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Everyone will forge their own path as they should. I agree with Jim's comments about younger guys wanting to get into Packards, and then are drvien away because in some ways they dont feel welcome.

At the risk of flaming bags of dog doo on my porch, here are my thoughts...

First budget and planned use are going to dictate everything.

If someone is looking to build a restored car, then obviously they should be keeping things original. But if you are building a low-budget driver, then you have to pick your battles. For me, I want a car I could drive whenever, where ever, and not spend 30 years restoring it. We are a single income family, and I have two daughters, a wife, and a large So Calif mortgage for a 50 year old, 1175 sq/ft home. So not exactly Donald Trump over here. For me I always wanted an old car to tinker with and drive. So when I started looking for an old car I didn't want another Ford or Chevy that could be constructed from a catalog with no original parts. So I found my Clipper (Rusty as the kids call her) off of ebay for $500. When I talked to the seller, she said that she has sold the Clipper with a Pre-War packard to a collector as a package deal as she was loosing her storage space, but the collector only wanted the Pre-War Packard commenting that the Clipper would cost him more money to have towed and scraped then it was worth.

So basically that if I didn't but the car, it would have been scraped. When I am done with the car I will have put more 3x money into it by far that it will be worth at current market prices. The plan I have is to maintain as much of the original looks and mechanical systems as possible. But may it viable as any other car in our family for driving anywhere anytime. Sure I could have keep the 6v system. But the existing harness was completely brittle, and rat chewed. 12 generic harness = $200, 6v replacement harness $1200. The next this to consider is location....location, location, location. It gets 115 here in the summer. So A/C is a requirement of mine, and my families. I dont have the cash to source an original system. Which would probably cost about $2,000 - $3,000 to buy and rebuild, if I could even find all the parts. So a $500 modern A/C system, with a period correct looking under-dash unit will do just fine.

Do I try to find all the hydraulic parts for power windows? No, a simple electic window kit will do just fine, but I will use the correct Packard window switches.


I am not building a museum piece, just a nice, comfortable driver that the family will enjoy and trying to do that on a meager budget before my kids get too old to want to spend family time together.

Everyone needs to pick and choose their battles, and the trick is to reduce that amount of battles with windmills.

Just my comments....

Kev, as always I enjoyed your answer, I understand your desires and circumstances and think you're doing a commendable job. I'd be glad to be seen in your Packard any day!

One thing that hasn't been discussed much here within the context of "daily driver" is that of motor vehicle registration, historic plates, and insurance. Car insurance here in NJ is the highest in the nation I believe. Many of us want to avail ourselves of "historic registration" which totally exempts us from state MV inspection, has a one-time registration fee with no renewal costs, and facilitates less expensive insurance, but also puts limitations on the use of the car. In NJ the historic registration and tags are (to paraphrase a bit) for "exhibition and education purposes only". This even excludes maintenance, and certainly prohibits daily driving. Not that you're likely to be caught by the cops who could care less, but God forbid you have an accident with personal injury, a sharp lawyer could make you a pauper for life for illegal and (they'd claim) negligent misuse of driving privilege. It's just not work the risk for some of us. Yeah, I push it once in a while for a spin around town or short joy ride, but not too often.

I'd be interested in how other states limit the use on historic registration.

Dave,

Here's Missouri:
"To qualify for historic license plates, a vehicle (passenger vehicle, truck, or motorcycle) must be 25 years old or older, owned solely as a collector's item, and used for exhibition and educational purposes.

Vehicles displaying historic or antique license plates may be driven:

1. To and from exhibitions and educational events without any mileage limitation;
2. To repair facilities within a 100 mile limit; and
3. Up to 1,000 miles per year for personal use.

The owner is responsible for keeping a log of the miles driven for personal use each calendar year. The log must be kept in the vehicle when the vehicle is being driven on any state road.

Historic license plates are a permanent registration and cannot be transferred. If you sell or dispose of the vehicle, you must return the plates to the Missouri Department of Revenue."

One time charge of $28.75. No Inspection required.

Both my Packards have historic plates. Works for me.

I like Dave Kenney's take on this thread which I believe, was the way it was written. It wasn't meant to denigrate anyone, nor to chase anyone away. We need all the Packard folks we can get. I think Owen was pointing out that many rush in to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. I believe that Owen was telling someone to take your time and study the problem. Perhaps a minor fix would prevent someone diving in to convert to 12 volt or spend a lot of money to install a Chrysler tranny when the Ultra can be rebuilt for less money and aggravation. A lot of folks get their ideas from someone with less than ten years experience. That is the beauty of this forum - you have access to well over 50 years of hands-on experience, so don't take it as an insult when tried and true solutions or practices are pointed out. We are all here because we enjoy the uniqueness of the Packard auto. Yes there are the prewar guys who look down at us postwar owners and the straight-8s who slander the V8s, but they are few and far-between anymore and growing thinner in rank all the time.
We have a great thing going here. Let's all enjoy it.

Irish. What are the 2wo linear things extending from the hood ornament to each upper corner of the windshield?????

Owen raises a good point about the Historic Registration of a vehicle. I'd like to hear how other states handle it too.

I've often wondered if some people are just trying to beat the high price of registration that exists in SOME states. Alabama or mississpippi is extremely high priced for regular registration.

I run regular registration on all of my 4our wheeled vehicles in Tennessee, including the Packard, $85 each. Only the motorcycles get historic tags.

As a side note. Up until 6ix years ago my 56 Cushman was not only the FIRST historic MC registration here in Keg county but the only one. Not sure what MC's have been registerd as historic over the last 5 or 6 years.

TN registration is by county not state wide.

Quote:
Keith,

Pat uses his Packard as a wedding car and those "linear things" are ribbons. Here in Oz, as in the UK, wedding cars often have this decoration together with a bunch of flowers, see front of radiator. Only used for weddings and denote the cars, both hire cars and private vehicles, are being used for that purpose.

I would like to make a public apology to Owen. Upon receiving a private message from him, and a good afternoon of working in the shop I have come to the realization that I was both a Jerk, and VERY rude. While this is no excuse, I would like to explain my raw nerves on the subject.

I have spent the last week trying to convince 2 members of our local club to remain In the club. They are both really nice guys that I recruited at a car show last year. They are both under 25, with young families and day jobs. They each have rather simple cars, and have done many mods to them to get them running and roadworthy. They look mostly stock. They started to come less & less to meetings, and less to car shows. After I proded one of the fellas as to why, (as they used to be very active) he said he felt pretty bad about his car. I told him that the club would help him do whatever we could to help him out with it. He said that afew of the older gents with really nice cars had nit picked his car to pieces. My response was maybe they wanted to help him make it better. "Nah, they didn't know why I didn't just buy a rice rocket and do a car I could afford". I hit the roof! I asked the other guy if this had happened to him. He confirmed it.


While this is not Owens problem, or anybody elses here, I took it out on this list and for that I apologize to all.

Except to Asparagus. You just rub me the wrong way fella.

Asparagus is a corporate attorney. Some of us are willing to make allowances for that handicap.

GUFAW -ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

I believe Calif has a historic plate, but the most common thing for collectors is YOM (Year of Manufacturer) plates.

Basically as long as you can locate an original set (yes you need a front and a back) of Calif plates from the same year that your car is titled for, you can register you car with those as long as the number on the plate is not currently active in the system. At that point they are treated like vanity plates. So no restrictions on the vehicle use. Only ongoing inspection Calif does is Smog, and all Packard do to age are except from that inspection anyway.