Rollson bodied Packard with factory air

[1937hd45]

What can you tell us about this car? The owner just bought an unrestored twin to it. Featured on the HAMB, I know some think  they will be struck dead reading the HAMB but I thought it was interesting. Bob 

Edited March 4, 2020 by 1937hd45 (see edit history)

[bryankazmer]

I believe there was a feature article on it in the Cormorant a while back

[alsancle]

I remember distinctly when it was discovered in Puerto Rico back in the late 70s and my dad's buddies were off the island that week so somebody else grabbed it.   Tom Laferriere  sold it again 10 years ago.

 

Not a fan of the new color.  Saw it at Pebble a couple of years ago.

[bryankazmer]

Spring 1989 Cormorant vol 54.  What is the "new" color, the car is the same silver blue in that article as the photo above?

[1937hd45]

Limited production? Good HAMB find? 😀 

 

Bob

[58L-Y8]

A quick search found it: 1940 Packard 160 SunAire sport sedan fastback by Rollson.  It is one of two full-customs by Rollson, one this fastback, the other the knotchback style pictured in The Olympian Cars by Richard Burns Carson, Section Edition, page186.  Its in serious need but a choice find.

Edited March 4, 2020 by 58L-Y8 (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

Funny thing, there were closed minded people on the HAMB that complained that the car was featured there, just like some people here that complain that the HAMB exists. 

 

Bob 

[John_Mereness]

38 minutes ago, 58L-Y8 said:

A quick search found it: 1940 Packard 160 SunAire sport sedan fastback by Rollson.  It is one of two full-customs by Rollson, one this fastback, the other the knotchback style pictured in The Olympian Cars by Richard Burns Carson, Section Edition, page186.  Its in serious need but a choice find.

 

Now, this is a cool Packard !!!

[58L-Y8]

Quick, some one call Ralph Marano immediately!  This Packard belongs in his collection!

[1937hd45]

16 minutes ago, 58L-Y8 said:

Quick, some one call Ralph Marano immediately!  This Packard belongs in his collection!

 

 

I suspect he was the "Collector in New Jersey" that was mentioned in the HAMB feature. Bob 

[1937hd45]

I like Google searches a lot. Bob 

[alsancle]

I've often wondered how Rollston went from barely ever making an unattractive body to Rollson barely ever making an attractive one.

[flackmaster]

Unlikely NJ/RM.  The owner of the Sport Sedan knew full well, as did others for years, where this beast was resting.  I researched this for Jim Hollingsworth several years ago, the owner was fully aware of what he had and its history.  Yes, it deserves to be dipped in a deep bucket of money.

[John_Mereness]

47 minutes ago, alsancle said:

I've often wondered how Rollston went from barely ever making an unattractive body to Rollson barely ever making an attractive one.

I would say super cool car, but probably better looking when you are standing next to it than it looks in this photo

t

 

[John_Mereness]

The crumpled up roof in the body storage picture is not an very appealing feature either. 

[alsancle]

The best part of the HAMB thread is the two nit wits that want to shut the thread down because it isn't a traditional hot rod.    I still haven't really gone back there in the last 7 or 8 years since they shut the Cord thread down after I posted a bunch of unpublished 1950s era custom Cord pictures.   I'm still annoyed by that and I wish I had sat on the pictures.

Edited March 4, 2020 by alsancle (see edit history)

[alsancle]

1 minute ago, John_Mereness said:

The crumpled up roof in the body storage picture is not an very appealing feature either. 

 

Interesting car,  but I would like to compare and contrast with the Lancia.    This one might actually need even MORE money poured in to it.   Would like to get Ed's opinion on its Pebble worthiness.

[1937hd45]

 

 

Bob 

31 minutes ago, alsancle said:

The best part of the HAMB thread is the two nit wits that want to shut the thread down because it isn't a traditional hot rod.    I still haven't really gone back there in the last 7 or 8 years since they shut the Cord thread down after I posted a bunch of unpublished 1950s era custom Cord pictures.   I'm still annoyed by that and I wish I had sat on the pictures.

 

 

I miss your posts there, thanks for explaining the reason for your absence, really  thin line of what is acceptable and not at times. Bob 

[58L-Y8]

55 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:

I would say super cool car, but probably better looking when you are standing next to it than it looks in this photo

t

 

The 3-box sport sedan version shown in The Olympian Cars is the more attractive of the two, the difference is the rear roof quarters and separate trunk treatment.

