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Eric,

The increasing Packardness of the speedster and your continuation of the fine traditions of Packard R&D can only benefit this project. Wouldn't it be nice now to find a Packard cowl to top it all off?

A 1920's Packard cowl would be an outstanding piece to come across. I was going to buy the one that was on eBay a while ago, but since it didn't include a firewall I decided against it.

As it's looking now, I think that I might be using the Maxwell cowl only, although not the one that I have in the pics. I forgot that I gave the good one to my buddy who's storing the '37 chassis and stuff for me, and he told me yesterday that I can have it back. I totally forgot that at one time I had bits of two 1914 Maxwell's, and gave the good rust-free cowl away. I think the cowl from the Maxwell better suits the race car idea as compared to the possible "Willys" cowl. It will also allow me to have a lower and sleeker bodyline, too. Any thoughts? Comments?

Quote:

Eric,

The "Willys" cowl being from a closed body car has drawbacks when it came to windscreen fitment. I presume the good rust free Maxwell cowl is from an open car so that's a step in the right direction and the windscreen posts and frame you already have will fit. Saying that, the thing with the Maxwell cowl is that the cowl shape at the firewall is more rounded while the Packard grill shell with it's traditional shape is not along those lines. That Packard cowl on eBay even without a firewall may still be a fair proposition as the firewall on the Maxwell cowl would probably require modification anyway. With the Packard cowl, fabrication of a new firewall could have been purpose specific to suit your requirements with the 327 S8 in the 115 chassis. Or, adapt the "Willys" firewall to the Packard cowl. Just a few thoughts on this particular aspect of your speedster.

Fair proposition yes, but it's now unavailability leaves me with no choice but to either use the Maxwell cowl, the "I'm not totally sure what the hell it is" cowl, or make my own. If it comes down to it, making my own might be the best way anyhow, as I can make it to my needs and it would be better suited to both the '37 chassis and the '25 radiator shell. Since a '20s cowl is really nothing more than 3 sheets of metal welded together, making my own with the sharp crease line of the '20s Packards would be a simple matter.

For those who are interested, here's a pic of the Essex I bought for $15, I had to remove all the crap out from inside it to be able to move it:

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And just so everyone knows, this is almost exactly what I'm aiming for:

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Today's update, albeit a small one. I recieved my serial tag in the mail yesterday. and it's beautiful. One question though, the # starts with a "U" and ends in an "A". What the heck is this off of???

Another sporadic update, now that I've got settled in to our new house, I've been doing some tinkering in the garage with the Packard o/d transmission. Basically just cleaning and organizing parts and tools. I'll try and get some pics by this weekend.

The Saturday, July 19th Update:

Today my buddy who went to the auction with me where I bought the chassis and stuff brought me a present:

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The grille will work nicely:

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