For regular readers of this column, you may be surprised to hear that I sold my 1940 Ford coupe. But not to worry, I bought another ’40. Here’s the rest of the story….

Last year, I thought it would be fun to buy a 1955-’56 F-100 pickup. When I was in high school (you can see where this is going), a classmate named Henry Pevear bought a brand-new Ford F-100 pickup at Nel-Nick Motors in Lynn, Mass. Then he proceeded to install a dropped axle, chrome exhaust stacks and a few other modifications. In that era, it was unheard of to buy a new vehicle and customize it. I thought that truck was cool, and an F-100 has been on my want list forever.

Finding an F-100

In June 2024, when I saw a nicely patina’d ’56 Spring Mist Green F-100 truck on Bring-a-Trailer with a John Mummert-modified 318-cid stroker Y-Block V-8, I decided to bid. There was a lot of interest, and the price soon soared. I was the penultimate bidder, but I dropped out at $50,000 and the truck sold with the next bid, which was $52,000. After the sale, my friend Colin Comer (the seller) said he’d have considered a trade for my ’40, if we’d talked beforehand. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized he was the seller. Then another friend, Jeff Gill, made me a very fair offer on my ’40 coupe and I sold it. Now I’d seriously be able to rev up my search for an F-100.

To make a long story short, every F-100 I found was either modified in a way I didn’t like —- think Chevy small-blocks and tilt steering wheels -— or it represented way too much of a project. Then I saw that Mecum was offering the Richard V. Munz collection at Kissimmee in January. Richard was selling 40 very nice cars and trucks and several motorcycles. Included in the sale was one of three ’40 Ford coupes that Richard owned, a black De Luxe with a ’57 Olds 371-cid V-8 equipped with vintage Edmunds finned valve covers and a factory J-2 Rocket setup with three Rochester two-barrel carburetors topped with Edmunds air cleaners.

I had seen this car before. Several years earlier, I traveled to the RVM Collection in Madison, Wis., to look at Richard’s cars. He’d convinced Dana Mecum to underwrite a privately distributed book on the collection. The idea was that David Newhardt and Jeremy Cliff would photograph the vehicles, and I’d write the text. Richard would have a nice book to give to his friends, and when he was ready to sell, Mecum would get the auction consignments with all the catalog work done in advance.

To accurately write Richard’s book, I inspected every vehicle and took notes. Of course, I remembered this Olds-powered ’40. The driveline was particularly interesting: a 1940 LaSalle three-speed gearbox had been paired with an open driveline and a burly 9-inch Ford rear end. Anchoring the rear was a Chassis Engineering suspension kit with parallel leaf springs, tubular shocks and a sway bar. Up front, there was a 4-inch dropped-beam axle, GM ventilated disc brakes and another anti-roll bar. In a quick glance, it all looked nicely done. But I had dozens of cars to catalog, so I didn’t inspect it much more closely, certainly not with an intent to purchase it.

An idea quickly came to mind….

Back in 1957, I had started a black ’40 coupe project with a 303-cid V-8 Olds, but it was never completed. Richard’s car looked to be everything I’d have wanted decades ago: hefty J-2 Olds engine, decent stance, nice pedigree, really nothing I wouldn’t have done — and now I had the money from my Cloud Mist Gray ’40 burning a hole in my pocket.

The problem was, my wife Trish and I had planned a trip to Southeast Asia in January, and we’d be in Hanoi when that coupe crossed the block. Knowing he was a regular Kissimmee attendee, I asked my friend Wayne Carini, former host of “Chasing Classic Cars,” to bid on it for me. In the middle of the night in Hanoi, my phone buzzed with a text. “Congratulations!” Wayne wrote. I happily went back to sleep.

’40 No. 3 arrives

Soon afterward, the ’40 was delivered. On the outside, it looked as good as I’d remembered, with a nice patina. The old, black paint was faded in a few places, and there was some orange peel on the hood —- it looked pleasantly authentic. But the center Edmunds air cleaner was off, indicating they’d probably had to prime the engine to start it. And one of the buttons for the tufted interior was missing, probably lost when a prospective buyer got in the seat to try it. Small stuff, right? I squirted a little ether in the open carb, she fired up and I drove it up the hill into my garage.

