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Well, I finally bit the bullet. I'd been looking at a Packard for some time now, but hesitating because it was in Iowa, and I'm currently in Italy. It's a 1937 115c touring sedan, running and driving, mostly complete. Good interior, and something I can drive for while and then fully restore when my schedule is better. I bought it for $4500, and think I did well.

Headed back stateside in 3 weeks, I'll pick it up and tow it to CT where I'll have 6 months to get it running and driving before I have to move again.

Found out that Idaho (my permanent state of residence) will let me register the car with a license plate of the same era. So, my first purchase for my 74 year old car is a 74 year old plate!

Pretty excited, trying to do some research right now- the first task will be to finish the roof- the cotton batting and rubberized canvas is missing. After that the plan is a basic tuneup, replace the windshield, and evaluate all of the safety items- tires, brakes, wipers, lights, etc. The car runs, drives, and has a fairly complete interior, so I'm pretty excited about it!

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Congratulations on you car. Looks like a nice one.

What kind of lift or ramp is that red thing it is parked on??? Is it a lift or what is it??

It's not a lift, basically, just a big ramp you drive up on so you don't have to jack the car up, or bend over so much to work in the engine bay if you're tall like me. The previous owner of the car is selling that too- PM me if you're interested. He wanted two or three prices for it last fall, but that might change now, who knows?

Ken,

Great looking and solid '37, I'll be following along as you progress with it. Remember, plenty of pic's!

@Ozstatman- here are all the pics I have! Now somebody other than me can look at them while I wait to pick her up. Four more weeks until I'll be back in the states to get her!

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Ken,
for the pic's. Gives us all a good idea of your starting point. Particularly like the shots showing the de-laminating windscreen, it's almost a work of art!

Thanks!

I previously had a 1953 Willys Wagon. The windshield was flat glass and I replaced it by unscrewing the trim pieces and pulling the glass out of the rubber seal. Is it the same on these cars? It looked so in the pictures.

I'm going nuts trying not to buy anything for the car! I want to get a new carpet kit, rubberoid for the roof, and rubber inserts for the running boards. The only reason I haven't is because in my experience, slow is faster and cheaper with a project like this! Guess I'll just concentrate on moving from Naples back to the US this week. I'm planning on picking the car up on 11 March. Can't wait!

Well, got the car home(ish). Haven't done too much to it yet, we're still looking for a rental while we're in CT. It isn't running at the moment. It ran a month ago, but when I went to pick it up, we couldn't get it to go. It would pop and sputter right after priming the carb, but nothing else. When we tried pull starting it, it would pop and stutter but not stay running. I put 3 gallons of fresh gas in it prior to running, but nothing else.

After I got home, I pulled all the plugs and put a couple squirts of oil in each cylinder. After cranking it over with the plugs out for a second, I put a thumb over each hole, and they all had good "finger-compression." (No compression gauge yet).

I also looked at each plug on the block, and the spark appeared pretty strong. I ran out of daylight, so didn't look at the distributor, but the wires looked good.

The tank was supposed to be empty, which is why I put fresh gas in, but today I took the inlet line off the carb and cranked. The good news, fuel comes out. Bad news, it smells REALLY bad- varnish, color off, etc.

I ran out of daylight, but I'm going to get a battery charger tomorrow, get the battery good and charged and then stick a filtered line from the fuel pump suction into a gas can. If that doesn't work, I'll start in on the electrical side- distributor, no cracked cap, good rotor, etc.

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PS- the green stuff on the roof is stretch wrap to cover the gaping hole. It worked pretty good, but the oak (all there) is pretty dry rotted, so some wood work is in my future.

Body has a lot of cancer - crap.

Looked at the body some more tonight- I've got cancer in both passenger doors, but everything else will be able to be restored- deep breath! Time to learn some more body skills, eventually. We're moving in this weekend, and then I'll be working on getting it running, to start with. The body work will come later. Nice to finally see it in person.