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Topic: Packard Request

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RogerDetroit

Re: Packard Request

#21

Home away from home

Not quite head on, but would this help?

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Posted on: 2015/9/27 11:39

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1941 Model 160 Convertible Sedan
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acolds

Re: Packard Request

#22

Home away from home

A few pic from Gettysburg in the hall note our Randy in the back ground. The last picture was at the Motel at night

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Posted on: 2015/9/27 18:59

Leeedy

Re: Packard Request

#23

Home away from home

Quote:

BH wrote:
As The Request is one of my favorite show/concept cars of all-time and any brand, that sounds like and admirable undertaking.

It's certainly feasible in that the unique hood, grille and bumper simply bolted right up to a stock '55-400.

The first question is how closely you can duplicate those parts; then, at what cost.

There was a photogrammetry process I read about some years ago where you could take photos and turn them into 3D templates for panel/part fabrication. However, I believe you would need access to the actual Request to apply markers and get sufficient numbers of digital views.

Also, if you can find a copy, The Packard Cormorant magazine featured an excellent article on that car, shortly after it had been restored back in the mid-1970s, which you may find enlightening. It mentioned some interesting details like the plastic crest cast into the fiberglass hood, a section of 2x4 laminated into the hood panel as hinge reinforcement/tapping plate, etc.

However, you won't be the first person to attempt to build their own Request. Someone's incomplete work turned up for sale in Cars & Parts magazine a few years after the restored Request debuted. It wasn't so much a duplicate, an attempt to integrate a grille from a '37 or '38. I believe one of the Kanters owned this car at that time.

RE: the "plastic crest cast into the fiberglass hood"... I have known the Request since it was first built and friends of mine at Creative Industries of Detroit actually built it for Packard. No idea what is on it as of today-right now-but the original crest on the Request hood was cast brass, with a 3-D relief. This medallion was then recessed into the molded hood. The original mold for the hood merely included a recessed area where the special metal Packard crest would fit, but there was no plastic crest.

RE: "stock 1955-400" ... Actually these parts were not merely bolted to a stock 1955 Four Hundred since no such animal existed at the time the Request was built. The Request was actually built on a very, very early-what the auto industry would call-pilot production body. It was so early that the tail light housings and lenses had to be hand-constructed since production units had yet to be manufactured. This, I can assure you.

And yes, there were several other semi-clone Request-like cars built after the Request debuted and drew so much attention.

Furthermore, much of the "information" that continues to circulate about this car is myth.

Posted on: 2015/9/28 0:59

Leeedy

Re: Packard Request

#24

Home away from home

Quote:

Owen_Dyneto wrote:
The Request was also featured in the Winter 1976 issue of PAC's The Packard Cormorant ; past issues are only available back to 1978 but if you send a PM with your mailing address I'll photocopy the article and mail to you.

As a last resort, you can find the issue of The Packard Cormorant with the Request on eBay. Likewise for the Collectible Automobile. But the magazine aside from TPC with the most stuff from those days with the car was first being restored was "Car Classics" magazine. Again, locatable the same way.

RE: duplicating the Request... Any serious duplication would be quite intricate and costly. Just the grille alone consisted of a lot of very complicated rippled and bent strips of heavy metal. Then there is the massive casting of the hood... and then you're still left with the issue of the huge, heavy dual front bumpers and then after you've cast them, there is the plating.

Posted on: 2015/9/28 1:14

Leeedy

Re: Packard Request

#25

Home away from home

Quote:

Owen_Dyneto wrote:
Bernardi, your photocopies of The Cormorant article are in the post. Contains some good observations and details on the construction features and the "refurbishment" back in 1975. The car was built in October 1954 and many of the components that appear to be stock 1955 items were not. Tail lights for example were hand-made, shimmed, glued, etc. And much more. The car was apparently sold "out of Packard" in 1957 and quickly went "underground" with rumors abounding that it had been scrapped. Larry Dopps of Oregon found it decaying away in a field in Oregon in 1974.

? Actually my friend Larry Dopps was out of Washington state. And Larry was one of three partners who originally restored the exterior of the car. The Request was found in Oregon.

? The Request was not "sold of of Packard in 1957"... it was simply taken home in 1956 by someone who was-shall we say-a senior person at Packard. This person's wife actually drove the Request on the streets on numerous occasions. I can tell you it was driven on the streets in Florida and in Chicago-among other places until it was wrecked and changed hands more than once.

