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I'm not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I find it very interesting.
Maybe someone else will find this as interesting as I do.
Making Gasoline in 1945!
Wes

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Here's a cheap and easy way to make a charger for your car battery, also you could checkout your charging system at the same time.
Wes

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I know this is not a Packard but it does along the side and back look kind of like a 1948 to me, plus with Darrin name on it who was the designer for the 1947 but not the 1948 if I have my history correct. This picture came from Popular Mechanics Sept. 1946 pg 88.
Wes

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I wonder what the wheelbase is. It looks really small, kinda like a Nash Metropolitan. I like it.

If they had built a few -- even a limited run sold to the public -- can you imagine what one would be worth today it it survived reasonably intact.

Setting aside the uniqueness of design, with the state of plastic materials in general when exposed to UV and fiberglass being in it's infancy during the immediate postwar years, unless the car was garaged most of the time I expect any car that would have been built using "plastic" material and on the road would have had the sun and weather doing a substantial destruction within a fairly short time. Even after a few years of experience with fiberglass and getting out many of the kinks, the mid to late 50s Corvettes were still not that immune to cracks and delaminating if the material was exposed.

Did any of Henry Fords earlier soybean body panels ever make it into production? I've seen movies of him bashing a trunk lid with a hammer and it surviving a few blows but wonder how they would have fared in sun, weather and ordinary use.

Some good questions Howard, with Plastic being so fragile in the day. Funny story back in 1957. I had gotten an unbreakable plastic airplane as a christmas present and I was only two at the time. I broke it shortly after it was given to me. So I would think a plastic car built in 1946 would have lasted out in the real world. And Mr. Fords car made out of Soybeans would be a sight to see today. Also I wouldn't think it would have survived long in the real world, maybe that's why he dropped the ideal.
Good food for thought!
Wes

Hi

If that Darrin looks somewhat familiar its because Dutch developed it either slightly before or concurrent when K-F contracted him to quickly come up with design for their postwar cars. He delivered an elongated version with a 'Darrin' dip in the quarter panel but generally what we got as their cars. Tooling expediency nixed the dipped beltline plus other nuances.

He received a small royalty for each car with the "Styled by Darrin" tag on the rear deck. Not at all pleased with the 'liberties' taken with his design, he requested the tag be left off later production. Darrin's relationship with K-F was as fraught and problematic as it was with Packard.

Steve

Very interesting.

You have to hand it to the guy for coming up with novel ideas. It would have to be pretty small/light to achieve that sort of (theoretical) speed on six cylinders at the time. I wouldn't want to be in a car like that at 110mph. Would it have had a separate steel frame?

From memory, the early Corvettes also had a steel chassis.

Arguably, the first successful "plastic" car was the fibreglass monocoque Lotus Elite of the late 1950s, which performed very well with a miserly Climax 1500cc four. That car solved many problems, including solid mounting of suspension components to the tub. But it was prone to catching fire and melting. Shades of Joseph Lucas.

This would have to be a pretty small car to perform the way they envisaged. That would put it in the same category as the Nash Metropolitans (and Bantams). The attraction of those escapes me. Maybe it's the usual story of not many sold or survived, so comparatively rare now. Doesn't make them good. Apologies to Metropolitan or Bantam owners.

In fairness, Nash produced some pretty decent cars early on. But not the Metropolitans or my dad's 1937 Nash Lafayette, which was notable for newer reaching a predetermined destination.

Just my tuppence (two cents) worth.

Cheers Brian

Here's a helpful little tool from Popular Mechanics Dec. 1946.
Who hasn't had a stuck valve?
Wes

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That works and you could also make a valve cradle attachment or fasten the gear puller to a slide hammer as was Packards preferred method. Not sure which one has the better control.

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