Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I'm searching for a Packard for myself and I found one '47 for sale (here in Finland) that has an electrically opening rear window. It's a six cylinder model so I'm not going to buy it but that window is quite interesting detail.

It seems that the opening rear window was only available in taxicab models ('47-'50?). Is there some good reason why it wasn't available in other models? The hinges look slightly silly but it should give really good ventilation in hot weather.

The taxi models are interesting cars and the 22nd seriesmodels are covered in quite extensive detail in Robert Neal's book. There are also some well-researched articles on the prewar taxis, but info on the 47 taxis is a bit more scarce. There are a couple of Packard taxi folks who visit here on occasion who should have more info, but yes - the opening rear window was a taxi option. Somewhere I have a picture of the mechanism taken from beneath the window and when I find it I'll add it to this post.

The motor part of the mechanism can be seen in one picture from the sales add of the car that I mentioned. The add is in Finnish but at least you can see the images:

http://www.nettiauto.com/packard/clipper/4445042

I don't think that the car has been originally delivered to Finland (underside is too nice looking). I guess export taxicab would be very rare car.

The add tells that it is for sale because former owner has deceased and it is sold by his friend who doesn't know much about it.

Packard was surprisingly common car in Finland until it's demise but there aren't many left.

I'm not sure how many years Autola oy was the Finnish agent for Packard but I was provided with some of their original sales records for the late pre-war era and they sure sold a lot of cars. If you're a member of the Nordic Packard Owner's Club you probably have better access to that information than I do.

The 21st series 6-cylinder taxi models were made both as 1946 and 1947 models which you can tell from each other by the vehicle number. There were 2 styles, with and without a partition. I believe Packard-Federal in NYC was the agent for all taxi sales.

kanadanmajava: Just wondering if you happened to read that outstanding recent article published here in "The Packard Cormorant" on General Mannerheim's Packard Twelve limo that he used throughout WW II? A few pictures of the General during the war as well are included and for those that haven't read of Mannerheim's role during WW II and have an interest in the war, it's makes spellbinding reading and there is a 60 min TV documentary on it as well. The article at least as published here was translated from Swedish so I suppose the article is better known in your part of the world. Quite a story from the car being nearly totally lost to a wonderful restoration.

You've aroused my curiousity, I'll browse my Autola Oy records and see how active they were in importing Packards into Finland for the years I have records. i'll add to this post later.

PS - my records of imports by the Finnish agent Autola Oy cover 1936 thru 1939 and indeed they did import quite a few Packards, most "110s" and "120s" but a modest number of Eights, Super Eights, and Twelves and a couple of chassis-only sales for mounting of local coachwork. The data recorded by Autola included in almost all cases the vehicle number, thief-proof number, motor number, paint scheme, axle ratio, date shipped from the US, date of arrival in Finland, and the original customer's name.

Cars imported:

1936 - 25
1937 - 120
1938 - 53
1939 - 38

If I could see what license plate does the taxicab model have I could find out if it is an original Finnish car. Original Finnish cars tend to have "old system plates" that newly imported cars wont get.

Owen_Dyneto: I didn't see that recent documentary but he is very known person here. Actually he wasn't general since 1933 as he was first promoted to field marshal and then into a marshal of Finland. No other person has held either of the titles in Finland.

Here is some info about the Packard Twelve.

http://www.mannerheim.fi/13_erity/e_auto3.htm

The car was acquired to Mannerheim from a Finnish movie manager in 1941. Almost all useful cars and trucks were "temporarily" taken from their owners during the war. Some were later returned (many with combat damage), many were destroyed and some were given to Soviet Union as a compensation for the war damages.

I'm not sure if owners were given compensation for the lost vehicles. Probably all of your listed Packards had the same fate but some lucky ones did return to roads.

I'm not sure if public records exist of the given vehicles but probably most of theme were trucks. Getting spare parts to old cars after the war was almost impossible so the value of "war vehicles" were extremely low.

During the war years the availability of gasoline was scarce and many cars were converted to wood gas fuel. I have one magazine that has a nice picture of a wood gas powered '36 Packard. I could probably scan the picture and post it here.

Thanks for correcting me on Mannerheim's rank. If you want a copy of that article on his Packard Twelve, it's about 6 or 8 pages as I recall with many pictures, send me a PM with your postal address and I'll make a copy and mail to you.

Here are two photos I took of a 21st Series Taxi operating rear window at the 2011 Salado Meet. The taxi had been street rodded, but the exterior retained its stock appearance. It was a first class modification. Don't recall if it was manually or electrically operated. Another interesting feature of the taxi was that the hood was opened from the outside with handles on each side that looked like the ones on the doors. I was told this was a unique feature of the taxi models. Sorry, no photos of the handles.

(o{}o)

Edit: The hood handles can be seen in the photos of the ad. They are like the ones I saw at Salado. The window operation was not demonstrated, just posed in its open position.

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The window opens a lot more than I thought. And the glass seems to be really thick. Or is it just an optical illusion?

I found a mentioning that taxicabs also had framed side windows glasses. They can be partly seen in this image:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5399648603_a610675b5a_b.jpg

Are they double glazed or what purpose do those have?

I found couple images more from the Finnish taxicab. It's probably lately imported as it has very new looking "museum plates" and speedometer with mph scale.

I'm not sure what is the last number in metric speedometer (17 or 18?) but that had the usual 11.

I'm reasonably convinced that the rear opening window shown is a modern adaptation and not the original feature, too many differences from the Packard sourced photos? and the windown itself looks like it might be Plexiglass. We need a good photo and I'm still looking for one, I have it somewhere.

PS - found the photos and I take it back, that may be correct afterall. The photos (2) are in The Cormorant, a publication of The Packard Club, Summer 1972 in an article by George Hamlin (who does own a taxi) titled "Taxi". There's a clear picture of the actuator below the package shelf and is perhaps vacuum-operated as it's made by Trico, though it could be electric. The other details do look like the photos above. The publication is copyrighted so unfortunately I can't post the photos but when I get a chance I'll ask the author for permission to use them. The car pictured is a 1947 2184 or 2186 taxicab owned (then) by Don Boger.

kanadanmajava, the article on the Mannerheim Packard Twelve restoration is in the post on the way to you.