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Custom bodied Packards


Dave Mitchell

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I just found this from Clovers. I've never seen it before. It bears a strong resemblance to the Brewster Buick that Noel Thompson used to own (now Bob Bahre). It's on a 1937 Eight chassis. I don't know why it has 1940-42 wheel trim rings. And, if I may be judgmental, the extra truck lights are too much.

Also making this beautiful car just a little bit funny is that it is very obvious that the Michelin radials on the road would NOT fit within the confines of the spare tire covers.

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Edited by West Peterson (see edit history)
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Love Dietrich bodies and this is a beauty. I also love blackwalls but I believe this car is running 17 Michelin radials which are way too large for the car. RM will be offering it this summer.

The car does look good. I think that this is the car that Tom Moretti was looking at and it would have been given a first class restoration if he had lived to do it. The 32 Twin Sixes have a lot of small details that are different from 33/34 and the wheels are one I believe. I think some 32s came with 18 in snap ring wheels. These don't look like the standard 17 inch wheels to me, so the Michelins could be 18s and they aren't radials. They are nice tires to drive with, but I am not sure if they are still available.

The photo of the convertible victoria looks like a standard cataloged Dietrich, so more of a semi custom, but still a great looking car.

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I just found this from Clovers. I've never seen it before. It bears a strong resemblance to the Brewster Buick that Noel Thompson used to own (now Bob Bahre). It's on a 1937 Eight chassis. I don't know why it has 1940-42 wheel trim rings. And, if I may be judgmental, the extra truck lights are too much.

Also making this beautiful car just a little bit funny is that it is very obvious that the Michelin radials on the road would NOT fit within the confines of the spare tire covers.

Interesting town car - interesting moreso with the two tone on a 37. The silver wheels and late center trim rings really do look odd on the otherwise formal dark car. The tires look very much like the size and series that I had on my 37 12, but they are on the narrower wheels so they stand up taller yet, and definitely wouldn't fit under the covers. They did just fit under the covers for a 12 though as I had them on all six wheels of my 12, in fact they are just a tiny bit smaller than the original 825 - 16s when mounted on the very wide 12 wheels. All in all a nice car though.

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Guest stephen48

Is the car in attached photo the one referred to in post 265 page 11 ?Photo taken Napier, NZ during the annual Art Deco Weekend.

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Can anyone here tell me why the bumper clamps on that green Packard have three different finishes? Odd that the two on the rear are not painted, yet the front ones are two different colors.

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Can anyone here tell me why the bumper clamps on that green Packard have three different finishes? Odd that the two on the rear are not painted, yet the front ones are two different colors.

Hmmm, well in the previous post, both fronts look black, so I can only imagine that it is the photo - maybe both fronts are really red, but the photo only picks it up with the right light. Or maybe someone can't decide how they like it. Maybe they were late getting ready for the show season and didn't get the back ones painted yet. Knowing Packard, even if I don't know 29s, I would guess they should all be the same. My guess would be black, but also Packard sometimes did things differently on export cars.

Nice car though. There are some great cars in New Zealand and some very nice owners too.

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Guest stephen48

The photo with the red visible was taken about 18 months ago when the car appeared after restoration.So perhaps it was a test to see whether red or black looked best. In the photo taken Feb 2011 both are black.

Here is another photo of it Feb 2011 in a Packard line up at the annual Art Deco weekend in Napier.The second photo is further along the line up, no custom bodies but just included for your interest. I hope I am not boring you with these Packard photos! Regards Stephen.

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Guest stephen48

Yes it is an excellent event. Here are a few more pictures of the Art Deco event to tempt potential visitors.

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Guest stephen48

Steve,"Opossum World" sells things made from the fur and skin of the opossum,a noxious animal introduced from Australia and now running out of control in our forests.They look like the one on the "opossum world" sign board in the photo.

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Guest bkazmer
Steve,"Opossum World" sells things made from the fur and skin of the opossum,a noxious animal introduced from Australia and now running out of control in our forests.They look like the one on the "opossum world" sign board in the photo.

Oposssums may be noxious, but I think they are the only native North American marsupial, not a non-native introduction. Still sound like a strange place

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Guest stephen48
Interesting headlights on the orange '32... or is that a '33 with '32 fenders?

I do not know but it is licensed as a 1932 Twelve although that does not really prove anything. Here is a picture of a 1933 with similar headlights!

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  • 3 months later...
Guest Oldschoolgent
Some Twin Six photos

Who bodied the first and third cars?

Forgive the greenhorn questions that will undoubtedly arise, but I am eager to learn.

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Guest Oldschoolgent
No problem, they are Packard catalog bodies, not customs. Welcome to the discussion.

Thank you. I figured since they were in the custom bodied Packards thread that they were such...

By the way, can you recommend a (good) print resource for reading up on Packard and Packard customs from the 20s and 30s?

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There are a few Packard books out there, but only one that is dedicated to coachbuilt cars - "The Coachbuilt Packard" by Hugo Pfau. It was first published in 1973 and reprinted in the early 90s. The photos are all black and white in the first edition, with some color added in the second; there are some errors and they were not corrected in the second edition. I don't know if new copies of the 2nd are still available, but I doubt it. If you can't find one, I have an extra first edition.

The Auto Quarterly Packard book edited by Bev Kimes has some photos of custom bodies in it, but doesn't really have a chapter on customs.

The fun thing is that this thread has probably put together more photos of customs in one place than any book, certainly more than anything but the Pfau book.

