Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I believe Jack Vines gives the best reasoning in his post#3 above. I've noticed also in my limited experience that that most all engines parts are cast with 55 as casting dates altho i have one here with early 56.

Quite possible that heads were cast as a farm-out contract to some other foundry while blocks were stockpiled during 55 ????

As for SP planning the 57 Packards thru out 55 and 56 then how difficult could that have been???? Afterall the 57 Packards were actualy rebadged Studebakers????

"As for SP planning the 57 Packards thru out 55 and 56 then how difficult could that have been???? After all the 57 Packards were actualy rebadged Studebakers????"

I was talking about the ALL-NEW 1957 shared-body Packard / Clipper / Studebaker cars, which the Predictor was based upon. Once the money ran out in early-1956 and the Detroit factories and offices were shut down, then the stop-gap 1957 Packard Clipper was planned in South Bend during the summer/fall of 1956. Read issue #136 of the Packard Cormorant.

I thought V-8s were made at a brand-new engine plant in Utica, MI? Or am I thinking assembly plant?

Floor plans I've seen for the Utica engine plant do not show facilities for casting or forging. I assume raw castings were brought into the plant for finish machining, assembly, and testing.

Were the Twin Ultramatic transmission cases and other cast parts done at the Utica plant, or were the raw casting delivered for machining and assembly?

It would appear that when they went to the aluminum case for the 56 Twin Ultra, the castings were purchased on the outside, but that's just a guess. Detroit probably abounded in facilities for that type of work. Has anyone examined these cases for any ID marks? Some of the aluminum castings Packard used in the 30s have "Alcoa" cast into them.

And when they abandoned their own differential (for 1956) and purchased standard transmissions on the outside, there was no longer a need for those casting/forging operations.

Interesting topic! Not sure why it didn't catch any interest the first time around. Whether the Harper Ave property was condemmed under emminent domain (seems likely based on Mr. PB's response) or not would seem to be a nice piece of information to have.

In this thread, several times "forging" is mentioned. Can someone give us a list of the in-house-produced forgings used by Packard? The only forged V8 engine part which comes to mind are the connecting rods. These were not produced by Packard. From the marks, I can say Packard used at least three different outside forging vendors.

jack vines

Good question Jack. I suspect that at some point that part of the name for the Harper Ave unit was just a hanger-on from earlier times when they did do some of their own forging. There are some archival pictures of same from the teens and twenties, perhaps later.

PS - here's the excerpt from the annual report.

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Could it be the forge and foundry operation was now housed in another unit and therefore the property was no longer needed? This would coincide with the eminent domain takeover.

More fuel for the fire: the plant area in 1952:

clas.wayne.edu/photos/part2/wayne/1952/de-29-23.pdf

And in 1956:

clas.wayne.edu/photos/part2/wayne/1956/ga-1-74.pdf

And in 1961, I-94 being completed through this part of town:
clas.wayne.edu/photos/part2/wayne/1961/fm-30-129.pdf

It looks like the Forge works and foundry were not affected by the construction of the expressway, the footprint of the foundry operations can be seen (freshly cleared) in the 1961 photo, so apparently Packard sold the land outright and it was cleared sometime before the 1961 picture was taken. So I take back what I said about the Expressway taking the foundry operations.

That same area today:

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1580+East+Grand+Boulevard,+Detroit,+MI&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.136668,54.84375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1580+E+Grand+Blvd,+Detroit,+Wayne,+Michigan+48211&ll=42.378539,-83.027755&spn=0.002116,0.003347&t=h&z=14&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=1580+East+Grand+Boulevard,+Detroit,+MI&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.136668,54.84375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1580+E+Grand+Blvd,+Detroit,+Wayne,+Michigan+48211&ll=42.378539,-83.027755&spn=0.002116,0.003347&t=h&z=14" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

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