[alsancle]

21 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

 

 

Bob 

 

 

I miss your posts there, thanks for explaining the reason for your absence, really  thin line of what is acceptable and not at times. Bob 

 

Bob,  here is the thread:

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/post-cord-street-rod-pictures-here.523380/

 

I still don't understand what was wrong with the thread.   I'll occasionally post something  but I'm mostly done.   I don't think I will update my Schumacher thread.

[alsancle]

4 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

What can you tell us about this car? The owner just bought an unrestored twin to it. Featured on the HAMB, I know some think  they will be struck dead reading the HAMB but I thought it was interesting. Bob 

 

Bob,  this is the car that was discovered 30 years ago in Pueto Rico.   Very different than the subject car of the thread  (lower greenhouse, sucide doors, etc).    Tom sold it again 10 years ago.   Looks very similar to the Darrin sedans.   It was at Pebble one of those years you were there too.

[1937hd45]

Just now, alsancle said:

 

Bob,  

 

I still don't understand what was wrong with the thread.   I'll occasionally post something  but I'm mostly done.   I don't think I will update my Schumacher thread.

Is a 1911 Hupmobile swap something you'd consider? Bob

[alsancle]

3 minutes ago, 1937hd45 said:

Is a 1911 Hupmobile swap something you'd consider? Bob

 

I will finish the car,  just not the restoration thread over on the HAMB.    I feel like the forum is a two way street.   You get plenty of help and information,  but you also contribute.   When that thread was shut down for no reason (in my mind) I felt like my days of wanting to contribute were done.   I'll hang on the AACA forum,  which is probably a better fit for me for everything I like with the exception of a period Willys gasser.

[edinmass]

3 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

Quick, some one call Ralph Marano immediately!  This Packard belongs in his collection!

Ralph is sitting here next to me at the bar at Amelia Island as I type this........if he wanted it, he would already own it. 

[Matt Harwood]

1 hour ago, alsancle said:

The best part of the HAMB thread is the two nit wits that want to shut the thread down because it isn't a traditional hot rod.    I still haven't really gone back there in the last 7 or 8 years since they shut the Cord thread down after I posted a bunch of unpublished 1950s era custom Cord pictures.   I'm still annoyed by that and I wish I had sat on the pictures.

 

That's amusing--not that you were deleted, but that they have an arbitrary standard. It's easy to spot stock vs. not stock. But how the hell do you enforce "not customized enough" on the HAMB? Sounds like Stalin killing the first guy to stop laughing at one of his jokes.

[alsancle]

1 minute ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

That's amusing--not that you were deleted, but that they have an arbitrary standard. It's easy to spot stock vs. not stock. But how the hell do you enforce "not customized enough" on the HAMB? Sounds like Stalin killing the first guy to stop laughing at one of his jokes.

 

As best as I could figure out,  somebody posted some pictures of "resto rod" like Cords in the thread,  which sends those guys in to apoplectic shock.   You need to be able to distinguish between "traditional",  "resto rod",  "rat rod",  and "original". 

[1937hd45]

Just now, alsancle said:

 

As best as I could figure out,  somebody posted some pictures of "resto rod" like Cords in the thread,  which sends those guys in to apoplectic shock.   You need to be able to distinguish between "traditional",  "resto rod",  "rat rod",  and "original". 

 

 

I'm sure it was something someone else posted that ended the tread, BS and DRAMA are the quick kill of more that a few good threads. Bob 

[58L-Y8]

1 hour ago, Matt Harwood said:

Sounds like Stalin killing the first guy to stop laughing at one of his jokes.

Matt,  Life in the company of a madman dictator is a touchy and dangerous proposition...

[C Carl]

2 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

Matt,  Life in the company of a madman dictator is a touchy and dangerous proposition...

 

I'm standing here to tell you !!!! But what about that great car collector over there in Iraq ? The late Saddam. Almost seems like to me that those folk were better off...........................  My tire guy, Mohammed, hails from B'dad, great guy, and I am learning interesting things first hand from him.  How lucky we citizens of the U.S.A. are. Free, and as Frank Zappa said : "It can't happen here,..........................it can't happen here,........................it can't happen here.".              Maybe that Crown Virus has something to teach us. I am trying to sell my house in King County, Washington, the dead epicenter of the pandemic here in the United States of America. King County Health had a press briefing today. All people over 60 are supposed to stay home and not go out. I am 75, and am at the clinic trying to load up on meds. I drove my '76 Eldo convertible, but I really don't want to go out and about any more than absolutely necessary. We have a misused law in the city of Seattle which says you MUST drive any car parked on city streets every 3 days. They can (and have done to me and others), just come without warning at all, and impound any car. It is a huge revenue generating source for the city. You ought to hang out at the impound lot and listen to the girls who went on a long weekend skiing trip, and came home having to pay hundreds of dollars to get their cars back.  It can't happen here. It can't happen here. It can't happen here.    -    Carl

 

P.S. It used to be that you had to drive your car every day !!!!!!!!!!!! 