As soon as I could register the coupe, I transferred the four-digit Virginia 1940 year-of-manufacture plates from my previous ’40 coupe and called Hagerty to add the car to my policy. Then I went for a 50-mile drive. It was hard to start, the throttle response was poor, the brakes were squishy. During a closer inspection on my lift, the bloom rapidly receded from the rose. There were several plumbing and wiring issues, the exhaust pipes ran too close to the fuel lines, the frame was unnecessarily cut, the tires were 20 years old, the master cylinder profusely leaked, the emergency brake cable was shredded, the front license plate bracket was missing, the remote oil filter mount was suspect and there were numerous other minor issues. None of that was unsolvable, but there was work to do.

I’m blessed to have access to a terrific mechanic, Donnie Nesselrodt. An ASE Certified Master Technician, Donnie had his own shop, Purcellville Tire & Auto, for many years in Purcellville, Va. He sold his business to AAA, and now he works solo, by appointment, in a splendid facility that he owns in West Virginia. Donnie intuitively understands old Fords and Chevys. He can troubleshoot, weld, fabricate and repair cars with the best of them. I made up a long punch list, and I gathered up the parts I thought he’d need. Donnie trailered the ’40 to his shop.

Over a few weeks, Donnie worked his way through my list. A new master cylinder and a new e-brake cable were procured. A close inspection revealed the brake shoes were new. The rear drums were then bead blasted, finished in gunmetal gray and carefully adjusted. Coker Tire supplied a new set of its excellent “Bias-Look” radials — 5.60:15 in front and 8.20:15 for the rear, with the requisite tubes. I use these same blackwall radials on my Hemi-powered ’39 Ford. They have a tall aspect ratio and plain sidewalls, so they look period-perfect. And they ride and handle beautifully.

I had ordered a set of tubular steel headers from Belond, but when they arrived, they didn’t fit. Turns out they were for earlier 303-/324-cid Oldsmobile engines and the bigger 371s have square center ports. Belond doesn’t make them. Donnie repainted the stock cast-iron manifolds, made new downpipes and, perhaps one day, we’ll fabricate new tubular headers. I ordered a set of new “Shorty” steelpacks from Porter Muffler. They have a deep, mellow sound. The engine mounts were shot, so Donnie installed new “doughnuts.”

Rebuilding kits and floats for the three Rochester carbs from NAPA were a must. Donnie rebuilt the carburetors, adjusted the linkage and carefully set the idle. The two end carburetors were very gummed up. The J-2 has a progressive linkage, and you can run happily on the center carburetor for optimal mileage. I read that, back in the day, owners didn’t fully tromp on the throttle too much, and the barely used carbs had a tendency to gum up. The solution is to bury the throttle more frequently. No problem there. New fuel lines were fabricated. The fuel tank was filled with rotten old ethanol-laced gasoline, so that was drained and flushed. Curiously, the Ford pumpkin didn’t have a drain plug, so Donnie made a new housing for a drain plug, solving that issue.

Some tasks can wait. A hidden-but-complete Vintage Air HVAC system and a built-in stereo are installed. We’ll get to those eventually. The front wishbones were split and hung on brackets welded to the frame, ostensibly to clear the gearbox, but that seems overkill given the existing spacing. They might need redoing -— they hang somewhat lower than I’d like.

Burton Antique Auto Parts, in Dayton Ohio, sells a reproduction of the 1940 Ford rear gravel shield. I ordered one, had it painted black and Donnie installed it. This rare Ford dealer accessory was just $1.95 back in 1940 — they’re $175 today, but they neatly fill most of the gap between the body and bumper, and they look cool. My friend, Jim Cherry, supplied a gennie Ford front license plate bracket.

We found that while some modifications on this car were done very well, others were amateurish. I traced the title back 21 years. Richard Munz acquired the car in January 2004. The last owner before Munz was Richard Craig Bisbee, of Sparta, Mich. — he’d acquired the coupe in July 2003. Unfortunately, Richard Bisbee passed away, so that trail’s cold. Richard Munz doesn’t recall some of the details. When you’ve owned more than 300 cars in your lifetime, as he has, that’s not surprising. Joe Reath, from Long Beach, Calif., has been credited with the engine rebuild, but I have no record of that. Sadly, Joe passed away in January 2013 —- another cold trail.

