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Wonderful work, Kev!

With so many entries, it was taking too long, with my dial-up connection, for the single, all-encompassing, Owner Registry page to load. Yet, even when connected via WiFi, I found myself drumming my fingers. The Registry homepage now loads quickly, and the additional navigation, like the Model Info pages, is easy.

Yet, I'm not quite sure what to make of this change that substitutes the Model Info image when no pic is submitted - seems a bit confusing to me. Perhaps some other universal "No Image" icon is needed - like a camera icon overlaid with a circle/slash. I'm curious as to what others may think.

All things considered, this remodel is a big step forward for an important feature. Some clubs that collect such info never seem to make it widely available for the benefit of their members at-large, which makes you wonder (suspiciously) what they're doing with all that data. Here, our Registry is accessible to all viewers, as well as registered members. Yet, members control just how much personal information they provide.

If nothing else, our Registry helps people connect with other owners of same models. One member thought that important enough to ask that others add car info to their sig line, including links to their Registry entries, and I've since seen plenty of people do just that.

However, I don't understand the fuss being made over Mal's stewardship of the feature. Without it, the Registry wouldn't be nearly as big as it is now.

As a Forum Ambassador, Mal's "Welcome" posts to new members, which also promote the Registry, certainly fit the bill. Now, I'm no Emily Post, but Mal's follow-up with "Thanks" to those who did add their car to the Registry only makes sense. I like that a lot better than an insincere, automated birthday message that appears on some sites only because I entered my DOB at the time of registration.

Still, if others have some problem with how the Registry is being promoted, let's hear about it, with some constructive criticism, so we can adapt accordingly, but continue the momentum.

Very nice. Like the sorting options although one by names would still be nice to see what kind of car a poster is talking about when asking a question--but think you mentioned not possible with your current engine.

The larger pictures are also nice although some seem to have a fair amount of artifact or image loss when blown up. An interesting thing on 56th series is the 5th entry I see has a picture of a Golden Hawk listed as a Caribbean. Is this an anomaly or did the owner post a wrong picture.

I can't make any changes, because I'm not the owner? As far as I know, I am still the man who owns one!

Tom

There was a small bug with users editing there own entires that I found. It has now been fixed.

Quote:Howard,

I think this is explained by the default in the Model Number drop down list being "5699 - Caribbean Convertible Coupe" with none of the drop down options being for a Golden Hawk!

Looks like a job for Kev!

I've already started work on fixing some entries thanks to a PM that Brian, BH, sent me back in March covering the 55, 56, 57 and 58 years and touching on 54! They have all been done, but there are many more to go.

And in that regard I need some help. What I'm looking and asking for are people to review the 54 and prior years with a view to identifying Model numbers where there isn't one, or where they are obviously mis-indentified. Sometimes the information provided in an entry is insufficient to make a proper identification and, in those circumstances, any entries where the Model number is unable to be clearly established won't be corrected. They'll be left as historical anomalies or for such time as they can be properly identified.
Any volunteers?

Familiarity or expertise with a particular year or years would be an advantage but don't let that deter anyone, all contributions are welcome. And, if you do review a year or years, could you post the year/years reviewed in this thread so we're not all covering the same ground. The results of the reviews can be PM'd to me and I'll act on them when received. A similar group approach worked very well a while back when the Photo Archive was reviewed and that had many thousands of photos, in the Registry there only hundreds!

Have reviewed and updated the Pre-War years in the Registry. There are some which haven't been updated yet because of clarifications I'm waiting on from the owners together with some unusual Henney and other coachbuilt cars which aren't a part of the Model Info pages.

Note - Kev's advice of "Mal is going to help with fixing some of the missing and errant model numbers on some of the older Registry entries. With this in place, the Model Name will be automatically filled from the Model Info pages for consistency" requires some explanation. Newer entries, where Model Numbers are linked by drop down list to the Body Number in the Model Info pages already have the Body Number as the Model Number. So I have been reviewing the older entries where these fields were originally free form text. Most were straight forward so instead of something like "1501" it's now "1016" for a Club Sedan, or "1100" it's now "703" for an Eight Sedan, etc, etc. Others required some investigation and most I think are right.

But I invite everyone to review their entries to see and check the changes.

I can edit my entry now~

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!


I like the changes- loads much faster.

Mal -

I've run across something that may have bearing on your work, but requires a little background.

In wrapping up the 48-50 Service Index content and preparing to work on the 41-47 installment, I found some anomalies WRT to Clipper models. Of course, all 46-47 Packards were Clippers, and there was only one 1941 Clipper model (body 1951), but the '42s had me scratching my head.

