The black BSCO Packard bicycle in the photos has been drastically modified. It has a 1980s repop saddle, a girl's J.C. Higgins postwar sprocket and cranks. The stem is from the mid-1950s and is of aluminum made on Gratiot avenue in Detroit in the mid-1950s. There are other modifications as well. But the headbadge and frame appear to be original. Not from Earle C. Anthony's dealership, but owners knew Mr. Anthony. Would like to know how to contact the owner.

Internet info being spread around that PMCC somehow owned Colson is totally bogus. Internet myth.

The info given on CWC is also mistaken. The particular CWC Packard shown here, while nicely executed, is a postwar model with different parts and mods. This can easily be verified by both the serial number (complete records DO exist) and the frame design which absolutely, positively makes it postwar (designed in fact, by my late friend, Brooks Stevens). Have all of the records of CWC and knew family members.

Furthermore Packard bicycles were never involved with car dealerships. Nor were the other car names that appeared on various bicycles. This is a very strong internet myth that persists. But a myth nonetheless. The facts are that almost all of these names were merely ones chosen as private labels by various wholesale-distributors...of which BSCO was one. The bicycles they handled were actually manufactured by a company in New York state.

Been collecting Packard bicycles and literature on them since the 1950s. Here is a 1941 Schwinn-Built Packard I restored about 20 years ago. The ornament is an aftermarket accessory

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People have often asked why I don't contribute more to these "forums"... here's the very reason why I don't. I have not posted in years. And will stop again right here and now. There is always a website weisenheimer or a bearing bully who'd rather pick senseless, pointless fights and hurl testosterone than choose to learn anything.

Yes, The Request cathedral tail lights are certainly different from production Packard units-or at least where when the car was built.

In fact, it was the hand-making of these lights that determined the actual placement of the production tail light's internally-mounted reflector which was based on an existing (at that time) bicycle reflector...Stimsonite #15 and #16. This reflector was turned sideways and electro-tacked inside the red plastic production lens (take a good look next time you see one loose). The fresneling in the red plastic Packard lens was relieved in the area where the Stimsonite reflector was mounted. Of course, this has nothing to do with the other reflector which was the hex-shaped unit mounted on the exterior casting of the 1956 models. Another story.

Anyway, I know The Request very, very well...ever since the car was new. I had friends who actually worked at Creative building this car. I used to see it up close and personal ever since it was built. So this stuff I am very certain about.

And as I said earlier, I also knew the gentlemen who did the first restoration on the car in Washington. I even helped them with some parts for the car when it was first being re-done. This was in the 1970s and I certainly have photos of me sitting in the car and standing with it taken back then.

I used to get into dispute sessions back in the 1960s and early 1970s with writers and books and others all of whom swore this car was destroyed by Packard. No idea where they got this idea, But I saw it at the LaSalle Hotel in the 1960s in Chicago. That fact alone made it impossible that Packard had it destroyed. The company itself was already long gone by the time I saw the car in Chicago. So PMCC destroying The Request would have been a neat trick-requiring a time machine. But it took several years until the car turned up in the Pacific Northwest before anyone would believe me.

Anyway, The Request is in good hands now and looked great the last when I saw it a few months ago.

Who said Creative Industries designed the cathedral tail lights instead of Richard Teague (whom I new)??? Where and who said that?

In fact, there were two churches in Michigan that inspired Dick Teague on the cathedral tail light. One of them is clearly visible today from a major highway... and you can easily see the Packard cathedral tail light right there.

As for what Creative did, sorry, but had it not been for them, The Request would not have existed... nor would the Panthers... nor would the Predictor have been able to make the auto show circuit (they repaired it-more than once- and maintained it). And Creative most certainly DID hand-construct the original cathedral tail lights in The Request... this is a fact. Constructing them is not designing them, although I am certain that Creative helped in refining the lens for production. I won't even mention their involvement in the Caribbeans and the 1957 "Black Bess" prototype. The "so what" part of Creative Industries is the fact that they were very important to Packard Motor Car Company during its existence in the 1950s. They did a lot more for Packard than anyone knows today.

