I am attending this year but my arrival is dependent on the weather forecast. If the weather is either warm OR cold but DRY I will be there Wed thru Sat, with lodging in Harrisburg. If its wet, I have nice warm and dry lodging at my home in Ohio and that's where I plan to stay......

re: "Battery is good...."

Other places to check for a slow battery drain are:

1. Glove box light (sometimes they are not 'off' when
the glove box door is shut).

2. Trunk Light. They are often controlled by a mercury
switch mounted on the hinge or are part of the actual
light socket....sometime they are mis adjusted and
do not turn off when the trunk is shut....

3. If you have a generator with a condenser mounted on
the top body of the generator, sometimes the
condensers short out and will cause a very slow
drain on the battery. I had a '57 Lincoln with a
chronic battery drain problem and it turned out to
be a shorted condenser on the body of the generator.

Yes, this is an excellent book and fascinating read....by far the best book ever written on the inside story of Packard and its demise. This book is used by many universities as an example of a well written and documented history of an industrial company. Ignore the (few) negative comments...they are largely ignorant about good writing and journalism.....This book and the Beverly Kimes edited book are the two definitive journals to read if you want accurate, detailed, and interesting Packard history !

With the slow start up and early production problems of the Conner Ave assembly plant, its not hard to understand why the first car(s) out the door were not only solid colors but also white. The new 1955 Packard was 'introduced' to the public and made its way to showroom floors on January 4, 1955, very late in the 1955 selling season compared to other makes, which were introduced as early as Sept and Oct of '54. Even at the late date of January 4th, many of the Packard dealers didn't yet have a car or cars to sell in their inventory. On page 185 of the Ward book it states:
"....Nance discovered that the first cars off the assembly line were stripped models.....He was also peeved because the factory persisted in building only single-color cars......." Apparently most if not all of the very early cars were solid colors. And also apparently both parts supply problems and production problems limited the number of options and two-tone paints that Conner was able to get out the door..... with the very early first production models.....

It is very possible the generator overheating is due to the Torsion Level not working properly. In cases like this when two problems crop up at the same time, they are often related. It could be a wire or wires on the Torsion Level system are shorted together or against the frame, possibly by being chewed by mice after sitting for a long while, or a solenoid has stuck in closed position... The fuse in the torsion level system cannot always be relied on to 'open'...or it may be bypassed..... The way I troubleshoot a problem like this is to first disconnect all power sources to the torsion level system....and observes what the generator then does.... Wiring to the generator is also suspect in the same manner that the torsion level wiring would be suspect....shorted wire to frame, wire shorted to another wire, etc.

Its a mystery to me and many others (but does not seem to be hit on much) as to WHY Packard didn't assume lease/ownership/control of the Briggs/Conner plant and just continue the status quo of the building of Packard bodies for 1955 in the same manner that Briggs did for the previous years bodies. Everything was in place for the previous manufacture of bodies by Briggs, the only thing needed was Packard to update the current assembly line for bodies to the '55 models, and continue business as it stood. If Conner had excess capacity it could have been used for other stampings and assembly. Nance was handed some very poor advice and surrounded himself with people like Ray Powers who made very bad recommendations.... As a company starting to be fraught with high cash outlays, it certainly didn't have the funds to do much, and yet it foolishly extended itself by moving all production to Conner Ave and thereby creating quality and production problems that would not have happened if it just continued business as it was. It could have leased Conner from Chrysler, continued with same assembly lines for the Clipper and Packard bodies in the same manner as Briggs when they were making the bodies, continued to trim the cars out at East Grand and saved a lot of woe that really cost the company its life. Nance wanted to bring Packard body manufacture back to Packard and it was a good thought, his timing was just all wrong. The argument that a one story plant was more efficient is all well and good and makes a lot of sense, but Packard was on the fence for survival in 1955.... by extending 29 million for start up costs over at Conner it really put itself in great jeopardy.....from which it never recovered. The losses at Studebaker drug it down even lower......till it was so weak as a company with collapsing sales that no one in their right mind would loan them money for the new models...... All these 'studies' of costs efficiencies that were handed to Nance......some of them were obviously just plain flawed. When a business is on the line and doing poorly these major changes instill a risk that is very dangerous........if just one of these 'studies' are flawed or incorrect it can cause the whole stack of cards to fall......which is exactly what happened in Packard's case.

Patrick Foster by his own admission was not a fan of JJ Nance and has often misreported or left out important issues to distort the facts about both Packard/Studebaker and AMC. I take him to task about his negative statements concerning Nance while largely ignoring or glossing over the havoc that Abernathy did to AMC and how he destroyed all the carefully well laid plans of former AMC boss George Romney in building AMC up to 3rd place in the industry by his careful planning and advertising and narrow market segment. When I see Patrick Foster's name on an article I gloss over it and take it with a grain of salt..... 'nuf said.

Packard Plant....The drama for the sale of the Packard Plant goes on and on......is it ever going to end?

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/03/17/former-packard-plant-owner-wants-another-3-5-million-for-it/?refer=news

Looks like an excellent documentary and very well done.....would love to be there in person....traveling from Ohio to Detroit is certainly doable....Its just the thought of going to Detroit is so depressing.....I hope the full documentary film is available on some other venue after its Detroit premiere..... The Packard Plant is fascinating to many people including myself.....I was able to walk thru the old buildings 2 yrs ago.....brought back a couple of bricks and some wooden blocks from the plant floor...a piece of marble from the main lobby floor and a couple of piece of tile from the main entrance on East Grand Blvd.....a few souvenirs from the past....Its hard to believe anyone could make anything viable from the old plant....but there is always hope.....Good luck to the new owner...he sure has a formidable project in his future.......

Many car club groups are struggling mainly because of an aging membership, lack of newer members and some of the infighting that goes on in the groups. When I bought my first Packard I joined our local group here in Ohio and I am the youngest member at 61 ! But the problem is more than just that....My first meeting with the group was at a local dinner....I attended and introduced myself to several people as a new member and first time attendee... at least 3 or 4 people said "Hi Ya", and just walked away! NO ONE welcomed me to the group....no one introduced themselves back....its was incredible to me that the owners of the "gentlemans car bought by gentleman and sold by gentleman" would have such poor manners.... Even the president of the group who got up and briefly spoke at the event did not bother to introduce me to the group.... It certainly did NOT make me feel very welcome.....especially since Im sitting there in a room full of strangers who are ignoring me.... I did not let it affect my standing with the group....nor my attitude and this is in fact the first time Ive mentioned it..... I urge people to make new people feel welcome in a club.....Introduce yourselves and welcome the new member and MAKE him or her FEEL welcome.... Group memberships are dwindling.....and a lot of it is the fault of the groups..!