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SUMMARY OF BULLETIN no.131                                                                                                 by: OLE BÖÖK

  

Cover

This issue of the Bulletin contains an article about Packard’s beautiful hood ornaments. The above version of the well-known pelican that also serves as a radio antenna is perhaps not one of the most beautiful, but it is certainly among the more unique. Our club is beginning to get old, perhaps older than some of its members. Beginning in this issue we therefore repeat several articles from Harald Jonsson’s time, i.e. until 1980. And from Finland and from the Mobilisti periodical we have borrowed the tale of a 115C Sedan.

 

Page 3-6

AARNO MIKALA

PACKARD REFLECTIONS

Ingress and translation: Dag Söderblom

 

For our Scandinavian members Aarno Mikala is likely to be a less renowned phenomenon than for our Finnish readers. In order to rectify this unsatisfactory situation I asked him to look deep into the fictitious Packard rear view mirror he must have access to and with the aid of which he surely could recreate an image of earlier periods and the experience of Packard in context. For me personally he is the gate of entry to the adventure that later materialized in the form of NPOC and the personalities attracted to the club. His discreet knowledge and systematic disposition made a deep impression on me during periods when the interest for old cars was still very young, often sketchy and not particularly serious. I dare say that much of the Packard legacy we have in Finland would have been lost were it not for his deeds. But now we will let Aarno tell more:

 

When I sometime in the early 1940’s began to cut and paste interesting car pictures I found in old car magazines, I didn’t know there was a Packard automobile. I lived in central Finland at the time and cars were not common. Most of them were at the front, some had been hidden away and some were powered with producer-gas (on-board gas generators fuelled by wood chips or charcoal). The supply of car pictures improved shortly after the war when foreign car magazines began to show up in stores.

When I moved to Helsinki in 1959 and joined the newly formed Finnish auto historic society, the activity of its members was confined to sniffing out cars that had been hidden away during the war. It turned out that many of them had been turned into junk. By a stroke of luck I did, however, come upon a car that was for sale in a rural area, a 1930 Packard 733 seven passenger sedan. A deal was struck and the car was driven under its own power back to Helsinki. After learning about all its features, this was followed after a few years by a 1939 1700 Touring Sedan. And one more of the same, this time in quite pristine condition. For parts the local parts stores were searched, including Autola Oy, who had been importer of Packard since 1926. Their spare parts bins were still at this time filled with Packard parts and I was allowed to rummage through them and buy parts on the cheap.

Soon we arrived at a for both parties more satisfactory solution: I was allowed to purchase the entire inventory, complete with all parts books and price lists. The price was determined by weight and everything was hauled to my basement, including a board with 150 different keys with key codes. I was also allowed to copy the customer register, which covered 32 years of Packard operations, car by car with data on model codes, equipment, color, vehicle number and shipment and delivery dates. I had gained access to something clearly beyond my own needs, but I felt that this could be of use to other Packard enthusiasts.

Autola’s shop was benevolent and under the leadership of an older mechanic the engine of my 1700 was rebuilt to original condition. That car is still today a source of joy to its current owner.

I bought an additional 1939 1700 Touring Sedan, but this time for different reasons. The car was beat up and in poor condition and its fate became to be that of a donor of parts to keep other similar cars on the road.

All of these five Packards are still in existence, either as running cars or as parts cars. Only about fifteen of the cars imported by Autola at this time survived until the time interest for old cars began to be aroused around 1958.

In this way I became familiar with Packard, its philosophy and manufacturing history during the mark’s nearly 60 years of existence. Information and additional data is continually supplied via NPOC. A lot of literature is also beginning to become available via the internet. Today the car world is in a situation where auto makers disappear and plants are threatened by closure. We should be able to see Packard’s closing chapter in a positive light where this quality brand has retired in dignity and offers us an abundance of fine vintage vehicles.

 

Picture shows a 1939 120 Convertible Coupe purchased at Hershey in 2008 by Peter Ginman.

 

Page 7

Since last

 

New members:

Denmark

Thorben Damsgaard in Fredrikshavn has bought Ole Artved’s 1922 Single Six Doctors Coupe.

Jesper Lynge Bundgaard in Rynkeby has a 1955 Clipper Panama.

Morten Knudsen in Copenhagen is restoring his 1953 Packard Cavalier 300.

 

Norway

Trond Skattum in Tolvsød has a 1956 Clipper deLuxe. The car was a first prize winner at the AACA National Antique Car Show in 1994. He found the car in USA a year ago. Trond needs help with the Torsion Level system.

 

Finland

Matti Holmberg in Forssa has a 1956 5670 Executive Sedan.

Juha Toivonen has sold one of his cars. The new owner is Jussi Mäkisalo in Helsinki. The car is a 1951 2402 300 Sedan.

 

Sweden

Bo Rohdén in Säffle has returned as member after a few years, now that he has his 1937 1502 Touring Limousine back from being displayed at the car museum in Arvika.

Tony Persson has bought a 1939 1703 Super Eight Coupe from a collector in Denmark.

 

Germany

We met Wolfgang Westphal in Halstenbek together with Peter Burton at the Packard meet in Norway. He does not have a full-scale Packard, but 20 models in scale 1:43.

