1928 Custom-Bodied 7-Passenger Phaeton
Posted by RogerDetroit On 2015/12/16 10:17:43
BDC posted this on the Various CL Pickings thread, but I think it deserves its own thread for discussion. The car is currently posted on eBay for sale.http://www.ebay.com/itm/141848010721 I have attached a few photos for your review and comment.
While not custom-bodied by a "known" builder I think this has an interesting back story nonetheless.
"This 1928 Packard Touring 7 Passenger(by name) was customized by engineer and custom boat builder George Sprankle. This Packard is registered as a 1928 Packard Sprankle Phaeton in the registry. This build took almost a decade to complete the body transformation."
"There is a letter from the builder's son to the late owner stating that he remembers holding the drop light in the garage for hours at a time while his father filed, soldered and shaped the body as to what it is today. The builder's son only remembers driving in it a few times as he went to serve our country in WWII. George Sprankle had made this car into his own vision of how the car should really look. He believed that a more classier and sleeker look was deserved from its original standard body."
"There is some mystery about the body of the vehicle. In all the notes and phone transcripts I have it is unclear if it was the original body reshaped or if it was a 1922 body that was also custom fitted and shaped."
One photo from back in the day shows late 1930s headlamp buckets and what appears to be a Lincoln mascot on the radiator.
I also noticed a brass tag nearly identical to the one on my 1941 Packard that was also originally registered in Pennsylvania. Seems that PA issued new cars a serial number comprised as one alpha, plus 5 numeric characters - in this case S30607. When I was looking to buy my car back in 1998 the former owner kept on giving me this PA serial number instead of the Packard dataplate number. Thinking I was looking at car that was a model 120 "cloned" into a model 160 I nearly backed out of the deal. After some additional conversation and a photo of the original dataplate I was able to confirm it was a true 160. Then began the fun of explain to the Michigan DMV why the Packard number should be used for my new title instead of the old PA serial number. I won, but I did leave the PA number tag in place.
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While not custom-bodied by a "known" builder I think this has an interesting back story nonetheless.
"This 1928 Packard Touring 7 Passenger(by name) was customized by engineer and custom boat builder George Sprankle. This Packard is registered as a 1928 Packard Sprankle Phaeton in the registry. This build took almost a decade to complete the body transformation."
"There is a letter from the builder's son to the late owner stating that he remembers holding the drop light in the garage for hours at a time while his father filed, soldered and shaped the body as to what it is today. The builder's son only remembers driving in it a few times as he went to serve our country in WWII. George Sprankle had made this car into his own vision of how the car should really look. He believed that a more classier and sleeker look was deserved from its original standard body."
"There is some mystery about the body of the vehicle. In all the notes and phone transcripts I have it is unclear if it was the original body reshaped or if it was a 1922 body that was also custom fitted and shaped."
One photo from back in the day shows late 1930s headlamp buckets and what appears to be a Lincoln mascot on the radiator.
I also noticed a brass tag nearly identical to the one on my 1941 Packard that was also originally registered in Pennsylvania. Seems that PA issued new cars a serial number comprised as one alpha, plus 5 numeric characters - in this case S30607. When I was looking to buy my car back in 1998 the former owner kept on giving me this PA serial number instead of the Packard dataplate number. Thinking I was looking at car that was a model 120 "cloned" into a model 160 I nearly backed out of the deal. After some additional conversation and a photo of the original dataplate I was able to confirm it was a true 160. Then began the fun of explain to the Michigan DMV why the Packard number should be used for my new title instead of the old PA serial number. I won, but I did leave the PA number tag in place.
Attach file:
(129.62 KB)
(74.36 KB)
(111.60 KB)
(101.66 KB)
(73.26 KB)
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