Back behind the art deco wheel

Here’s the good news: Back together, all tuned up, and filled with fresh 93-octane Sunoco fuel, the ’40 is a delight to drive. With that wide rear, dual leaf springs and Coker radials, it handles a lot better than my old coupe with its antique front and rear buggy springs and skinny 16-inch bias-ply tires. And the new ’40 stops very surely, thanks to its oversized disc/drum brake setup. The acceleration is exhilarating, with great throttle response, a deep “wooooosh” from the three carburetors and a torquey rush to illegal speeds that makes me smile. And it should be —- the 371-cid Olds is nearly 100 cubic inches larger than the flathead in my old car.

The 1940 LaSalle that supplied the gearbox had a 3.92:1`rear-end ratio, and it weighed 3,710 lbs. The J-2 Olds V-8 (an $83 option in 1957) developed 312 bhp at 4,600 rpm when new, and I think this modified engine has a hot cam, so it’s probably even more powerful. It’s pulling a 3.50:1 Ford rear now, in a car that weighs about 3,100 lbs, with the heavier and more powerful Olds V-8 installed. That LaSalle column-shift gearbox is interesting. 1940 was the first year for a column shift at Ford, so adapting the LaSalle column shifter is very appropriate. It shifts smoothly and it feels like the coupe will wind to 80 mph in second. There’s a kind of electric overdrive attached to the throttle linkage that will hold the throttle in position, but I don’t need it.  

I put about 100 miles on the ’40 coupe just last weekend. It runs between 190-195 degrees, checked with my heat gun, on an 82-degree day. There’s already an electric fan that’s controlled by an under-dash switch. But that’s too hot. So by the time you’re reading this, we’ve installed a new 180-degree thermostat, and Donnie was going to fit an overflow tank from Speedway. That should fix the overheating.

Lessons learned? It’s never a bad idea to have a complete inspection when you buy a car. But honesty, I’m really liking this ’40. The repairs didn’t break the bank, and I’d have bought this car even if I’d known it needed some work. 

Bottom line, as Bruce Meyer says, “it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” 

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There weren’t many cars around in 1958 that had room to haul all of Chet Champion’s kids, and the cavernous 1949 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine was one of the few.

Somehow, the Champion family wound up with one of the rare limos in their Iron Range town of Hibbing, Minn. The monstrous Caddy didn’t have to serve as daily transportation for the family all that often, but it had to be ready when all 10 Champions — and sometimes a few extras — wanted to travel together. The big ’49 was always up to the task and 67 years later, it’s still in the family and looking as good as ever.

“Yeah, we could fit the whole family in this thing, all 10 of us. There were times I stood up between Mom and Dad in the front seat,” recalls Mike Champion, of Roseville, Minn., who now shares custody of the limo with brothers Jon and Dennis. “And sometimes we had a couple of neighbor kids who would come along, so we’ve had 12 in there! I remember [my brother] and my sister, who is a couple years older than I am, used to argue over who got to sit on the armrest, because as a little kid, you couldn’t see out of the windows otherwise.”

Chet sold cars for a living in Hibbing, and it was his connections in the car dealer business that led to the Cadillac landing in his lap. It was an unlikely series of events — there were only 626 of the ’49 Series 75 Limousines built and the Champions had to be one of the only working-class families in the country that had one.

“My dad had a friend who sold cars in Ely, Minnesota … He called him up and said, ‘Chet, I took something in on trade that you might be interested in,’ Champion recalls. “It was this car.” 

A family had bought the Cadillac from a mining company for their 16-year-old son, who commenced to ruin the transmission.
“…If I would have been that 16-year-old kid, the solution to the problem would have been, I would have paid for a new transmission,” Champion said. “Their solution was to trade it in on a ’58 Chevy Impala for the kid, brand new. 

“So Dad went up and took a look at it, and they were asking $495 for it, ‘as is.’ That was in 1958. And my dad talked them down to $445 and they put in the new transmission. I have the original bill of sale and the original bank note that has the Cadillac and my mom’s Maytag washing machine as collateral — honest to God!

