Re: Thief-proof (body dash) numbers

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2013/2/1 13:37:32

HH56 asked: Has anyone ever conclusively said how or when the numbers were created.

I guess you're referring to the thief-proof numbers? Lot's of conjecture and speculation, no substantiated facts. When I first asked some knowledgeable Packard folk about the thief-proof numbers perhaps 10 years ago I found they had never been an area of any serious focused study previously, and that's what made them so interesting to me.

There is no reason to conclude that the numbers were assigned and embossed in the same manner over all the years of production, though it might be so. We do know from some factory photos that in some both prewar and postwar years the numbers were present before the body shell was painted - no small surprise there but more to the point it would be nice to know if they embossed before the bodies were assembled from manufactured subassemblies. We also know reasonably conclusively that blocks of numbers were reserved for certain specific vehicles in some years. In my data collection I have several instances of consecutive vehicle numbers of the same body style with considerable difference in the thief-proof numbers, but of course we don't know that those two vehicles followed each other down the production line. I also have several instances of consecutive thief-proof numbers but no apparent correlation to vehicle numbers.