This car’s name is almost longer than the car itself, it’s a 1948 Packard Super Deluxe Eight 7-passenger sedan. You can see that it’ll also be a lengthy restoration project. It can be found here on craigslist in Yancey, Texas. Yes, Texas is also big. One thing that isn’t big on this car is the asking price which is $2,400.
One thing that I can’t quite nail down is the center trim piece. I’ve seen them on the Custom level cars but not on a Deluxe. The Custom would have an egg crate grille which this car doesn’t have. Maybe one of you will know whether that’s an optional piece or if it was added on later, which sometimes happened with these big Packards.
The seller doesn’t show us any photos of the driver’s side at all which is a little unusual. Hopefully, it’s at least as reasonably solid and dent-free looking as the passenger side looks. This is not a short car at just under 19-feet in length but it looks longer than that to me.
Things looked doable up until seeing the interior photos, but now it turns into a serious project. Not that restoring a 19-foot-long Packard body is easy, but you can see in this interior photo that this will take a lot of time and money to get right. The seller doesn’t show us the bulk of the rear interior for some reason, but they show us a few photos of the rear jump seats from the same angle. The limo would have had a glass partition between the front and rear seats which is one thing that differentiates the 7-passenger sedan from the limo.
The engine compartment is another area that reminds us of how big of a project this one will be for the next owner. The engine is a 327 cubic-inch inline-eight which would have had 145 hp and 267 ft-lb of torque. This car hasn’t been on the road for a couple of decades but after rebuilding the carb, the engine runs smoothly and it supposedly drives and shifts well. At $2,400, is this big Packard worth a gamble given its condition? I hope someone can save it.
I would love to see this car brought back to its former glory.
It’s actually an in-line 8, not a six. Probably not worth restoring as an original car, but it would be cool to put the body on a more modern limo chassis and drivetrain. Bet there are lots of old 1990s Caddy and Lincoln limos kicking around for dirt cheap.
Arrrrgh, brain freeze. Thanks for catching that, Bultaco!
Always still good for a photoshoot before restoration. Get your rock band to pose in and around it. “Nilsson Sings Newman.”
The trim was confusing, Packard had like forty-11 different styles. This thing is too far gone. It would cost a fortune to restore this. You know, it was a pretty stately car in it’s time, someone thought enough to save it, but where was it parked, under water? I think the price is so-so, these were $200 parts cars in my day, I had 4 at one time, but for a 22nd or 23rd series Packard collector, this is a great find.
Great Rat Rod candidate IMHO.
It has patina too.
It just needs some new boots & a carb kit.
Bob
For reference, a running, driving ’48 Packard sedan , California car with decent paint, sold on Ebay in October for $3000.
I say jack it up and set it on a 1 ton 4wd chassis. It does need to made into something a little more radical.😎
I’d like to get this up and running and drive it up and down #3 Road in Richmond just to terrify the locals….
Bhahahahahahahahahahahah…………….
I’d love to see that old straight 8 running. Which is what I’d do with it as for the interior I’d pull the seats out of a wrecked modern car or truck. And they would be way nicer seats. That’s what I did with my dodge and it only cost $120.00. They fit nice and look good. I resewed the head liner and recovered the door panels myself too. With some scrounging and diy work you could have this interior looking good for under $500.00 but your going to have to do the work yourself. If you have the old head liner you can use it for a pattern to sew a new one, it wasn’t as hard as I though it would be. A scrounger could have this to a driver quality restoration for under $5000.00. This cars problem is no body wants it so it is likely never going to see a restoration.
A friend of mine had one of these in the 90’s. Cool, but kind of boring.
Don’t walk away – run!
Big, big project with no chance of ever breaking even. Too bad…
A farmer that lived one farm over in the 1980s told me I could have his dad’s old 48 Custom if i cut down some trees and pulled it out of the woods. I dragged it home with a tractor and let out the clutch coming across a field — a few of the spark plugs popped right out of the head because they were so rusty but cylinders still had compression. I remember reading (I think) that the bare crankshaft in this engine weighed 125 pounds. After playing with it for awhile I gave it to a guy who owned a bunch of 22nd/23rd series Packards.
Funny you should say that Rodney, that’s
exactly ehat I did in ’72 when I bought a ’50 almost like this one. Paid $250 for it
and it ran like a Swiss watch! After we
overhauled the engine, I used it to ferry the band and myself around the state of Illinois playimg one nighters all that summer. After the band broke up, the car
became a backup car to Mom’s new
Chevy Caprice, that wouldn’t start when the Mercury dropped below 40 degrees.
Wound up selling it to keep the peace with Mom after a security guard where
she worked saw a pair of young ladies
panties lying on the rear seat. Turns out
they belonged to a young lady a friend of
mine was dating. I’d loaned the car to a .
friend so that he could take his girl to the
drive in movie. And well, we know how that went don’t we? Didn’t hear about it
till after I got back from a long road trip.
Everything worked out fine up to the discovery of said panties. I sure got an
earful when I got home. That story being
told, I hope someone saves this grand old
gal from the ceusher. She deserves it.
Ken, no one has ever said that a Packard was a “Panty Dropper”.
(Until now…)
Hi Rodney! That old Packard had one of
biggest back seats I’d ever seen–more than enough room for any sort of bedroom olympics you cared to partake of. My car was a beautiful dark blue
metallic with a grey interior with dark blue
accents. It had the best ride of anything
out there before or since. While on the
highway, the car seemed to float along
as it cradled you in comfort with that big
356 cube straight 8 that just seemed to
loaf along as you drove. My niece and my sister in law get after me today when I
keep pestering a car salesman to show me something on his lot that rides as well
as my Packard did. There is, in my mind,
no modern car made today that could match it. Absolutely nothing! If I were to
do this car, I’d run a modern driveline, add
air and electric power steering, but I’d leave the suspension alone. Then, you’d
have the best of both worlds. Of. all the cars I’ve owned, my Packard was the very
best.
Give it to Ian on Full Custom Garage. He will make something out of it.
Our 1948 lwb Packard (7passengr) is getting modern 350 motor, 700R4 and 12 volt wiring. BOdy will need extensive work which I will do as a project. Our 1949 2 door fastback club sedan is customized outside but has rebuilt original 288 Cu. In. motor and three on the tree trannny weigh original factory R11 overdrive. It is coming home tomorrow from being in the shop for custom wiring .
Packards are the true classy cars that still have a large following!