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Apologies, not Packard. But postwar custom coachwork cars are rare and thought some of you would find this interesting. In yesterday's New York Times, first page of the New York Section, was this interesting article about New York's Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton, still in service with the city. Three were built and Chrysler stationed them in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit for parade duty, they were facelifted by Chrysler in 1955. Some years later they were sold to the respective cities. Apparently the Detroit car ended up in the Peterson Museum. If interested you can read the balance of the article in the Times on-line.

New York seems to treat their historic cars well. You may recall that FDR's '32 Twin Six phaeton was recently recommissioned and used by the governor to open a couple of bridge project.

Enlarging the image (left click) somewhat improves the quality of the photo.

Anyone know who did the coachwork for Chrysler?

More info:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Imperial_Parade_Phaeton

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Jay Leno did a segment on the Los Angeles car.

youtube.com/watch?v=6MIlgnvblM8

Hi Dave

Interesting cars indeed, Packard or not. Thanks for posting the Times article link. The Special Interest Auto #38, Jan-Feb. 1977 has a good history and 'drive report' on these. They were built in-house by the prototype body shop. After three years in service, Creative Industries was contracted to updated to the '55-'56 style to keep them current. Initiated by K. T. Keller, company president, the intent was for them to augment the '41 Newport dual cowl phaetons by LeBaron as well as the other pre-war Crown Imperial phaetons by Derham used around the nation at public events.

Significant in the design itself is the surface development, the crease beginning at the headlight, running to the kick-up at the rear quarter was applied to the '55 Chrysler and DeSoto body which were in development when these phaetons were begin built.

Apropos Packard: While they were having Henney build the '53-'54 lwb models, allotting a half dozen to be parade phaetons assigned to cities for high-profile events would have bolstered their prestige image, that's why Keller had these Imperial built.

Steve

Edited later to note Creative Industries performed the '55-'56 styling update.

Steve, thanks for that info. One certainly would have to be very impressed with the capabilities of Chrysler's internal prototype shop for all that sheet metal development as well as other details.

Here is what I consider to be a definitive article, being published directly by Chrysler on these cars. They do not mention that Creative Industries performed the '55-'56 update, but that has become public knowledge.

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Specs on the cars

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Here is film of it in action, on the streets of Detroit for the world premiere of "Anatomy of a murder" shot in Michigan's upper peninsula.

archive.org/details/Anatomyo1959

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Hello... of course, the coachwork, engineering and finishing of these cars was done by Creative Industries of Detroit-who also did the Packard Panthers... Packard Request and serviced/rebuilt the Predictor (after it caught fire and turned the roof into a barbeque grille and the passenger door into a window toaster!). This despite not being credited as such. By the way, the car at the Petersen has been changed more than twice and does not have the same appearance today as either of its original guises. And it is a mystery how what is claimed to be "red" leather is actually very brown in the car at the Petersen.

The NYT article is rather laughable and obviously written by someone far too young to realize that these cars indeed could be and indeed were "parked on the street" despite the silly claim that they were "too big to be parked on the street". For crying out loud... New York City never saw a longer limo than the Imperial Parade Phaeton??? "Stretches 20 feet"... 20 whole feet??? How many classic era regular cars did that? 20 Feet sounds big to a young person of today... but it just sounds big. C'monnnn!

As for Information about the Chrysler Parade Phaetons and the compendium book of Chrysler Idea Cars mentioned here, this is also included in the book, Creative Industries of Detroit- The Untold Story of Detroit's Secret Concept Car Builder. By the way, there is a Chrysler Parade Phaeton shown in the book on Page 15 with an edit error on the caption under the image. It should state that the car shown is a late version rather than "early" version. The book that has the Parade Phaeton info and is pointed out in one of the posts here is also shown and talked about on Page 56 of the Creative Industries book.

Finally, the car pictured is not the 1952 version. It is the updated version. One is one. The other is the other.

The Chrysler release on the phaetons is a bit lame IMHO. It cites 1933 Custom Imperial, however the 1932-33 model CL Custom Imperial phaeton does not have a dual cowl, instead it is a dual windshield. whereas the 1931 model CG does have a dual cowl. Someone did not do their homework.

1932 CL pictured.

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Yesss... but in the video Jay fell into the usual repetition of the mythical "Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels" story. Not. The wheels on these cars (the ones Jay is talking about) as of the update by Creative Industries were all made by Motor Wheel Company-not Kelsey-Hayes. K-H wires were different and yet they continue to be mis-identified nearly every time wires are mentioned in print, in auctions, in videos and on and on. One would think that by 2018 this automotive history ought to be known-especially by so many knowledgeable sources. Anyway, Motor Wheel also made the wire wheels for Packard in the 1950s.

And the original 1952 versions of the Imperial Parade Phaeton cars carried Borrani wire wheels with simulated knock-off hubs-still not K-H. These wheels were deleted during the updates at Creative Industries and replaced with units similar to Chrysler production wires which again were also made by Motor Wheel Company. The biggest difference between the Packard and the Chrysler wires was the center cap. However, the Imperial Parade Phaetons and any Imperials so equipped actually differed ever so slightly from mere Chrysler wheels. And Chrysler wires differed from Dodge and Plymouth wire wheels although all carried the same center cap. Ask me how I know...