Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I just came across this on google after searching for stock photos of classic car grilles.

I ran a quick search here through forums and didn't see it referenced but if by chance it has been covered previously, disregard.

Its a story George Hamlin wrote many years ago on the Request Dreamcar/Prototype.

blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/11/21/s ... packards-request-they-asked-for-it/

I have seen the Request a few times in the last couple of years.The new owner has it mechanically restored and should be starting on the rest of the car soon.Given what I have seen of the rest of his collection, it should be spectacular when done.

I was lucky to see it at the PAC meet in Gettysburg. Took pictures & video, still would like see it again! Always think of things after the fact. The really nice thing was it was driven around while at the meet. So I got video of it in motion.

I saw it at the Berkeley meet in the early 80's--also driven. It was in a less than grand condition then but the owner had repaired the front end damage to his best capabilities. It was presentable but things did not fit well. Fiberglass did not line up on one side of the grill. He admitted he did not have the resources to do a concours job -- in particular the bumper was a one off bronze casting. While some missing pieces and sections were cut and welded in, said the cost of a new bumper casting to straighten things was not possible. From the pictures posted recently, the new owner seems to have sorted that out a bit better. There still looks to be a slight problem at one corner of the hood but a vast improvement.

The embarrassing thing at the Berkeley meet was the car stuck in park as several counselor articles mentioned early 55s were prone to do. He fussed for several minutes in front of a crowd trying to get the lever to move before it finally let go.

And so, the eternal, burning question...WOULD producing the Request have kept Packard afloat?

Your question is thought-provoking. Personally, I don't relish the somewhat "tacked-on" look of the traditional grille on the Request. I think some more integrated solutions could have rendered a better looking car. We have to realize that by 1955, the whole direction of car bodies had taken a much longer, lower, and definitely WIDER stance. Teague worked in the Packard cusps and the "feel" of classic Packard subtlety with his 55-56 stock offerings, I feel. The styling cues were actually adapted to Packard's final body as early as 1951.

No, I don't believe that the Request would have saved Packard, BUT all that that classic grille represented might have! An absence of quality control issues, no innovations that weren't thoroughly tested, a tight and totally professional dealer organization, consistent advertising and more of it...now all these things might have made a big difference. And then, there was that little merger with the South Bend boys...

this car is hidious but interesting. i can't think like someone from this time, but i guess if i loved Packard for a long time and grew up with it and was in the 50s i'd probably want this. right now....i'd say pass.

i'd have to say that is why i like the 55 clipper custom grille so much. its vertical slats remind me of the older grills, but its more modernized porporations are more appealling to the eye. and that is also why i don't like the 56 version of the same grille, going to horizontal slats was wrong imho, but i guess a way to make a bit different from year to year.

Regarding The Request concept dreamcar... I knew this car very well and had friends who were involved in originally building it for Packard in 1954. For many years, I was the lone person insisting that indeed it had NOT been destroyed by Packard as almost everyone claimed. This despite what books and magazine articles back then were saying. I saw the car in a hotel parking lot in Chicago in the 1960s... so it was impossible that Packard destroyed it in the 1950s as nearly everyone claimed back then.

Later the car tuned up rather forlorn and faded in the Pacific Northwest. I also knew the three owners (not one) who later ended up with the car and did the first restoration on it. I even supplied a couple of parts for the restoration.

I have photos of me standing with the car back in the 1970s.

As for the fiberglass hood not aligning properly... folks... remember this was fiberglass done in the mid-1950s! None of it was perfect back then-even the Corvette (I have a factory photo of an early one with a huge "whoop-dee-doo" wave in the right front fender). The technology was still being learned.

Furthermore, The Request's hood hinges originally were screwed into pieces of wooden 2 x 4s molded into the fiberglass. Years later, those wood anchor points were deteriorated, so it is not surprising at all to note that the hood did not align flawlessly by the time it was seen in the 1980s. Remember too that most concept dreamcars back then were intended mainly for looking (viewing)... and not for anything approaching regular usage. Thus components were rarely fabricated to a production level grade of engineering standards.

Even the original cathedral tail lights on The Request were largely hand-fabricated. The lenses were hand-made and (while they may look the same) are (or at least were) not production lenses.

As for any 1955 V-8 transmission gear selector stuck in "PARK" position, this was a very common problem that Packard indeed issued a Service Bulletin to remedy. They also issued a countermeasure linkage part to correct the problems. Furthermore, Packard changed the cast metal arm coming off of the Ultramatic for 1956 to help avoid this problem.

But I can't tell you how many V-8 Packards I have seen over the years with the transmission gear selector arm bent around in the shape of a crescent-or even a "J" shape. This is done when somebody decides they'll just macho-gorilla the durned thing into submission! All this frustration and violence can be very simply avoided by merely reaching UNDER the vehicle from the driver's side (watch for a hot exhaust pipe, etc.) and push upward on the transmission gear selector linkage. Voila!

I know fiberglass was a problem then--even into the 60's as Stude found with the first Avanti fits. Did not realize the wooden inserts so that does explain some of the problems. The owner at the time -- think his name was Dopps -- was the one who mentioned the front end fit problem evident was mostly because of the bumper being shattered and wasn't able to be completely straightened when pieced back together.

Quote:

And now for another question to liven up the day. We know Teague did the tail lights and the Request but how much of the front on the regular 55s did he do. I swear I remember an article I read in the not too distant past mentioning that an outside company had done the majority of the front styling of the 55s. Teague et al had built on that and then had done the facelift for 56s in house. I can't remember where I read that so does anyone remember this article or am I hallucinating again.

Yes, Mr. Dopps was one of the three partners involved in doing the original restoration. There were two others-all in WA state.

What nobody mentions... or apparently notices is that the dome-shaped parking light/turn signal lenses in the first restoration were unlike the originals which were flat. When I last (recently) saw The Request in New Jersey, the lenses appear to have been corrected now.

A fellow I knew way back when was the man who actually constructed the hood, grille and the original front bumpers. These were all done at a place called Creative Industries of Detroit. They also did a lot of other work for Packard including on the Panthers and the Predictor... and other cars that Packard folk today apparently don't know about.

See the AQ Packard book and old issues of The Packard Cormorant magazine for info on who styled the front ends of the V-8 Packards and Clippers. One of the outside firms that was used as a consultant was a company called Sundberg-Ferrar if I remember correctly. And there were others...even independent sylists.