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Auction companies and cars in auctions... and frankly so-called "meticulous restorations" and "award winning restorations" are usually hyperbole. Often wildly so. Some might buy into this kind of talk as translation of value.

This is particularly true when people judging these things, selling these things and people restoring them have no idea what they are looking at. Some go by "guides" which themselves have errors and omissions.

Case in point.

Look at the first 1956 Caribbean here listed as a "meticulous restoration"...
• The anti-short cover for the regulator is completely missing and wiring to the regulator is rolled like spaghetti.
• Decals on the air cleaner pots are wrong type and wrong color.
• Decal on the oil canister is missing
• There are 2 pressed rings on the lower masts of the rear antennae. These are not Caribbean or V-8 Packard rear masts, but rather transplanted front fender masts. Original Caribbeans and other V-8 rear antenna masts only had 1 (one) pressed ring on the lower mast section.
• 1956 Caribbean convertible tops had a grain on the outside. This car appears to have a 1955 top installed.
• The statement that the interior cushions for this car are "reversible to tan cloth" is wildly off, since the factory reverse would have been a grayish boucle. Tan goes with pink? Not in the factory upholstery book, nor in any original 1956 Caribbean with factory interior.

And there are other issues with this Caribbean.

So. While this is a very pretty Caribbean, "meticulous restoration" and values associated with this terminology and other auction company claims are not always a gauge.

Furthermore, people buying these cars are rarely experts. Just people who want one and have the $ to buy.

Oh... and let's not forget... the auction claims "287 built" of 1956 Caribbean convertibles. Wow. Let's amend that to the real factory count of 276... please?

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I don't recall just from memory all of the exact years, but there was a Packard operation in downtown Windsor after the war. I have the address somewhere.

The operation was a kind of distributorship. It later moved out on Huron Line at what were then the outskirts of town. It was a red brick building with metal-framed Fenestra type windows.

I used to ride my bicycle past this place on my way to visit relatives near Amherstburg. This Packard operation was still assembling small numbers of K-D Packards in the 1950s. The Packard operation people there would let me stop and gawk at things since I believe they were fascinated by my American bicycle with fat whitewall tires, a lot of chrome and a spring front fork. Something hugely different from anything most Canadians ever saw. Especially back then.

I believe the building was still standing the last time I drove past a few years ago. But seems so much smaller and swallowed by the the area around it... which is completely unrecognizable now. That was a long time ago...

Now we showed you a bit about Packard Tires earlier in this thread. These were for bicycles and cars and we bet that Packard fans didn't know about them.

So here from our extensive collection of Western Auto catalogues (and we have hundreds) is an interesting cover featuring what else?

You got it. Packard tires again. Ask and we'll post the year.

Western Auto stores sold Peerless brand bicycles and later, famous Western Flyer bicycles.

While most tires for Western Flyer bicycles were Davis brand, yes, some Peerless and Western Flyer bicycles got Packard tires!

So. It was possible to have Packard tires on your Peerless or Western Flyer OR your Packard bicycle!

And while bicycle people online will swear to you that the 1980s Carlisle bicycle tires with Indian heads on them are somehow"prewar"you know this is absurd. That is... IF you know about Packard Tires and Pharis Rubber Company. Why? How?

Hmmmmm...

Oh... as often in this thread, original literature supplied from the files of National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com).

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This little motorized car is an Austin. These are well known and turn up from time to time. You can see the Austin winged "A" ornament on the hood.

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It is a lot less likely that your pump is "sucking air" from the tank than it is leaking or sucking air from the flex line at the fuel pump.

These rubber hoses dry rot/smog rot and can have dozens and dozens of tiny slit cracks in them when they age. Quite often these little slits are not revealed visually unless you remove the hose and bend it in good lighting. Then the slits become obvious.

Don't go after a mosquito with a sledge hammer. I have owned lots of V-8 Packards over many years. I learned long, long ago. Whenever you have a problem like this, first thing to inspect and replace is the flexible connection at the fuel pump— even if seems to look okay. If this doesn't correct the issue... then look to the tank.

Now to 1940. And for Schwinn fans worshipping down on their knees... we return to the almighty Schwinn-Built prewar Packard bicycles.

Frankly I have forgotten the location and name of the town where this shop was located.

