Re: Packard Request

Posted by BH On 2010/12/19 10:22:07

As The Request is one of my favorite show/concept cars of all-time and any brand, that sounds like and admirable undertaking.

It's certainly feasible in that the unique hood, grille and bumper simply bolted right up to a stock '55-400.

The first question is how closely you can duplicate those parts; then, at what cost.

There was a photogrammetry process I read about some years ago where you could take photos and turn them into 3D templates for panel/part fabrication. However, I believe you would need access to the actual Request to apply markers and get sufficient numbers of digital views.

Also, if you can find a copy, The Packard Cormorant magazine featured an excellent article on that car, shortly after it had been restored back in the mid-1970s, which you may find enlightening. It mentioned some interesting details like the plastic crest cast into the fiberglass hood, a section of 2x4 laminated into the hood panel as hinge reinforcement/tapping plate, etc.

However, you won't be the first person to attempt to build their own Request. Someone's incomplete work turned up for sale in Cars & Parts magazine a few years after the restored Request debuted. It wasn't so much a duplicate, an attempt to integrate a grille from a '37 or '38. I believe one of the Kanters owned this car at that time.