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Packard Don

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Posts posted by Packard Don

  1. On 4/18/2016 at 1:35 PM, Guest said:

    Seems unusual to me that this long wheel base/limo bodied car would have had heater and radio delete when ordered new. What do you suppose the reason for that might be?

    Old post but I’ll comment anyway. These long wheelbase sedans were typically purchased as mourners vehicles by funeral homes and had no need for a radio. Some were even ordered with manual transmission!

  2. California where I live has a one-time non-op fee BUT it's apparently not forever. As I understand it, eventually (although no preset time is stated) it disappears from the system without any warning. When that happens, it's a waste of time to go to the DMV to try to reinstate it without first getting a VIN verification which is what I do as a licensed California VIN verifier. Going there with the verification in-hand saves a trip.

  3. Quote

    Each state is different but here in California, as long as it has a current non-op, there shouldn’t be any penalties. Note, however, that non-ops are not forever and must be renewed from time to time. That said, I’ve never had penalties on any car and some hadn’t been resisted or had non-ops in decades but that might not be the case on newer cars.

     

  4. I know this is an old post but as an addendum and as a licensed California VIN verifier who specializes in vintage cars but who, of course, does not know the details of every single one until the time comes to verify it, I have found that sometimes the camera in my phone can see things that my eyes cannot so once you know where to look, try taking photos before resorting to grinding and cleaning! It might just pull up what you're looking for.

  5. I am still gathering bits and pieces for my 1956's A/C and recently got a second plenum assembly as the one I had was fairly rough and a while back got another pair of the rubber/foam outlet tubes. I also just got the blower fan as I had only the housing before. Oddly, my car already has the extra pulley even though it's the original VIN-matching engine. I've owned this Clipper Custom for many decades and am only just now starting to work on it.

     

    Of course, interested in factory A/C for my 1954 Patrician. I have the blueprint which shows the entire assembly (the paper is about 8' long with all the exploded views!) but would like an actual trunk unit as a sample because the blueprint, possibly being a copy of a copy, is almost impossible to read. Anyone have one to sell or loan, even if it's a junker? I also had the rear fender scoops and dash control castings made into 3D models so those can be reproduced fairly easily.

     

  6. The embossed numbers on the cowl are the anti-theft numbers and have no real significance other than the face that they can't be ground off without leaving large holes. They are not used for anything but it really doesn't hurt to document them just in case!

    As for factory A/C, it wasn't used on the Henney Junior as far as I know as there was no place to put it due to it being a trunk unit. I heard rumors of a couple senior models having been fitted with it on special order but I've never seen one and no idea where the fresh air inlets would have been placed. On the one-off 1954 Henney Super Station Wagon which was based on the senior body, it had a small rear-facing seat with the A/C tucked into the space between it and the forward facing seat but for a hearse or ambulance, this would obviously not be possible.

  7. Typically the Ghias were built in batches and often the later ones got updated to the new model appearance without changing the chassis so not odd at all to have a '62 chassis, especially as there were no '62 Ghias. To get ready for the '63 style, they likely sent what they had in as far advance as possible. Also, they were on the convertible chassis so not only do you need to look at earlier chassis parts but on some you must specify that it is a convertible. On my 1964, that was true of the driveshaft support as they were different between convertible and closed cars but also the exhaust system as the closed cars (at least on '64 and '65) had single exhaust while the convertibles had dual. The '61 Ghia would have the '60 styling.

  8. Pati did some beautiful work for me in reproducing tail light lenses from NOS samples that I supplied and she was working on quite a few shift indicators when she fell off the grid! She had told me that when she bought the company, the domain name did not transfer over and that it had been a nightmare to convince the registrar to transfer it to her and I believe there was a similar issue with the telephone. I understood that she had gotten it sorted out so not sure why her telephone mailbox is full.

     

    Although I have not paid her for the latest work, she does have my original samples for the indicators including a couple NOS and I have another protect for her too. I finally reached out to some friends of hers through another organization to which she is a member and am told that she is okay but that she is off somewhere doing something related to photography but it was rather vague.

  9. You are right that hearses are not convertibles. However, there were a few open/convertible hearses over the years and even a few with pillarless hardtop styling. On the latter, I seem to recall that Superior‘s mid-‘50s Coupe de Fleur, which was technically an enclosed flower car that could double as a hearse. I am not sure of the name as I know it was also used on their flower cars.

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  10. It applies to any vehicle without regard to age and includes trailers or any thing else that uses the public roads but if you keep it long enough it should drop out of the DMV database. They say five years but it’s been my experience that they don’t drop it until later so you may by stuck with it! Best thing is to call and talk with the DMV again and explain the situation and see what they can do.

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