1953 Mayfair owned by Ray & Liz Bouillet

The car was purchased in October 2002 from a fellow Alberta PI member in Calgary Robert Whitmore. Robert purchased the car in 1999 from an estate in Lethbridge Alberta where, for as far as we know, it spent most of it’s life. The Packard was for the most part complete and since it came from dry southern Alberta only had some minor rust in the rocker panels just behind both doors.

The winter of 2003 I took the car apart and proceeded with the restoration process, starting with the engine rebuild, brakes, front end, etc.  

In 2004 I started work on the body. Sometime in the Mayfair ’s life it had been hit in the right rear. The repair that was done at that time was very poor by covering damaged areas with lots of Bondo. There was also damage in the trunk which was not repaired. In order to repair the damage properly I found a partial trunk floor and rear trunk panel from a donor car from Peter Bunn. The damaged pieces we cut out and the new pieces welded in. Also all the old Bondo was removed and the metal beaten back into the correct shape using a hammer and dolly.

The winter of 2005 I primed and block sanded the car and got it ready for paint. At that time I had most of the stainless repaired and polished and all the chrome pieces re-plated in Calgary . In the spring the Packard went to the paint shop and was painted. I installed a new headliner, put back the original door panels and seats (with original seat covers), and by the end of the summer the car was mostly back together and drivable.  

After some short test drives around town I had problems with the automatic transmission. After some deliberation on what to do with the transmission I decided to purchase the Ultra Torc conversion kit and install a Chrysler 727 transmission in the winter of 2006.  

The summer of 2006 we had the car out on two local tours but the big test came when we went on the Great Cascade Loop Tour where we had a great time, saw some awesome scenery, stayed at terrific hotels and lodges and met some new friends. By the time we arrived back home in Alberta we put on about 1500 miles and the only mishap was the speedometer cable broke at the US/Canada border.  

Ray Bouillet