“It was originally owned by Oliver Mining Company in Virginia, Minnesota. When their executives flew in from Cleveland, this is what they transported them in. It didn’t get a lot of use in the years that they owned it, but they ultimately traded it to a dealer in Duluth, and the fella from Ely bought it and then my dad bought it.”

Mike Champion still chuckles at the idea that his dad somehow convinced himself — or was talked into — buying a huge, 9-year-old limousine. 

“My dad had demonstrators. He didn’t need this car!” he laughs. “This was a toy car for him. But we could fit the whole family in this thing.”

Mike recalls plenty of lively road trips to Wisconsin with the whole Champion clan packed into the big, black Cadillac. The limo proved to be fun, reliable family transit for about seven years before the brakes went bad in 1965. Nobody probably would have guessed it at the time, but it turned out to be more than 30 years before the Series 75 was back on the road.

A Power Move at Cadillac

The 1949 model year was certainly a time of “something old, something new” at Cadillac. The biggest news for the year was the arrival of the new Kettering overhead-valve 331-cid V-8 rated at 160 hp. Tailfins had been part of a complete redesign of Series 60, 61 and 62 Cadillacs in 1948 and their styling was still fresh in 1949, so there wasn’t much new looks-wise for them that year. However, the giant Series 75 bodies for ’49 were essentially holdovers from 1941 and so they were clearly dated-looking by 1949. The archaic Series 75 Cadillacs rode on a huge 163-inch wheelbase chassis that was used for funeral cars, ambulances and their ilk. Five- and seven-passenger sedans were offered, as were seven- and nine-passenger business sedans. At the top of the heap was the new Series 75 Imperial Limousine with a divider window at a whopping 4,648 lbs. and equally weighty $5,170 sticker price. Included in the deal were such amenities as power-assisted steering, hydraulic power windows, rich leather seats, optional air conditioning, the divider “chauffer” window, self-adjusting suspension, clock, heater, AM radio, dual exhaust, fender skirts and the fancy, stylized “flying goddess” Cadillac hood ornament.

Such grand machines were well beyond the financial means of most Americans, but they were not out of range for the Vatican, which ordered at least one of the limos for the Pope and his entourage. 

The Series Imperial Limousines measured 227 inches from tip to tip. With only 626 built, they have always been a rare sight — Champion says to this day he has still only seen one other in the flesh.

“I was out in Vegas for the NASCAR race in 2000 and went to the Imperial Palace’s car collection,” he says. “As we were leaving, we noticed a sign that they were going to have an auction at the Imperial Palace. And one of the cars they were going to auction was a 1949 Series 75 Limousine…. That was the day after the stock market crashed in 2000, and it sold for $25,000!”

Planning a Surprise Party

“With two kids in college and six more at home, Dad didn’t really have the money to fix it,” recalls Mike, of their ’49’s lengthy slumber that began in 1965. “So he parked it, always planning to get it back on the road someday. Well, in 1995, he still hadn’t gotten it back on the road. He had a heart attack in 1995 and had to go to the hospital, and he really needed to sell the house and move into something handicapped-accessible. And in the hospital he said, ‘Well, I suppose I’ll have to sell the Cadillac.’ And in the room was a bunch of my brothers and sisters, and the room just went silent. Then I spoke up and said, ‘Dad, if you’re going to sell the Cadillac, I’m going to buy it and I’m going to restore it so I can see you drive it. You do what you want,’ because you never told my dad what to do.”

A few weeks after that, Mike, Jon and Dennis took possession of the limo and hatched a plan to have it restored. Two years later, with the help of a restorer friend “who grossly undercharged me,” the boys had completed the remake and were ready to surprise the old man — who had no idea what they were up to. 

Despite its size, the Champions’ Series 75 was a great candidate to be restored at the time. It had somehow avoided serious rust issues in the harsh Iron Range winters, and the interior remained in great shape. The body was stripped, straightened and re-painted, and the faux burled-walnut woodgrain was re-done. All the original leather and mohair upholstery remained, as did the carpet, headliner and almost everything else inside.

The engine and drivetrain were original and serviceable, although eventually both got rebuilds for the sake of reliability.

