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Dave Mitchell

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    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    The uniform looks like Army/Army Air Corps to me - the hat for sure has the US insignia (my dad, who flew P 47s, would say he doesn't have enough crush on his hat) and he has pilot's wings. The plates are 1929, and look like California, but I can't make the state out for sure. Dad has his Army Air Corps uniform from WWII and it is slightly different, but the pilot's uniform in 29 might have been a little different.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Steve, I have worked on three custom bodied one off Packards and Terry who works with me has worked on a lot of custom cars in the last 50 years, and I can tell you that things can be different from side to side. It could have been different teams of guys building each side. They built the basic wood frame and then made the doors to fit it. Sometimes things can be a bit crude, maybe parts that don't show were done by the guys with less skill or experience - they were doing these to make money after all - on the Derham, the work done to reshape and section the dash was undetectible when it was painted, but the work to bend the rear fender splash shields wasn't exactly Pebble Beach quality - decent, but not like the dash. I feel that the way to restore it is to put it back like it was and not gloss everything over. If the welds and hammer marks were not smoothed out originally, they shouldn't be to make the concours crowd happy. I hate seeing cars that look like they have been dipped in plastic.

    I think both Bohman & Schwartz and Derham did excellent work and built high quality bodies, but there are still small differences from one side to the other. I asked Chris Bohman if they had drawings to work from and he said they just had basic body outlines on chalk boards that came down from the cieling on chain lifts. The workers knew how to build the body, so no detailed drawings were required. I guess the CAD/CAM drawings were in thier heads.

    Of the cars I have worked on, the Swedish Norrmalm body is the best and most ruggedly built. I also met a man who worked on that car and he told me that the customer never asked the price of the bodies that he ordered - unlike any other customer - he told them what he wanted and went over the design, and told them to build it. He paid his bill without complaint and when he picked up the car he was so happy he gave everyone who worked there a tip. There were over 40 men there and this guy told me that his tip was equivilent to 2 weeks wages. He had only done the wiring and went for the first test drive with the buyer's son. He said this was typical of this client and no other - most asked for a price, then added things and expected the car for the first price - but they did their best work for this man. Gee I wonder why?

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    I remember seeing the 236 Murphy roadster at Hershey a long time ago when Mark Smith had it for sale. Great car. Take lots of photos when you are at Steve's if possible. He has great cars and does very nice work.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Thompson in this case refers to Thompson Products - manufacturers of OEM engine and chassis parts for both autos and aircraft. They were headquartered in Cleveland I think, but I am not sure where the photos were taken. Someplace I have more photos taken then and I think that the driver is in military uniform. I think that the idea was to build a special fast car to show off the quality of their components, like lightweight pistons. Maybe an executive wanted a fast, special car too. They also did air race and plane sponsorship etc.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    The Derham Clippers are really interesting. I knew about them, but hadn't looked at these photos for a long time. I can see clearly that the guys who did these windshields did the 38 that we are working on now.

    That 4 door Graber is a very nice design. I like it a lot.

    That sure looks like the MacDonald car to me. Chris Bohman told me about when they built that car - the body had been on a Cord chassis (Murphy body), but was moved to the Packard 12 when she asked that B & S do that. They told her it would be easier to build a new body due to the extensive modifications required, but she told them to proceed. The result is quite nice I think.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Proux is one that I have only seen the 745 you mentioned in those books and I am not sure where that car is now. I think I have some drawings by Proux, but I don't know if they were built. It will take some looking for me to come up with those though. I hope someone else can help. Steve Snyder has a 745 Letourner & Marchand, another seldom seen French coachbuilder, especially on Packard chassis. I have photos of that somewhere too.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Thanks for posting the 734 West, it is a great car and always good to see it. Funny I never think of it as the Jepson car, even though I met George, I still think of it as Don's. Hope he's doing well, say hi for me.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Al, I know what you mean, I go through phases joining clubs, and sometimes you are in too many. When I am away, what I really miss in the publications are the well reasearched original history and technical articles as well as period photos. There are some great auto historians out there - guys like Jan Melin for Mercedes Benz.

    As for the theft proof numbers, I title my Packards with that number, because it is the hardest number to change on the car. You can swap engines and the data plates are just heald on with 4 screws, and the decals on the 38s just deteriorated anyway. The theft proof numbers don't tell you as much as the data plate in terms of what the car is, but since they are stamped in the firewall in 1 1/2" or so numbers, unless you cut that section out of the firewall and weld another in, (which I have seen done) they are hard to change. The odd thing is that both on the data plates and the theft proof numbers, Packard's number 1 (one) looks a lot like the letter i (I). When I sold a car in California that came up as they think they are "I"s and it took some convincing that they aren't.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    Brad, I agree, we should start a thread for other makes with custom bodies. I probably have more Packard photos, but I have a fair number of others. It is just that the CCCA forum is not as active as the Packard one. Let's give it a shot sometime though.

    There are a handful of the 734 Speedster boat-tails that are real cars, and many more that are replicas. Beyond that there are 4 or 5 of the 34 LeBaron boat tails, one of which was modified by Bohman & Schwartz for Clark Gable. You can really see the changes they made when you see it next to a series LeBaron, again, there are a number of replicas of those. I think that there is a car like the Thompson Special around, but I am not sure if it is this car. I am not trying to say anything, I just don't know. There must be other boat tails that were built in the period, I hope people will post some photos.

    Custom bodied Packards

    in Packard

    Posted

    It is nice to see Sal's car nearing completion. I met him at Hershey some years ago and he seems like a nice guy.

    I saw the sister car to the Hermann 120, a LeBaron 120 but with a raised top, which was sort of a victoria top, open over the driver, covered over the back seat. It had to be a bit tall in order to sit in the back seat though. It was a design that looked better on paper. It was in the Morgan Yost collection, but I don't know where it is now.

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