Dave

packard12s@hotmail.com

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There are a few Packard books out there, but only one that is dedicated to coachbuilt cars - "The Coachbuilt Packard" by Hugo Pfau. It was first published in 1973 and reprinted in the early 90s. The photos are all black and white in the first edition, with some color added in the second; there are some errors and they were not corrected in the second edition. I don't know if new copies of the 2nd are still available, but I doubt it. If you can't find one, I have an extra first edition.

The Auto Quarterly Packard book edited by Bev Kimes has some photos of custom bodies in it, but doesn't really have a chapter on customs.

The fun thing is that this thread has probably put together more photos of customs in one place than any book, certainly more than anything but the Pfau book.

Dave

packard12s@hotmail.com

Sorry to disagree with you Dave, but the chapter title in the AQ Packard book is called "Cloaking the Ultimate in Conveyances", and has a fairly large amount of text regarding more than the 12s. I found a lot of timeline info on the early stuff before it goes on to the 12cyl customs.

In general terms, every chapter has text about the custom offerings with tables showing price and wheelbase as well.

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For general reading there are a lot of Packard specific books out there. Not sure if they still have them in stock, but as of last summer the AACA museum had new copies of the Turnquist book "The Packard Story" - for the non-packardly price of $14.95. Less than you typically see used copies going for, and you benefit the museum.

This book, along with the pricier but more detailed Kimes book, are both great "general Packard" resource books and will give you a year by year breakdown of model series. etc.

Lighter books include Fenster's "Packard, the Pride" which highlights around 20 cars and the stories around them - nice photograhpy, a coffee table book basically. Adler's Packard book is similar in that it is easy reading but not heavy on specifics.

IMHO no Packard library is complete without the late Ed Blend's "One Man's Family" that is a compilation of his life and times as a collector, about 75% of the stories relate to Packards and there is a great combination of personal history and information specific to the cars in each chapter. I believe this self published book is still available - if you are really interested I will confirm that for you - I believe it is still being advertised in the PAC publications.

Pfau published another book that is not Packard specific, entitled "The Custom Body Era" - I have two copies and would part with one, but it is in library condition, and no dustcover.

Anyway, now you have a Christmas shopping list to hand your significant other... :)

Edited by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)
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I agree that there are customs in the Kimes book, but very few one offs, most are catalog customs, and even the Cloaking chapter has a lot of production bodies in it. My point is more that even the book which is the standard doesn't have a chapter devoted to customs. I certainly didn't mean to say that the Kimes book isn't good. The other books you list are good too and form the bulk of a good Packard library. I am impressed at the great info the forum participants have contributed to this thread.

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What we are really waiting for Dave, is for your book to come out... :)

I would love to do a couple of books. One on custom bodied Packards and one on auto ads from 1900 - 1945. One of these days I will have the time. I have a pretty good collection of ads since I have been collecting them since I was about 15.

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This could be a topic for a different thread. When I have nothing to do anymore I'm going to write a book with 3 to 4 pages each of mini-biographies on the people/families who bought a Mercedes Benz from Mitropia Motors between 1936 and 1940. They were all obviously well off and a bit different.

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Guest Oldschoolgent

Thank you, everyone, for your input. I may end up emailing the few that offered up their extra copies, but for some reason college textbooks take a certain precedence. In either event, the titles were duly noted. This thread is a very good resource, and I have gone through the entire thing. Lots of great knowledge here among you all!

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This could be a topic for a different thread. When I have nothing to do anymore I'm going to write a book with 3 to 4 pages each of mini-biographies on the people/families who bought a Mercedes Benz from Mitropia Motors between 1936 and 1940. They were all obviously well off and a bit different.

I think that would be fascinating and would transcend the auto interest aspect. The people who bought the Supercharged Benzes, Cad V16s, custom bodies etc usually had some sort of story. Telling the story of the woman who owned my one off Bohman & Schwartz limo was one of the most fun things about owning the car. People who would buy cars that were as exotic as a Supercharged MB liked fine things and didn't mind that other people saw that, plus they had been successful somehow to pay the huge price.

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I believe Dennis Adler once said that the most interesting thing about these cars are their histories, and the human interest behind them - the mechanical specifications and the like are secondary (my interpretation not a direct qoute). But I think for most of us the attraction is a bit of both...

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Thank you, everyone, for your input. I may end up emailing the few that offered up their extra copies, but for some reason college textbooks take a certain precedence. In either event, the titles were duly noted. This thread is a very good resource, and I have gone through the entire thing. Lots of great knowledge here among you all!

I'm sending you a comp copy of the Antique Automobile, the official publication of the Antique Automobile Club of America. If you are a student (UW Stout?), you can join the club at a student rate of only $12 per year.

I graduated from Stout in 1984 with a BS in Industrial Engineering. I lived on the opposite end of campus from where you are, on the sw corner of 5th and Wilson (house gone now). Does the UW Stout car club still exist?

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Guest Oldschoolgent

Thank you for that, and I am joining the club this afternoon. A hell of a deal at 12 bucks, a year, for students. I am a student of UW-Stout--small world. I'm going for a business administration degree, and then will move onto grad school to pursue an MBA.

It's funny, because my friend lives on the corner of 5th and Wilson (opposite corner). Stout still does have a car club, and it does have a following. I think they have a DeSoto and a truck of some make, if I remember correctly.

-Alex

I'm sending you a comp copy of the Antique Automobile, the official publication of the Antique Automobile Club of America. If you are a student (UW Stout?), you can join the club at a student rate of only $12 per year.

I graduated from Stout in 1984 with a BS in Industrial Engineering. I lived on the opposite end of campus from where you are, on the sw corner of 5th and Wilson (house gone now). Does the UW Stout car club still exist?

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