Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

<i>" D'Ieteren Freres "</i>

Yes! That's the company. Thank you! I couldn't remember the name - I remembered that it was a French name and thus thought the company was in Belgium, but I also had it in my head that the photo I saw of the 56 Packard ambulance had been taken in Holland. (Perhaps the photo had, in fact, been taken in Holland - it's not that far from Belgium.)

I'm still trying to locate the photo. The conversion was very nicely done - the rear was better integrated into the A-B pillar sections of the roof than the Swedish conversion shown. (That said, the Swedish conversion looks nice.)

George Hamlin dug up the photo I was looking for. HIs source says that it was Dutch. Perhaps it was in use in the Netherlands but built by D'Ieteren in Belgium.
Note that the ambulance beside the Packard is a '60 Ford.

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George Hamlin found another '56 Packard ambulance, apparently built by Huiskamp in the Netherlands. It appears to be flying a Swedish flag:

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Interesting photos this post has brought forward!

Huiskamp is still very much in the business of commercial vehicle conversions.

Looking at the images of the Huiskamp conversion and the images of the other '56 Packard ambulance, I suspect they are both Huiskamp conversions. This would explain why the photo of the ambulance at the hospital I got from George Hamlin would have identified it as being Dutch. Perhaps D'Iteren didn't do the ambulance conversion.

Here are the photos of the '55 Clipper conversion that was found in Portugal. If it wasn't a hearse, it may well have still been utilized in the funeral business.

Steve

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Re the black & white photo in post #2 of this thread, I'm now advised the photo was taken in the Netherlands on January 11, 1963. The occasion was the funeral of four children from Nieuw Vennep, who died in a fire. Below is the uncropped photo.

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D'Ieteren is still in business today, but they do different things: car leasing, car financing, and are a major company in car dealerships. They represent 22% of the Belgium car sale market (VW, Skoda, Audi...).

One can see quite a number of Packards at the D'Ieteren Gallery in Brussels (not opened to the general public).

Regarding custom built wagons in Portugal, that's not surprising, they built there quite a number of those. Even when the wagon existed in the catalog, they took sedans to convert them into wagons, that were usually used as hearses.

Here are two pics of a 1955 Patrician. The car is supposed to be still in existence. It was (is ?) part of the Funer?ria J. da Silva.

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Howard (HH56), I skimmed through old posts but all I could find was a ZIL.

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Fred (PP56FR), no wonder that the below shown Clipper waits for a new owner in Portugal.

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