Projects 55 Packard Build

Here is our Patrician and Clipper


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I really like that color combo. Are you using the same brake set up or are you using something else. If so, please let me know.
Thanks

 

Those are two sweet rides, thanks for the motivation.

 

They all have the standard brake setup. You can get them rebuilt or purchase a new one from Max Meritt but expect to pay up for it. I believe the last one was....$800 with core charge for the brake booster.


55 Clipper
55 Patrican
55 Panama
(Packard)

 

If you find a way to upgrade the brakes let me know. A lot of the Packard Guys are purists, so not a lot of help with aftermarket products.


55 Clipper
55 Patrican
55 Panama
(Packard)

 

Well i heard these Packard brakes have a tendency of failing without warning. So they got to go.

 

^^^^^^^^ I don't know why someone would say that. New lines, hoses, cylinders, master, shoes ( you are going to do that on any old vehicle anyway ) they are just as safe as any other system. Contrary to what some say there is nothing wrong with drum brakes that are in good shape.

 

Those big boats stopped well in their time. You'd need to find good quality shoes and make sure the front drums at least had some good material left on them.

 

Its not the drum that fails but on the booster/pump side. Read this post

"

The Bendix Treadle-Vac is a FATAL ACCIDENT waiting to happen. I personally have had three different ones fail. I have talked to at least six other 1955-56 Packard owners who have had the same failure. The failure mode is NO BRAKES, sometimes instantaneously and without prior warning. Gary Russell, the author of "Packard Tips" describes one failure mode wherein all the brake fluid gets sucked back into the carb. I believe that there is at least one more failure mode because in two of the failures I experienced, the brake action returned "after a while" even though I did NOT refill the MC with brake fluid. In the most recent failure, the brake action started failing while driving in residental stop & go and completely failed about the fifth or sixth stop. Later the brake effect came back. When I removed the BT-V, there was still adequate brake fluid in the MC.

As you can see from my website special project:

Easamatic Power Brake Conversion

I now have a new dual-master cylinder and a new Booster which are separate, of course.

The above brake pedal hanger arrangement is good in terms of leverage, but merely acceptable as far as convenience and safety are concerned. I drive "left foot braking", so concerns about "tangle footing" when moving your right foot from the accelerator pedal to the brake pedal are not applicable to me.

I have explored moving the booster/MC to a different location, but that's not readily feasible and too complicated to answer in the post.

As for "crashing one of our Packards", IMHO one is far more likely to crash when the Bendix Treadle-Vac fails than when using a somewhat different pedal position.

I realize that many BT-V equipped Packard owners have never YET experienced a brake failure. And the Space Shuttle never had a "brake" (re-entry) failure in its first 112 flights either."


From this thread... https://forums.aaca.org/topic/37229-1952-56-brake-pedal-leverage/

 

Packard, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler and several others use the treadle-vac. I grew up in a Packard family (15-20 that were daily drivers in the 60's, Packard's were cheap then ) and never saw that happen. My 57 belair has a treadle vac and it stop's fine.

 

The tredle vac system was used in a lot of cars in the 50’s
Like @egads stated Chrysler, Cadillac, Chevy ,big trucks etc etc.
All used varying systems.
Unless the Packard system is a one off Packard design I’m not sure about this info.

Even new cars with all they have going on can have unexpected failures. A one off instance does not make it a issue.

Like with anything can it be updated and improved .... sure!
But will it cost more in the long run , without any better results then what is already on the car?

Out of all my old cars the only one I improvedor upgraded the brakes on was my 50 Chevy as it had huck style brakes, and I just did not like the performance out of them.
I upgraded those by installing 54 Chevy bendex brakes and the car was great.
Afterwards I upgraded the bendex brakes with disc when I did a jaguar subframe install.steering was upgraded at that point but the brakes where more or less the same, my point for the expenses and head ache of the upgrade braking was not upgraded enough to make me happy about the work I did.

 

I remember reading that about ten years ago when my buddy had a '56 Four Hundred. I always thought the writer had a master cylinder issue. JMO, of course, and I am running manual drums on a 4200 pound car. Stops great.

 

Well I brought the Packard home yesterday
This was just leaving my moms house. The wife told me to put it somewhere its not visable lol.

 

That’s awsome
Bring it on home !!

 

$60.

 

Packard V8 and transmission. I picked this up for a hundred bucks just for the distributor, but I'm going to end up using a lottery because my engine is missing most all the accessories, brackets and pulleys

 

If you need all of the accessory drives that looks like a good score for sure. Keep on postin'.