If someone mentioned this moody flick on the Packard movies/TV thread, i didn't see it, so pardon this post.

Many of you may recall the opening scene of a white or light-colored 1938-39 120 Darrin fishtailing at speed down a stormy road only to fly off a washed out bridge. In that pre-CGI day, have often wondered how they managed to get that very late-model car airborne and presumably catch it,
perhaps in some industrial-strength Ringling Brothers netting. You tell me.

Also, later in that movie, at the title character's funeral in the Connecticut town on a dark, overcast afternoon, the entire village square by the church is surrounded by big formal Classics, nearly all them look, from memory, like 1938-39 Packard Twelves, tho' there may be a few last-generation Cadillac 16s, Pierce Arrows, Lincoln Ks.

Would love to see some stills of all the above, or even a link to an online vid, etc.

I second, or third, the knowledgeable gentlemen above. Your car will run fine on 87 octane regular. Just make sure your engine's tuned, the vibration dampener mark visible. My '47 356 has 7.5:1 compression, and dances down the freeway just fine on it.

An oil company tech engineer told us that gasoline will easily last a year or so, so long as your car/garage isn't subjected to heat above 80 degrees. But, as belt and suspenders, if you don't expect to burn through a tank of gas within a year or 18 months, pick up some Stabil at any parts house, Target, etc. and use as directed.

All gasoline is like aspirin. 87 is 87, regardless of marketing. You're only throwing your money away buying higher octane gas.

BigKev is right about the rubber, materials in any rebuild kits from the last several decades. We've been hearing a lot of hysteria about ethanol in gasoline, invariably from the downhome brigade who just wants another excuse to rail against "the government" we elect. Often, this whining is from people driving old cars on the cheap, who haven't rebuilt their carburetors or fuel pumps in 60-70 years, with similarly ancient rubber hoses, et al, and they want someone to blame for the passing of Old Man River.

We've had ethanol in our gasoline in California for years,
and manage to drive just fine; various Packards, Cords, L-head Cadillacs, '50s Ferraris, you name it. BTW, should you be due to change any rubber fuel line hose, use that sold for fuel injection systems. It'll last into the next century.

Can ethanol harm certain ancient rubber? Sure, but it's an overblown issue. As with ZDDP in motor oil, silicone brake fluid, the "need" for antifreeze in cars not exposed to hard freeze, the adviso to never place a battery on a concrete floor, ad nauseum. People always want to blame something, someone, the black helicopters, Y2K, witches.
Some of us traditionalists stick with SAE papers, engineers, petrochemists, the tech advisors at Conoco-Philips-Kendall, Chevron, etc. who are themselves gearheads driving old cars.

Our cylinder heads be flat, the world be round.

If the car you describe is largely original from the factory, you might consider dropping the gastank, boiling it out, coating it with one of the quality sloshing compounds available through Hemmings, etc., adding an additional fuel filter.

Red Line Lead Substitute will protect your valves from recession. Use as directed. Available widely.

If your 300 has Ultramatic, drop the transmission pan, drain the old ATF from the torque convertor, too. Replace the filter. Drive with a light foot, accelerate gently. Ultramatics will last forever so long as you don't stop light Grand Prix. HydraMatics took brisk acceleration better.

Too many people think just because they're driving one of the better cars of a world long gone, that they can drive them the same way you'd drive a late model Camry or Taurus in a nation of a third of a billion people, double and triple the number of when our Packards were built. Relax and enjoy the ride. A friend with a '63 Ferrari Lusso admits a recent Honda Civic will outperform it.

Always recheck the head torque after the first 100-200 miles, then again at 1,000. Can't hurt to check again at 10,000 or so. Just don't overtorque. A beam wrench is the best, but if you use a click type, be careful not to overdo it.

Don't forget to check your manifold bolts, too.

Back in the day, checking cylinder head torque was considered part of a tune up.

JW, if forgiven our momentary brand X divergence, i fathom your affection for your '66 Monza. My young uncle, then a rocket tech at the Cape, owned the identical model after his wife tired of juggling their two small boys in the cockpit of his daily driver Jag XK-120 roadster back in the run-what-you-brung racing days. And a friend just across the lazy river in NJ had a pair of Corvairs which were, as you mention, excellent winter cars.
Funny. Ralph Nader never said anything about the first-generation Corvair the roadtest monthlies hadn't also decried. Decades later, the Corvair Club had Ralph Nader as a guest, gave him a standing ovation.

