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Hello to all, I am new to the Packard world and I need some help. I just took a 1938 1182 in on trade for work I did on a customer's car. This car has no numbers that I can find. After reading posts on here and talking to a fellow site member, I found that there was only a decal for this year. My question leads to this; I was removing the front seat to get to the battery and sat the seat out of the car, when I went to put the seat back in I saw a paper in the seat springs. I carefully unfolded the brittle paper and found the numbers and other numbers such as Group A and trim 3 and it also mentioned Atlanta, GA. These numbers began with 1182 and then 6 other digits. Are these my ID numbers? If so does any one know where I could get a reproduction data plate/decal? Thanks for all of your help...John

VN's were recorded by Packard in the 30s in two ways: in the internal documentation they used the body type (1182) followed by a letter (the paint code) followed by 4 or 5 digits which was the production sequence. The number as it appeared on the patent decal or plate omitted the paint code. If there are 5 digits after the 1182 you may have been lucky and recovered the VN. If 6 digits, no. If you found 1182 with a letter after it (the paint code) and then 4 or 5 digits, you probably have the VN and should jump for joy.

Repro 1938 patent plate decals have been advertised in the Classic Car Club Bulletin for some time. If I come across the ad soon I'll add it to this post.

G'day John(fixem39),
to PackardInfo and congratulations on being the new owner of a '38 Packard. I'm thinking the "then 6 other digits" may be the thief proof number, probably 4xxxxx, and O_D should be able to verify that it's in the right number range. And, if it is, it will be readily verifiable against the embossed number in the firewall.

And I invite you to include your '38 Six in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo!

Thanks for your input. The numbers I found were 1182 x followed by five numbers. These do not match the stamped theft numbers in the firewall. Do you know what the group A and trim 3 mean? Thanks again for your help and if you do find where I could get a reproduced decal I would appreciate the help.

"X" denotes the paint color, black. The 5 digits represent the sequence number for your 1182, starting at 2001. So 1182-3000 would be the 2000th 1182 built, and so on. No help on the other notations. The VN and the theft-proof numbers are two entirely different numbering schemes for different purposes and are not intended to match.

Highest numbered 1182 known to me is 1182-19909 with theft-proof 478891.

If no one comes forward with the info on the source for the decal, I'll take another look later today or tomorrow.

PS - source for decal added.

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Thanks to everyone for your quick input and help. You have all put me in the right direction!!