Re: Packard Request Dreamcar Article

Posted by Leeedy On 2012/3/21 18:44:50

Yes, The Request cathedral tail lights are certainly different from production Packard units-or at least where when the car was built.

In fact, it was the hand-making of these lights that determined the actual placement of the production tail light's internally-mounted reflector which was based on an existing (at that time) bicycle reflector...Stimsonite #15 and #16. This reflector was turned sideways and electro-tacked inside the red plastic production lens (take a good look next time you see one loose). The fresneling in the red plastic Packard lens was relieved in the area where the Stimsonite reflector was mounted. Of course, this has nothing to do with the other reflector which was the hex-shaped unit mounted on the exterior casting of the 1956 models. Another story.

Anyway, I know The Request very, very well...ever since the car was new. I had friends who actually worked at Creative building this car. I used to see it up close and personal ever since it was built. So this stuff I am very certain about.

And as I said earlier, I also knew the gentlemen who did the first restoration on the car in Washington. I even helped them with some parts for the car when it was first being re-done. This was in the 1970s and I certainly have photos of me sitting in the car and standing with it taken back then.

I used to get into dispute sessions back in the 1960s and early 1970s with writers and books and others all of whom swore this car was destroyed by Packard. No idea where they got this idea, But I saw it at the LaSalle Hotel in the 1960s in Chicago. That fact alone made it impossible that Packard had it destroyed. The company itself was already long gone by the time I saw the car in Chicago. So PMCC destroying The Request would have been a neat trick-requiring a time machine. But it took several years until the car turned up in the Pacific Northwest before anyone would believe me.

Anyway, The Request is in good hands now and looked great the last when I saw it a few months ago.