Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

NO, It is not an alternative fuel vehicle! It is a genuine Packard restoration project of the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

BUT, perhaps you saw the news last summer from the
Museum. They recovered a 41 (42?) Clipper Limo from a junk yard. The 15 passenger Limo was used to transport scientists in New Mexico as part of the early Atomic Bomb project in WWII. They plan to have restoration completed by spring/summer 2009.

atomicmuseum.org/atomiccars.cfm

flickr.com/photos/atomicmuseum/2753767735/

I emailed the director recently about their progress and he wrote the following response:

Dan,
We are making good progress on the Packard. It has been stripped and the wood components are being crafted. The engine is done and all the drivetrain/brakes are redone. We got a parts car to assist in that.

The car is to be in the new museum when we open in the spring. I hope you can visit it (us) sometime in the future. The 42 Plymouth is done and should be moved in mid January.

Jim Walther
Museum Director


I think the car has 42 Clipper features, but then many custom stretch-Packards mix their accessories. This one was a custom-build of Fitzjohn Coach Company.

DanL

WOOD!!!!! in a 1941 ?????

Quote:

Probably because it was custom built?

Yes Wood.

The Flickr link (2nd one in #1 entry) shows 30 pictures of the Clipper before restoration. The roof between the two middle doors was built with wooden support. It was rotted out and collapsed from 50+ years of weather and neglect, as the pictures show.

Acccording to Dammann and Wren in their book 'Packard,'
"Sometime in early 1942, the US Army bought a total of 487 Packards. Of these, 100 were junior chassis-only unitswhich were stretched into 12 and 15 passenger vehicles, similsr to airport limousines, for specoial troop movement within various camps." (page 387).

I think what the museum has is a 42 Packard though they list it as a 41. As a custom it could be a bit of both.

DanL

Picture from 'Flickr' link

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There was an article on this discovery in the May 2006 CNB. The car was discovered a couple of years ago in a salvage yard in Grants, NM. This car, and maybe one other, was/were used to transport personnel from the train station in Lamy, NM to the University of California's project office in Santa Fe for in-processing, and thence up to the project site in Los Alamos. It seems the car was also used to transport staff from Los Alamos to the Trinity Test Site near Alamorgodo. My father's Packard dealership was just down the street from the project office. I would bet that he laid his hands on this car more than once. It is a real beastly looking car. No problem entering or exiting with a door for each seat row. For use at a highly classified project, this was not an inconspicuous vehicle.

JW,
Yes, thanks for all the details. So your father had a NM Packard dealership. I'm sure he saw and maybe serviced this old relic. It will be interesting to see what the Atomic Museum's restoration of this limo will look like this spring. I suppose they will repaint it "Inconspicuous Packard Atomic Green." Or maybe the paint is a radiation effect?

DanL

Just a follow up on this. I have a friend in New Mexico that knows I like Packards and so I recieved this note in my email this morning.

There was a front page feature article in Sunday's Albuquerque Journal that I thought you might find interesting. It's about a Packard limo that was rescued from a New Mexico junkyard and is being restored for the nuclear museum here-- it almost certainly hauled people like Oppenheimer and other Los Alamos scientists to Trinity Site for testing of the atomic bomb. The body was stretched and modifed for use by the military.

She is going to send me the article in the mail. But just thought I would past this along.

I don't know how many of you studied the substitute VN plate installed by converter (Fitzjohn) but it's worth a look. It shows the original VN, it was a 1942, not a 1941. And not converted from a limo but from a standard touring sedan (1582). Most interesting to me was the statement "maximum speed 35 mph".

Thanks!
Guscha and Owen have cracked the Atomic Packard Code!
A 1578 Touring Sedan is definitely a 1942 model (and not a 1401 Touring sedan of 1941 Clipper fame).

I have always thought they have a 1942 Clipper not a 1941. I suggested that in my original post that started this forum. I also had emailed the Museum Man that opinion before I posted this thread. {Insert Mushroom Cloud here with 'I told you so!" written all over it. }

Wonder if Oppenheimer and Company appreciated Packards?

Owen - The 35mph MAX Speed may be related to the amount of WOOD in the custom papier-mache(?) stretch section.
{Big Kev would never rebuild his Packard that way}.

DanL