Rusty,

"the south penetrated northern territory long before the north invaded the south."

When General Irwin McDowell marched the 35,000 strong (the largest army yet amassed at that time on the North American continent) across the Potomac River on July 16, 1861 to engage General Beauregard's Confederate Army of The Potomac encamped some 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. at Manassas Junction, Virginia he invaded the sovereign state of Virginia, a state at that time legally seceded from the Union and a part of the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy invaded Kentucky (twice), Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1862 and 1863 but the first battle of the war was fought on Confederate soil in an around Manassas Junction, Virginia as a result of a Union incursion into Confederate territory and the great preponderance of the remainder of the war was fought in the south.

The stated reason for the initial Union call for volunteers was to, "recapture forts, customs houses, etc. now seized by secessionists." Since these, "seized," sites were located in the south, it would've been rather difficult to recapture them without invasion. The intent was pretty clear.

The south had no reason to invade the north. During the great panic of 1837, the devastating depression that followed it and the panic of 1857 the industrial north suffered greatly while the south, with its cotton-based economy remained prosperous and was unaffected. The majority of the textile mills in the north, as well as the huge textile industry in Britain at that time, were almost completely dependent upon southern cotton and, in point of fact, official records indicate that 57% of the United States' total foreign export for calendar year 1860 consisted of southern cotton. In the economic context of that time - cotton really was king. Therein lies the REAL reason that there was never any question of allowing the southern states to secede, peacefully or otherwise.

Politicians of that era were no more likely to let that amount of revenue, with its vast potential for additional graft, escape them without a fight than are modern ones. The firebrands and demagogues in the south should've anticipated this but, as usual, their self-serving politicians were no more prone to logical thought, recognition of reality and prudent action than professional politicians have ever been. Their self-interests get in the way. Historically, when politicians have achieved generally good result - it's nearly always been purely accidental and, the more of them there are the less likely this is to happen.

With this I am going to bow out of this topic. It ain't Packard-related and the contemplation of politicians, past, present, conservative, liberal, Whig, Tory, Republican, Democrat - whatever - puts me off my feed.

Rusty, there was sort of an unofficial and uneasy truce until General Beauregard decided, more or less on his own, to interfere with the resupply of Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbour. The Federal Government in Washington never recognised the right of the southern states to secede and, well before Ft. Sumter, President Lincoln had called for 100,000 volunteers, presumably to put down what was considered by the Washington government to be a rebellion. Maybe he was just nervous. Both raising an army with which to invade the south and the resupply of a Federal fort located within a Confederate harbour (which one would assume was within Confederate territorial waters) could be considered acts of war, in and of themselves, as I suppose the resupplying of Ft. Sumter was by the South Carolinians and General Beauregard. The Federals had pretty much made it known that they weren't going to allow the southern states to secede, peacefully, and the Confederates had made it pretty plain that they intended to fight if interfered with. In the climate of the times war was inevitable from the time that the first southern state passed the first secession resolution. It was just waiting for a spark to set it off.

There was, about 50 years ago a book (I read it in serial form in the old, "Saturday Evening Post," magazine) called, "If the South Had Won the Civil War." I cannot recall the author's name but the book was quite well researched and logically posited the Army of Northern Virginia having flanked the Federal forces at Gettysburg, making an end run on Washington, capturing the Federal government and forcing a Union surrender. It also theorised the end of slavery within a short span of years, both because it was dying anyway and to facilitate foreign recognition of the CSA. Its author, however, theorised that with slavery no longer an issue and having so many common interests that the two nations would've reunited, if I remember correctly, under the depredations of German unrestricted submarine attacks on Allied and American shipping and the Imperial German government's plan to assist Mexico in reoccupying California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in return for their help should either American nation join the war on the side of the Allies. The Kaiser's foreign ministry did, in fact, make such an offer to the Mexican government before the United States entered World War I.

All conjecture, of course, but interesting nonetheless.

You've misjudged me, John. I merely use terminology that seems to fit. In point of fact I have little interest in partisan politics other than for their amusement factor. Taking the propaganda and misinformation spewed at one daily and designed by a bunch of self-serving, power hungry charlatans to inflame the public in one direction or the other so that one party or the other can position itself to retain power and to slop more effectively than the other at the public trough would drive me crazy if I took it seriously. My only concern with professional politicians and government is the same as I have for strong-arm men and bunco artists. They're ALL (regardless of, "party," affiliation) out to take something that I have and, generally, to use it for, at best, questionable purposes. I just want to know how best to protect myself from them.

PackardV8, you are correct as to wiring for the aftermarket evaporator box and I shall pursue you suggestion.

HH56, your, "Rube Godberg," solution to integrating aftermarket control with original equipment is both simple and ingenious and your reconstruction of original appearing heat/fresh air/cooling systems is impressive. I applaud you and fervently admire your expertise.

