I didn't know Packard made so many hearses, ambulances, special models

delete

 

What no story?

 

It's not likely that Packard actually built the vehicles you were looking at or posted in your multiple threads. Hearses, flower cars, ambulances, and other unusual bodies, were usually made by specialty body companies. In some cases that was also the case with station wagons and limousines. Where possible, production parts would be used or adapted. Some manufacturers offered a specialty chassis/and partial body for the body companies to build off of.

 

some pretty bad ass packards right there.

 

Wasn't Henry Ford carried to his final resting place in a Packard?

 

Got to many threads goin'.......

 

Hmmm

 

This dude must really like these cars. He started three threads!

 

Pardon me, 5.

 

Not here.

 

WoW, what church was the funeral held at??? That place looks like a church on Michigan Ave. in Dearborn......

 

I believe that was Henry Fords.

 

Naaa.. He never owned one.. I'll have to do a drive by and snap a few pics.. That church still stands today.. I'm sure of it!

 

All Packard Threads by this User Merged...

None of those Threads had any Hot Rods or Customs in them, so we really didn't need 6 of them.

 

Packard didn't make these special bodies. Coach builders had Packard frames, engines, transmissions and front end sheetmetal shipped to them by rail. Here in Freeport IL the Henney Body Co. made hearses, flower cars, ambulances from them. Starting at the top of a four story building craftsmen constructed special body work and when the vehicle reached the shipping door on the bottom floor, out they went for delivery. This is a well documented manufacturing plant during the 1920's thru 1950's. Kind of interesting if you look up.

 

"All Packard Threads by this User Merged...

None of those Threads had any Hot Rods or Customs in them, so we really didn't need 6 of them."

My apologies - I shouldn't have posted so many threads - this was my first actual post, except for the introductory one. I wasn't sure how many pics I could include on one post, so I decided to go with 3 or 4 to each one - I just didn't know how to keep the photos going without splitting the posts up. I also had not given any consideration to the fact that none were hot rods - sorry again. I guess I sort of had in mind that it was more of a historical type thread.

I'll try to do better.

 

the '80's schlock movie "The Hearse" had a Packard as the star... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080853/

 

No problem.

Thanks for understanding...

 

There were a lot of custom body builders. In addition to Henney; Superior, Miller, Meteor, and Eureka were among the larger U.S. companies who were building hearses, flower cars, ambulances, and custom station wagons in the old days.

 

There might not be any Hot Rods or customs in that group of pictures, but if I owned that sedan delivery ........... I also like the "Club Coupe"; the Looooong rear deck may be out of proportion, but it's cool.

 

The early rectangle grill Packard were classy, in the fifties, they look like bloated maggots to me.......what happened to their design people???????

 

I believe that styling is fairly high on the list of reasons people stopped buying Packards. Some say their decision not to do a V-8 was a big mistake. Looking at old car compamies it's often just one or two miscalculations that put a company out of business. Car companies are frequently criticized for not being more innovative, but the cost is being wrong is so high you can't blame them for following proven paths.

I intended for my first car to be a late '30s sedan delivery. I wasn't finding one, but I did find a nice old Cadillac landau hearse. That was essentially a Cadillac sedan delivery so I bought it.

 

Hearse and ambulance dudes are a whole different level of crazy. Right up there with Mopar dudes, hahaha. Surely I kid fellas, lol.

 

I was wondering what that perticular model was. Never seen one before. What was the purpose of that "purpose built car"?

 

the "Club coupe" was one of a couple attempts by Packard to make a "sport" I know i know funny..... version called the Packard Panther. They actually did fairly well in long distance rally racing, one Brazilian gentleman even made an aluiminum bodied altered wheel based 53 era Packard, but I digress. Some Packard Panther's had a really cool hood scoop and later attempts had the Carribean v8 with factory dual quad. When they joined with Studebaker, Packard scraped the Panther and used the Hawk platform to try to produce a "sport" Packard.

 

They couldn't find a Lincoln?

 

here on another hamb thread:

http://66.15.44.164/forum/showthread.php?t=397594&page=50

 

Was the last one for midgets??