However you can see that they were selling bicycles made by Arnold, Schwinn & Company (ASC). The comma is correct (the ad is wrong)... there was nobody named "Arnold Schwinn" but rather Mr. Arnold and Mr. Scwhinn went into business making bicycles. Thus "Arnold, Schwinn & Co." was the name of their business.

You can also see that this shop was selling both Packard-branded and La Salle branded bicycles that were both Schwinn-Built.

Of course car guys then and now will presume these names had automotive origins. But the bicycle industry purposely kept this a murky connection. For instance, "La Salle" in this case was a name actually used by the W-D of Chicago Cycle Supply Company (location obvious). If one had a Schwinn-Built bicycle with a "La Salle" name on it, this meant it came to the dealer via Chicago Cycle Supply Company– a large W-D that handled ASC products and others.

The name, LaSalle didn't come from the car, but from a downtown district and street. My grandparents who started an insurance company in Chicago used to stay at the huge, grand old LaSalle Hotel downtown Chicago... when downtown was nice. With Chicago Cycle Supply Company (AKA "ChiCyCo") in the downtown business district it was a natural to adopt LaSalle as one of the many bicycle brands offered. For car people, a whole new realm for the term, badge engineering.

ASC bicycles rarely, almost never said merely "Schwinn" on them until after WW2. But instead came with hundreds, perhaps thousands of names on them. This is why the company coined the term, "Schwinn-Built."

In those times in the USA, bicycle shops could choose from an assortment of existing names offered either by the manufacturer or by the wholesale-distributor that served them. Shops and retail stores could also make up their own headbadge design and name for an incredibly low price.

Contrary to popular and mythical belief of today, ASC neither started this method, nor was the only bicycle company using it. MOST American bicycle makers, wholesale-distributors (W-D) used the same process. Ditto for retailers and individual shops. This had zero to do with Schwinn– no matter who says otherwise.

The artwork in this advertisement was standard late 1930s/early 1940s ASC iconery. The boy with a fully decked-out Deluxe Autocycle on the left and the girl with her fully equipped ladies' model appeared in numerous ASC publications, brochures and even a full-sized color prewar poster (we had the huge color poster years ago, but it "disappeared" while being framed at a shop in central California).

By the way, the thick cross-bar attachment on the handlebars of the boy's bicycle was cast aluminum and carried a built-in, illuminated speedometer along with electric horn and headlight button controls (see my 1941 Schwinn Packard Deluxe Autocycle pictured earlier in this thread).

Image courtesy of Leon Dixon and National Bicycle History Archive of America (NBHAA.com).

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Something that no one has mentioned... but here's my turn.

Let us not forget that Packard and the great Earle C. Anthony played a good hand in pioneering AM radio. Mr. Anthony's KFI 640 AM still exists today. The station was a "clear channel" (in the original meaning, not a brand name). KFI always had a strong broadcast signal and on a clear night could be heard coast to coast and beyond.

KFI would issue reception certificate stamps to people who wrote in from remote locations. Mr. Anthony himself would check KFI's signal when he would sail his yacht to Hawaii and Tahiti. Of course he had radio sets in his vehicles and aboard his private train car.

As for radios in convertibles... I have always, always had convertibles and I have always had superior sound systems and radios in them. Always.

One of my 1956 Packard Caribbean convertibles had a rear-mounted speaker (and so did my other 1955 and 1956 Packards). All, of course with signal-seeking AM Wonderbar feature. My 1959 Continental Mark IV convertible had one of the earliest factory AM/FM radios. My 1963 Ford Galaxie XL convertible had optional AM/FM and an aftermarket accessory record player that played BOTH 45s and 33-1/3 LP albums. My 1964 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible had optional AM/FM with optional Vibrasonic speaker system. My 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado convertible had the first factory-installed AM/FM Stereo. My 1968 GTO convertible (ordered new from Vietnam) had AM/FM and 8-track tape player. My 1969 Continental Mark III has AM/FM stereo. My 1970 Challenger convertible had AM/FM Stereo. My 1971 Challenger convertible had AM/FM Stereo AND factory cassette player (mounted on the console). Loved it... loved them all.

My 1979 Continental Mark V had factory Quadraphonic tape (it wasn't convertible but had a huge moonroof which was often open). My 1986 Mazda RX-7 (again with sunroof) had wild AM/FM with equalizer and the earliest (some people wanna debate this) CD player. I got an RX-7 convertible later. And a Miata. And on and on.