But, then as now, being a grille man and prefering my cylinders up front and in a row, i never studied any of the above cars' engine bays and noted the oil bath.

Keith Blankenship, Special Interest Autos, Ardmore, Oklahoma
www.special-interest-autos.com He rebuilt the vacuum advance unit in my '47 Super Clipper. Good man, prompt turnaround.

Flackmaster-- You're hardly "off topic." See my reply to BugsBunny above.

I bow to Dr. Dyneto's and t'others advice regarding oil bath air cleaners' efficiency. They're certainly better than the oiled mesh. But i thought a quality modern paper filter caught smaller microns than even an oil bath. I maintained the oil bath in my '47 Super Clipper as Packard, Gaia, the Great Spirit, Zeus, and Minerva intended, but finally, at the behest of a longtime fellow 356 owner, installed an unseen modern paper filter. A Wicks 87055 is a perfect fit as though it were made for the Packard oil bath.

Given my car's once in a blue moon exercise runs to keep her fettled, and that we don't live in the Dust Bowl, i imagine the hair splitting's moot. But it would be interesting to see some industrial tests comparing oil bath/modern paper air filters.

For some reason, i seem to recall some heavy equipment yet uses an oil bath air cleaner in the 21st Century.

I detest the least butchering and have no interest in street rods. But as naught was altered by substituting the Wicks filter and it's unseen while protecting the engine, i'm happy with it. BTW, i notice not the least difference in sound, performance, anything, noting one of the previous comments.

However, if using the oil bath in its original manner is demonstrably superior, let us see some tech/engineering data, as i'm sure it exists.

'Course, i'm still hoping for someone to unearth sanctioned top speed runs of '41-42 Buick Model 60/70 with the rare, no-cost optional 3.6:1 "economy" rear axle and 1942-47 Packard Super Clipper w/ od.

Hope springs eternal.

Should no one here be able to steer you to someone in your backyard, Armand Annereau at Armand's Auto Upholstery, here in Walnut Creek, in the SF/Oakland East Bay area, has done many 1940 Packards in every body style, open and closed, and has even sold complete tops to Packardites across the country which you or your shop can install. Armand's are authentic. Hope i'll be forgiven for singing this worthy's praises here again, but i don't know too many fourth-generation horse and horseless carriage upholstery shops in business since 1897 with the big Packard upholstery sample books the Company issued annually only to their larger dealers, who have done work for the nearby Behring Auto Museum and Blackhawk Collections, and has owned pre- and postwar Packards. Armand did both my '40 120 and present '47 Super Clipper. I've seen many Packard dropheads Armand's done since i came out here in '76. He gets the fit, fabric, stitching, all details correct. 1 (925) 934-4373

And please post this car, should you buy it, as Wizard Oz above invites. I'm biased, having owned one many years, but '40 120s are one of the best prewar roadcars from either side of the Atlantic. '40s are slightly lighter than '39s, and the following '41/42s. If the car's otherwise sound, rustfree and has overdrive, tho' you can add this, go for it.

The astoundingly low prices for the '30s Packards in 1963 don't surprise me, though your lovely, complete, running '34 club sedan's price was a real bargain even for those times. But the $10,000 ! for a '50s Packard astonishes me. Had NO idea there was such lingering interest in a recent late-model hohum orphan.
I'da thought a long-wheelbase Derham limo from the '50s regardless of shape might do well to bring $400 or so from some frat guys who wanted to strap a surfboard on the roof.

Thanks for the pictures!

Your '34 Club Sedan must be one lovely, solid car, given that history from new right up to when you bought it.

What a picture. Thanks. Bringing it back home, George M. Cohan owned a '39 Packard Twelve limousine, which survives, in appropriately stellar condition. Jimmy Cagney was magic in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy. One of the great injustices of the last century is Cagney never receiving an Oscar.

Few people realize that the Broadway that begins in lower Manhattan, the Broadway the above Packard dealership is on, the storied "Great White Way," continues up the lazy river through Westchester County bedroom communities.

Any fellow ex-NYers remember Ed Jurist's wonderful Vintage Car Store in Nyack?

Thanks again.