 

Page 8

Packard’s radiator mascots

Text: Bertil Dimander  

Photography and illustrations: Hans Schmidtz, Bertil Dimander

 

Packard’s radiator mascot, the Goddess of Speed, is one of the world’s most recognized and is immediately associated with Packard, at least by the elder generation. It is also one of the longest used ornaments and few realized that it would become Packard’s figure head for almost 25 years. Those who have attended a Packard meet knows that there are several other radiator and hood ornaments and also several different versions of these. But there are also ornaments that most of us have never seen.

 

If you today visit an auto outlet, where for instance Mercedes-Benz or Jaguar cars are sold, the cars sit there with their inviting leather seats and shining finish. But one thing is different nowadays: there is no radiator ornament. The old, well-known symbol has been relegated to the grill, or lies flat on the hood. Cadillac, Chrysler and Mercury have also abandoned their mascots, which could be mythical figures or a small coat of arms. Other mascots adorned a certain marque for many years and came to symbolize and create an identity to cars such as Dodge’s buck and Plymouth’s ship, as well as the two marques mentioned above, the three-pointed star and the cat caught in the middle of a leap. The lady with the flowing gown remains on Rolls-Royce, however, as does the nasty looking bulldog on Mack trucks.

   Most radiator mascots began to appear in the 1920s, but Packard introduced a new design for the radiator cap in 1915 to differentiate cars with six cylinders from fours. This was the beginning of a long sequence of ornaments that adorned Packards until 1957. What was left on the 1959 models to tell the world that it was a Packard were the red hexes on the wheel covers and in the middle of the so-called toilet seat, the fake spare tire cover on the trunk lid.

From 1912 to 1928 Packard used variations of the Motometer, a combination radiator mascot and temperature gauge. For 1926-1928 combined with a flying lady, the Goddess of Speed. For 1929, the Sixth Series, the temperature gauge was moved indoors and placed on the instrument panel. On senior cars that radiator cap moved under the hood with the 16th Series. On junior cars from the start in 1935. For 1939 to 1942 a later design by John D. Wilson was used and after the war a stylized version of the deluxe hood ornament called “the wheelbarrow” was introduced.

One of the more unusual is Daphne at the Well or Sliding Boy, or Adonis as it should rightly be called. Legend has it that it was designed in France and made in the U.S.A., depicting an eight- to ten-year-year old girl. But the patent application, dated 7 November 1928, says it was designed by Edward McCarten in New York City. It was introduced in 1929 on Sixth Series cars and was abandoned with the introduction of the Tenth Series in 1933.

The graceful pelican was introduced in 1932 on Ninth Series cars and remained in some form until 1957. However, by 1955 any likeness to the famous pelican was gone. The last year for upright wings was 1951; from 1952 they are swept back. But was it a pelican? Or a cormorant, or a swan?

The Packard family’s coat of arms was adopted as PMCC’s official emblem in 1928. The central figure is a pelican feeding her young by wounding her own breast, the young nursing on the mother’s blood, a heraldic symbol of sacrifice. When the Ninth Series cars were to be introduced Packard announced a competition for a new radiator mascot for Packard. None of the entries were approved, however, so Packard’s design department developed a mascot that depicted the pelican in the family coat of arms.

Towards the end of the 1930’s Earl C. Anthony, Packard’s largest dealer, in jest commented that Packard had designed a cormorant rather than a pelican. Calling the ornament a cormorant became a local joke around the factory, but in 1938 it was a joke no more when the marketing department opined that cormorant sounded more dignified than pelican. Today the name Cormorant is commonly used. That is, for instance, the name of PAC’s quarterly magazine. On eBay and elsewhere you sometimes see reference to a swan ornament being for sale. This bird has nothing to do with Packard’s radiator ornaments.

There were many other hood ornaments used on Packards over the years. LeBaron had its Ring of Fire, originally intended for 1933 and 1934 cars. During the 1930s, crystal radiator figures from Lalique were available. And then there was the very rare peacock ornament that doubled as a radio antenna and had the tail feathers illuminated by a lamp hidden in the bird’s body.

 

Page 14-17

From Harald’s time”

Behind the earliest NPOC bulletins was a lot of manual labor of reverence and love by Harald and Alice Jonsson. Text was typed on paper and illustrations and other material were pasted in manually. Most bulletins at this time were four or eight pages, but there was also single page bulletins as well as 24-page examples. Voices have been raised to make these early productions available to later members. In future bulletins we will be publishing a number of articles in facsimile. The first such entry follows, this one about the ingenious valve mechanism in Packard’s 12-cylinder engine from the 1930s.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

From Bulletin No. 18, December 1976

 

THE VALVE ARRANGEMENT ON PACKARD’S

TWELVE CYLINDER ENGINE 1932-39

                                                                                       By Dag Söderblom

 

With this contribution the author wishes to point to ONE example of  Packard’s technical solutions to certain intricate problems facing the auto industry during those interesting times when the urge to experiment had not yet been crushed by economically dictated standard solutions.

 

A well written and illustrated article about the 1932-39 V-12’s intricate valve lifter system.

