Re: Hello! Newbie Questions from potential Packard owner

Posted by 1929PackardGuy On 2022/6/1 15:03:57

Hello from another Louisiana native! I work in Baton Rouge, live in Denham Springs, I have a '29 633 Club Sedan I bought in August of 2021. Having said that, I'm 58 now and spent three years as a teenager restoring big classics for the late Bob Crump here in Baton Rouge, he had 72 cars, L29 Cords, Packards, Pierce-Arrows, Auburns, Cadillacs, you name it. So, my '29 is my late middle age crisis coming back after playing with muscle cars for the last thirty years.

Several things to address. There are NO clubs left down here that will help you at all - NONE. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, we had a healthy AACA and Model A club and there were statewide events. The AACA still exists here on paper, but they have virtually no members and hardly any events - and an old car for them now is a '65 Mustang. There are VERY few prewar STOCK cars in Louisiana now - the vast majority are street rods.

I am relearning a lot of what I forgot, my car is a 20 year old restoration that's now a good driver and respectible looking, it has a nice history, and it was a running and driving car when purchased. I drive it as much as I can, but here's what I can tell you about being where we are.

There are NO Packard "experts" anywhere near us. There are only a handful of us in Louisiana that have prewar Packards. NOBODY will work on the car for you, you'd better know how to do things yourself and know somebody who has a well-equipped shop or have a well-equipped shop of your own. Here in Baton Rouge, I couldn't get ANY shop, to even mount tires on my car, I had to do it myself in my carport because they were all scared to death of the snap-ring wire wheels - not even heavy equipment or truck places would do it. I am still trying to get someone to redo some of the paint work on my car - after almost a year of searching, I can't find anyone that will touch it, at any price, locally. The repainting that has been done was done by myself and a friend at his shop. You'd better know how to do all the mechanical work yourself as well, and all the electrical work - again, NOBODY, NOT ONE SINGLE AUTO REPAIR SHOP, would even consider helping me with my car, even on trivial matters such as adjusting valves or working on an on-going problem with the rear springs. From carb adjusting to timing to valve adjustments to rebuilding the horn, had to do all that by my lonesome with advice from people here, my memories from forty years ago, and help from the Packard Facebook group. Down here, you are on your own. Since I bought my car last August, I've met one other prewar Packard owner in this state, he has a '36 120 sedan, and I've been to half a dozen little parking lot shows and I've seen maybe three restored original Model A Fords - all other prewar cars I've seen have been street rods.

Other major issue you'll have down here - HEAT! You already know it, it's very hot down here and these cars do NOT like the humidity and heat we have - thus, driving season is from September to early May if we're fortunate. During the summer, you will be limited to very short trips only - the car will overheat and you will suffocate in it. Even back in the eighties that was a major problem for us - when it's 95 degrees outside with 70% humidity, there's not much you can do to keep the car cool and you really don't want to be out there in it. So, summertime is when you do all the heavier maintenance.

I'm not trying to sound like a doomsayer, but if you do not have a good mechanical knowledge of old cars, any prewar Packard is not going to be a good idea, not even a later 120. As others have said, if you want to learn stock prewar cars, start with something more simple - get a Model A, or a '34 Ford, where you can at least pick up a catalog and order parts and the data on the web is virtually endless on those things.

I love my Packard, I intend to have it a long time, but I wouldn't have jumped blindly into it if I hadn't messed with them for years when I was a teenager. They are magnificent cars, but, parts for the older ones are extremely difficult to find, they are expensive to maintain, and in our neck of the woods, their useage is very limited by our climate.

If you can learn quickly, you have the disposable income, and you go into this knowing you're only going to be able to drive it for five or six months out of the year, then welcome aboard. If you've never had a stone stock 80 or 90 year old car before, I would strongly advise you to start off with something a lot more common, learn the basics, and wait a few years.

Would love to have more Packard friends down here, but, just go into this knowing we are cut off from the world down here. With you being closer to Houston, that might be a help, but outside of Houston, you'll not find much help, you'll not find local clubs that will help, and you'll find very few events you can attend without hauling your car there on a trailer and traveling a good distance.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but, after having been out of the prewar car realm for decades, getting my '29 last summer has been a major eye opener for me. We had hundreds of stock prewar cars down here in the early 1980s and very active clubs. Now, virtually nothing is left, and I do mean nothing!

Message me if you like, I'll be glad to help anyway I can, that black '34 is a beauty.