Re: Great discovery for all 1941-1950 Packard owners

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/1/25 13:55:03

Hi Dan: I've not been very lucky about finding that slip at the gas tank vent; much more often but still not enough to satisfy is finding the build slip glued to the top of the glove box. And on a very few 51/54 cars we've found the build slip behind the rear seat cushion.

Some interesting things happened with the VN numbers in the 1948-50 run. Of course we know that over the 3 years there really were 4 distinct cars, a true 1948, a 1949 22nd series, a 1949 23rd series, and a 1950 23rd series. In order to avoid the inevitable discount for selling a "left over" when the new cars were identical, Packard dealers were able to send the VN tags back to Packard which issued new ones with the -9- or -5- inserted between the 4-digit body type number and the production sequence to make a left over 48 a 22nd series 49, and to make a left over 49 23rd series a 1950. Apparently on occasion the dealers got the plates reinstalled on the wrong vehicles, I have a friend with an Packard where the VN on the patent plate is about 40,000 numbers away front he vehicle number on the build slip.