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Thanks to you and this website for helping me to find my latest flight of fancy. I feel a bit like I've gone out on a limb here, and yet it also feels totally doable, too. Never been (very) afraid of hard work.

So, the first car is a 2185, maroon, with much of its interior still intact (missing the headliner and with some rodent damage in the back seat area), most of the glass, and most of the odd bits - and a parts cars. Missing items, like the interior rear window frames, are in the parts car. It's light on body damage and seems quite solid - i.e., not rusted out at the bases of the A pillars or rockers. There's a dent behind the trunk handle, and the wee Packard script is missing, but the lid on the parts cars looks fine (I think) and it has the script.

Want to do it up as an eight. I have one eight - to be determined which one - and two more on the hook. I think I found the overdrive disconnect pull yesterday. Hell, everything is creaky and stuck, so I'll be keeping the spray lube folks in business.

I'm sure I'll have questions, but I finally figured out how to get this wonky computer to make pictures open (file conversions, and I had never authorized it to convert them in the first place). So we can do pictures, too.

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More photos:

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Wat,

Are you intending to put an eight into your six Packard? If so, are you aware that an eight is unlikely to fit? Reason being the difference in length between six and eight cylinder Packards of that type is all in front of the A pillar. This, to accommodate the greater length of the eight cylinder engine over the six.

If I am not mistaken, and that may be a reach, both the 6 and the 8 are 120" wheelbases. The customs were 127" w/b. The bodies are, I believe, the same size regardless. So, as I conclude, perhaps erroneously, the length on the 6s and the small 8s should be the same under the hood.

I have read that the 110s and 120s had different wheelbases and that the difference was in front of the cowl.

Bear in mind, none of this is set in stone, so we are adaptable.

I believe you are correct about the 21st series 6 and 282 both using the same 120" wb. The "traditional bodied" 41-2 had different wheelbases for 6 and 282.

I think your cormorant is a 22nd-24th series bird. You might want to stay on the lookout for a 21st ornament, or check the 20th series parts car which uses the same one as 21st.

I agree on the bird. It looks like the one's on my grandfather's 22/23 cars. Wasn't aware per se that there was a difference, so I'll dig a bit deeper.

The parts car has one of those other things. Or at least that was what was in the spare parts bin. There's nothing on it currently.

I have a proper 1946-1947 ornament but it is the plain one, not the Cormorant and needs plating. Currently it is stripped. Anyway, looking forward to seeing the progress of your cars!

I believe the standard Clipper ornament was the blunt nose casting and the 21st series deluxe option was a stylized or streamlined version of the prewar lady with wings. Prewar deluxes had separate glass wings and on the streamlined postwar version it is a single casting in all metal.

There was a prewar version of the Cormorant but the 42 accessory book says it was only available on convertibles and senior LWB cars. Of course it has been proven a few times that no matter the year an accessory was designed for or even if it had a Packard suggested restriction, if an accessory would or could be made to fit and the customer wanted to buy it a dealer would be most accommodating. The 48 cormorant with the larger spread of the wings currently on your car could have been one of those dealer accommodations.

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The 42 convertibles and LWB cars use the 41 traditional bodies, so the 42 you show is the same as 41. The 46-7 flying lady is much harder to find than the 48-51 cormorant.

Quote:Wat,

My apologies, a foot in mouth moment. Being I had a '41 120 and knew the length difference there, compared to the 110, was in the engine compartment I've extrapolated incorrectly to your Packards. Sorry