When it comes to these Packards, I'm just a layperson, but apparently the lone Clipper model was a late-comer for '41. Yet, it was so well-received that the Clipper was expanded across the Six and Eight (Junior) lines, and Clipper styling was also applied to the 160 and 180 Senior models for in 1942. However, because not every body style was available in Clipper form (like convertibles and custom bodies), some models from previous years had to be carried over from 1941.

It appears, then, that the following 1942 chassis/models are Clippers:

2000-10 - Six
2001-11 - Eight
2003 - Super Eight One-Sixty
2006 - Super Eight Custom One-Eighty

...and the following 1942 chassis are NOT Clippers:

2004-05-07-08-20-21-23-30-55

However, in reviewing this site's Model Info for 1942, I found the model names rather confusing.

While the parts book and a factory ID chart (by series/chassis/model numbers) reference 110 and 120, I've read that those designations were dropped from model names after 1941. Only "One-Sixty" and "One-Eighty" were retained for 1942, which appears to be the final year for those.

I don't have any factory sales literature that goes back that far and most books don't provide much of a clue, but the Crestline book seems to have the most complete model names, and based on that I've arrived at the following:

Chas Body Model Name
---- ---- ---------------------------------------------------
2000 1582 Clipper Special Six Touring Sedan
2000 1585 Clipper Special Six Club Sedan
2000 1588 Clipper Special Six Business Coupe

2010 1502 Clipper Custom Six Touring Sedan
2010 1505 Clipper Custom Six Club Sedan

2001 1592 Clipper Special Eight Touring Sedan
2001 1595 Clipper Special Eight Club Sedan
2001 1598 Clipper Special Eight Business Coupe

2011 1512 Clipper Custom Eight Touring Sedan
2011 1515 Clipper Custom Eight Club Sedan

2003 1572 Super Eight One-Sixty Clipper Touring Sedan
2003 1575 Super Eight One-Sixty Clipper Club Sedan

2006 1522 Super Eight Custom One-Eighty Clipper Touring Sedan
2006 1525 Super Eight Custom One-Eighty Clipper Club Sedan

The nomenclature for the 160 and 180 models is verbatim from the Crestline book, but I'm not entirely sure of the correct "syntax" for the Junior model names, as the that same book doesn't use the word "Clipper" in its discussion of those models (e.g. - Special Six, Custom Eight, etc.). So, for the time being, I've assumed the use and placement of "Clipper" for the Juniors, but I could be "all wet" on that.

Also, in the course my explorations, I found some other areas which may need correction:

- In 1942, a Super Eight Custom One-Eighty All-Weather Cabriolet by Rollston (Body 894) is listed as Chassis 2007 in Model Info, but shown as 2008 in other publications, such as PI's production info and the Dawes book.

- The 1946 and 1947 Clipper Eight Club Sedans (Chassis 2101, Body 1695 and Body 2195) do not appear in Model Info, but their existence appears to be corroborated by PI's production info and the Dawes book.

- The 1946 Clipper Deluxe Eight Touring Sedan (Body 1612) and Clipper Deluxe Eight Club Sedan (Body 1615) and 1947 Clipper Deluxe Eight Touring Sedan (Body 2112) and Clipper Deluxe Eight Club Sedan (Body 2115) are classified as Chassis 2101 in Model Info, but listed as Chassis 2111 in 1941-1947 parts book, and corroborated by PI's production info and the Dawes book.

I had previously shared this, privately, with BigKev, but know that he's a busy guy. I'm not sure who originally worked on the 1942 Model Info pages and not trying to lay blame, but simply hoping we can arrive at the correct model names for the Model Info database, which clearly impacts the Owner Registry.

Have gone through all years now for the Registry with most older entries updated to the best of my ability. There are some not updated, mostly special vehicles like Henney's, because they aren't in the Model Info pages. The others remaining to be updated are waiting on responses to my PM's to Owners because there was insufficient information to enable reasonable identification of the Model concerned.

Please review your own vehicles Registry listing to see if/how it's changed. If there any concerns please let me know.

And Brian,

You've done a wealth of research there, well done, I think Kev did the updates on the Pre-War Model Info pages.

Most of the information on the pre-war models came out of the Standard Catalog of American Cars. So there are probably mistakes there that carried forward into the Model Info pages. This is one of the reasons why I have asked for a couple of years for someone (or many ones) to step forward that is detail oriented on these models to perform an audit and edit of these models to clean up all the Pre-War models. They are not my specialty by any sense of the word so I am just regurgitating what was available to me in the reference books I have at my disposal when the initial dump of data into the Model Info pages was preformed.

So if any of the Pre-War gurus want to tackle one or more years and perform an audit based upon Packard generated documentation (as opposed to 3rd party references) then please raise your hand and I will put you to work!