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Re: Survival revisitted
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Home away from home
 
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Hi
Here's the photo to which Leeedy refers, it is found in Collectible Automobile, September 1984, Vol.1 No. 3, page 21. The article is titled "Plans for 1957: Packards That Never Were". Photography credit: "Special thanks to Richard A. Teague". Steve Attach file:  (54.39 KB)
Posted on: 2016/3/30 12:05
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.....epigram time.....
Proud 1953 Clipper Deluxe owner. Thinking about my next Packard, want a Clipper Deluxe Eight, manual shift with overdrive. |
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Home away from home
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Quote:
Yyyup! See? Bet some folks didn't believe me. And just like I said... a real car and note the 1955 style rear window and 1955 front fenders with 1956-style turn signal superimposed. The doors worked on the same principle as the 1956-57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (Rex Terry of Creative had one of the first of the Eldo Broughams, by the way). I can't find my original photo (which was very similar) anywhere. But I know that Creative Industries built at least one, possibly two of these Packard Four Hundred 4-door hardtops for Packard-quick and dirty just to show appearance, operation and engineering feasibility. Thanks for refreshing my memory on the car also appearing in CA. Oh, and by the way... this car was not intended for 1957 as some have suggested... but rather it was originally intended for 1956.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 14:52
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Re: Survival revisitted
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That's It!
I wonder if they had thought of the solution of how to lock /unlock the doors with the glass movement? Suicide rear doors make the hardtop look pretty but the mechanics of window channels and lock mechanisms must have been a nightmare for an engineer.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 16:14
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"Do you ever think about the things you do think about?"
Inherit the Wind |
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Quote:
All this stuff was already worked out by the time this photo was taken and the car built. No nightmare at all on window movement. This was simple, flat glass trimmed in metal channels, not curved like today. HUGE room inside that door. Locking/unlocking rear doors would have been no different than locking/unlocking front doors... just reversed from 2-door hardtop. The real serious issue was engineering the latching and the mounting/swing/bracing of the rear door hinges.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 16:25
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Re: Survival revisitted
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I wonder if they were thinking of using a stronger chassis similar to the one on the Carribean? I would imagine that even with the roof, I bet there could have been body sagging with having suicide rear doors and no B-pillar for central support.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 16:29
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-BigKev
1954 Packard Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan -> Registry | Project Blog 1937 Packard 115-C Convertible Coupe -> Registry | Project Blog |
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Home away from home
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Hi
One issue on cars with center-opening doors of B-pillar-less configuration is the window seal between the door glasses without binding when the doors are opened and closed. Both the '57-'58 Cadillac Eldorado Broughams and the '61-'67 Lincoln Continental convertibles had this situation. Because the front doors are most frequently used, its glass seats against a rubber edge on the rear window. As you can imagine, with its edge slightly inside the front window frame, it would bind when the rear door is opened. To alleviate this situation, mechanisms and power operation come into play. Push the rear door release, the rear window retracts rearward and down two inches for clearance. Once the door is closed, the window returns up and forward to the closed position. If the rear window is already down, the apparatus doesn't return it to closed. All this depended on limit and knife switches, yards of wiring, relays etc. For the technology of the times, it worked fairly well, though costly and expensive to repair when it didn't. Just ask any '60's Continental convertible owner about them. Steve
Posted on: 2016/3/30 17:18
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.....epigram time.....
Proud 1953 Clipper Deluxe owner. Thinking about my next Packard, want a Clipper Deluxe Eight, manual shift with overdrive. |
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Home away from home
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This is fascinating!!! Leeedy - you were never doubted. Steve - thanks for finding, scanning and posting.
Clues to how the car might have been built abound: - roof appears to be Four Hundred rather than lengthened, which together with the long rear doors would have allowed the rear windows to rotate/roll-down. Rear legroom would have been same as coupe. - beltline on doors has been cut away and handles lowered several inches, probably to move latch outboard to allow windows to extend to edge of doors and move up/down unimpeded. - rear doors have been lengthened 1.5 inches by cutting away the door forward of fender bulge and welding in a new section, perhaps from a pair of front doors and maybe even the 9 inch section from the donor vehicle's longer coupe doors. - notches have been added to side trim at rear door trailing edge to allow doors to open.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 19:50
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Quote:
Yes... well I've owned a bunch of Continentals. In my 1961 convertible as I recall, when you pushed the door handle button in from outside or moved the release handle inside, there was a solenoid that engaged and dropped the window glass a smidge... but this had as much to do with the upper seal as it did with the seal between the side glasses. The car companies used several different ways to both seal the center meeting of glass and drop the rear glass. Some went straight down... others dipped on one end and then dropped, etc. And yes, with suicide type center-opening doors, this is indeed an issue. You know the little spring-loaded flap on the rain gutter over the side glass on some 1950s hardtops? There was a double one-front and rear- on the prototype 4-door Four Hundred I saw! Either way, Creative had engineered several different side glass assemblies for several hardtops and four-door hardtops. They even did the work on setting up the 1957-58 Buick and Olds 4-door hardtop wagons. So they knew what they were doing... and they knew the best ways to get there.
Posted on: 2016/3/30 23:39
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Re: Survival revisitted
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Home away from home
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The Lincoln convertibles with the rear hinged rear doors had the rear windows lowered about 2" when the door handle was activated. The window moved down only, not back. The 57-58 Eldorado Brougham 4 door HT with similar doors accomplished it with no fancy window stuff, likewise the '58-'64 Facel Vega Excellence and the mid-50's Lancia. Seems there were simple solutions way back when.
Posted on: 2016/3/31 13:52
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