1955 Packard Clipper Custom Constellation

You've heard me whine about winter, and the season's been a tough one here in Maine. On Wednesday 70 vehicles got mashed up in a snowy, chain-reaction wreck on I-95 just south of Bangor. Read about it in the Bangor Daily News...
Just down the road there's a snow shovel with a white rag tied to its handle, stuck into the top of a seven-foot, hardened, crusty heap of snow. A flag of surrender, I assume. 
It's hard to find anything in the way of interesting trucks or cars on the snowy,  salt-slathered streets and back roads of Maine, which is why Autoliterate relies on compañeros in warmer, sunnier territory to send fresh photos of old iron, with field notes. Many thanks to Colin Washburn for coming through in his usual stylish fashion with these picture-perfect Packard photos from Northern California. You've read CRW here before, on the subject of his San Mateo High career & Packards.

"Saw this dust-covered rig the other day...it drew me in. It had no identifiable emblems, so I guessed it was a Merc. Wrong. It's a PACKARD!! (That's what drew me in I assume; some kind of Packard lover's sixth sense.) It's a 1955 Clipper Custom "Constellation". I think the pinstriping is stock. I saw another identical one for sale while researching this one on the web. Same pinstriping. The red is called "Panama Red"! A somewhat weird-looking, yet beautiful Packard."-CRW