“There was surface rust on some of the fenders. The body was straight. My dad had built a seven-stall garage to help protect this … and the snow load in March of ’79 — I think it was ’79 — collapsed the roof and there was a dent in the roof. That’s some real heavy steel!” That led to a lengthy search for some stainless trim around the windshield that needed to be replaced, but otherwise, there wasn’t a lot of parts chasing involved in the restoration.

“It was all taken down to bare metal. I have a good friend who owned a body shop and he did this one and my wife’s ’72 Camaro … It was done on his terms, there was no time frame,” Mike relates.

Two years later, on Father’s Day 1997, the brothers decided it was time for the big reveal. Cue the box of tissues.

“Dad did not know the car was done and he was over at our house. We were inside for a while and I finally said, ‘Dad, let’s go out in the backyard and play some bocci ball.’ I lived on the golf course in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and the original No. 3 tee box is in my backyard. And we had the car parked on that spot, and when we went out there and saw it, he looked the car over … it was probably 5 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. I came up to him and put my arm around him said, ‘Dad, would you like to drive your car?’ We didn’t have the whole family there, because we are kind of spread out around the country, but we had myself and a couple of my brothers and sisters, and my wife and daughter. He had both some grandkids and one of their sons, so there was a great-grandkid. There were plenty of family there to see it.”

Mike says Chet’s comeback drive was short and sweet. A couple of gentle miles were enough. “I could tell he wasn’t really comfortable driving it, because it’s so big. But he got to drive, and that was my goal.” That same year the family took the limousine back to Wisconsin to show it off in the Blue Ribbon invitational area at the Iola Car Show. They were back again in 2025, reliving old times and enjoying some miles in their venerable family hauler.

Chet passed away in 2002, but the big Series 75 lives on in the family, and likely will continue to do so for many years to come. 

“It’s just a cruiser. It actually is a lot of fun to drive,” Mike says. “You’re never going to get a lot of speed out of it. I’ve hit 80 with it. It’s just totally a totally unique driving experience.”

Love Cadillacs? Here are a few more articles that might interest you.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/a-peek-inside-the-lemans-cadillacs

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/old-cars-reader-wheels/old-cars-reader-wheels-1953-cadillac-fleetwood-series-60

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1959-cadillac-hearse-from-new-zealand

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When we last left our dusty 1941 Packard Model 110 (Old Cars Dec. 1, 2023), she had found a new home, and even after 60-plus years, she fired up right away with only fluid changes.

There is something very special about a one-owner “garage find” that captures people’s attention and emotions. I think it has to do with our love of cars that have stories and personal history. You feel somehow more connected to a one-owner car. Its story becomes yours to tell.

Since our Sleeping Beauty still wears her 60-plus years of a protective coating of garage dust, her new owner has felt torn about washing off the accumulated history. The car was now running and driving on the original tires (but with new inner tubes), and he resisted the idea of any restoration. The condition of the paint and chrome indicated that it would polish up very well. But Eric, the new owner, resisted the urge, somehow sensing its story was best told in its as-found condition.

I would love to say that our “Sleeping Beauty” finally went to the ball, except that it was Cinderella who went to the ball, not Sleeping Beauty (a small detail). If Sleeping Beauty were to go to a ball (perhaps as Cinderella’s “plus one”), then the perfect event was the San Marino Motor Classic in San Marino, Calif., this past August. It is one of Southern California’s best car shows, if not its best. This year, there were more than 350 cars (see Sanmarinomotorclassic.com for details). An amazing collection of spectacular cars, but only one “Sleeping Beauty” as it turns out.

Eric decided to show the Model 110 at San Marino in its as-found condition, along with a poster board of the two “Tales from the Garage” columns about its discovery and resurrection. This was a big crowd pleaser. During the day, she was never alone and always had people around her, looking inside and under the split two-piece hood, and stopping to read her history on the poster boards. The car acted as a springboard into the past. While not a fancy or luxurious car, the fact that she survived and made it to the car show was a sort of symbol of survivorship. She was, barely, a prewar car, and our lives would never be the same by the next model year. Her magnetic appeal was undeniable.

Perhaps Sleeping Beauty did not go to the ball in the fairy tale, but this beauty came in the back door and stole the hearts of all the guests.

