Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Were there any 1955-56 Packards made in Hearse or Ambulance bodies?? I know I've never seen one....

John

There was one crafted locally in Scandinavia, in Sweden IIRC; I don't know any details and it's not shown in Jan Stroman's excellent book on the Swedish coachbuilders. I'm not aware of any others on the 55/56 chassis.

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I figured maybe Packard was going for the more upscale market image by 1955. Though Cadillac had ambulance bodies up into the 60's....

Packard's dealings with Henney ended in 1954 and not under the best of circumstances. Plus, they already had far more on their plate for 1955 than they could handle, not enough time and manpower to iron out their manufacturing and quality problems much less give any thought to a commercial chassis and a coachbuilder to replace Henney.

Thanks Owen for the explanation on the subject. John

John, with your interest in the subject you might want to try to pick up this issue of the PCS magazine.

The 1951 Packard/Henney product was very upscale, some list prices given in the article for comparable models:

Packard/Henney: $6760
Cadillac/Superior: $6470
Cadillac/S&S: $6546
Cadillac/Miller: $6270
Buick/Flxible: $6270

By 1954 the picture had reversed:

Packard/Henney: $7150
Cadillac/Superior: $7264
Cadillac/Miller: $7399
Cadillac/Eureka: $7741
Cadillac/S&S: $7895

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I seem to remember this subject from a few years ago where Guscha or one of our other European posters had a photo or link to what was believed a 55 conversion that was sitting in a car yard. Don't remember if it was for ambulance or hearse use or just a wagon conversion but from what you could see, it looked to be an interesting car.

It would be interesting to know if Torsion-Level could handle the weight or if it had conventional suspension. If the former, then only the stock wheelbase would be possible and the one shown with the Swedish body does not appear extra-long but if the latter the wheelbase could be increases. The 1955 hearse is not at all bad looking but, of course, is done in the European style.

I can't find the photo of it now to add to the discussion - but there was a very good looking '56 Packard Patrician conversion to an ambulance done by the company in Europe (Belgium? Holland?) that built both Packards and Studebakers from knock-down kits.

The company in Belgium that had the contract in the 50s with Studebaker to assemble the knock-down kits was D'Ieteren Freres and I believe they are still in business today, they had a similar contract with Volkswagon to assemble for the Benelux countries (Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg). I recall hearing that they did assemble possible 2 Packards in 1955/56 so possibly they were the folks that did the conversion you mention. They were a well-known high end coachbuilder in the Classic era, providing exquisite coachwork for Minerva, Rolls, Hispano, Duesenberg, L29 Cord, Packard, Cadillac, and the like. They were still doing coachwork in the 60s on Porche chassis, perhaps others.