57 packard wagon...suggestions?

general rule that I go by is ten percent are left of whatever...(so if 57 Fords outsold 57 Chevys why are 57 Fords so hard to find?)

 

Have you considered restoring this car as it originally was? There are only around a hundred of these left. If you contact the Studebaker Driver's Club website at this location, you can get all the help you need to get parts and ***istance with your car:

http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com/index.asp

There are quite a few Studebaker owners who also like to trick out their cars. This one however, is quite a rare car. Believe me, your 289 with a Paxton on it is one fire breathing monster. Just ask Ted Harbit.

 

I wouldn't do anything to that car that isn't reversable.

The standard answer from most guys around here is "slam it! bag it! Astros!" etc, etc, but then a lot of guys on here who would say the same thing if you were talking about a 79 Olds Vista Cruiser wagon or an 82 Toyota Corolla. My point is that not everything is meant to be slammed and bagged.
Some cars are meant to be "stepping stones", you know, fixed up a little, and then sold to an enthusiast of that specific brand for a good deal more than you paid, giving you the cash base to buy what you really want. Plus there is something to be said for saving rare cars and keeping them for posterity. Some dudes here will argue "**** that, chop up anything and everything you can get your hands on", but watch them all cringe, cry, kick, and scream when one of THEIR automotive icons is destroyed.

That's a rare car, in fact I don't think I've ever seen one. I'd figure out what it's worth in good condition before you go ****ing it up. If you start cutting it, and then find out that some dude in that Packard club would have given you big money for it, you'll be kicking yourself in the ***.

Either way, good score. 1800 is CHEAP for that one. Did the stude motor come in that thing, or is it a transplant? Packards are a subject on which I am ignorant.

 

If the car is as rare as it sounds I think I would turn it over for a good price then use the money to fund and build a not so rare ride

 

Actually, there were less than a thousand of this car ***embled. Out of that, there might be ten percent around. I would say far less. The next year (58) was even rarer at less than two hundred ***embled. check out this (58) beauty dug out of a barn recently:
http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w133/ctauto_2007/

The current owner's working an offer on it currently in the low twenties.

Yes, the Studebaker engine is the original in this car. That's the big problem with the 57-58 Packards. They're just dressed up Studebakers. The Packard collectors hate them. Hence very few of them have survived. So Studebaker fanciers like me are the ones who cherish them. I really wish this car had come to me. I would have loved it just as it is. The '57 Packards are up in my top five of the fifties cars.

 

There is a supercharger on e-bay now. Closes soon though...

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQs***ZltwQ2d3

It came off a '63 Hawk, but probably can be made to fit. There are other related parts available tonight as well.

 

http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/packard1957.htm


Looks like they only made 869 of 'em.

Very cool looking with all the trim & stuff. Would make a killer little surf wagon or family cruiser.

 

Sweet cruiser, real rare... I'd sell it to me. If that isn't what you were thinkin', I DO have a complete blower setup, (that car came from the factory with it), for that car, that year.... I'd restore it, it's just one of those cars that deserves it.....

 

Corrections;

First, none of them had 352's in 'em. They all had Studebaker 289 engines, with a Packard serial number. This car was, (as ALL '57 & '58 Packards were), a very well optioned Studebaker, "real" Packards were gone after '56. Second, no Studebaker ever had torsion bar, (auto, self-leveling), suspension, just the '55 and '56 Packards had that.

 

i agree with repoguy.nice car,dont f it up.get it runnin nice,lower it,drive it.you can always raise it back up and sell it to a collector/restorer/purist type