Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Truck frames are still shipped uncovered via rail to the assembly plants from A.O. Smith's corporate successor and from Budd Canada, so I'm not shocked to see the Packard frames stored outside. It could have been that the supplier would only set the line up to make Packard frames every so often since the volumes were relatively low compared to Ford, Chevy & Plymouth, etc., so maybe Packard had to buy a massive quantity all at once.

For the 500 convertibles that Packard built in '55 and the 276 built in '56, I'll bet that they added those reinforcing plates to the frames in-house. Otherwise, could you imagine the fun of trying to find the needle(s) in the haystack among all those frames stored outside?

Customers did see some evidence of sloppy workmanship on the '55 cars, as evidenced by the Popular Mechanics survey that Big Kev posted, but it could have been much worse if the dealers hadn't put in yeoman amounts of work to repair and prep all the cars. I remember one of the Nance memos (probably to his product planner Roger Bremer)saying in late '55 that his latest Patrician company car had pretty decent build quality. Unfortunately, it was already about the end for the 1955 model run, so the reputation for spotty build quality had already been earned. And that's not even taking into account what was said above about the engine issues.

are my welds structural, yes....some questionable...but overall i look at it this way...they have been holding together for 50+ years, so even though they don't look good they are working fine. once i paint and put the car on...noone will see it anyways.

For the 500 convertibles that Packard built in '55 and the 276 built in '56, I'll bet that they added those reinforcing plates to the frames in-house. Otherwise, could you imagine the fun of trying to find the needle(s) in the haystack among all those frames stored outside?

Good point and seems a logical conclusion. In addition to the trunk lid frame another place I've seen evidence of handwork on the Caribbeans is where the bronze trim casting attaches that goes from the horizontal rear fender trim up to the rear antennas (e.g. p/n 6478581); one of the punched holes in the fender has been elongated, probably with a rat tail file, to get the proper alignment. Any other V8 Caribbean owners notice this?

I'm wondering if AOS painted the frames or if Packard painted them??????

Not surprising that they are outside.

AMC as late as 1981 that i know of built, stamped and welded bodies in Milwaukee, then hauled them to Kenosha (about 25 miles) status body-in-white. Did that ALL year long!

Diffiicult to tell precisely from the pics, but it appears to me that the Packard frames are rather helter-skelterd about. I would expect to see them a bit more organized.

Several reliable people have reported that Hudson stored engine blocks outside.

Several reliable people have reported that Hudson stored engine blocks outside

If you go back to the very earliest days of the automobile in the USA, many engine blocks were bought from France which was considered to have the best casting techniques. Often these and then later those cast here were "aged" by foundries by storing them outdoors; supposedly the aging somehow was thought to relieve stresses or improve grain structure or something like that. I have no idea how long this practice lasted for and who the major proponents of it were.

I always "assumed" (and we all know how dangerous that can be!) that the frames were painted in Milwaukee before shipment. That's the way they are delivered to the remaining plants that use body-on-frame construction today, and A. O. Smith would have had facilities to do that kind of volume painting of frames. Evidently Packard didn't have room to turn around in Conner without bumping into something else, so it's doubtful that they would have dedicated any space to a frame painting area. The frames in Mr. Pushbutton's photo look nice and consistently dark, too.

Kevin

O_D, that was a very common practice. Wasn't it known as "Pickling"?

I've heard it referred to as "seasoning", as in seasoned cast iron. I wonder how many Detroit seasons were required for optimum seasoning?

I've always thought of pickling in its metal treatment context, some sort of acid dip or soak.

I had a picture (cannot locate it now) of the Pierce Arrow plant in Buffalo with a few dozen engine blocks sitting out in the snow.The caption indicated that they usually stayed out close to a year to cure.

Can someone tell me the cross street of the Conner Ave plant? From the photo in this thread it looks like it's the current Chrysler facility between Sherman Ave and Mound Road. I grew up in Detroit but was born in 1959 so I have no recollection of the Briggs or Packard plants on Conner.