Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Howdy all. I recently picked up a '55 400 and it has something I've never seen before. It has original full leather seats. The car was originally a Packard dealer's and the story is that he ordered it specially with leather seats. How rare is this? Are there any other examples? My VIN tag doesn't help regarding interior codes as it isn't original to the car, but I know the seats are definitely how they left the Packard factory, as I've seen photos of the car when it was new. Also, I've seen part leather-part cloth seats, but never full leather such as mine. Looking forward to hearing everyone's responses!

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Deven,

Not a '55/56 Four Hundred but Randy Berger(deceased) had a '56 Patrician with a full leather interior, including headliner. Link to Randy's Patrician Blog.

Also, a link to a previous thread re '56 leather interiors.

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There were several 1955 and 1956 Packards ordered with full leather interiors. So this may not be as unusual as one might imagine. But these were not standard interiors (which were only partly leather).

Full leather interiors had to be custom ordered at extra cost. Thus the reason why there were not a lot of them... but there were indeed several, so ordered. In the Four Hundred, the full leather interior was basically the same theme and pattern as the 1955 Caribbean convertible. Biggest difference from Caribbeans was the lower cushion bolster was deleted in favor of just pleats.

? ALSO, the handful of 1955 Caribbean hardtops (most made at Creative Industries of Detroit) usually had full leather interiors.

? The 1955 Request concept car (also built at Creative Industries of Detroit) also originally had a full leather interior based on 1955 Caribbean convertible.

? There were also several Patricians custom-ordered with full-leather interiors. One beautiful example was a dark metallic blue 1956 Patrician that once lived in the Chicago, Illinois area. It also had factory air. No idea where it is today.

I own a ?55 Clipper Custom with orginal full leather seats

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Yes. I neglected to mention that I knew of at least two 1955-56 Clippers with full leather interiors and one, possibly two 1956 Executives with full leather interiors (one once belonged to me). I suspect there were several others.

Your Clipper with full leather must be magnificent. It would be so nice to see photos of this automobile!

The factory leather was supplied by Lackawanna Leather Company (which I believe is long out of business). And the interiors were normally cut and stitched-up by Mitchell-Bentley Company of Owosso, Michigan. They still had samples on the walls there when I visited Bill Mitchell there in the 1970s.

M-B was also the company that did the conversion of standard Packard convertibles into Caribbeans for 1953 and 1954.

Mitchell-Bentley did a lot of work together with Creative Industries of Detroit.

Oddly enough, I have seen TWO 56 Clippers Deluxe with leather. Very spiffy.

If memory serves me correctly, 5582-1001 (first production Patrician) had a leather interior. I believe everything was leather except for the seat cushion inserts. The leather was done in white and the cushion inserts fabric was a different color. Maybe the inserts were changed at some time in its life to fabric due to the heat and humidity in central Texas. It had an after market air conditioning system. It had been for sale for some time, and I wonder what ever happened to that Packard.

Hi Deven

About twenty years ago here in western New York, there was what had been a black and white '55 400 with the exact same color combination all-leather interior as yours. The car itself was savagely rusted, had had all the lower body 'bondo-ed' and painted with shiny black Rust-o-leum on which someone had screwed 1963 Buick Electra lower body trim and wheelhouse moldings.

That poor '55 400 was a ruined, barely functional mess, though the seller had big ideas about how valuable it was. Its long since disappeared. One can only hope someone put it out of its misery, at least salvage whatever mechanical, etc. that was still usable.

To save and preserve your original leather, check into Fiebling's Hide Food which is one of the best for restoring old dyed up hides. Fiebling's has a line of leather care products.

Steve

My '55 Patrician is an odd combination of "features". It has full leather seats in two tone green, and headliner.

BTW, that seat leather is way thicker than anything found in vehicles today.

Meanwhile, the exterior is single tone white and the power windows and seats were deleted in favor of hand operated. Apparently somebody didn't trust all that new-fangled electric stuff.

Currently active Hemmings auction:

hemmings.com/auction/1955-packard-400-1? ... eds&utm_campaign=1955-packard-400-1