Re: HELP WHICH MODEL PACKARD IS THIS?

Posted by 58L8134 On 2010/11/28 10:05:27

Hi REPOSSU

Fred Kanter has named it correctly, it's a cobbled together car on a '29 640 chassis. Examining the photos, one can see the radiator looks original but little else.

The wheels are smaller and later, perhaps '32-'34, the headlights look to be Willys-Knight. The fenderlamps are late '30's something. The hood has been lengthened, note the raised side panels on which the hood doors should be is missing. The front fenders have been lengthened and are a real hack job, compare the shape of those to pictures of restored 640's on here.

I doubt if that is a Packard factory body but haven't been able to identify what make it's from. It is definitely a chopped off coupe, note the crude shaping on the forward door sill that shows where that work was done. If you find welding on the body, which would be metal over an ash wood frame, that's a tell-tale this is a cobbled job.

While the chassis may be largely '29 Custom Eight 640, I'd be VERY careful to check out all the components to be sure what they are. I'd proceed extremely carefully and verify what it is before making any deal to buy it.

If this car was an export car originally, it's 'restoration' offshore was done with the objective reselling it for as much money as possible to an unknowledgeable collector. Do yourself a favorite, avoid being the next sucker.

If you can get clearer pictures, we'll all do our best to identify what exactly that poor Packard is.

Steve

Might be a good chassis to restore correctly then rebody to one of the lost period full custom body designs.