Jane Haddam said this;
People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half.

Mat, just register the car with the number on the driver's door pillar, that number would match the original engine number. It's what I did on my Patrician.

These forums are often a fantastic source of great info. I might otherwise never have found on my own.

One example is one of you guys (thanks, whoever you are!) noted in here about the Univ. of Michigan/Detroit Public Library Packard photo collections are now avail. to us with just the "click" of our mices....! (meese ?)

But here's the problem. A very human condition is wanting to sound authoritive. My prejudice is the younger generations are even less restrained, less reluctant to stick their noses where they havnt been educated, than we older people, to whom accuracy and integrity have some value...? ? ?

While browsing thru the fantastic collection of photos, I came upon one (IMAGE ITEM EB01e824) which shows a bunch of new ZIS 110's. SOMEONE felt the urge to tell us how much he knows about these "Russian Packards". Repeats the nonsence that "PACKARD SENIOR DIES SOLD TO USSR BY U.S. GOVERNMENT URGING..."

At my age, I should no longer be surprised that the human condition includes, way too often, a burning desire to say something, ANYTHING, to sound important.

Those of you with at least the intelligence of a sand flea recognizes this "Russian Packard" crap as absolute nonsence.

Of course Packard HAD NO DIES TO SELL. Chassis/frames were purchased from the major frame supplier A.O. Smith. Zimac/"pot metal" fittings, door hardware, latches, etc., brakes, bearings, carbuerators, ignition systems, radiators, and starting in the late 1930, the entire body of the car, all purchased from UNRELATED OUTSIDE SUPPLIERS.

Never mind the fact that Russia is on the EUROPEAN continent, using METRIC measurements.

Never mind the fact that dies are hardened steel - kind of hard to bend em into changed shapes....!

But, what the heck - even in our own forum someone decided they wanted to say that "1938 PACKARD SUPER EIGHT AND TWELVE SHARED THE SAME CHASSIS...."

The issue of the ZIS is, of course, well-described elsewhere in this forum, by some apparently knowledgeable guys.

What I am trying to point out here, is, as we speed away from the period that Packard existed, with more and more generations of smart-mouths wanting to say something...ANYTHING to sound important.....I STRONGLY recommend you dont "drop your guard"...be suspicous of ANY "self styled expert" who 1) wasnt actually "there"...and 2) probaby wouldn't know which end of a screw-driver he or she sat on....!

Now...back to those mini-dresses...

Another possibiity, though remote, if your car has the same setup as the 36 and back senior cars; the brake light is activated whenever the tranmission is put in park. So if you have the same transmission switch for the brake lights and you're parking with the trans in reverse and the battery connected, the battery will be dead within a few hours.

Pushbutton -

That is one awesome display. I need to find some cases like that. A friend had a wall-mounted pie-case from a diner, but it wouldn't be big enough to hold them all (and my collection pales in comparison to yours).

I hated to go into 1:18, but I just couldn't resist FM's '55 Carib in white/rose/gray. The limited edition in white/lt.green/ dk.green is my least favorite tri-tone combo from '55, but now I see that FM has another limited edition in white/lt.blue/dk.blue.

If you can make room, you might want to consider adding just one more 1:18 edition:

http://www.danburymint.com/Detail.aspx?ProductID=9722

This one's been out for nearly a year, but after hearing a first-hand account from ACOlds at Warren last July, I bit the bullet.

As long as in off position, just leaving the key in iqnition should have no effect unless something really strange is going on with your switch. I think you are going to have to monitor with a low reading instrument and disconnect a bit at a time until drain stops and then see what in that circuit is amiss. Any hidden lights or signs of corrosion across two adjacent terminals on something? Another remote possibility would be the brake light switch. If the switch had an internal leak, it may still work but there would be a high resistance current drain through the fluid since the voltage is present on one terminal all the time.

All -

Wow! I'm glad my one little reference generated so much additional interest.

I guess I never ran across that site before, since my interests are more in postwar cars. As such, the term "coachbuilt" pretty much bounces right off of me. Really, I was just Googling for Panther info. I must admit that I didn't study the text on that page all that carefully, but I just happened across pix of several other familiar concepts and thought I'd report that for those who might want a look.

Of course, it's obvious that the Request was based on a hardtop and not a sedan. Yet, I run across a lot of people who refer to the 1955 and 1956 Senior hardtops as a "Patrician 400". Perhaps this was due, initially, to the persistence of memory from 1954 when there was a "Patrician 400" - in sedan form only. However, I've also seen more than one Four Hundred hardtop turn up at a Packard show that had a Patrician front clip installed (perhaps due to collision repair), but they left the "Patrician" script plates on the fenders, while the trunk lid had "400" or "Four Hundred" script plates on the rear.

If anyone finds errors in the text on that page, by all means, contact the webmaster and ask for correction. As we all know, anyone can make a mistake, but what counts is how they handle correcting it. Thankfully, it's a lot easier to edit in cyberspace.

Meanwhile, that page seems to indicate that the Request also had fiberglass front fenders. Is this true?

Packard probably installed the heaviest torsion bars available at the time, but I bet those massive cast bronze bumpers were too much for even those. The sag probably occurred over the period of many years, as the car was driven on the road - something it was never really meant for. Just about every "posed" pic I've seen of the car sicne it resurfaced back in the 1970s will show some sort of stand propping the front end up if you look closely.

With today's technology, they might have been able to fab lighter bumper ends from steel, but bronze was the norm for limited production and prototyping work back then. Heck, I've found some early trim pieces for the 55th Series cars on swap meet tables that were done in bronze. Even the upswept antenna moldings on the V8 Caribbeans were cast in bronze for regular production.

All things considered, I give the late Mr. Dopps a lot of credit for bringing this car back from the brink. Thanks to people like him, another piece of the history of Packard survives in tangible form.

Now, I wonder whatever happened to the Request clone that I saw advertised for sale in Cars & Parts maagazine back in the late 1970s.

Pushbutton -

I think Owen is referring to a Derham job.

I first saw a pic of the '56 Patrician Derham formal, back in the 1970s, on the AQ poster, Packard: The Postwar Years. I believe that same image is shown in a color plate in the Kimes book.

I did have the same problem with the old battery. This one is new. If the key is left in the ignition that seems to have something to do with it maybe.

AOK it is! A quickie clean-up and it's ready to go, thanks Flackmaster!