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Those with an interest might enjoy this article about A. O. Smith's frame manufacturing. I'm not sure of the exact years of their association with Packard but Smith was a postwar supplier to Packard, thru 1956.

forums.aaca.org/topic/289838-remembering-an-era/

I would love to know if the 50's frames were built here.

Not sure what you mean by "50s", certainly the '55 and '56 frames were made by A. O. Smith as many of us have found the original AOS stencil in white paint with the date on the outside frame rail. I believe but cannot document that A. O. Smith provided Packard with frames long before 1955.

Maybe 30 years ago I wrote to Smith asking about a 1930s Packard frame and the did send me the specifications so their relationship with Packard goes back that far or further.

They ultimately sold the frame business to Tower International; when Fred Kanter's '52 Dietrich surfaced I wrote to Tower about the frame which would have been a special order and they advised all the records of the frame business had been destroyed.

All the 1951 and up frames are A O Smith as I have seen the stenciled name on really nice originals many times. I am thinking earlier frames also came from them as I recall a poster from some years ago with a 23d series car that had the markings. And if 23 series were by Smith, that pretty well guarantees that all the Clipper based cars back to 41 were by them.

According to the A.O. Smith history in the link provided by Owen, Packard was an early client of A.O. Smith for frames, along with Cadillac, Locomobile, and Peerless. If that is the case, then Packard was acquiring A.O. Smith frames about the time of World War I!

According to this (Page 11):

asme.org/getmedia/5d725794-06d2-4873-82e ... -AOSmith-Automatic-Frame-Plant.aspx

It looks like they were making frames for Packard starting around ~1904.

Also, I remember seeing a picture of the exterior of the Packard Plant where frames were stacked outside like cordwood waiting to be used and I believe they picture identified them as AO Smith frames. But, for the life of me, I don't remember where that picture was published.

Here is a 1946 car with an AO Smith frame:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... ic.php?post_id=90740#forumpost90740

Were the frames stamped in the same location for a particular car, 2 or 4 door, wheel base?

Where would these stamping possibly be on a 1955?

When I was a kid, growing up in St. Louis in the late-1950s, we'd ride our bikes to the huge Chevrolet plant in mid September to peek through the fabric draped fencing, hoping to get a look at the upcoming model cars, Corvettes and trucks. Lots of times, there'd be rail cars with A.O.Smith frames on sidings, blocking our view. I thought it odd because all I knew of the company were the water heaters sold by my father's plumbing supply business. But, later on I'd find out that they made many things including my 1967 Corvette's body, assembled (including finished interior) in their Iona, Michigan factory, with an "A" in the vehicle number to differentiate it from the St. Louis assembled bodies which had an "S." GM contracted with AOSmith to build approximately forty percent of Corvette bodies to keep up with demand for the 1965-67 Sting Ray models. The AOSmith bodies would be stored in the basement of the Corvette plant for seamless integration with the bodies produced locally, all of them on AOSmith frames.