Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Looking at the fit and finish on my '54 Clipper Deluxe reminded me that this car was actually built at the East Grand Boulevard plant, which may have something to do with all 4 doors fitting so nicely! Then I recalled that a Clipper was the last car going down the line in '54, based on a photograph of the back of one as the line was being (tragically) torn up behind it.

There is also a picture of the last Packard (not a Clipper) going through the body drop on the line. Evidently, the Clipper was the actual last car.

There were dignitaries standing around during both the "photo ops", including Neil Brown with the Packard and Clare Briggs with the Clipper, so apparently a big deal was made out of this (what I would again call "tragedy") of closing down the assembly operations at E. Grand in favor of the Conner plant.

Apparently, the Clipper was white or very light colored. The color of the Packard can't be determined in the B&W photo, but it had AC. (Both cars have the trunks open, apparently standard procedure at the body drop station.)

I wonder if anything was preserved of the history of these cars, like I believe it was of the famous last '56, which was a Caribbean Patrician.

The last cars to come out of the E. Grand Boulevard plant would be tremendous milestones, considering how many cars had gone before them. Wonder what total production was out of the old plant?

The pictures are on page 574 and 575 of the Kimes book, if anyone who has the book is interested in taking a look.

the famous last '56, which was a Caribbean

Though the last batch of 56 Caribbeans were built quite late, all sources I've read (IIRC) which actually speak of the last 56 say it was a Patrician. Right or wrong, it's a well-documented event and perhaps someone has time to dig it out.

I too would like to know the specifics on the last Packard to be built at East Grand - certainly a historic car and hopefully it's still with us. It may well have had a body at least partially built by Packard employees at Conner Ave as there was a training period there for Briggs employees to train Packard employees who built the last batch of 54 bodies. The identity of the last 54 would be a good question for Robert Neal who is now doing research for his new book on the 51-54 Packards as a follow-up to his recent work on the 48-50 cars. If I remember I'll ask Robert next time I talk with him.

I too heard that the "Last Packard" was a Patrician that went to a dealer in the South.

The last car built in Detroit, Patrician #5682-4775, was shipped to Guntersville, Alabama. Here is the copy of the bill of lading from the Studebaker Museum.

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I am not very good at identifying '54's, so I don't know for sure what model is identified in Kimes as the last Packard out of E. Grand. Someone with the book could probably fill us in. The build sheet is the final word, and the photo may have been of another car-- unless someone who was there could verify it.

However, the '54 Clipper is almost without a doubt the last car to go through the body drop, as it is obvious the tracks are being torn up behind it.

So, maybe they made a distinction between the last Packard and the last Clipper built at E. Grand, or perhaps it was a longer route from the body drop to final build for the Packards.

If the total number of '54 Clippers built is known, perhaps a check through the registry would find the last one.

Thanks for the documentation, EC, and setting me straight on the last car out of Detroit in '56, or the last "real" Packard, as a Patrician. I was kind of wondering if the story of the Caribbean was a long shot, since I don't believe these cars were even finished at the Packard plant, but had additional "hand assembly."

I have corrected my previous post, and looked up the source of my faulty recollection. Look at the two bottom pics-- the Last Caribbean, and the Last Packard. How the memory plays tricks... sorry for the error:

Click below, go to the Showroom, click on 1956 and scroll to the bottom of the photographs...

packardclub.org/

I didn't realize the Patricians had any special designations. What does the A in the last Patrician's 4775A sequence number mean or is that just a too close placement of an A for the rear fender antenna option?

As I understand it the alpha character denotes changes in the production order before the car was shipped. An "A' car was built and shipped per the original order; a "B" car had one order change before it was finally delivered, and so on. There is one 56 Caribbean that was a "C", originally ordered for France with export equipment, metric gauges, the compression ratio reduction spacers, etc. It was changed twice more before final delivery as a domentic unit with the metric gauges removed, as a "C" and in the case of this particular car the history of these changes has some documentation and the car still exists. There was also at least one "D" and one "E" 56 Carib convertible, both of these within the first 5 production units so that perhaps is not too surprising; thereafter the majority (but certainly not all)of the 5699s were "A" deliveries. These codes, "A", "B", etc for the Caribbeans are all provided in the roster of these cars published a good many years ago by PAC.

Thanks. Learned about something I had never paid any attention to.

Howard, remembering your interest in the alpha suffix to the 56 vehicle numbers, I ran across this today while searching for something else. This excerpt from the build-slip analysis of all 56 Caribbeans published some years back in PAC's quarterly.

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Thanks Dave. I understand what the the author is giving as a reason but can't say I quite understand the logic if it is correctly stated in the article.

Guess I'm dense but curious what difference it made or why there would be an A for a a car "delivered to the buyer as ordered" vs the cars delivered (I assume as ordered) and having no letters at all --. To my mind it would make more sense if a car that was ordered and cancelled and then reordered got the A instead of a B -- or maybe a car that was ordered, not cancelled but had some change made during production got the A. Of course, it's all just a moot point now and probably another of those Packard interesting anomalies.