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Here is a link to an interesting article: Last Days in the (Packard) Bunker: A Clay Modeler's Memories by Anthony Rehling). It was published in the Summer 2000 issue of the Packard Cormorant. The article has many photos showing the styling staff and the concept models on which they were working. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving, may the holiday be peaceful and enjoyable.

www.deansgarage.com

(o[]o)

Thank you JW. It provides an interesting insight - one I had never read before.

Imagine your section of the company still working in the million square foot plant basically alone. No more manufacturing going on, and in the end everyting you were working on for a new model being scrapped. Talented people wondering about their futures. It was a shame.

Looking at the pics of both sides of the 4-dr clay it appears that one side was a hardtop with a Predictor C-pillar while the other was a sedan with a fixed B-pillar (very thin) and slender reverse slanted C-pillar.

Was this the strategy? Use one roof stamping, trimmed differently between hardtop and sedan? Was the 2-dr hardtop to use the same roof as the 4-dr hardtop or was it to have a shorter roof (in length, possibly in height) similar to Cadillac?

Always got confused over the photos and renderings in Kimes et al books as to what Packard's '57 greenhouse strategy was. Now it's starting to become more clear. Maybe...

It was common practice to execute two different bodies on single clay back in those days. If you sample enough styling studio photos from the various manufacturers, you'll find styling so different between the two bodies that a dividing panel was run down the center. I've seen station wagons done on one side that way.

Yet, Studebaker even extended that practice all the way to to a couple of running and driveable prototypes back in the 60s, with styling inspired by the production Avanti - two-door on one side and four-door on the other. Two of these cars found their way to Youngstown, OH back in the late 80s. To the chagrin of those who knew better, local management publicized their discovery of a secret project by Studebaker to develop a new line of three-door cars.

Yet, I digress...

Though the intent was to (wisely) extend sharing of panels to the Studebaker line, I don't believe they could have gotten by with just one roof panel. Two- and four-door hardtops could have shared a stamping, but traditional pillared sedans, in addition to the unique C-pillar, had a drip edge that was also crowned, fore-to-aft.

However, judging from the illustration in the KIMES book, it almost looks like Packard models would have a different stamping than the one that would have been shared between Clipper-Studebaker line - perhaps longer, as you suggest. Then again, maybe not.

Meanwhile, I won't even venture a guess as to the panel for the new passenger-car-based Coupe Express (pickup) that was to be cut from a station wagon roof.

Pity that so comparatively little has been published about these cars after so many decades.

What a GREAT article and website! Thank you for posting this!

I wonder which executive took home the 1/4 scale model of the Predictor, and whether it still exists, or who owns it now?

I think it was back 1990 that I paid a visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI - shortly after completion of a major renovation to their displays. There, in a showcase, I found a scale model and color rendering of the Predictor, with donation of that material credited to a William Schmidt.

A few years later, I had opportunity to do some personal research at the Studebaker Museum archives and accidentally stumbled across a report prepared by the Pinkerton Agency on the matter of some missing artifacts. Looked like Schmidt was their prime suspect, but they apparently couldn't come up with any hard evidence to nail him for the crime.

Draw your own conclusions, but one man's villain can very well be another's hero.

Then and Now

http://www.freep.com/article/20121202/NEWS01/120823062/The-Packard-Plant-Then-and-now-interactive-comparison-photos?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|SPORTS06

Randy, thanks for posting the link. The side-by-side photos are most interesting, and disturbing.

(o{}o)

Randy that is part of the thread I posted last Sunday here:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=113849&topic_id=10852&#forumpost113849

To get the full effect of Before and After you need to make sure you run your cursor over the photos from left to right or right to left.

Those photos were taken by a Detroit Free Press videographer that I have met several times - his name is Brian Kaufman. He is working on a video documentary that should be out in January or February 2013.

Meanwhile, you can see a six minute "movie trailer" of it here:http://www.freep.com/article/20121202/NEWS01/312020186/Packard-Plant-Why-has-go

The first 3 minutes are images with a voice over of a Detroit poet, Philip Levine, that wrote a poem about the Boulevard Plant called "The Last Shift." The remainder shows the plant today with sound bites from locals, community folks, Packard friends and retirees. One of those PMCC retirees is my "Aunt" Helen who worked at Packard during WWII with my Mom. Hope you enjoy it.

The condition of the Boulevard Plant is all the more reason to support the preservation of the PPG.

Best, --Roger--