Want more “Garage Tales?” Rodney Kemerer’s new book “Tales From the Garage” is an illustrated collection of his best essays and will be available from Amazon Books. Learn more about the book at TalesFromtheGarage.com.

*Editor’s note: Rodney Kemerer’s “Tales From the Garage” column appeared for many years in Garage Style Magazine. This is his first column for Old Cars, and the staff is proud to welcome Rodney and his contributions.

Read more about the ’41 Packard below

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Story by Dave Doucette; Photos by Robin Hedma

In the 1930s, BMW was mainly known in Germany for producing motorcycles and airplane engines rather than automobiles for the relatively small portion of the German population who could actually afford to own one. However, it had begun automobile production in 1929 by building a small car under license from the Austin Motor Co.; this car was superseded by cars of the company’s own designs in 1932.

When BMW introduced the 321 model in the late 1930s, it was aimed at Germans who were not necessarily wealthy, but economically comfortable enough to afford a stylish sedan or cabriolet.

The four-passenger BMW 321 was produced from 1938 until 1941, when all industrial production was overtaken by the German military’s needs. That included the BMW plant in Eisenach, where the 321 was manufactured. When World War II ended, Eisenach fell behind the Soviet lines and production of the 321 eventually resumed in 1945 under communist control. The company produced almost 9,000 of the models until 1950, when BMW of West Germany regained control of the BMW name.

The postwar 321s were never exported, except to the USSR, where they were popular with government functionaries. But a few did make their way through the Iron Curtain, and that’s where the known story of Brian Kinports’ 1949 BMW 321 coupe begins. How his car escaped from East Germany is unknown, but it ended up in a museum in Finland before coming to the United States, where it became part of a collection of BMWs in South Carolina.

Brian, who lives the in the Tampa Bay area and owns several BMWs, knew the son of the collector, who was disposing of his father’s cars. Brian was interested in adding another BMW to his family, so he traveled to see the collection and found the 321 there.

“The 321 just caught my eye,” Brian says. “It didn’t run at the time, but got it started long enough to fit it in the trailer.”

Brian’s BMW might be the only postwar 321 coupe to find its way across the Atlantic Ocean. He knows of a 1939 cabriolet that’s owned by a family in Cincinnati, but there just isn’t any readily available data on other 321s known to be in the United States.

Andreas Harz of the BMW Group Classic in Germany says little information about the 321s exist in its records.

“Unfortunately, the delivery records for those years don’t exist anymore, neither in our records nor in those in Eisenach,” he says. “Since Eisenach was in the Soviet occupation zone after the war, it is rather unlikely that these cars were exported to the U.S. in the first place.”

Dirk de Groen of the BMW Classic Car Club of America agrees that Brian’s car might be the only postwar 321 in the country.

“He is the only member of our club who owns a BMW 321 from after the war,” Dirk says. “I have no idea how many of these cars there are in this country as there is no registry.”

Brian’s coupe carries a two-tone dark maroon and pale yellow paint scheme. It is powered by a 1972cc inline six-cylinder engine with a 6:1 compression ratio producing 45 hp and 81 lb-ft of torque. The engine uses an updraft Solex carburetor. The live-axle, torsion-bar rear axle gear ratio is 4.55:1. Four-wheel drum brakes provide stopping power for the 2,315-pound car. All of that translates through a four-speed manual transmission to provide a top speed of nearly 70 mph. Contemporary data estimated a 0-to-60-mph time of 29.3 seconds, with a quarter-mile time of 23.5 seconds.

The 321 was introduced as a successor to the 320. It sat on a shortened version of the BMW 326 chassis. In addition to larger tires, it used the front suspension from the earlier 326 model with upper control arms and a low-mounted transverse leaf spring.

Brian says he’s driven the car at cruising speeds and it’s stable, but probably not on high-speed interstates. He adds that his 321 does not have a high-point, nearly perfect restoration, but it was in very good condition when he acquired the car earlier this year. Steadily, Brian is working to improve the 321’s mechanical and cosmetic features. However, finding parts is often difficult, but not always so.

“The first part I needed was a starter solenoid, because it wouldn’t engage the starter,” he says. “I found a six-volt piece that fits a Mercedes.” 

