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

I forgot to say the the engine appears to be newer but at the car's location with only my partner's iPhone and in the bright sunlight, I could not locate the engine identification chart that I know is here somewhere. Although it had the proper wide belts, the engine itself appeared to be 1951 if I remember the numbers correctly from my own cars.

Edit: I finally found the engine number identification chart which is tucked away in a rather obscure place and see that I must have written the engine number incorrectly. It is clearly J but what I thought was a 5 as the second character must have been a 6 which would make it a 9-main 327. HOWEVER, the engine number is located near the distributor as it is for the 1940-1950 356 rather than over the starter as it was in 1951-1954. Any clues about this oddity?

It turns out to be the proper - and probably original - engine after all! I misread the D as a J due to the lighting and things being in the way of a clear view.

Thanks for looking at the seat even though with the changes in the car it didn't help much on info. Somewhere I read the seat was raised one inch but don't remember if that was in official literature or someones write up in a magazine article. At any rate have never been able to identify what looks like an opening in any of the photos of AC cars posted showing enough interior to see the seat bottom.

The front heater/defroster setup is probably the standard 41-47 offering with the unit under the dash being mostly a defroster. A tiny slot with a movable door on the side acted as a footwarmer as Packard called it. The under seat unit is the actual heater. Dual stream meant it sent air both to the front and back passenger area. Later underseat units only sent the air in one direction. The older large and bulky deluxe heater with the defroster and multi door front heater positioned under the dash was optional in place of the two unit setup.

The seat slot if it is for a rear seat heater is interesting. I wonder if it was an actual Packard offering or maybe aftermarket or some kind of fabrication. From photos I have seen of limos etc the factory rear heater was in a box mounted on one side of the seat frame with air exiting out of a square grilled opening midway up and directed toward the feet. There is a matching grill opening on the other side of the seat for the air supply. The on off switch was a knob in the middle of the seat base. The switch location to me always seemed to be a potential disaster awaiting if there were accidental stray feet when someone climbed in -- or more particularly if there were any kids that rode back there.

Do est of restoration cost so theres not a surprise down the road.

Shipping or trip
Body
Paint
Mechanical
Glass
Interior
Tires&
Chrome
Better throw in 20% for misc.

So whats a 100 point 41 worth ?

Older restoration - maybe 95 points
https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1076732/1941-packard-160-for-sale-in-lake-oswego-oregon-97035

IMHO: the link above to the 1941 Packard for sale is better than a 95 point car.

To make things clear that car is a model 1904 - body number 1462, making it a 138" WB car, NOT a LWB car as advertised. Handsome color combination. The only issue I have is the original woodgrained dash and window trim is worn. If you go that far with a resto, then why skip fresh woodgraining?

The subject car is the LWB model 1905 - Body Number 1471, with a WB of 148" or 10" longer - fitting 7 passengers using jump seats. Someone asked if it had a divider window. It should not - that was found on body number 1470 for limousines.

Check out the models/body numbers here:https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/modelinfo/index.php?mode=year&id=1941&ButtonYear=Go

Anyway, the question was asked about the value of a restored car. Again, IMHO, the price of the 1904 ($52,500) would be significantly lower than what it would take to restore the subject car.

Pro rebuild of the motor alone I would budget $12 - $15,000.
Pro paint job is $20 - $25,000 dollars
And you can keep going on from there.

Best of Luck

Howard, we pulled back the rug and there were no other openings or gaps and there was nothing on the other side to match the gap in the photo which itself looked stock, not add-on or aftermarket. The seat did overhang very slightly but didn't seem out of ordinary and no extra gap. Maybe that's all it needed.

Oddly, the seller was basing his price on one that sold a while back through Sotheby's for $33,600 but that car was immaculate even if it didn't have factory A/C but it's not clear why he thought his was worth close to that when it's totally unrestored. To me, it is about a $5k car, not a $28k car and I might even consider buying it if it had a more reasonable price, then get it driveable which shouldn't be difficult. It was low mileage and turned over but they had never tried to start it but, as most of the original engine paint was still on it, I doubt very much that it needed a rebuild.