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This was my dad's car so it is sentimental. Most of the parts are original as far as I can tell; someone did poor paint job in the 1980's, converting the green on green to a tan on black. My dad bought it that way and was a great mechanic, keeping it running for years.

My current status is to keep this car mechanically running sound. Before I put it away for the winter the breaks were grabbing, I suspect the brake linings are coming off.

The generator is shot; I replace the brushes and bearings to no avail; it still only puts out three quarters of one volt.

I had the carburetor professionally rebuilt, it works great now.

The cooling system still overheats, and the transmission cooler leaks.

The hood has a crease in it from when the hood popped open as I drove it from Iowa to Minnesota.

I had the gas tank professionally cleaned and coated.

I had the radiator cleaned and tested.

I replaced the electric fan for the heater.

I added a cooling 6VDC fan to the front of the radiator.

I added an electric 6VDC fuel pump under the driver's side door. The toggles for this and the fan are now located under the dash.

I bought 4 new polyester white wall tires and had them mounted. I probably should have purchased radials instead.

I replaced the glass in the passenger vent window, but it doesn't fit all the way into the metal, preventing the window from closing.

I tried my hand at reupholstering the driver's side door, it looks good but not great.

The body rot at the wheel wells and under the doors is going to have to wait until I either learn body work or have the money to have it done.

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Best of luck with your project and of course let us know when we can help.

Your thief-proof number looks like B08266; I'd appreciate it if you confirm that and provide the vehicle number as well (tag on front left driver's door pillar).

I saw a metal tag with the body number on it; what is a thief proof number? Sort of like a VIN?

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Additional photograph of the Back to the Fifties event; the Ford is my father in law's 29.

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additional photograph before I had the carburetor rebuilt

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Your first picture is the VIN as it's known today, back then it was the vehicle number or serial #. This was before the federal government mandated it's format and content.

Your second picture is the thief-proof number, also known as the body serial number. Since metal tags can easily be removed and replaced, numbers changed etc., this embossed number was Packard's extra security #.

Your third picture is the body number as applied by the company that produced the body, Briggs. It is usually within 25 numbers of the vehicle number and in some cases matches exactly, as yours appears to do.

Thanks! Is there an online reference that includes history of my vehicle?

Really, you're only realistic chance for getting the prior history of your car is thru the prior owners, or perhaps thru the Packard Club's roster keeper if past owners were members.

Here's a history of getting my car from Iowa to Minnesota 4 years ago; the eventual problem was 3 pieces of wood in the gas tank that would block the intake on inclines.
---March 2005---
Just thought I'd let you know how the Packard trip went - my sister Chris and I went to Iowa on Wednesday to work on Dad's estate. I cleaned out the car and refilled all the fluids, got the brakes hard (after I found the master cylinder - hidden from sight under the steering column) and took it on a test drive with my dad's good friend Andy Sorenson. We had problems getting the driver's door to latch, and ended up breaking the glass in the door, it stayed in place so I held it there with clear contact on both sides. Clear contact isn't so clear so I cut a small window with my knife.

I was worried about it overheating so I brought 3 gallons of antifreeze mixture and several quarts of oil. Funny, but neither of those ever turned out to be a problem. With my sister Chris (a saint for putting up with me) in a trail vehicle, we left Bayard Iowa before 8 am on Saturday for what is normally a 4 hour trip. This is a story on how it turned out to be 14 hours.

The 1952 Packard 300 with a straight 8 '327' drove the first 220 miles no problem, 50 MPH plus, all back county roads.

Okay, one problem. In Iowa I tried a higher speed road (Hwy 169) and boom! my hood flew up, folding and ripping at the hinges slightly. It took a lot of convincing to get it back down and we wired it down. Great. Now the driver's window and hood. Also stay off of high speed roads.

Actually two problems. In search of lower speed roads, we drove over one rickety bridge that wasn't much wider than one car. Wouldn't have been so bad but the fisherman in the middle of the bridge wouldn't move and things were mighty close for a second. When Chris drove over the bridge the fisherman got a bite on one of his lines, moving around and making things even more tense. Luckily everyone was just fine, except the fish. We then drove some white rock roads and finally found more county roads to head north on.

Nice thing about back county roads is that you get to see a lot of cool things. We saw several BIG turkey vultures, a lot of hawks, one of them on the ground as big as a dog, some deer and of course barkety farm dogs that were going to teach us a lesson. The deer totally blended in with their surroundings and were hard to see. At one point so many birds flew up that a shadow was cast over the road. Later there was one big Saint Bernard who wasn't interested in us at all, wasn't barkety and didn't want to teach us any lessons. We also passed a very pink school house that was totally remodeled. All the little out buildings were also very pink.

In Wells, Minnesota we had a nice visit with a local street rodder, saying there is a car run every August with 60 cars, and that I should bring the Packard back down. After Wells, I couldn't get much speed without the Packard choking out. It got down to 40 mph constant, then 30 constant, then right at Belle Plaine it was no go. We pulled over and worked on the fuel line and distributor wires best we could. For some reason the fuel line goes from the fuel tank to the fuel pump up to a small tank that I thought was the wiper motor up on the firewall. Anyway, there are about three places where rubber hoses aren't making much of a connection.

We drove out of Belle Plain with renewed vigor, but that quickly died north of town after the Minnesota River bridge on hwy 25. I couldn't get up the opposite hill, and returned down to a riverside park by the bridge. We tried our best to work with the fuel line, but limited mechanics working without the best of tools or parts makes for a tow phone call. I called my wife and she found a tow company in Shakopee; they recommended I call Wrecker Services from Minneapolis, because they didn't have a flat bed and didn't want to drive to Minneapolis. I called Wrecker Services and 70 minutes later Dennis showed up and loaded the car onto his 2004 freightliner flatbed. I road with him and my sister followed us 40 miles to my garage, only $208, good price. By that time we had Jim and Stephanie mobilized and they met us at the house ready to help. Stephanie had baked several banana breads, applesauce cakes and other goodies for Easter, so the house smelled wonderful.

The car started fine in my driveway and only runs poor on steep grades or when it is under load. Revving the engine it works great. I drove it into the garage and there she sits, 10:00 pm.

Very interesting story but too bad you had to learn Packards the hard way. Keep us posted on your efforts to get things under control.