47 Packard

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zzrodder

It ain't grey hair, it's chrome!
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
3,847
Location
The Sunny Okanagan B.C. Canada
Thought I'd put up a couple before and after pix of my last build, a 1947 Packard Clipper club sedan. Dunno if it will qualify for veiwing here as I made a shiny car out of it, don't want to tick anyone off especially since I'm a newbie on RRR. If it's OK I'll post the build from the start, if not just say so.....
 

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Post Away, zz. Nobody here is afraid of shiny paint. Looks like you are an excellent builder.
 
I'd like to hear the tale. Unique car--looked like it was in good shape to start..

Whats the story?? [P

Welcome to the 3xR..

PA41
 
man that is a beauty ---
dont let the name of the site fool you --- almost everyone here
has had or has a nice shiny car right next to their rat :)
 
I'm betting the wheels wil get ya more flak than the shiny paint. :p Very nice ride. I really like how you ditched the horizontal part of the grille work. Makes it look like it could have been a early 40's Lasalle.
 
yeah, i noticwed the change in the grille department....it also looks like 47 ford park lights up front....:D

a cool looking ride--even if it does have shiney paint[cl[cl
 
Dunno if it will qualify for veiwing here as I made a shiny car out of it, don't want to tick anyone off especially since I'm a newbie on RRR. If it's OK I'll post the build from the start, if not just say so.....

ZZ,
No worries... most of us have shiny cars in our past too! Nice car... love to see some build fotos! [dr

Rat Rod Mod
 
Ok, here goes. I looked at it and walked away first time, the floors were totally rotten and it was missing a bunch of hard to find trim pieces.
Then the sickness took hold, started thinking up ways to build it, made the guy an offer and lo and behold, another project. These 2dr. Clippers are pretty rare and I'd never even heard of one before this. Some of the Packard purists might get PO'd at making a rod out of it, but it had been for sale for 2 years and they'd all walked saying it was too rotten, etc.
Now here's a stroke of luck, while towing it home, a guy flags me down and says he has a 47 4dr. parts car, am I interested?? What are the odds??? Called him up that night, his dad had restored a 47 Super Clipper and though it was gone he still had the parts car at his brothers farm, wanted it gone and I could HAVE IT FOR THE TAKING !! It was 1000 KM away in northern Alberta, but I on it like flies on manure, whisked it home just ahead of a major snowstorm.
It was loaded with parts, all the missing stuff I needed plus tons more, flogged off the extra parts on ebay to the tune of $2500, it paid for the gas, trailer and hotels, what a great start!!
 

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A couple side shots, one with my crudely drawn changes to make to the wheelwells. These Packards were one of th first US cars to integrate the fenders into the body sides and fade into the doors. Chevys still had separate rear fenders into the 50's !
I forgot to take any pics of the organ donor car. I scooped a 1978 Merc Grand Marquis 2dr with only 65,000 miles on it and used the entire frame, drivetrain, seats, tilt column, gas tank and a ton of other parts. Engine is a sweet running 460, C6, 9" rearend.
Not a simple swap, I narrowed the front 3", shortened it 4" in the middle and lopped 10" off the rear and 4" off the front, and also added an X member in the middle.[;)
Since the floor was junk, I gutted it out from firewall to tailpan, made a new subframe from 1x2" and 1x1" tubing and new floor from 18 ga. steel. In the process I channelled it 2" over the frame to get the body lower. These cars are bad for rotten rockers and this one was too, I had to replace the entire rocker structure on both sides first to have something to even mount the floor to.[;)
 

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The first time I posted photos of my '50 Studie I worried I was going to be flamed, but not so, good bunch of rodders here, everyone is welcome.

The '47 Packard looks wicked, I don't remember ever seeing a '47 before.
 
how many years of body work and sanding to get that straight of a black paint job?

man, that car is really nice[cl[dr

Later:cool:

I lost track of the hours, kids had used the roof as a trampoline and with all the body mods I did, it was some fun, lots of priming and blocking (and help from the ol' magic body goo..)
 
The Merc gas tank sits upright behind the axle so it required doing away with the stock tire well and building a box section to cover it. To gain some trunk space back, I built a well in the location of the original tank - from underneath it looks like the gas tank.
I tossed the stock rear gravel pan and pushed the bumper in 3" to clean up the appearance. I swept back the rear wheel openings and pulled the front edges forward too to accomodate the 20's.
You can see where I narrowed the front of the frame and trimmed off the front horns. I had to move the engine back about 5", up 2", make new mounts and notch the crossmember to clear the oil pan sump. The Merc front body mounts were almost in the stock Packard spot, though they needed to be rebuilt along with the lower corners of the firewall to get rid of the rot.
 
OOps, forgot the pix...
 

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I like it alot! great job![dr
I've been study'n the roof line to figure out how to chop the top, just about
3"s would make it sssooooo nasty looking but it would have been so much work and it looks great as is, just do'n alittle dreaming[dr
 
wow zz.. awesome job.. cant say i have ever seen one of those
 
Cool Ride, those directional front tires are going the wrong direction tho.

Heh, heh, yeah I noticed that, zoom on the pic from my first post, you'll see I flipped them around during final assembly.

The seats from the merc fit in, some trimming to be done on the rear, and at this point the fronts were just sitting in place.
Side view shows how I pulled back the rear of the front wheel opening so it doesn't look so chunky, and to fit the 18" wheels.
Front shots show the big changes I made. The black one is a stock 47, I thought the lights were too close together and I wasn't keen on the lower side grilles either. Sooo, I moved the headlights out 3", made a new wider center grille and eliminated the stock lower grilles, added Ford park lights for turn signals. After studying it for a while, decided I hated the lower grilles I made - they looked like the floor vents in my house - so I painted them out on the computer - much better ! I also doubled the number of grille bars, it looked too toothy. I also tossed the stock gravel pan and pushed the bumper in 3".
 

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I like it alot! great job![dr
I've been study'n the roof line to figure out how to chop the top, just about
3"s would make it sssooooo nasty looking but it would have been so much work and it looks great as is, just do'n alittle dreaming[dr

I thought about chopping it but couldn't face up to more (major!) metal work. I did find some pics of chopped ones tho, the bugundy one, the whole roof was sunk in by sectioning the doors and quarters, gives an odd look to the doors but still kool. The white one's not bad, not my taste in the front treatment tho.. The blue one is a 48 - 50, they had the same roof, I really like the look of it.
If I had a do over, I think I'd pancake the roof above the windows and section the trunk, that would really take the bubble out of it..
 

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