Re: If you are under sixty, how did you get interested in Packards?
Posted by Kevin AZ On 2013/4/30 20:03:18
There was a time honestly that I didn't know what a Packard was, but that all changed when I met and later married Micha. With my wife, came her father Mitch, and with Mitch, came all things Packard. Since then, I lived and breathed Packards each day to the present time. I love the marque, all its cars and of course its history, but my father- in- law was critically important to my Packard journey. As a youth with his brother Mike, they often found themselves sanding cars at the Packard agency in Tucson. Mitch and Mike's father Harry used to keep the boys busy when they veered off course! Mitch often laughed prior to passing away about how much he and his brother disliked Packards when they were young. But as they aged, each came back to their early foundations and embraced anything bearing the Packard emblem. Between Mitch and Mike they restored several Packards to include, a '41 Packard 160 coupe, a '42 Packard 160 convertible, and a Panama Clipper and Caribbean from 1955. Prior to Mitch's passing in 2004, he and I would spend hours talking about Packards, chasing down Packard leads and going to all kinds of car shows.
I first saw my 1955 Packard 400 on the internet in 1998. Mitch and I drove to Buckeye Arizona to see the car. Pictures in certain cases can hide a multitude of things, and this was certainly the case when we first viewed this Packard. The owner at that time had started a very limited cosmetic restoration and the closer you looked the more concerned Mitch became. We in fact almost lost control of the car the very first time we drove it on the roadway. The brake pedal went right to the floor as we attempted to slow before entering AZ Highway 85. It would have been helpful for me to scout out the location of the E-brake before I drove the car. The engine compartment was also found to be great disarray and someone had sacrilegiously brush painted the engine "Chevy red"! There was no Packard Ivory anywhere to be seen. I initially thought maybe someone had put a Clipper 320 engine into it. But after the road test and talking price on the car, I decided to pass and keep looking. The firm $6500 asking price was not acceptable given the condition of the car.
The following May in 1999, the owner telephoned me and asked if I was still interested in buying the car. I was indeed still interested, so Mitch and I drove back up to Buckeye. We looked at car again, and given that the owner substantially lowered his asking price, a bargain was struck and I put the car on the trailer that I had previously purchased expecting such a day to come. And with that, I brought the 400 to my mid-town Tucson home.
With the 400 now residing at my home, just under a carport, I quickly learned that restoring a car could be a challenging endeavor. Luckily, Micha and I were in the market for a new home, and in 2001 we purchased our present home in northeast Tucson. Here I have a fully enclosed separate garage just for the Packard. I also have a 6' deep mechanic's pit which can be both helpful and troublesome for different reasons, but that's a story for another time.
Mitch and I got serious about freshening up the 400 in late 2002. My initial idea was to continue with a limited restoration and only restore and fix things forward of the firewall. As the interior was decent and from 20' away because the single stage paint still looked good, I thought I had a good candidate for a decent driver. But as time went on, things didn't go that way for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, Mitch passed away in January 2004 from brain tumors. He waged his battle through most all of 2003 and by January 2004 he departed for home. And with his death, the Packard went into repose inside my shop. You see, Mitch was my teacher and I never had been mechanical to any great degree. There were times that I would tinker etc., but nothing substantially related to rebuilding took place. In retrospect however, I was on the Internet almost daily and making friends via the World Wide Web.
By 2005, I had encountered my own serious health challenge and the Packard lay patiently still tucked away in my garage. As I cleared my personal struggle, husband and wife had some serious conversations about many topics, one of which was about the 400. Micha realized that should something happen to me prematurely, she would simply have a 4250 lb. paper-weight on wheels inside the garage to contend with. We decided that the Packard should get restored and I began the project in earnest. That certainly doesn't mean that I completed this car on my own, because I have very many people to thank for their gracious and helpful assistance. Outside of Micha, who has always been my biggest cheerleader and supporter, I need to acknowledge Mr. Tom Higgins of Tucson, Mr. Craig Hendrickson of Pahrump Nevada, and Mr. Art Butler of Phoenix. Each of these men played very important roles in getting my Packard roadworthy.
As an aside, Duane's '53 Patrician above was actually the first Packard I ever purchased. I bought it with a '55 Patrician that later served as a parts donor for my 400.
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I first saw my 1955 Packard 400 on the internet in 1998. Mitch and I drove to Buckeye Arizona to see the car. Pictures in certain cases can hide a multitude of things, and this was certainly the case when we first viewed this Packard. The owner at that time had started a very limited cosmetic restoration and the closer you looked the more concerned Mitch became. We in fact almost lost control of the car the very first time we drove it on the roadway. The brake pedal went right to the floor as we attempted to slow before entering AZ Highway 85. It would have been helpful for me to scout out the location of the E-brake before I drove the car. The engine compartment was also found to be great disarray and someone had sacrilegiously brush painted the engine "Chevy red"! There was no Packard Ivory anywhere to be seen. I initially thought maybe someone had put a Clipper 320 engine into it. But after the road test and talking price on the car, I decided to pass and keep looking. The firm $6500 asking price was not acceptable given the condition of the car.
The following May in 1999, the owner telephoned me and asked if I was still interested in buying the car. I was indeed still interested, so Mitch and I drove back up to Buckeye. We looked at car again, and given that the owner substantially lowered his asking price, a bargain was struck and I put the car on the trailer that I had previously purchased expecting such a day to come. And with that, I brought the 400 to my mid-town Tucson home.
With the 400 now residing at my home, just under a carport, I quickly learned that restoring a car could be a challenging endeavor. Luckily, Micha and I were in the market for a new home, and in 2001 we purchased our present home in northeast Tucson. Here I have a fully enclosed separate garage just for the Packard. I also have a 6' deep mechanic's pit which can be both helpful and troublesome for different reasons, but that's a story for another time.
Mitch and I got serious about freshening up the 400 in late 2002. My initial idea was to continue with a limited restoration and only restore and fix things forward of the firewall. As the interior was decent and from 20' away because the single stage paint still looked good, I thought I had a good candidate for a decent driver. But as time went on, things didn't go that way for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, Mitch passed away in January 2004 from brain tumors. He waged his battle through most all of 2003 and by January 2004 he departed for home. And with his death, the Packard went into repose inside my shop. You see, Mitch was my teacher and I never had been mechanical to any great degree. There were times that I would tinker etc., but nothing substantially related to rebuilding took place. In retrospect however, I was on the Internet almost daily and making friends via the World Wide Web.
By 2005, I had encountered my own serious health challenge and the Packard lay patiently still tucked away in my garage. As I cleared my personal struggle, husband and wife had some serious conversations about many topics, one of which was about the 400. Micha realized that should something happen to me prematurely, she would simply have a 4250 lb. paper-weight on wheels inside the garage to contend with. We decided that the Packard should get restored and I began the project in earnest. That certainly doesn't mean that I completed this car on my own, because I have very many people to thank for their gracious and helpful assistance. Outside of Micha, who has always been my biggest cheerleader and supporter, I need to acknowledge Mr. Tom Higgins of Tucson, Mr. Craig Hendrickson of Pahrump Nevada, and Mr. Art Butler of Phoenix. Each of these men played very important roles in getting my Packard roadworthy.
As an aside, Duane's '53 Patrician above was actually the first Packard I ever purchased. I bought it with a '55 Patrician that later served as a parts donor for my 400.
Attach file:
(43.01 KB)
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