It’s one thing to find a car featured on Curbside Classics for sale on Craigslist or Ebay… in fact, according to our trackbacks, a number of used car sellers have even taken to linking to the relevant CC in their online ads. But finding a beast of a Packard Clipper that Paul Niedermeyer himself once called “the biggest find of the year so far” for sale for the low, low price of $4,700 (as of current bidding) just doesn’t happen every day. If you’re on the West Coast and you’re looking to scratch that hard-to-reach Packard itch, your barge may just have come in (so to speak).
According to the owner, the damage is limited to
Some rust in front floor pan. Will need front pan, drivers side window gone. But it’s solid and all there, and very restorable.
No mention of the paint damage caused by some mysterious vandal. Also beware Paul’s warning that
The guy that presumably owns this Packard threatened me in numerous ways. Bad vibes surrounded him and his car from the minute my eyes laid on him… He had a sour look to start with, and instantly started yelling at me insisting that I can’t photograph his Packard. He made a cryptic remark along the lines of “I’ve had enough problems with this car, and it won’t be here much longer”. I tried in vain to reason with him and explained that I have every right to shoot it sitting on a public road, but he started jumping in between me and the car, and threatening to call the the police. That was an empty threat, but he became more agitated and aggressive, so I let it go for now.
It sounds like the old Packard is moving to a happier place… and for the right money, that happier place could just be your garage. It’s too bad Paul is too busy with his new site to take on a “sitting for 30 years” project, as his CC on this rare Packard concluded on what has to be described as a wistful note:
I’m trying hard to get the Clipper out of my head; not only wondering what happened to it, but imagining tooling this majestic coupe down the McKenzie highway on a warm summer night, and opening the cutout on the exhaust. Nothing quite beats the sound of a big honking Packard straight eight (listen for yourself here and here).
[Hat Tip: William Garrett]
Glad to see that Packard is going where it will be wanted–I don’t know the story behind how it came to be where it is now, but it didn’t seem to be a happy one.
Here’s my parting wish for the next owner to experience the happiness it once bestowed its original owner: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-capsule-1946-packard-clipper-super-farewell-my-beastly-beauty/
I’m only interested if it’s CPO.
Paging Motor Trend…
It sounds like it’s Certified Psychotic Owned… but to ask for the man’s papers, that’s a bit RUDE.
Did Paul ever find out why this thing had fresh white paint strewn around its roof?
Dude pissed off Big Bird, man. You don’t do that and get away unscathed.
No, but I did go back and re-shoot it more recently. The latex paint had been scrubbed almost totally off, and there was no response from the house.
I’m pretty sure he had just got it when I shot it first, and there were obviously issues around that. They seem to be resolved, I assume.
@SexCpotatoes
That made my morning.
Happy to help, @PeriSoft .
I’d make double-damned sure the name on the title matched the name on the seller’s ID before handing over a dime.
Packard, that is the one independent auto manufacturer whom I mourn for the hardest. The funny thing is that Packard was long dead by the time I was even born.
+1000. What happened to Packard is a tragedy, and a largely self-inflicted (by management) one, at that. Also well before I was born.
One of their most fatal mistakes was farming out the bodies. They did this in-house until about WWII then contracted it out. When the body-builder went up for sale, they tried to buy it but it was sold to Chrysler instead, which then forced an end to Packard body production. Evil Chrysler bastards, I was mortified that Daimler bought them (knew it would drag down DBAG); packard was one reason I did not shed a tear over their bankruptcy.
Packard should have built a new plant of their own after the war or gotten a a defense plant and converted it, a la Willow Run, instead they were stuck with an old-style inner city factory.
They really were tremendous cars. Saw a late 30s Senior on the road one day a few years ago, deep green with grey interior. The grill was higher than my car – it just seemed to float down the road.
Another fellow in my neighborhood of a few years ago had three late forties “bathtub” style cars under cover at his carport. I wanted to go by and ask about them, but the big fence around the house was my clue not to bother.
Of course, they got all of 8mpg out of their enormous pushrod straight-eights but you have to give them credit for their home-grown auto transmission, which was the best design of the time with something like a lock-up torque converter and was the only in-house auto made by an independent at that time.
“The guy that presumably owns this Packard threatened me in numerous ways. Bad vibes surrounded him and his car from the minute my eyes laid on him… He had a sour look to start with, and instantly started yelling at me insisting that I can’t photograph his Packard. He made a cryptic remark along the lines of “I’ve had enough problems with this car, and it won’t be here much longer.”
Maybe this is “Christine’s” older sister, that would bring a whole new meaning to the name ‘Clipper.”
Paging Mr. King, Mr. Steven King-your sequel is ready to pick up in the pharmacy department.
King beat you to it; he wrote “From a Buick 8.”
Want. WANT. If only I was a middle-aged man, with a garage, tones of spare time, know-how and money. Student negative income does not work for that.
Well, I’m a middle-aged man with tools and spare time. Now if you can scare up a garage and some money…
I’m middle aged, have the money and garage, but absolutely no time. Hope it finds a good home.
Someone brought one of these to the local cruise-in a couple years ago. Neat car, but the engine and interior were nothing like original.
I like it from the headlight bulbs on back.
Who has a story about how smooth the straight 8 was?
Man that straight eight is so smooooooooooooth it makes Gentleman Jack taste like rotgut whiskey.
Man that straight eight is so smooooooooooooth it makes a baby’s behind feel like sandpaper.
Man that straight eight is so smooooooooooooth it makes John Shaft look like PeeWee Herman.
(Help me out guys…)
Why don’t you see for yourself
If Paul had that Packard as the official Curbside Cruiser, what a sight it’d make rolling on up new CC conquests.
It might put to ease some of those reticent car owners who are puzzled as to why this guy is photographing their old car.
Or they might think he is some kind of Man in Black coming to take them away.
Great idea. Now I just need a corporate sponsor! Black Velvet?
It’s been delisted from Ebay
Maybe someone local made him a generous offer……..that or he had another psychotic episode.
BTW, it’s been my observation that really cool old barn finds like this are almost always owned by a nutcase.
My money’s on psychotic episode. If it wasn’t sold locally, I’m not sure what exactly the guy is looking to get out of it. This sounds like one of those situations where the owner deliberately trashes the car (or other rare possession) just to be an ass.