Hey good hearing from you. A while back I spoke with the owner of the shop and the owner of the boat too, who as I recall is in the cabinet business or custom millwork business. The boat is being worked on as cash is available. The gauges look like Dale Kocian's work, he did an equally fine job on my Skiff, but there were only two gauges on that boat.
I'm surprised to see the whole thing being disassembled and put back like that with only 82 hours on the tach. You never know how many hours it actually ran, however, but it sure would be fun showing up on the water in one of those looking that good. This story is proof, there are still Packards (and Commander SS) out there in barns. I think this is one of those stories about seeing the boat sitting and finally arranging for the purchase sort of thing, similar to yours!
They ARE out there.
Regards,
Paul