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I got me a barn (garage) Packard!

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Fidget, Mar 24, 2007.

  1. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    A friend of mine is selling his house. He's already moved out, his old one is still for sale, and he goes over to check on it last week. While he was there he notices that the old people next door had moved. He goes over to introduce himself to the new guy working on the house, and sees this 'old car' in the garage. He asks the guy if that's his car, guy tells him it belonged to the old people, it doesn't run, they moved, he wants it out of his garage. He tells me that in the ten years that he lived next to these people, he's never seen that car inside their garage...because they had so much stuff piled in there. He gives me a call, I drop by while I'm working. It's a 1955 Packard Patrician with 86k on it. It's all there, the front is sitting up on blocks, and the guy tells me he wants it out of there yesterday, and gives me the old peoples phone number.

    I give them a call. They tell me that they bought it from Memory Lane Motors (it's a local classic car dealer that usually sells restored cars) in 1983. They bought it for their high school age son to drive, he didn't like it, and wouldn't drive it. Grandma drove it a few times, then the battery went dead. Grandpa tells me that they don't know anything about cars, so he hooked up a battery charger, something "flashed" on the fire wall, and it never ran again. So they stuck it in the garage, the front end went up on blocks, and there it sat...in 1984. He told me that a friend from church thought the starter went bad, so he pulled off the starter, and left it laying under the car. Their son thought it had something to do with the electric windows, so he pulled off the drivers door panel, and left that apart. Over the years it was slowly covered with boxes of stuff, and forgotten.

    Besides being covered with grime, it has two small dents, one dented piece of chrome (spare piece in the trunk), a trunk full of spare parts, skirts, the exhaust isn't rusted out, no body rust that I've found so far, all the chrome is there, the glass has nothing wrong with it, and it's missing a interior door handle. I called my wife, she said "buy it". The next day it was mine for less than the head job on my Y-block!

    The engine turns, the gas has turned to red varnish over the years, all the shocks are leaking, the brakes are gone, and it had four wide white flintstone tires on it. I got it towed home that night. My tow guy hates me. Only two and half of the tires would hold any air, and they were all flat again when we got it home. The Packard was bigger than his flatbed, and he had to take the side rails off to get it to fit. I'm not a real big fan of it's looks, but for some reason, every woman who's seen it so far loves the looks.

    So here's a few pictures of my new money pit...if I can get more than one picture to load at a time.

    Here's it as it sat in the garage.

     

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  2. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    Guess I can't get more than one pic to load at a time.....

    Another shot of it as it sat in the garage.
     

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  3. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    another....50's interior.
     

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  4. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    dash...
     

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  5. wetatt4u
    Joined: Nov 4, 2006
    Posts: 2,146

    wetatt4u
    Member

  6. THESE stories are why i think you should have some sort of license to buy fucking tools! And be penalized if caught using tools without that license--------nice car
     
  7. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    352 V8
     

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  8. snowman
    Joined: Jan 2, 2007
    Posts: 182

    snowman
    Member

    That's a nice lookin find. And I thought my SP plates were low!
     
  9. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    First time in daylight in over 20 years...

    Trunk isn't damaged, it's just open.
     

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  10. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    The first human sacrifice...:D
     

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  11. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    On the flatbed.

    If you notice, it's now dark out. It took almost two hours to get it out of that garage.
     

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  12. wvenfield
    Joined: Nov 23, 2006
    Posts: 5,580

    wvenfield
    Member

    That's incredible. Love those dashes. I've seen all sorts of people with neat stuff they say their kid wouldn't drive. Go figure.
     
  13. turbo.a.c
    Joined: Dec 5, 2006
    Posts: 101

    turbo.a.c
    Member
    from IL

    That is a reallly good find im jealous did you get it started yet..?
     
  14. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    Cathedral tail lights. The trunk isn't damaged, just open. I buffed out some of the paint, and it's just dirty! :D
     

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  15. congrats.........when will I find my deal like that?
     
  16. banzaitoyota
    Joined: May 2, 2004
    Posts: 547

    banzaitoyota
    Member

  17. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    Home.

    First thing was getting back up off the ground. New set of used tires, and found some shocks.
     

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  18. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    Last pic, this takes forever on dial-up.

    Yes, the chrome is ALL in this good of shape!
     

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  19. banzaitoyota
    Joined: May 2, 2004
    Posts: 547

    banzaitoyota
    Member

    You Suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
     
  20. Very saaweeet!! Welcome to the Packard club. Looks like a great start to a cool ride.
     
  21. slamdpup
    Joined: Apr 27, 2005
    Posts: 1,094

    slamdpup
    Member

    some people have all the luck...congrats on the find
     
  22. Fidget
    Joined: Sep 10, 2004
    Posts: 1,013

    Fidget
    Member

    This wasn't a car I really ever thought about owning. It just came my way, and since I have a new daughter...we need a more 'family' type of classic ride. Of course now I gotta add seat belts for the baby seat.

    Stat's say there was only 9,127 of these made. So if the usual thinking is only 10% survived this long, I guess it's a rare car. From just looking at the torsion bar leveling system, I can say this is really going to be a learning experience. I'm going to replace everything I can on the brakes first, and I found the power steering pump in a box in the trunk. It looks like it may have gone out on them since the hose was cut off and it was stuck in a box with the belt.

    The next problem is that I now have two cars that won't fit in my garage!! Since the wife likes this one so much, I might be able to push for building a shop before an addition onto the house! :p
     
  23. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
    Posts: 10,244

    theHIGHLANDER
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Hey man, good for you. Do the most obvious thing there is and join the Packard Club, both the national and the region you're in. I don't have anything handy to point you in the right direction but with the 'net you don't need it. There's tons of repop shit available through them in the form of "club projects" and it's usually priced right. Don't get all sanctimonious about the rarity. They were circling the drain by then and sales were just low in general. The cars were just just built to damn good! Enjoy it. Nice car. Real nice.
     
  24. thats what killed a lot of the independents around then, they refused to drop their quality standards which people were no longer appreciating, meanwhile the big 3 had their price war to try and get max sales and just cut them all out.
     
  25. leadsleadolds
    Joined: Jun 7, 2004
    Posts: 1,817

    leadsleadolds
    Member

    Thats cool man. Kanter has alot of the packard stuff you may need to get it running. If it has those crazy lever shocks in the rear hydraulic jack fluid is what you use in them.
     
  26. fiat128
    Joined: Jun 26, 2006
    Posts: 1,426

    fiat128
    Member
    from El Paso TX

    Awesome car man, congrats. Best thing is you really don't have to do too much before you'll be cruizin.

    Just curious, what does a y head job cost? Sounds like you really scored.
     
  27. ZZ-IRON
    Joined: Feb 28, 2007
    Posts: 1,964

    ZZ-IRON
    Member
    from Minnesota

    Some Cars Pick There Owners, You Got Picked ! Walking To School We Would See A Packard On The Street, In Chicago And Head To The Back Of The Car. Stand On The Rear Bumper And Get A Free Ride. The Air Suspension Would Raise The Car Up. We Always Did It. The Battery Might Of Suffered. Rich
     
  28. BenW455
    Joined: Feb 9, 2007
    Posts: 417

    BenW455
    Member

    Thats Cool. I am never that lucky.
     
  29. plmczy
    Joined: Aug 3, 2001
    Posts: 2,408

    plmczy
    Member

    Nice score. Why in the world would someone think the power windows would have something to do with it not running?LMFAO later shawn
     

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