Packard Forum Index » General

If you haven't noticed yet there is a new option in the Main Menu (to your left) called Service Index. This is a catagorical index to all the various STBs, SCs, SBBs, TL, and other service documents that existed in Packard land.

This Service Index allows you to quickly all related service infomation about a particular subject. For example, lets say you are looking for service information on Brakes on a 1955 Clipper. The Index will show you every service document that references Brakes as it relates to the 1955-1956 models. The service information extended into the SSB (Studebaker Service Bulletins). So Brake service infomation
about that 55 Clipper may have been discussed in a 1959 SSB, the index will reference that. Also the index will point back to previous years service infomation if applicable. So if you want to know about oiling your Windshield wiper motor for that 55 Clipper, then it will point you to a 1948 STB on that subject as that information is universal. I think you get the idea.

The first section ready is for the 1955-56 Models and is built around all the tireless research that Brian (BH) did. But what we did was make it into a database driven feature, so not only does it tell you what Sevice document the information you are looking for is in, but then it gives you a link to the service document if that exists here on the website. If you have a service document that the website is missing, the please donate a copy so we can get everything filled in.

Brian has also commited to do the research on the 51-54 servies cars, and will help others with the previous years. So if anyone out there would like so help out

Please give us feedback on this new feature! Thanks again to Brian for all his research and reformatting to make this into a great new feature!

SSSSUUUUUWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTT!!!!

thanks for starting with the 55-56 ;0)

I FREAKING LOVE THIS SITE!!!

Hank

Great job Kevin! This is the best marque related sight on the Net. You've really made it easier to find the specific info needed for our Packards.

Thanks again!!

Thanks guys. Brian really did all the heavy lifting on this. I just managed to integrate it into the website. But in the process, I think we have laid the framework for all the future indexes.

Kevin, just "peachy" as was said in my youth. Spiffy (or is it spify?) is another word that comes to mind.

Here's To BigKev and BH!! A round of rootbeers!!!!(..that's the only beer that I drink..)

Yes - a toast to Kev for the site and Brian for enhancing it.
I believe I could even have a dram or two of the hard stuff to congratulate Brian for his hard work.
Seriously, we all appreciate your efforts.

Kev and Brian, Thanks very much!

Thanks to all for your kind comments.

Most of the "heavy lifting" took place long ago; acquiring a complete set of photocopies, followed by some (though not all) of the original pieces, transpired over the course of many years. In more recent years, when I had the necessary hardware and software, I began toying around with composing the "missing" index pages for the 1956 SCs and STBs, emulating the factory's original style, but that work never got the finishing touches.

You see, the missing pieces of the Studebaker puzzle came to the surface. After I finished indexing and cross-referencing the SSB articles and saw what had happened with the latest edition of the 1955-56 SC reprints, I realized that a more comprehensive, single index was needed. Though these publications may not hold the final answer to all questions, there's a lot to be learned from all this material.

First composed as a table in MS-Word, I cut-n-pasted that index into a hand-coded HTML document for the web. While there was some talk about having links to actual scans of documents back then, I sure didn't have time or all of the original pieces to do so. Of course, that was before PackardInfo.

With the advent of this well-constructed site came a great influx of donations of original material. I'd talked with BigKev about hosting my V8 index page, but he wanted something more dynamic. Then, when people started asking for just such a reference, and not only for the V8s, we got down to the brass tacks. Yet, as much as it would be nice to make this purely user-driven, a path needed to be laid - hopefully one that others might follow.

As such, starting out with the 1955-56 stuff was a no-brainer, but it took a lot of clean-up work after converting a Word table to an Excel spreadsheet (our choice for a mass upload, rather than manually entering over 350 references). I also found and corrected enough typos in my original work, but added some new entries (and thanks to HH56 for that fine piece on lubricating the WSW motor). Then, after creating the entries that BigKev's kung-fu programming would translate into hyperlinks to actual documents, I took time to audit the table, line-by-line, as best I could. Then, it took a couple of test uploads of smaller files and implementing some changes based on what we learned from our mistakes, plus a final inspection, before we could go live.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something; please let me know if I did.

Meanwhile, to work backward in time, into the PreWar era, I had to figure out how to connect the dots between SCs, STBs and supplemental service publications, and tried to explain the connection in an introductory piece for the new feature.

So, please be patient for the index for 1951-1954 cars. That one will take a bit longer, as I'll be working from scratch, but it will be just as good. Then, we'll be wrestling with how to parse the earlier years and series for the next index after that, and we may be asking for help with the research.

However, what's presently archived here begins to come up short as we move back in time. Hopefully, scans of earlier shop manuals and bulletins will come in by then, but it's going to take people with more knowledge than me to create indices for the PreWar cars.

It is truly amazing what can be accomplished today, thanks to the Internet and people who are willing to share the time, talent, and information that they have.

So, thanks also to all who have contributed to the best of all websites for Packard enthusiasts around the world!

Thanks to more hard work from Brian (BH) the 1951-1954 Service Index is now online. This works just like the 1955-56 Index that Brian authored earlier (read back through this thread for more information). This should prove to be a valuable resource for owners try to find specific topical service information without have to looking blindly through all the various STBs, SC,s, SSBs, and other Packard service document.

Just click on the "Packard Service Index" link on the main menu to give it a whirl!

Thanks Brian! Well done!