Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Hi, Randy here, returning to my prewar roots after a VERY long absence! In the process of buying a '29 640 sedan and was wondering if anyone's ever had any luck tracing back the history of their car?

Was wondering if there are any delivery records left pertaining to the serial numbers, other than the dealer's name which is on the build tag on the firewall.

Thanks much, I'll probably be asking a lot of dumb questions in the coming months! I worked on Packards quite a bit when I was a teenager at the late Bob Crump's car museum, never thought I'd actually get to own one.

Hi Randy, congratulations on your upcoming purchase of a 640 Packard, a great motor car. You'll find plenty of willing folks here with advice when you need it.

I'm not aware of any centralized collection of original delivery information; the little I know of comes from just a handful of dealers and covers relatively few years, and none as far back as 1929. That data, perhaps including only 1000 or less vehicle s, is in the hands of a couple of individual collectors who have shared it with me; give me the theft-proof number and vehicle number and I'll check but again, nothing that far back as I recall.

Your best sources for tracking prior history would be prior owners of the car, and club roster keepers.

G'day Randy (1929PackardGuy),
to PackardInfo. I invite you to include your '29 640 Sedan in the Packard Vehicle Registry.

Thanks, as soon as I get it here I most certainly will - thanks much!

I was extremly lucky in having the original Title.
and had many conversations with the 3rd owner. I am now the 4th. My car was purchaced new buy The Industrial designer Walter Kantack and his wife Lillian.The stock market crash killed the business. This car was kept at the summer home, so never saw snow till the second owner. Lillian kept the car till she went in a nursing home in 1971, 3rd owner bought it in 1976. and I bought "Lilly" in 2002

You're a lucky guy! Having a trail like that on a car of that vintage is scarce. Problem I have, we're having a new title made because the elderly owner passed, he had bought and restored the car originally around 1971 in Pennsylvania, moved to Florida.

Some of the car's paperwork still exists, but the title was long lost so working with the relatives and a title company to get the new one - taking entirely too long. Car was sold through a dealer in Ohio. Reason I'm curious about the owner, in the paperwork there's 1930/1931 parking passes for the car at the White House and the key fob is a bronze badge-looking thing that had something to do with the car's White House parking. According to the family, the old guy had said it was a White House motorcade car, but I'm more inclined it to think it just belonged to a politician who visited there occasionally - car seems to have spent most of its life in Pennsylvania.

1929PackardGuy for incuding your '29 Standard Eight Club Sedan in the Packard Vehicle Registry.