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New York State has a YOM provision in combi with their historic plate system. You're subject just to inspection for things like operation of lights and the like. But New Jersey has thus far not permitted YOM.

YOM is supported in Missouri, rules same as historic.

As Kev mentioned, Calif also has historical vehicle plates. Available for cars mfg after 1922 but older than 25 yrs. Pretty restrictive--almost same as most of the antique auto insurance policies. Vehicle supposed to be driven in parades, historical vehicle club activities or historical exhibition activities only. YOM is about the only "special vehicle" way to go if you want to drive the car much here.

In Ontario...historic vehicle plates are available" if (a) the vehicle is at least 30 years old,

(b) is operated on a highway in parades, for purposes of exhibition, tours or similar functions organized by a properly constituted automobile club or for purposes of repair, testing ( I use this one a lot )or demonstration for sale,

(c) is substantially unchanged or unmodified from the original manufacturer's product, and

(d) does not have attached to it year-of-manufacture plates;

YOM plates can be used in place of Historic Vehicle plate for a fee of $235.25 but no restrictions of use apply.

Last year I saw a 1957 Chevy. Pale pink with a white top in very good condition. It had Cragar wheels on it, but aside from that looked stock. I am not really interested in 1957 Chevys, but how often do you see a stock one? So I walked over to it. It had a black, white, and silver interior in very good shape. The owner then walked over and started talking to me. He said he just bought it from an old lady's estate. It had 26,000 original miles on it. He then said the Cragars were just temporary until he got the "right" wheels for it. He was going to saw open the wheel wells and put on 22" wheels. He had already ripped out the six and had put in a Chevy 350. He was going to cut open the hood so he could put a blower on. Then he was going to paint it flat black with flames, gut the interior and put in velour buckets with flames stitched on them. And finally he was going to chop the top. It made me sick just thinking about it. Fortunately I was spared having to make any comment on it because someone else walked over and thought these were all great ideas. Yes, this was a Chevy, but it could have just as easily been a Packard, Hudson, or DeSoto. I have seen pictures of Packards on the internet that were just as hideous.

In light of this, I think it is ridiculous to be arguing about an otherwise stock Packard that has a 12 volt instead of 6 volt system, radial tires or halogen headlights. Yes, it is more interesting to see them as original as possible. But if restoring a 6 volt system costs 2 or 3 times as much as installing a 12 volt, I would put in the 12 volt, and spend the rest of the money fixing other things on it. I'd rather see the car used and enjoyed by someone that tries to keep it as stock as possible, but has a few modifications that no one can tell without opening the hood or crawling underneath, than sitting in a junkyard or rotting outside a garage because they don't have the money or can't find the parts to make it 100% authentic.

As far as nasty club members, I have encountered that myself. I asked a couple of questions on another forum about a Packard I was considering buying last year. When I wasn't getting any responses, I mentioned that I had a time deadline that I had to go back to the owner with an answer. I got some very helpful replies, and a couple of really nasty ones about who did I think I was demanding info. They just continued to be jerks badmouthing me even after I tried explaining my situation. I bought a Lincoln instead. No problems on the Lincoln Forum. I passed on the Packard because I thought it was a black hole for cash. But it makes me wonder how many other people these jerks turned off from buying a Packard. I know I'm glad I have the Lincoln forum to go to for help instead of dealing with those jerks. Now from this site, I have seen some very helpful and friendly people. But unfortunately the negative experiences are remembered more vividly by people.

Linc400:

We have to accept internet correspondence on an as-is basis. It is what it is. For all intents and purposes it is voices thru the air. Much like gleaning from a field. Take the good and leave the bad.

The Packard world seems to be about 30-40 years behind the times. NOT all of us. Just most of us. There is not a significant number of reproduction or cross-fit parts for the Packards. Packard owners chastising other Packard owners seems to be quite common. Samething i experienced during the 60's and 70's with Indian of which i was heavily involved at that time as well as HD. Ofcouse there was no internet then and very few re-pop parts.

I'd like to encourage u to continue with interest in Packard and to buy one. They are large prestigous cars and strictly for the man that wants something different. Ignore the posts that serve u not and glean the good information that does serve u and contribute what u learn on your own along the way.

The Packard world definately needs new blood to encourage GOOD QUALITY and affordable reproduction parts in line with the prices of Chev and Ford re-pop parts. New blood to encourage mod's that do NOT BUTCHER any original Packard platform. THese are the evolution and along with the internet that brought Indian out of obscurity and into popular collecting. Just like it did 55-57 Chev's, and model A's.

As much as people that want all the cars restored hate the street-rod crowd. The street rod crowd brings money and volume to the table that repro-manufactures respond to. So while you may loose a few cars to the street rodders, you may gain access to new parts that would help restore more cars that would otherwise be rotting away in a yard somewhere.

Just look at the Tri-5 Chevies, Mustangs, Most Chevy Trucks, VW's, etc. You can almost build an entire car out of a catalog with no original parts.

Frankly I think you would get more street rod/hot rod people keeping the original Packard motors if there were performance parts, and transmission adapter options available for them. Just my

Quote:

Kev,

I agree that it would be great to have more interest in having repro parts made, and if rodders helped that, OK.

However, I really doubt that having performance parts for Packard engines would result in more people keeping the stock engine. It is much easier, and much much less labor, to drop in a new engine than restore a used engine. I would think that the machining alone on a big straight eight is going to always cost more in time and money than machining a small block chevy. Just through-boring the crank bearings alone is now a specialist job; the majority of machine shops just don't have the equipment or experience.

Tom

The Packard world definately needs new blood to encourage GOOD QUALITY and affordable reproduction parts in line with the prices of Chev and Ford re-pop parts.

PackardV8, much as we'd all like to see this happen, it just simply won't, it's a matter of demand. For every Packard there's 1000 Chevies or Fords, or more. Take for example the recent case where we had a chance to get good quality OEM-style pistons for the Packard V8 engines. We had a vendor and a reasonable price, but in the end only 4 or 5 people expressed a willingness to buy them. Not enough demand to justify the engineering and production.

much as we'd all like to see this happen, it just simply won't, it's a matter of demand. For every Packard there's 1000 Chevies or Fords, or more.

Correct.

For instance, our company is trying to reproduce a dash bezel. There were 320,000 cars built using this bezel. With a 3-7% survivor rate that leaves roughly 16,000 cars left. Of those 16,000 roughly half need this part leaving 8,000.

Tooling costs for such bezel were quoted at $13,000. Production runs were at 3000 pieces each run. Our cost would be $4.00 each bezel. Retail would be $17.95. We estimate to sell 80-120 per year. It would take 6 years to sell enough to recoup the cost of the tooling and break even NOT including the initial run of 3000 pieces.

Packard cars were made in smaller production numbers,have a smaller following than Big 3 automakers. It is hard to justify making a part for a Packard when it would take so long to recoup investment costs and still sell the part for a price that a customer would deem reasonable.