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

Yes, it is a VERY interesting car. Based on the thief-proof number the car was started fairly late in 1940 (the early 1940 cars did not carry a thief-proof or body dash number). The original owner was one of the principals of the Drexel-Lambert Wall Street financial house. It does not have a traditional Packard patent plate (vehicle number plate) but rather a Derham plate and a Derham-series vehicle number. The interior is extraordinaily luxurious, the woodwork especially elegant.

bkazmer,

it seems to me that the window would do it, nevertheless I know what you talk about. A photoshop user needs neither to talk to the engineer nor to the technologist, cost analyst, ecology committee, purchasing team, equal opportunities officer, management, safety engineering department, ...
That is why marketing departments love Photoshop (my tools are Paint and your power of imagination).

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Beautiful design excercise! It would be nice if it had in fact been built, maybe as a succesor to the Sport Brougham, being somewhat similar but without the chrome window frames. Even Cadillac left the chrome window frames in favor of regular windows in it's 1942 Sixty Special.

The rear window appears to fit with no problem, but in case there was, there is always the rear vent, as in the Sport Brougham.

Victor

Guess there is nothing that says a window has to go all the way down. On one company car I had, rear windows went down most of the way but still about 2 inches of glass that remained exposed. A P.I.A. if you wanted to rest the arm there. Can't remember which one that was.

With the collective genius type engineers Packard had at the time who provided many firsts or ways to implement features economically a year or two before others, I don't think it a far stretch to say they couldn't have devised some kind of two stage setup. Something that either slid the window back into the available space or tilted it somehow to clear if it reached an obstruction and then continued down.

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For example one of the millions Volkswagen.

They just market that as a feature....aka Child Safety Windows.

A broken interior door handle quickly becomes......Child Safety Locks.

That Derham custom really jangles my chain. The sport sedan style makes sense but why the retrograde body??!! Was the owner or Derham convinced that wood composite bodies were quieter? Did Derham convince the owner that it would be easy to order replacement body panels from Packard? Did Derham have a worn out '37 138-CD gathering dust in the shop? Was the owner in love with mid-30's Packard body styling? Did Derham convince the owner that it would be easier to work with wood composite than all steel (if in fact this is the case)? Did the car start out as a 1937 and get moved to the new 1940 chassis?

i did a quick overlay of the '36 club sedan with the '36 coupe decklid to see if the decklid might have been borrowed. Appears not... would force the greenhouse too far forward compared to the actual custom.

Guscha - nice work! I work with Paint only, does just fine.

56P400 - thanks and great observation about the frames and vent.

Does anyone have a '40-42 touring sedan on the 138" wheelbase? Do the rear door windows roll all the way down? If so, they would on this what-if too.

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This discussion raises a question - were the 1938-42 Junior door outers (minus the window frames) carried over from 1937, excluding the '37 115/120 rear doors which obviously weren't? If so, the front and rear doors from the '37 138-CD would have slotted directly into the '40 138" chassis and made the Derham custom a straightforward build. Not to mention making the 1938 and 1940 all steel body programs a bit less expensive for Packard.

Am assuming in the previous comment that the front axle to firewall (or some other common point like accelerator) was the same. If the '38-42 is different from the '37 the whole theory goes poof.

Mahoning63..The body of the 40 one-off Derham is NOT a 37 CD.
The body is aluminum, I don,t beleive Packard ever made an aluminum body. Has a divider window,radio controls in the rear armrest,intercom from back to front, non moveable front seat (measured for the chauffer).The "bussel" back is typically Derham. The car was researched back to the original owner.
How do I know that?..because I am the owner of the car!