 

Page 18

Packard’s body dash number

Text: Ole Böök

 

 (Picture source:  7th Series Owner’s Manual)

 

In the previous issue of the Bulletin we got to learn about the system for numbering the keys for our Packards, thanks to an article by Lasse Löwgren. Now we have the opportunity of contributing to the collective knowledge about Packard’s thief-proof numbers.

Most of us have probably noticed that there is an embossed number on the cowl in the engine room of most Packards from 1929 (Sixth Series) up to and including 1956. Packard itself described this number in various ways at different times, sometimes calling it Body Dash Number and sometimes thief-proof number. Very little information about these numbers has been saved to posterity and knowledge about them has therefore been lost. My friend, Packard historian David Czirr, has looked into the subject and the result of his work will be published in a well-researched article in The Packard Cormorant, Packard Automobile Classic’s excellent quarterly publication, in about a year’s time. David has collected information for a number of years and now has sufficient data to describe, with good statistical relevance, how these numbers came to be and what they can tell about Packard’s manufacturing activities.

NPOC’s members now have the chance to shed further light on the principles for Packard’s body dash numbers and what they can tell about how manufacturing was accomplished at the factory at East Grand Boulevard, and later at Connor Avenue. With strong participation on the part of NPOC members, the quality of the conclusions that can be made thanks to David Czirr´s research effort will improve dramatically, since we represent a significant number of cars with good distribution among model years and origin. I will compile material received and submit it to David Czirr. So, go to the garage, lift the hood of your Packard(s) and provide the information requested. A reward will come in due course in the form of increased understanding of one aspect of Packard’s operations.

 

Please provide the following data:                                 Mail the information to:

 

Owner:                                                                                                                                                                  Ole Böök

Model year:                                                                                                                                                           7519 Boulevard East

Type:                                                                                                                                                                     North Bergen, NJ 07047

Number on the ID plate:                                                                                                                                         USA

Briggs number*:

Thief-proof number:                                                                                                                                              or e-mail to ole@packard.nu

 

*The Briggs number will be found on separate little tag (1½” x 3”) screwed onto the firewall close to the heater core box on (almost) all cars with body by Briggs, i.e. 1941-1954. Text on the tag: BODY NUMBER

 

Page 19-21

Ask the one who can afford a Packard

Source: Mobilisti: Text: Janne Halmkrona  Photography: Matti Ouvinen

Transplantation and editing for the Bulletin: Dag Söderblom

USA is large country where fine cars are made. That is no longer so, but one can at least assert that fine cars used to be made. And the finest of them all was Packard.

 

When Matti Nieminen began driving in the 1970s, one could find cars no longer fit for sale behind the rows of pre-owned cars on used car lots. These were often ten or more year-old American fuel hogs relegated to the lowest caste after the oil crisis. When Matti got his license in 1978 he visited the local used car lot in Jyväskylä and found a Ford Galaxie 500 way back in the lot. When Matti asked for a price the salesman asked him to make an offer. Matti offered very little, perhaps a few hundred marks, and the car was his. That fall Matti noticed that rural used car dealers moved the big cars to the front row. It had been noticed that there was a new circle of customers for the big company cars: the youth. Matti had a well maintained car with a big V-8 under the hood and his hobby was off to good start. He has since owned over 100 cars in two categories: Mercedes-Benz and American cars.

 

Packard Six Sedan in Finland

Doctor Lauri Saraja took delivery of a new Packard, a Six 115C Sedan, on April 17 1937. The body style was unusual; the more practical Touring Sedan was predominant at this time. The car’s fate during the war years is unknown. It is possible that the good doctor was allowed to keep it for duty in emergencies. The car changed owner for the first time as late as on May 7, 1965, the doctor selling it to Juhani Saranpää, a spare parts salesman at Autola. The engine was cracked but the new owner was able to find a slightly later block at a junk yard. He kept the car until 1970 and in the ensuing years the car changed owners no less than ten times, none of whom did anything to the car. In 2004, Saranpää bought back the car he had owned in his youth. It had then been sitting for decades and was in need of some service: new brakes, all fluids replaced and new running boards.

The car was inspected on March 7, 2005, forty years to the day after Saranpää  bought it the first time. He didn’t keep it long and traded it in for a 1995 open Mustang. The next owner was Matti Nieminen, who traded in his 1980s Jaguar V12 for the Packard. The car remains basically untouched, runs fine and is highly drivable.

 

Back cover

Packard 115C Sedan 1937

Two years after the introduction of Packard 120 it was time for the next big seller, Packard 115C, or Packard Six as it was usually called. It was almost ten years ago since Packard had produced a six and it was the lowest-price Packard ever. It was an immediate sales success because the goal that had been missed with the 120 model was a car in the lower mid-price range. Now Packard could successfully compete with different models of Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Hudson and others. Mechanically, the car is largely a 120 with a five inches shorter wheelbase. The five inches were cut from the hood as the bodies are identical, as are most of the chassis components. The engine has a displacement of 237 cubic inches and delivers 100 horsepower. Surely the above model must be worth the price, $895.

 

Text: Hans Schmidtz   Photography: Matti Ouvinen

 

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