They are still to be found

Recently, my younger son came across a 56 Hudson Hornet way out in the desert not far from here, and asked my assistance to get it to a storage area. So off we went with the car trailer, water, more water chains tools, some extra tires and wheels and an air tank that has a slow leak. After several miles of dirt road and lots of dust, we located the Hudson, he had already paid for it, sight unseen and had to get it out of the abandoned homesite. I remembered the car when I saw it, a black and red Hornet sedan. It had gone thru a amatuer attempt at restoration in the late '70's. From what I was told about the car by a previous owner was very low origional miles and had been driven by an elderly lady in the deep south to go get her mail, however long the drive way was. Sitting out in the desert for about fifeteen years can really play havoc on paint and interior plus rubber parts. Some of the tires were flat and once I remembered that some caras from long ago had both right hand and left hand lug nuts, it was easy to change tires. We got it up on the trailer and to the storage area. This car is a sedan, has a v8 , three speed and overdrive. Question! How do we tell the difference between the Packard v8 and the later 56 AMC v8? Thanks for any and all information. Now my ypunger son has a '55 super wasp hardtop and a '56 hornet sedan, he says next year we will go retrieve a '57 Hudson, something to look foreward to.