Posted on: 2015/9/28 1:23

Leeedy

Re: Packard Request

#26

Home away from home

Quote:

Owen_Dyneto wrote:
Bernardi, I appreciate the thank-you, it's a bit disturbing how often you mail stuff to people and never get a thank you or hear anything back. You give me incentive to continue to do so. The really old issues of The Cormorant and The Packard Cormorant are really terrific sources of information, though occasionally one must temper it with information subsequently uncovered.

One of the observations we made when we saw the Request at Gettysburg in July was the interior upholstery pattern was more like a 1956 style than 1955. It was postulated that the interior was "updated" for the car to make a second round of dealer exhibits in 1956.

There are a lot of folks making guesses about the Request, but you cannot look at the car today and see how it looked when new. Or guess how it was done.

? RE: the "update" of Request... The so-called "update" of Request did not include the present interior at all. In fact, the second interior included was a 1956 Four Hundred fabric interior. This interior has apparently been recently removed.

? The original interior was basically a 1955 Caribbean pleated genuine leather interior-which is also no longer in the car-with leather supplied by Lackawanna Leather Company. Ask me how I know.

Posted on: 2015/9/28 1:31

Re: Packard Request

#27

Forum Ambassador

Quote:

RE: the "plastic crest cast into the fiberglass hood"...

Not sure whether I got the notion that the crest was plastic from an old magazine article or that I (mistakenly) assumed that the builder had borrowed a piece from the '54 Seniors. Perhaps I misinterpreted the use of the term 'cast' in that context.

Regardless, here's a nice view of that detail on the car from another site:

conceptcarz.com/view/photo/1187884,23811/1955-Packard-Request-Concept_photo.aspx

...which appears to show a polished/plated and colored metal part. Sure looks a lot like the same pattern as used for the plastic crest (to me).

Quote:

RE: "stock 1955-400" ...

I understand the purpose of pilot production vehicles. However, the 'hand-constructed' parts that you (Leeedy) cited are only trim pieces, and we have seen several examples of changes in trim from pre-production (as shown in the early 55th Series brochures) and even running changes during the production year (such as the 55th Series Clipper side trim). I even had a couple of original Patrician rear door (spear) moldings that were cast in bronze.

However, it's not like the Request was some hastily cobbled-up mule. I doubt that the regular production body shell would have changed so much from the pilot run that the Request front clip could not have bolted right up to ANY 55th Series Four Hundred. Heck, we've seen '55 front fenders installed on '56 models and vice versa, and I'm sure you know the subtle difference betwewen the two.

Anyway, thanks for providing further details.

Posted on: 2015/9/29 11:24

Brian

1956 Executive hardtop
1956 Patrician sedan (1 of 2)
1956 Four Hundred hardtop
1956 Patrician sedan (2 of 2)
1956 Caribbean Hardtop

58L8134

Re: Packard Request

#28

Home away from home

Hi

Here's the front of the Request-style 400 hardtop custom in the Kanter's collection. Although the upper section is definitely late '30 Packard, the lower half strikes me to be a late-'40's-early '50's large truck upper radiator shell, though can't put my finger on make.

With careful selection of '50's bumper sections, 'dagmars', pans, and grille material from a variety of makes, plus hand-formed sheet metal, one could come up with a pleasing custom version of the Request styling. Not authentic, of course, but done simply to satisfy personal taste and the desire to have 'something different'.

If its done with prior design work and reasonable taste to avoid the sourced parts from being obvious as to their source and fine workmanship, I would enjoy seeing a '55 Patrician or 400 appear with such custom work. Can't be a total purist all the time!

Steve

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Posted on: 2015/9/29 17:01

.....epigram time.....
Proud 1953 Clipper Deluxe owner. Thinking about my next Packard, want a Clipper Deluxe Eight, manual shift with overdrive.

55clipper

Re: Packard Request

#29

Home away from home

I hate to say it, but that Request front treatment kind of reminds me of an Edsel.

Posted on: 2015/9/29 17:35

phsnkw

Re: Packard Request

#30

Home away from home

Yeah. You have to get the proportions right. How about this one? The horizontal elements keep one thinking of a wider front end while the vertical part still has a "Packard" feel to it.

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Posted on: 2015/9/30 11:46

"Do you ever think about the things you do think about?"

Inherit the Wind

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