Re: Salado 2009

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2009/3/30 13:32:30

Profuse thanks to all who posted pictures of those lovely Packards. I sincerely hope that after viewing them, we can get a few more converts to "true restoration" and/or preservation of correct authentic original details.

Some will say that correct-to-original details doesn't result in a car that's driveable, but I saw a very impressive collection over the weekend, and will post some pictures if you want them. Four of the cars are over 100 years old and are driven (granted, with some considerable limits). One, a 1914 Model 48 (the mid-size) Pierce Arrow, has been driven from Portland ME to Portland OR, from Galveston to Bar Harbor, from Williamsburg VA to Vancouver, Canada, and circumnavigated Ireland. The oldest car was a 1898 Panhard, then a 1901 Packard Model C (the 6th oldest Packard survivor) which completed the London-Brighton run (about 60 miles). Considering an engine with an "open" crankcase this was quite a feat. (This Packard is well-traveled, there are pictures of it on this site, it's been to Warren in 1999, to Pebble, on the cover of AACA, etc. I took a close-up of the automatic spark advance mechanism, the cover page of the patent for which is also on this website somewhere).

Also included in the collection was a 1903 2-cylinder Arrow (made by the George N. Pierce Co. before the company changed its name to Pierce Arrow), engine by DeDion-Bouton and the 2nd or 3rd oldest Pierce Arrow in existence. Also a 1907 Pierce Arrow.

Certainly the restoration of these cars is well-beyond the means of almost all but the very fortunate; the 1901 Packard still had it's original body, but for the Pierces which had cast aluminum bodies, patterns had to be made and body panels cast and finished. And the number of small parts that had to be made from scratch certainly numbered in the hundreds, maybe thousands. Brings a new perspective to the word "restoration", doesn't it?