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Topic: A piece of history?

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Dave Brownell

Re: A piece of history?

#21

Home away from home

Regarding the never achieved June 26th production date, I recall reading (Ward, Kimes edited?) somewhere that the Monday production was a left over from the week before where they called back the factory crew to finish the cars that had already started down the line on the previous production day. Perhaps your car was "estimated" for the Tuesday line production and some plant manager just decided to "get this thing over and be done with it."

Although I was just a kid at the time, but as an adult, I empathetically wonder what was buzzing around Conner on that last day. Some books say that the end came as a complete surprise at the end of the day, and most of the 4,000 or so line workers did not know that it would be their last day. Surely, many of the management folks knew, and certainly the members of the Board did too. Some writers say that the original last date was supposed to be the 20th, but something must have stretched it a bit further. I feel for the emotion that must have come over the workers, but, by that time, they had already gone through many production time-offs, so why might this be different? I'm sure that many of them thought they'd be back in a few days or a week at most. Imagine the sorrow when they read the official word that The End had happened on the 25th.

Posted on: 2017/2/7 10:58

PP56FR

Re: A piece of history?

#22

Quite a regular

Thank you for the additional information. Indeed, June 25th, 1956 must have been a sad day at Conner. When parsing the registry here, there is a Patrician with a rather high VIN that was exported to France (now in Belgium). So they were still exporting, even when the end was getting closer. But maybe they still had hopes or didn't realize.

Quote:

MrPushbutton wrote:
What state (in the USA) did this car come from?

It is from Florida. Not yet titled here, but I launched the process. For such imports, we need to provide some detailed information, like engine and VIN numbers (with pictures), build date (as accurate as possible), engine specifications (for the taxable horsepower), and few other things.

Posted on: 2017/2/7 11:28

Fred
1956 Patrician Touring Sedan

bkazmer

Re: A piece of history?

#23

Home away from home

Oh dear, the vignette on 374 in3 engine.

Posted on: 2017/2/7 15:44

Leeedy

Re: A piece of history?

#24

Home away from home

There is a mistaken notion about what happened to these Packards after they left the assembly line. People assume that wham! the cars went right off of the end of the line direct to the dealers and customers. Not so. Except in certain instances, the finished Packards of this era were rarely taken directly to a dealer from the end of the factory line-especially on Conner Avenue.

Unless they were taken to the assembly re-fit substation (elsewhere on Conner Avenue) these cars were usually shipped over by by truck to a large storage lot at the corner of Mt. Elliott and Grand Boulevard. Here they were processed and prepped for shipping and loaded for final destination. Unless scheduled for factory delivery to the buyer (on-site delivery at Grand Blvd.) they all left via a side street that fed out onto Mt. Elliott. On the corner of that street was the last building erected in conjunction with Packard which had a sign that read something like "Nu-Car Driveway" or some such wording. Cars were given final factory prep and delivery processing here and then sent on their way. Forgot to mention... some cars also were prepped here for train transport. Others that were bound for a distributor (such as Earle C. Anthony) left by train both from Conner and from the lot I describe on Grand Blvd.

Across the side street from that corner was "The New Packard Bar" that served great hamburgers. Many of the Packard car prep guys ate lunch there.

As for a car that is presently in Europe, this does not necessarily mean it was a factory export car-which was a very different animal. Most of these export cars were sent out in what was known as "K.D. format" (knocked down). Fenders and other items were not installed and boxed instead. Tires were sometimes heavier grade and so was suspension. A car that is in France today could just be an ordinary domestic USA version that got exported later.

By the way... the Nu-Car building still stands today (quite modified), though almost everything that used to be around it when it was built is now gone... including the New Packard Bar which is long, long gone.

Posted on: 2017/2/8 1:00