And he says he’s found smaller parts (fittings, etc.) on Amazon. But in some cases, that means taking a damaged or worn-out part, measuring it and trying to adapt something from another application. Brian says he’s heard that there is a good source of 321 parts in Europe, but as of now, he hasn’t had to go that far.

One of the easier parts that Brian was able to source were reproduction tires to replace the old, worn tires that came on the car.

The interior is in good shape, but Brian isn’t sure if the current fabric is original. There is no trace of sales materials from the time, and given the shortage of materials after the war, it’s possible that several different styles of fabric were used during the brief production run.

The car has several unusual features. For example, the small trunk space is only accessible by removing the lower rear seat and lifting the rear seat back, which is hinged at the top. The small space has a pair of wooden rails likely designed to allow suitcases (or an actual trunk) to be installed. Turn signals are mounted on the cowl of the car, just in front of the doors, as on many European cars of the period. A switch on the dash activates a small solenoid that flips an orange marker out and upward in a similar fashion to Volkswagens of the 1950s that had similar semaphores in the B pillars. And on the floor, just above the foot-activated headlamp dimmer switch, is a larger lever that, when pushed, sends oil to all four wheel hubs. Brian says he isn’t sure of the purpose of the system, but there is a reservoir for the oil. A small took kit is mounted on top of the firewall on the driver’s side.

Brian’s plans for the 321 include continued efforts to improve it, such as rechroming several pieces, while enjoying the car. He takes it to car cruises around the Tampa/St. Petersburg area on a regular basis. 

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When Jeb Bass says he and his 1947 International KB-2 pickup go way back, he’s not kidding.

On the night of March 27, 1950, another Bass — then-32-year-old Glenn — borrowed this very truck from an uncle to drive his wife, Mary Jane, to a hospital in Shelbyville, Ind. The couple was anxious to reach their destination as fast as possible, because Mary Jane was going into labor.

Upon arrival at the hospital, Mary Jane gave birth to a baby boy — James Edgar Bass. The proud parents immediately began calling the child “Jeb” — the acronym of his initials.

Some three decades later, the same uncle who loaned the truck to the expectant young couple handed over the truck’s title to Jeb — who had no idea of the backstory until his uncle, Edgar Hack, told him about it.

“The day Uncle Edgar gave me the title, he said, ‘I think you ought to keep this truck,’” Jeb recalls. “He said, ‘You kind of took your first ride in it.’ I said, ‘I did?’ And he said, ‘The night you were born, your dad borrowed my truck to drive your mom to the hospital.’”

The circumstances of why Glenn Bass lacked access to any other vehicle that night have been lost to history. In any case, Uncle Edgar was happy to oblige.

And Jeb remembers his parents borrowing the truck on many occasions over the years, so the fact they borrowed it for the frenzied trip to the hospital does not seem out of the ordinary.

“I remember my father taking pigs to the stockyard in this truck,” Jeb said. “And my mother took all of us kids camping in it.”

Edgar ordered the truck new on July 2, 1947, from an International Harvester dealership in Shelbyville called the McWilliams-Carter Co. The price was $1,335.

“He wanted to keep his business local,” Jeb said. “And, of course, back in the 1940s, International was pretty much the top choice as a farm vehicle. It’s geared low because that’s what they wanted in farm trucks.”

Edgar used the truck to work his fields in the vicinity of Boggstown, Ind., just a few miles from his home in Fairland. Both towns are located in Shelby County, southeast of Indianapolis.

International Harvester Co., which built light pickup trucks from 1907 to 1975, rolled out its KB series trucks in 1947. That’s the same year IHC restarted civilian vehicle production in the United States following World War II.

The 1947 KB models were barely updated versions of International’s K series from 1940. Despite the aging design, the KB series sold well. Between 1947 and 1949, IHC sold 122,000 KB-1 and KB-2 trucks. Jeb’s KB-2 is powered by the 213-cid Green Diamond flathead six-cylinder engine.

After his uncle gave him the truck in the 1980s, Jeb used it as a workhorse, just as his uncle and father had done.

“When I first got the truck, I would haul firewood with it,” Jeb recalled. “I put those stock racks on it, and I’d keep this baby full of firewood. And I’d go back to the farm, and I’d cut wood and throw it in here into the bed.”

At some point, he began appreciating the truck’s status as an antique survivor.