[John_Mereness]

22 hours ago, alsancle said:

The best part of the HAMB thread is the two nit wits that want to shut the thread down because it isn't a traditional hot rod.    I still haven't really gone back there in the last 7 or 8 years since they shut the Cord thread down after I posted a bunch of unpublished 1950s era custom Cord pictures.   I'm still annoyed by that and I wish I had sat on the pictures.

I had the same problem with the site via the 1939 LaSalle Bohman & Schwartz car via trying to find additional original and "on street new" photos - "nit wits" in not realizing that custom/coachwork built cars originated "hot rods."   As a sidenote:  Auburn's and Cord's are the original production built "hot rods", as well as V-8 Fords and a few other things.

[Walt G]

I have studied custom coachwork for a few years , have been around long enough to talk in person with some of the coach builders, either in person or by had written letter - pre internet days ( ya know when you wrote with a fountain pen that had a nib that you had to fill with ink , or typed on a cast iron manual typewriter made by Underwood) . Now we also have a whole new vocabulary " restorod, restomod, rat rod etc. To much new 'creative' phrases  to have to add to ones mind and lexicon. Hey how about resto-rat or salvage yard survivor?  🤪  All of you who read what I post, know me , or read what stories I write are thinking ' yep, proves again that Walt is a dinosaur' Well , I have a PHD ( self proclaimed of course) in Archaic motor vehicles.

[FLYER15015]

16 hours ago, C Carl said:

 

I'm standing here to tell you !!!! But what about that great car collector over there in Iraq ? The late Saddam. Almost seems like to me that those folk were better off...........................  My tire guy, Mohammed, hails from B'dad, great guy, and I am learning interesting things first hand from him.  How lucky we citizens of the U.S.A. are. Free, and as Frank Zappa said : "It can't happen here,..........................it can't happen here,........................it can't happen here.".              Maybe that Crown Virus has something to teach us. I am trying to sell my house in King County, Washington, the dead epicenter of the pandemic here in the United States of America. King County Health had a press briefing today. All people over 60 are supposed to stay home and not go out. I am 75, and am at the clinic trying to load up on meds. I drove my '76 Eldo convertible, but I really don't want to go out and about any more than absolutely necessary. We have a misused law in the city of Seattle which says you MUST drive any car parked on city streets every 3 days. They can (and have done to me and others), just come without warning at all, and impound any car. It is a huge revenue generating source for the city. You ought to hang out at the impound lot and listen to the girls who went on a long weekend skiing trip, and came home having to pay hundreds of dollars to get their cars back.  It can't happen here. It can't happen here. It can't happen here.    -    Carl

 

P.S. It used to be that you had to drive your car every day !!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

WOW!!!

And I thought California was the land of fruits and nuts.

I know where I'm not going for vacation this summer...........

 

Back to the Packard. The rear end treatment kind of reminds me of a rabbit, ready to jump.

No offence to the ACDP club members.

 

Mike in Colorado

Edited March 5, 2020 by FLYER15015 (see edit history)

[FLYER15015]

1 hour ago, Walt G said:

I have studied custom coachwork for a few years , have been around long enough to talk in person with some of the coach builders, either in person or by had written letter - pre internet days ( ya know when you wrote with a fountain pen that had a nib that you had to fill with ink , or typed on a cast iron manual typewriter made by Underwood) . Now we also have a whole new vocabulary " restorod, restomod, rat rod etc. To much new 'creative' phrases  to have to add to ones mind and lexicon. Hey how about resto-rat or salvage yard survivor?  🤪  All of you who read what I post, know me , or read what stories I write are thinking ' yep, proves again that Walt is a dinosaur' Well , I have a PHD ( self proclaimed of course) in Archaic motor vehicles.

 

You are right Walt.

And when they have a PRECRUSHED and POSTCRUSHED class @ Pebble, I'll go

 

Mike in Colorado

[8E45E]

23 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

That's amusing--not that you were deleted, but that they have an arbitrary standard. It's easy to spot stock vs. not stock. But how the hell do you enforce "not customized enough" on the HAMB? Sounds like Stalin killing the first guy to stop laughing at one of his jokes.

