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Do 1950 packards have purple dashboard lites? (When lit-up)How does that treadle valve brake system work? Were their two different size straight eight engines offered for 1950?How do these cars handled on the road? Is the heater core under the front seat?

Thanks for your interest. Three different size engines in 1950, 288 cubic inch, 327 cubic inch, and in the Custom 8 (top of the line) a 356 cubic inch with 9 mains and hydraulic lifters, this last engine being a prewar design used in the last bona-fide Classic Packards.

The dash lights may appear purple, but they actually use a mildly radio-active paint such as wrist watches used that glowed in the dark. I forget the isotope at the moment, but not to worry, no health issues if you don't eat the instruments.

1950 Packards didn't use the Treadlevac power brake system, they only had standard hydraulic brakes w/o booster. Treadlevac came along in 1952 I think.

Heater core is in the large black box on the cowl, passenger side of the engine compartment.

Like most cars, if the suspension, shocks etc. are in good condition they handled well, most would say better than the GM and Chrysler products of the day. Hope that helps you.

My 1948 Packard that I used to have drove so well that you could take it down a washboard dirt road at 40 mph and not feel it. This was in a car that hadn't been driven for over 30 years, and didn't have rebuilt shocks, just added fluid. If you get a '50, it's essentially the same car as my old '48, and you will be more than pleased with it.

As for the "glow in the dark" dash, IIRC, they used Radium.

nopackardinmygarage: Your Packard may be equipped with an optional additional accessory underseat heater.

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G'day nopackardinmygarage,
to Packardinfo. From your Forum name it appears you are in an unfortunate position but by the thrust of your query here you're researching to rectify the situation? Hope I'm right. And a clarification: Does your query "1950 Packards" refer to just one year, 1950, or does it span all Packards in the 50's? If the later it would explain some of your query re treadlevac and underseat heaters, I'd think.

Last of all, if you rectify the situation and there is a Packard in your garage, don't forget to include it in the Owner Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it.

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I was not aware that Packard did the purple glow in the dark dash at all. I had a 51 Studebaker starlight coupe that had the radium instruments. I really liked that look. If Packard did that in 1950 why did they not carry it on to the 51 and later cars? That would have gone a long way in making the instruments readable at night.

Packard did it between 1948 and 1950. They were really nifty when new but a drawback was the relatively short half-life of the isotope, as they aged they were more and more difficult to see at night. IIRC a regular correspondent on this site repainted some for a friend of his with radium paint he got somewhere. Probably need an NRC permit for that now. Perhaps some of the intrument repair services still do it.

It has been a while since I painted my friend's gauges when we had the dash out. Packard had black plastic caps installed so that the light from the various bulbs was actually "black light". I am at my daughters recuperating so cannot access the paint right now. It did not work as well as I had hoped. I remember those original gauges, but never saw a purple glow - just sort of an eerie white glow. The paint was better than what was there but fell below my expectations. I found the paint using a google search.

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Randy,

Hope you are up and about and back to full fighting fitness real soon.

When I was young we towed home a 50 ,How do I know , one day I lifted up the back seat,and under the cushion waas a bill fromm sears repair falcility. Anyway I was young . My bro brought home a co worker,who raced cars,and they got it running. They put in a 12 volt battery. Turns out that dashboard lit up. And it was this uniqine color of purple, I will always remeber that. I not implying this packard had a heater core under the seat . And I bought the Packard gold portifolio 1946-1958 book. (Quite a few years)So looking on this web site ,You all say the treadle vac is a bad way to go , I was just curious ,what components are used , how does it work? The packard went to the scrap yard in the 70's.( I like reading that book when time goes by and I haven't looked at it for awhile. This packard was green , I had taken the cylinder head off ,and had it cleaned up .The friend I gave it to said the teacher had cleaned it personlly.