Yes, Mr. Dopps was one of the three partners involved in doing the original restoration. There were two others-all in WA state.

What nobody mentions... or apparently notices is that the dome-shaped parking light/turn signal lenses in the first restoration were unlike the originals which were flat. When I last (recently) saw The Request in New Jersey, the lenses appear to have been corrected now.

A fellow I knew way back when was the man who actually constructed the hood, grille and the original front bumpers. These were all done at a place called Creative Industries of Detroit. They also did a lot of other work for Packard including on the Panthers and the Predictor... and other cars that Packard folk today apparently don't know about.

See the AQ Packard book and old issues of The Packard Cormorant magazine for info on who styled the front ends of the V-8 Packards and Clippers. One of the outside firms that was used as a consultant was a company called Sundberg-Ferrar if I remember correctly. And there were others...even independent sylists.

Regarding The Request concept dreamcar... I knew this car very well and had friends who were involved in originally building it for Packard in 1954. For many years, I was the lone person insisting that indeed it had NOT been destroyed by Packard as almost everyone claimed. This despite what books and magazine articles back then were saying. I saw the car in a hotel parking lot in Chicago in the 1960s... so it was impossible that Packard destroyed it in the 1950s as nearly everyone claimed back then.

Later the car tuned up rather forlorn and faded in the Pacific Northwest. I also knew the three owners (not one) who later ended up with the car and did the first restoration on it. I even supplied a couple of parts for the restoration.

I have photos of me standing with the car back in the 1970s.

As for the fiberglass hood not aligning properly... folks... remember this was fiberglass done in the mid-1950s! None of it was perfect back then-even the Corvette (I have a factory photo of an early one with a huge "whoop-dee-doo" wave in the right front fender). The technology was still being learned.

Furthermore, The Request's hood hinges originally were screwed into pieces of wooden 2 x 4s molded into the fiberglass. Years later, those wood anchor points were deteriorated, so it is not surprising at all to note that the hood did not align flawlessly by the time it was seen in the 1980s. Remember too that most concept dreamcars back then were intended mainly for looking (viewing)... and not for anything approaching regular usage. Thus components were rarely fabricated to a production level grade of engineering standards.

Even the original cathedral tail lights on The Request were largely hand-fabricated. The lenses were hand-made and (while they may look the same) are (or at least were) not production lenses.

As for any 1955 V-8 transmission gear selector stuck in "PARK" position, this was a very common problem that Packard indeed issued a Service Bulletin to remedy. They also issued a countermeasure linkage part to correct the problems. Furthermore, Packard changed the cast metal arm coming off of the Ultramatic for 1956 to help avoid this problem.

But I can't tell you how many V-8 Packards I have seen over the years with the transmission gear selector arm bent around in the shape of a crescent-or even a "J" shape. This is done when somebody decides they'll just macho-gorilla the durned thing into submission! All this frustration and violence can be very simply avoided by merely reaching UNDER the vehicle from the driver's side (watch for a hot exhaust pipe, etc.) and push upward on the transmission gear selector linkage. Voila!

Thin Masonite is the closest and best material you can use for backing on V-8 door panels.

Ahhh. Interesting questions.

RE: the mounting of factory rear speaker in a 1955-56 Caribbean convertible... yes, I have seen a few. I seem to remember that Earle C. Anthony's personal Caribbean was so equipped. Somewhere buried in my records I used to have a list of convertibles that I ran across over the years with factory rear speaker. There certainly were not many, but there were a few. The location of the speaker was either to the right or left in the bottom of the top well where it faced straight up. Of course, not useful when the top was down, but yes, I have seen this more than once and yes, with factory controls.

AND... since someone brought it up, the only factory air Caribbean V-8 convertibles I have ever seen (and should ever see) had the A/C coming through the instrument panel. Think about this. Packard (with not a huge budget at the time) spent a pile of cash developing factory air where it rightly belonged: in the IP. It would make no financial or functional sense to develop a whole second system to be mounted in the trunk (and Packard factory air indeed was installable at the dealer and there are ways to determine this). Anyone who has ever inspected the area UNDER the top well in the convertible (which has a welded grid crossmember) would have to conclude the folly of mounting trunk air in this position...even if such a unit existed in the 1950s.

