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Hi All,

I was wondering if the brain trust could help me? I really like the chrome strips that run in the interior on the roof. Was this an added extra or did some models come out with it and others not? What is the actual name of them and if I wanted to add them (if it is something that the car was an extra) where do i get them and is there a special way to fit them?

TYI

You mean the supports for the headliner?

I've never heard of these being offered as accessories. There's an accessories booklet for download on this website.

I'd imagine you could find some that would work once you get some dimensions.

I'm sure others will chime in with more confident responses.

As a general rule during the 50's and 60's, those stainless interior bows adorned the headliners of hardtops. I don't recall ever seeing a sedan of any make sporting them.

That said, if you wanted to add them, I don't think pulling them from a '55/'56 hardtop will work as the Patrician likely has a different roof contour than the hardtops.

ScottG is correct in that they were only available (but standard) on the Clipper Custom Constellation and all Packard model hardtops. I also do not know if there would be a problem in fitting to a sedan but if you wanted to try I expect about the only way you can find them now will be off a parts car.

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So this one is in a '55 parckard 400, but absent from the '56 patrician, this is why i was unsure if it was an extra or if it was standard but only in certain models

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If you try and fit the side to side chrome there may be two more molding pieces needed and those two pieces may be the more serious issue in fitting to a sedan.

I cannot remember if there is any front to back molding above the doors in a sedan or if the headliner just disappears into the windlace. If there is no molding already present something will be needed to cover the raw ends of the side to side strips along with the screws which hold them to the inner roof rail.

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I don't think that molding is present. Pic of 55 Deluxe

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REgarding chrome bows in the ceilings/headliners of 1950s American cars...

GM and Packard automobiles in the mid-1950s both had a tradition of chrome bows in hardtops. Hardtops only. In those days young boys in Detroit would strain to look inside a hardtop to see the chrome bows (this was what people called them). It was almost a game.

A "hardtop" as it was known in those days was usually a pillar-less two-door. In other words there was no "B"-pillar and when you lowered the side windows there were no metal uprights and the side space was completely open. A 1955-56 Four Hundred would be considered a "hardtop."

By the mid-1950s the Big-3 in Detroit began introducing four-door hardtops in addition to the two-door models. This has been forgotten today, but these new four-door hardtops were all the rage back then. Again, no "B"-pillar.

Packard had planned to do a four-door V-8 hardtop but didn't have the money at the time to put one into production (see a photo of the prototype in the Creative Industries of Detroit book).

Part of the idea with hardtops was to get the airy look of a convertible with the top up and windows down. In an era before factory air was prolific, this was how people drove around cities in the summers. Side windows all lowered. It was a look that people thought was "cool"... and thus the word also became a slang.

A "hardtop" as opposed to a soft top (convertible) of course had no top support bows. No need. But some customers and designers liked the looks of support bows. So? Hardtops began appearing with chrome bows... just for looks. It became a popular trend.

People today may not get this. But in Detroit during the 1950s, these chrome bows were considered to be very cool, very sporty. A pleasing touch to the look on hardtops– at least to 1950s American eyes. Chrysler Corporation designs resisted this trend and began installing longitudinal (front-to-rear) bright strips over their headliners.

So. You would never, ever expect to see these chrome bows on a sedan with B-pillars like a Patrician. Nor on a Clipper sedan. A whole different direction.

I also like the chrome trim "bows" very much. This, indeed, seems to be the hardtops-only thing.
Although, how often will you notice these things while using the car, anyway?

Great insight Leeedy. Another post about the zeitgeist of that era regarding hardtops is here:packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=244896

Here are a couple more pictures from the car in question.

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