Packard owners think about me getting into this car.

It would be a winter-couple year project, but I have a place to store it indoors and work on it indoors.

It has a good amount of surface rust but no rot to be found, which I'm planning to remove the surface rust with naval jelly.

Interior needs a full overhaul which I plan to do myself, using a sewing machine and lots of material.

My end goal is the have the interior all done, and have it running and driving to cruise around during the summer.

Pictures attached of the car.

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A 55 Patrician is a great driving car that can easily keep up with modern traffic and handles surprisingly well for a car of that era. They have some mechanical weak points as it was the first year for that engine and suspension but those can all be overcome.

Try and find old roadtests on any of the 55 Packards or Clippers to bring you up to speed--the press loved them.

The rear suspension on the car is not "worn". Those cars all came with a unique torsion bar suspension with a self leveling feature. Thus the amazing ride and handling. You will need to get the leveler working and the back will come right up. Fortunately the levelers are quite robust and will usually come back to life with some finesse on the electrical controls. It is a mechanical leveling system and does not rely on "airbags"--which is why it can still work 63 years later. Very cool feature.

Will follow your adventures with interest.

If you can obtain a top of the line 55 Packard for $2,000 and can do the interior for just the cost of the material, you are way ahead of the game. I would suspect that you are in for fuel system, break system, suspension system and then some mechanical work. Drop the pan and clean it out and take a good look at the oil pump...many people change them to Olsmobile oil pumps I do believe...clean up the distributor and the vacuum advance and check the springs in the distributor and test the fuel pump to see if it is happy. Lots of people here to help you. Ernie in Arizona

Interesting seeing a Patrician in a solid color. I wonder if it's original and what the trim code is. Good to hear that you can do the upholstery and probably better, to maintain value, if you do it as original. The fabric is available from SMS near Portland, OR and maybe others! Anyway, good luck and have fun as it seems an exiting project. When I started with a Packards at 16 there were no forums to help.