I believe a similar armoured Packard was built for Walter Ruether, the American labor union organizer. Perhaps one of the heaviest U.S. cars built was the "Father Devine" Duesenberg which apparently suffered all kinds of maladies from it's excessive weight. I don't think it was armoured but it was built on a greatly extended wheelbase. Somewhere I have some information on both cars, I'll see if I can find it over the next few weeks.

Good thing I said SOME closure, I guess I'm due for a re-read of the Kimes book and thanks for the information about the wheels. Next time I see Ralph Marano I'll take a better look at the wheels on his Pan American and also see if he remembers seeing the maker's name on them.

I'm wondering how practicle it would be to use a T'Ultra bellhousing to mount a manual shift trans to the Packard V8. No adapter needed??? The main issue would be trans input shaft length. I'm guessing that centering would be rather ez requiring a lathe turned 3 inch centering disk as a tool for centering the trans to the T'Ultra bellhousing for mount drilling..

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1956 Rochester 4GC's are 486 cfm, the '55's were probably around 425 cfm.

what you really want to know is cfm. How much air is used not the pressure. Bet you are going to want a bigger compressor, cfm, wise soon. Best Todd.
I use a fine silica sand, less expensive,does not remove alot of metal. A nice almost smooth finish, easy to buff up for plating. If wanted. If not just right for primer and then painting. Make sure you don't let your blasted parts sit out in the damp air for more than a few minutes before primering or plating. You will see rust starts almost immediately.
And don't let your sand get moist, it will clog the gun, and you will be tapping it against the cabinet about every thirty seconds.
Good luck, only one thing more tedious than sand blasting, and that is polishing for plating.

Bitchin'! Can I say that here? I believe the rear trans setup was strictly for f/r weight distribution.

No wonder you're having trouble getting to the Panther project! Taking off after a Poncho with a tranny in the caboose! ( Just needlin' you. I respect your work ethic.)



I know, I know, I'll shut up now!

Back to AL and his carbs.

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Agreed on the looks. Not much wonder these Monte Carlos disappeared pretty quickly.

Also agreed this is a really good thread.

Can't tell about closure yet, though.

I think Kimes uses the term "spares" because they are referring to TWO 1952 Mayfair hardtops that were to be converted by Henney:

"...with 1953 style bumpers, headlight rims, fender and body moldings, deck lid ornaments and grilles. The Monte Carlos had wire wheels, exterior spares..." (p. 554, Packard, a History of the Motorcar and the Company, General Edition, Beverly Rae Kimes, Ed., Automobile Quarterly pub. 1978)


Here's a little more info on the Kelsey-Hayes wheels from Kimes:

"Some production of Pan Americans was definitely planned--at least by Henney. On March 13th (1952) Preston Boyd wrote that he had mentioned to Packard 'the necessity of having some sort of a tentative price . . . Of course, one of the chief problems is to know how many [Packard] wants to run or commit itself for, which will be a determining factor . . . if it is to be offered with wire wheels it will mean complete tooling for production of these, which will be rather costly.' (The wheels eventually selected were bought from Kelsey-Hayes, cutting costs considerably.)" [Ibid.] Emphasis added.

So, did the few Pan Americans get out on the roads with K-H wire wheels? Well, there's a picture of one, prominently showing a front wheel, on page 555 of Kimes. I'm no expert, but I know people here that are and have the Kimes book. I'll leave it up to you to identify the wheel. It's beyond me.

One of the BEST bits of closure I can think of is the CARIBBEAN, which was, after all this building and testing (exciting as it is) of project cars, the ultimate production car that resulted and tore up the roads for a few glorious years.

i decided to build my own out of the laundry sink. it cost me about 80 bucks to buy all the parts. also all the parts are available at the hardware store if anything breaks, which is a plus. i also made some improvements to it, i will post pictures of it when i get done with it. plus the sink sit at the perfect height from me to sit me my garage chair and work. ;0)

right now i am repairing a wire chew that one of those dang rodents decided to put into my little z3, rendering it useless. the wire they chewed was the wire that sends the pulse singles from the flywheel and cams to the computer....basically the timing....thank God it has a limp mode when this happens and it will not allow itself to damage anything important. nice feature from BMW if you ask me. ;0)

i fixed the wire, and i got lucky because all the wires run under the intake manifold. this wire was a seperate wire harness so i could unplug the 4 connectors and pull it out the bottom of the car. lucky me. unlucky rat/mouse...there are 10 poison bats out now ;0) MUUUUUAHAHAHAHAH!!

Later,

Hank

FWIW, the TH400 was brought up in this thread. The 700R4 and 2004R all use the same bolt pattern and torque convertor adapters as the TH 400. If one were considering the TH400, the 200R4 is a viable alternative which should be considered.

thnx, jack vines

There was a great looking Bath tube convertible in the Back To The Future trilogy. It was the car owned by the professor (played by Christopher Lloyd), basically taking second fiddle only to the DeLorean featured in the movie. I believe there were a few 51 - 54 cars in the movie as well.

Kev, A Packards in movies DB might be a neat addition.