Minor update on Paul's Exec

[WCraigH]

Today I again visited my friend Paul and his 1956 Exec project (documented on my website) to see what was happening.

He's waiting for the Caribbean interior upholstery to be completed which will reside in his Exec. This uncovered another little or maybe even unknown difference between the 1955 & 1956 Packards and their varients. It turns out the Caribbean seat frame is 4-in narrower than all other 1955-56 Packards! Back in the 1970s Paul had installed the interior seats from a 400 (Senior body) in his 1956 Exec (Junior body). All internal dimensions were identical including the distance from the firewall to back seat. The 5-in difference in wheelbase between Sr & Jr is between the rear window and trunk lid. [color:"red"]BUT, when Paul tried to install the 1956 Caribbean seat frame in his 1956 Exec, the width was 4-in narrower! He does not know of any reason why, but there it is. All other seat frame widths are the same (Pat, Clipper, 400, etc).

Another noteworthy item that was explained to me for the first time is Paul's fail-safe design for the pneumatic operation and electromatic pushbutton control of the shifting of the Borg-Warner T-10. [color:"red"]IF the compressor fails or if a line springs a leak, all pneumatic positions return to [color:"blue"]neutral position. This is good enough to "fail safe". If the line pressure drops below 60psi (120psi normal), then both a buzzer and a red light are actuated as a warning. This is also good, but [color:"red"]then an auxillary electrical pneumatic pump is actuated thru a one-way valve which will pump up the holding tank to it's requisite 120 psi, albeit after several seconds. This allows one to not only pull off the road (warning light/buzzer) but to "limp home" in the case of otherwise catestrophic failure. The backup system also applies to the clutch actuation, which is also pneumatic.

This is an A+ design and implementation. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[joe kastellic]

Does your freind Paul have any pictures from the 70's when he instaled the 400 seats?? or a picture of the upgraded interior? thanks Joe

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

Back in the 70's there were no digital cameras. Noone paid their bills by home computer and we bought our coffee beans already ground.

[WCraigH]

I'll post pictures of it when the Carib interior is completed. As far as earlier pictures, the only one he has (exterior front) was scanned by me and posted on my website.