Re: The ZIS 110

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/1/24 23:34:18

I suggest that it's only speculation what Packard did with the body dies but they were of little value to them other than as scrap metal as the styling was dated even for 1941. I don't believe we even know if Briggs ever returned them to Packard when production ceased, most likely they went into the WW II scrap drives. If the Russians did obtain them, you'd think they would have used them but little if anything on the nose clip of the ZIS 110 appears to be directly produced from the Packard dies, though I suppose they could have been modified. Just by example, the hood panels, grille shell and front fenders show minor differences from the Packard parts, and the rear sheet metal is very different.

You seem to have a keen interest in this topic; there are quite a few articles (and photographs) on the ZIS 110 in various publications including The Packard Cormorant and perhaps you'd like to research it a bit yourself, and of course contacting the current owners and closely inspecting the cars could reveal new information. Any new information on them would be most interesting.