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OK Guys ...

You have shamed me into continuing my quest! Hope springs eternal, so I'll keep trying to figure out different avenues to find out anything new. This sure would be a lot easier if this had been a one-owner car! And I actually have the last three owners' names. I'll go back and bug the 1980s owner again: maybe he'll get so sick and tired of hearing from me that he will finally respond! Thank you for your support.

Craig

OK Guys ...

You have shamed me into continuing my quest! Hope springs eternal, so I'll keep trying to figure out different avenues to find out anything new. This sure would be a lot easier if this had been a one-owner car! And I actually have the last three owners' names. I'll go back and bug the 1980s owner again: maybe he'll get so sick and tired of hearing from me that he will finally respond! Thank you for your support.

Craig

Probably they are just not wanting to be helpful but again maybe not. Not sure if it would do any good to send registered or certified mail but might at least get their attention.

I had to find the status of the last titled owner to a 56 Patrician because of DMV issues. I was actually hoping for a non response but via registered mail the letter was finally received by a daughter of the owner. Turns out the property at the last address was still very much in the family but owners I needed had both died and current residents not family.

Once I did make contact with the daughter and got DMV issues resolved, turned out she vaguely remembered the car but was not much help with any history.

That could be my problem as well. The owner who restored the car in the 1980s would now be in his 70s. In this day and age, he would likely still be alive; though I would have no idea what thd state of his health might be. I know that his wife, who was older than him, died in the 2000s; but I know little else. When I sent him an e-mail via Yahoo, it apparently got through since no error came back. The certified letter idea is one I had not considered. I was naive enough to think that he would be interested in helping me.

I have to beat the bushes with the Packard-Studebaker folks in New Mexico. They told me they were interested in helping me, but I haven't heard back from the two that called.

I would include a self addressed stamped envelope to help encourage him to respond.

Mr Bumble,

I want to thank you for your posting. It made me look for and at my files.

It is frustrating trying to track down history of the cars wee own. I have tried on most of the cars I own, but not much luck.

My MAC Caribbean, I tracked down the name on the title I had for the car. He bought the car in 1973 from a Dr in Eastman GA, drove it to Seal Beach California. He moved it to Portales NM in 1989.

I contacted Mr. Jenkins by letter, included a self-addressed envelope, and he replied back to me. Told me he had the original transmission, and some service books free for the taking. So I drove from Fort Worth to Portales, NM. When I arrived, I new I was in trouble, I asked to use his bathroom, and when I came out his first question to me was did he remember to flush the toilet! Needless to say we could not find the transmission, after looking allover the place. I did get another parts book, but very frustrating!

I did contact Channing S Jun, M.D. in Eastman Georgia. He he owned more than one Packard, so he did not give me much information, other than it was deemed to expensive to restore.

BUT,

The most interesting thing is a note from Mr Jenkins to the man I bought the car from, was that He was told that the car came from Chicago!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,

COULD my car be this one

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

I sure hope that you can find out what you would like to know. History makes it a lot more enjoyable I think.(I have the 'mortal remains' of a '51 sedan that belonged to an Olympian. He won gold for cycling. I look at the tormented rusty remains of his car and curse him for not looking after his Packard better!).

I came by this information some 10 years after I bought my cars, so history can become available much later than expected.

Anyway, it is a shame that there is a lack of response from some, but we see here that others are trying so hard to help!

Perhaps try a 'Tick the Boxes' check sheet approach, to make their task of replying as easy as possible, and maybe a bit of fun as well. Hope you win the battle.

Larry:

When you think about it, the Olympian may not have taken any better care of himself than he did his car!

One thing I noticed early on when I tried to decipher the receipts for the car was an almost total lack of continuity, plan, or pattern to the restoration process. The exact opposite is clear in Hank's case in the "Henry's 55 Constellation" blog. I tried to organize the receipts from the period from 1982 to 2004 when that owner sold it and came away even more confused than ever.

From the receipts it appears that that owner had begun gathering parts before he acquired the car in Albuquerque. Maybe this was just a case of getting one's ducks in a row. Adding to this confusion was the fact that the car purchased in Albuquerque is described in correspondence between the shipper and the prospective owner in Minnesota as a "parts car." Now I am left wondering if my car was one he already owned and not the one from Albuquerque.

Since there are no more records from Packard dealerships that I can find, it becomes more problematic to discern where exactly a Packard car was sold, excluding those lucky enough to have the original bill of sale or bona fide verifications of purchase records. That being the case, everything becomes speculative or at worst, contrived.

The point that I would make to all of you owners is take the time to document what you have done to and with your cars. Create your own history by detailing the purchase of your car, what work you did to restore/maintain it, where you drove it, etc. Include in this documentation the names of previous owners (if you have them) and any other details about your car.

I believe that in doing so, you provide future owners with a concise record of the car chronologically, which, when you think about it, enhances the car's desireability and establishes your honesty as a seller. I think it actually works to improve the car's value as well.

Our Packards were integral parts of previous owners' families. After all, look at all of the myriad of photos of families posing next to their cars. In a certain sense, what we do is keep alive something that meant a lot to someone many years ago.

All this time you could have been chasing a "Red Herring"? That is quite a discovery.

What you say about documentation is important, and I have tried to do this with my cars.

In 2003 I bought a very nice unrestored Datsun 240Z, an orange one. It had obviously been well taken care of all its life and had been in the same family since new. What really made an impression on me was a log book that came with the car. The log documented just about everything the owner had done to the car since taking delivery of it from the Seattle dealer. There were entries from day one for about the next 20 years. He made notations of the tires he bought, the tune-ups, just about everything including some MPG figures from time to time. Over time the quality of the entries and the hand writing deteriorated until there were no more.

I keep my receipts and make notes on logs on my iMac. I also have noted previous owners a best as I can. This information should help the next owners. Project blogs on this site are a great way to add to the documentation.

(o{}o)

JW:

A very simple way to document maintenance and parts is to set up an Excel spreadsheet. This way you create vertical columns for various items such as oil changes, filters, brakes, transmission, and other elements. Horizontal columns note the dates and notes about the repairs. No handwriting required and keeping track is easy. Plus you can print out the file to show repair shops and prospective buyers.

Another solution (to accompany the Excel spreadsheet) is to scan all repair reciepts and place them in respective folders. These, along with the spreadsheet, can be saved onto a thumb drive or CD that you can give to a new owner. That way he or she can continue documentation if that person is so inclined.

I have used this method to keep track of my daily-use cars and like you with the 240Z (which is a really cool car in my opinion!), these really add value to the car. Attached is an example of such a spreadsheet.

Attach file:

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