Re: postwar Coachbuilt Packards

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2008/11/11 18:15:01

Owen,

My interest is enhanced by the fact that, after retirement from the military, I worked for someone who was in the modern equivilent of the coachbuilding business. He was retired military as well but his brother had worked, for years, for Cotner-Bevington and, after his retirement they went into business building VIP cars, ambulances and speciality cars. He had several businesses and I worked in another but was fascinated by the process involved in building speciality vehicles, especially the VIP cars. They used GM chassis and, when I quit, were trying to figure out how to stiffen the, "new," front wheel drive GM product so that they could stretch them. One of the most memorable things that I learned in my visits to their workshop was how to bullet-proof a radiator.

I understand that, somewhere, there's a Derham Formal Sedan built from a 56th Series Patrician. That would be interesting to see if it exists as I have always admired the catalogued early fifties Derham Formal Sedans and thought that the 55th and 56th series cars would be readily adaptable and attractive in that style.

I have perused the coachbuilt.com website extensively and hunger for further knowledge, especially of those few enterprises that survived into the 1950s and early 1960s.