Good reading, that, Randy and well worth perusing for the, "unitiated," whose only source of information tends toward the 30-second, "sound bytes," perpetrated upon us by our government, both major political parties and the all but functionally illiterate, "mavens," in the drive-by news media. Many of our problems today have their basis in events long past and require more knowledge to evaluate and interpret than is readily available or conveniently found.

Unfortunately knowledge of history and painstaking research appear to be neither the general public's nor our elected representatives' strong point.

Yes, the Opel has always been one of GM's superior overseas operations and, I think, mainly profitable. The Kadets of the early '60s that were imported into the U.S. were extremely hardy, dependable cars and fairly popular for a time. The more recently imported Opels that were marketed, here in the U.S., as the Cadillac Catera did not apparently serve as well.

Guscha, your wealth of knowledge and information on Soviet and Eastern Bloc vehicles and especially the Packard inspired ones continues to be of much interest. Most of us in the west have little knowledge of them.

HH56,

If you figure out something for the temp and fan controls please advise. My car is a forever work in progress.

HH56,

When I got my car the compressor was in the trunk, frozen, and someone had used a hacksaw to cut the refrigerant lines. The original condensing unit and dryer were still mounted in front of the radiator. Additionally my heat/air distribution (evaporator) box under the dash had, sometime in the distant past, turned into a lump of fuzed cardboard and corroded metal.

I ordered, from Classic Auto Air Manufacturing Company's (Tampa, FL) catalogue, the following items:

Item #1-1014, Classic Cooler H-C w/def
Item #12-1001, Filter-Drier Male "O" Ring
Item #5-128, Sanden V 2Gr 134a Compressor
Item #7-101, Sanden Swing Plate
Item #7-182 Sanden Adaptor Kit
Item # 11-1027, Power Condenser 21K BTU

As it turned out, we did not use the swing plate nor the adaptor kit. It was imminently simpler to carefully measure dimensions of the Sanden compressor, drill extra holes in the factory compressor mounting and line up the compressor pulley with the original A/C pulley (the car came with factory air).

The drier was mounted in much the same position as the original without need to alter anything in the horse collar. The double micro coil condensing unit, with its own electric fan, was mounted in the bottom of the space between the grille by bending the mounting brackets that came with it so that they'd fit snugly around the two support rods and bolt tight, again not requiring any permanent alterations in the horsecollar area. The evaporator box mounts under the dash in the approximate same position as the original.

Control for heater/defroster is a cable which can easily be routed to operate from the original ventilation, heat and A/C control panel. The fan speed switch and the temperature control switch are however electrical and are mounted in the evaporator box itself. Venting can easily be run to original A/C outlets on top of dash and defroster vents and, as I said in my earlier post, there is one vent in the front of the evaporator box and the ability to run another air outlet wherever is desirable. I have another vent mounted to the bottom of the dash on the far passenger side of the car. Hoses for heater can be routed through the cowl easily and heater control valve can be mounted anywhere that you can get a cable to it.

The whole system is the most unobtrusive configuration that I could locate and is pretty much unnoticeable unless you crawl under the dash and look specifically for it and, even then, does not appear especially out of place. Of course you can immediately determine that the Sanden compressor is not the LeHigh when you look under the bonnet but, what can I say? It's hot in Florida and I needed air conditioning. Additionally, with the exception of the aforementioned switch (which I have addressed), it works quite well putting out more than enough volume and BTUs to heat or cool the large greenhouse area in the car.

Old, contrary guy comment: "Hemmings Classic Car," and the magazine that comes with my PI membership are the only two automotive mags that I even bother to read anymore. Used to read Motor Trend, Car & Driver, glance through Hot Rod when I found it someplace but has been, literally, years since I found anything in one of them that even remotely interested me. The irrelevance of most subjects that the general population finds, "of interest," for the short attention span that they seem capable of and the speed with with they forget whatever it was they were paying attention to seems pretty indicative of the modern quality of life, products that we are forced to buy and state of the world in general, today.

It's pretty much ALL mediocre, petty, extremely short-sighted and irrelevant to anyone old enough to recall a period in time when the general public could still differentiate betwixt fantasy and reality.

You can still find bargains, if you're not in a hurry and look diligently, in most of the late '30s cars up through the V8s if you're not looking for a convertible or a coupe-roadster. Coupes/hardtops seem to be next on the, "pricey(-er than they need to be) list. The sportier models will always be, "overpriced," because they've always been less practical for everyday, average use, have always been priced higher than the more practical ones and marketed to those (in whatever price/quality range) with a bit more discretionary income or to, "single," folks who have always been a minority and can, usually, afford to ignore practicality. For most of the population they were the cars that most really wanted but either couldn't afford or ignored in favour of practicality. It's only natural that they'd remain more popular and desirable.

The practicality of the big, closed, four-door cars has always attracted and interested me. I agree that the '41 through '56 cars, for the most part, are undervalued as long as you're willing to accept a sedan, coach or perhaps in some cases a business coupe. The '51s through '54s, especially, seem undervalued to me.