My most fave audio systems are my 1991 Cadillac Allante with AM/FM CD and more. And my late model Lincoln MK-X. The Lincoln is amazing and probably wayyy overkill. I can actually stream from iTunes through the iPhone via Bluetooth. The MK-X has factory AM/FM, 6-CD changer, satellite radio, Bluetooth connection, and the almighty THX sound that will knock your socks off!

Remember that FM has a relatively short range and is best in urban areas. AM is dominated in recent years by Talk Radio stations, but I still listen to it on occasion.

Regarding AM on modern automobiles... they shield AM radio from random signals quite effectively.

Also satellite radio is indeed full of everything, including info stations. Far more than any one person could ever want or completely take in. I switch back & forth on my driving car's stations and formats. On my recent drive to America's Packard Museum (in Dayton, Ohio) annual "Spring-Fling" I listened to AM, FM, CDs and a number of satellite radio broadcasts ranging from stand-up comedy to smooth jazz to disco to Motown and Sinatra and classic vintage radio broadcasts. So... for what it's worth. I still use AM and will certainly mourn its passing, if indeed such a thing takes place.

Remember... Ford Motor Company has announced numerous systems over the years (ever heard of ill-fated Wingcast?), features, and even automobile lines (remember Edsel?). So the future is not always certain. Especially when it is so drastic.

By the way... Packard Panther-Daytonas pioneered radio antenna built into the decklid. Why and what was the advantage? Hidden antenna aesthetics and big isolation of antenna from static generated by engine electricals...

Image below is photographed at an amazing Texas Interstate rest stop along what was once the old Route-66. As incredible as this may seem.

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Hello...

Thanks. "Unmolested" in my parlance generally refers to unchanged from original.

The Patrician in this case, while a nice-looking example has indeed been modified and does indeed have several things changed. So considering the price as well...

• the interior has been re-done somewhere along the way. The front seat does not appear to be original. The dash top is certainly not original with a very different vinyl cover in linoleum pattern. The factory A/C vents have had all of the paint removed from them and are shown in bare bakelite (they were never this way from the factory).

* the anti-short tray for the pushbuttons appears to be mounted differently and re-painted body color (they never were).

• The engine sides of the fender splash wells have been re-painted black for some reason (they were always body color from the factory).

• The vehicle exterior has been re-painted and body color was also sprayed over the door lock srtrikers in the door jambs.

• Decals in the engine compartment have been changed to wrong type and the factory air conditioning decal appears to be missing.

• Radio has been changed to modern AM/FM.

And there are other things I notice. Certainly most of the modifications can be returned to original.... but then this is another set of restorations. So. I just don't want to get into a car where I have to figure out somebody's modifications and then how to un-do them... and then comes the work and time of putting things back to original.

I've owned plenty of old cars in my life, and I realize all old cars wiil always need some kind of work. But I'm just not looking for un-customizing a modified car just to get it back to where it was in the first place...

Thanks anyway.

And now... let's continue our steps back in time. On this occasion to the 'teens.

I'm going to show you a Bean Son Company 1917 distributor billhead that I may have posted previously in this thread. But then I am going to show you a page from that company's catalogue of around the same time. It shows a Packard bicycle that Bean Son marketed.

This same bicycle was also marketed under the "Excelsior" brand (which seems to get the motorcycle folks all tingling). But this all leads to a very confused, mis-understood and very convoluted "history" of Excelsior bicycles. Folks think these bicycles have some relationship to Excelsior motorcycles (they usually don't) and to Schwinn (again...they really don't).

Recently there has been a bicycle just like this one being shown online... only it says, "Excelsior" on the headbadge... long story. But for your pleasure...

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Over the many years I have owned and worked on my V-8 Packards, I have encountered many similar instances. Most of the time people treat the 1956 aluminum transmission as if it is a 1955 transmission case. Result is sometimes the aluminum threads strip out.

I had a friend who once did this swearing he used torque specs right out of the "Packard Shop Manual." But that manual turned out to be 1955 with no 1956 info included. In the end, every joining bolt around the bell housing going into the main body was stripped to the point of useless.

Get yourself some Heli-coil repair kits, use 1956 torque specs and you should be back on the road.