I have a 1956 Four Hundred that the original owner had an aftermarket trunk-mounted unit installed. Believe me, the thing barely-just barely fits. And that's with no top well to deal with! I can't imagine how it would be done unless someone, somehow had the creativity and resource and finance to dig up an ultra-rare Cadillac convertible rear unit (from the same time period) that they managed to shoehorn into the trunk. One of the few times when Cadillac really blew it (in more ways than one) in the 1950s. Of course such a unit would have to have to have an evaporator so small and a blower so big as to be useless. Especially in the Caribbean.

Now... for all of the controls? I have seen at least one Caribbean that used to run around SoCal that had both factory air and rear seat speaker! The line of knobs across the instrument panel was almost mind-boggling... if not impressive! Somewhere, someplace in my bins of records I have a set of photos I took of this car back in the early 1970s. No idea where it is today.

Finally... as for owners changing their Caribbeans over... modifying them... That would be a rather obvious thing, but absolutely not what I was referring to at all. For instance... there was a 1956 Caribbean convertible in SoCal that was originally ordered on the east coast... possibly in Philly. Anyway, the original owner swore that he ordered the car with the ribbed stainless in the middle stripe and back to the tail lights. I saw this car up close and personal in the 1970s and it indeed had the so-called "Reynolds wrap" on the car... going back to the tail lights and up to the antennae. ANd these pieces appeared to be specially bent and shaped. But I assure you, there was no mention of this in the factory record, nor of other special things the car had.

I also knew of several 1955 and 1956 Caribbeans that were local to Detroit (and I knew these cars from when they were new) and they certainly did not match what the records say they were supposed to be. One of these cars was at a big engineering firm... another was owned by a man I knew who did work for Packard. And another was at Creative Industries. ANd there were more that I discovered over the years-sometimes verified by the actual VIN plate and codes-that differed from the factory records. Believe me, I've been over this a few times over the years. Anyway... for what it's worth.

I'm not sure if anyone ever responded to the original question of what the storage clip looked like for Packard factory seat belts.

The direct answer to that question is that the storage clip was was a piece of flat metal slightly flared at the top with a slight dogleg "lasagne" bend at the lower edge where it screwed into the door panel with Philips-head screws. The clip was chrome plated.

The BUCKLE was an aircraft type and I have seen two varieties: 1.) chrome plated steel... and 2.) aluminum. Both were basically the same as you see in appearance and operation to the belts still used today in commercial airliners.

As for these seat belts being listed in "build sheets" or how they were installed at the factory... my understanding is they weren't. These belts-at least from what I was told by a couple of dealers back in the day-were a dealer-installed option-regardless of when, where, or how ordered.

And regarding what was on Caribbean "build sheets" or 1956 Packard factory records, I can assure you, I have personally inspected a large number of Caribbeans and made notes on each with the VIN number ever since the 1950s. I repeatedly have discovered that the factory records quite often do not match the actual car and equipment. For instance cars with factory air...'56 cars with gold grille screens vs. chrome screens... convertibles with rear mounted radio speakers... Caribbeans with power door locks... Caribbeans with Autronic Eye...or, yes, factory seat belts.

By the way... there used to be a 1955 Caribbean (yes, 1955) in the "Howard Hughes/Jean Peters" colors out in the San Fernando Valley in SoCal that had Packard factory seat belts (as listed for 1956). It was a one-owner car and the owner insisted to me that he bought it that way from Earle C. Anthony. Last time I saw this car was in the 1970s. I understand that it later went to Canada. Somewhere I have photos.

Of course most people today forget that nobody much wanted seat belts in 1955-56. Ford tried a whole safety program for 1956 (spent huge amounts promoting it) and basically they found that it didn't sell. Frankly, it scared daylights out of some 1950's people and they insisted that they did NOT want the contraptions in their cars! If you think the factory seat belts are rare in Packards, they are just as rare-maybe moreso in Fords...despite Ford's big marketing push on these devices.