Stalin LIKED Packards!!

 

After all, he built his own lookalikes under the name of 'ZIS'.  (Guess what the 'S' stood for until it became ZIL in 1953??)

 

Craig

[C Carl]

3 hours ago, FLYER15015 said:

 

WOW!!!

And I thought California was the land of fruits and nuts.

I know where I'm not going for vacation this summer...........

 

Mike in Colorado

 

Seattle actually has a real live commonist lady on the City Council. Seattle has a weak mayor - strong council type of government, so we had hoped to get rid of her the last election. Didn't happen. Talk about fruits and nuts. Used to be, decades ago, we had a true public servant on the council. Great man's name was Sam Smith. If you had a problem, it was Sam to the rescue. No one remotely like him any more. Used to have an ex-Seattle Police officer head up parking enforcement. Very understanding. He knew that the "drive it or lose it" law was originally designed to dispose of abandoned vehicles. His name was William Edwards, and he would get the meter maids of my tail feathers. The worst meter maid of all time was an English guy named Eaton. This SOB tried to have my 45' Great Dane impounded which we were loading things to be taken over the mountains to "the ranch". I told him the load was heavy and not yet secured. This half bastard file, (oh ain't "Cadillac" clever in concealing mild obscenity in the middle of a perfectly socially acceptable name for a tool !!), claimed I would be liable if the load abruptly shifted during towing and caused an accident from momentary instability. Well, I wasn't going to take that crap. See, I was breaking the law. You can't park and load/unload a trailer unless even more space is taken up by hooking up to a tractor. Now, this really isn't enforced very often, in fact cartage companies usually put their rolling stock to maximum efficiency usage, and haul elsewhere while loading or unloading the parked trailer. Only a real sphincter, like Eaton, would interfere. So I blocked access to the trailer, put my guys on guard duty, and went to get help. Hansen Transfer and Storage is near me, and for a paltry sum, tractored up my trailer for the necessary duration.

 

Back in the "must drive every day" period, my '71 Eldo droptop was impounded. I "self helped" it back into my possession. Even now, about 40 years later, I still shudder to think of how stupid, daring, dangerous, but successful the caper was. Even snagged a spare wheel for it which I spied on my way out. I don't feel comfortable putting the details of how I liberated my Cad in permanent print. Ask me about it when we meet. It was definitely bold. I did use a dog belonging to a friend of mine. This tough outlaw biker gang friend was very lucky to have survived his military missions. He had a pit bull named Archie. My friend is an ex helicopter door gunner with service in Viet-Nam, and more recently applying his skills to do a little "Head" hunting in that deal over in Iraq. I am trying to hint at how I pulled off the rescue of my car without exposing myself as someone who ought to be a resident of the "Looney Bin". Let's just leave it like this for now : The towing and impound outfit had never seen anything like it. They pretty much froze in place and let me do what I told them I was going to do. Extreme potential for violence. These days, no one could get away with what I did so long ago in my crazy wild youth. (you would not have felt comfortable having your sister running around with me before I mended my ways shortly after this incident). Quite likely could result in the death of anyone who tried that technique now in the 21st century. And you couldn't do it anyway with the fences and gates they have on the impound lot now.

 

Please do not, anyone, allow these modern day hoss thieves acting under the impunity of the hood and cloak of parking enforcement, discourage you from visiting Western Washington during the Summer here. You can pretty much count on the second half of July through the first half of August, to have the most comfortable weather in the world at that time. I think Mark Twain said something to the effect that the worst Winter he ever spent was a Summer on Puget Sound. That was then. Global Warming has given us some relief from that. But, that relief just doesn't last very long. And it can be compromised by considerable smoke, as parts of Northwestern US, and Western Canada burn as a result of the blessings of said Warming. Not yet as bad as what Australia is suffering, so "y'all come" if the fires are not too bad. This last Summer was pretty much smoke-free. If you have the time, with your interest in history and antique machinery, go see Grand Coulee Dam out in Washington's desert, and check out the museum and visitors center there.    -   Carl 

[FLYER15015]

C Carl,

Only time I've been to Washington was in '62, for tank gunnery qualification at the Yakama range, prior to my deployment to Cambodia.

Lord what a hell hole...

Anyway, there was a bar downtown with the best peddle steel guitar player I ever heard, or maybe it was the black label and Olympia talking.

Anyway he was good.

 

Mike in Colorado