“One day I got to thinking,” he remembered. “And I said, ‘What an idiot. That truck’s a 1947 International.’ And that’s when I decided to quit doing stupid things with it.”

He proceeded to get it repainted in 1992, and around 2020, he had the engine overhauled.

Bass is a member of a local group called the Poor Boys Car Club, which participates in car shows and cruise-ins across central and southeastern Indiana, among other activities.

Over the years, Bass has driven the truck in several community parades and sometimes allowed local political candidates to use it as a rolling campaign prop.

He counts five politicians who have used it in their efforts to attract voters. The truck must bring good luck, he added, because all five candidates have won their races.

Interestingly, the truck has served both Republican and Democratic candidates.

“It’s a bipartisan truck,” he quipped.

The most enjoyment he has had with the truck, he said, has involved family activities with his wife, Lynn, the couple’s three sons and their seven grandchildren.

Looking into the long-term future, Bass has willed the truck to his oldest son. “So it will stay in the family,” he said. But in the meantime, Bass looks forward to a lot more car shows, cruise-ins and family time involving the truck.

Beyond the aforementioned family members, Jeb and Lynn also have two 1-year-old great-grandsons just months apart in age.

“If I get one of the great-grandsons in for a ride,” he said, “that will be six generations of this family in that truck!”

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By 1940, the Graham-Paige Motors Corp. of Detroit remained in deep financial trouble. Like other car manufacturers, the company had struggled through the Great Depression, which took the hardest toll on independent car makers. Many independents went out of business during the early and mid 1930s, the worst years of the Great Depression, but Graham had been able to continue building cars. Hope for a return to prosperity had come from the company’s all-new and uniquely styled 1938 Graham models, which had a forward-thrusting design that came to be called “Spirit of Motion.” While the “Spirit of Motion” cars drew attention on the street and people to Graham showrooms, the cars fell short of sales expectations due to the unconventional design and the 1938 economic recession. Graham soon found it needed a less-controversial vehicle design, but did not have the financial resources required to retool and produce new body dies. In an attempt to save its ailing business, Graham used body dies acquired by the Hupmobile Co. and created a new model called the Hollywood for 1940. It was not the first time Graham had taken such a measure. To create its Cavalier models beginning with the 1936 model year, Graham paid a royalty to Reo for using its body design built by Hayes Body Corp.

Interestingly, the body dies that Graham used via Hupmobile had previously been purchased from the defunct Auburn Automobile Co., which originally used these dies to produce the stunning front-drive Cord in 1936 and 1937. Hupmobile was struggling alongside Graham and also needed a stylish new car, and upon learning from auto industry veteran Norman de Vaux that the radically modern 1936-’37 Cord 810/812 body’s dies, tooling, patterns—and everything else needed to continue building the Cord body—were available for a relatively bargain-priced $45,000, Hupmobile made a deal to buy them. (Incidentally, de Vaux had first approached Graham-Paige about buying the Cord body dies, but Graham-Paige cofounder Joseph Graham passed on the opportunity.)

The Cord 810/812 had been a high-priced car with a factory price of $1,995 for the 1936 810 Westchester and $2,445 for the essentially identical 1937 812 Westchester. To make the Hupmobile version more affordable at a target price of $875, Hupmobile mounted the Gordon Buehrig-designed Cord Westchester sedan bodies on a 10-inch-shorter (115-inch-wheelbase) rear-wheel-drive chassis, and Hupp’s existing 245.3-cid six-cylinder engine of 101 hp was used. The Cord bodies from the cowl rear-ward appeared unchanged; the only change of note to the main body was the addition of a driveshaft tunnel on the floor pans for the rear-wheel-drive powertrain. However, Hupmobile created new front sheet metal to differentiate the Hupmobile, and to accommodate the shorter wheelbase. The Hupmobile’s new front fenders, hood and other front-end sheet metal were designed by John Tjaarda, a designer at Briggs who gained fame for the streamlined Lincoln-Zephyr design. To the Hupmobile, Tjaarda also added exposed headlamps and two grille motifs: the grille on the hood retained horizontal bars that were shorter and ended behind the Hupmobile’s headlamps, rather than extend to the cowl as on the Cord, and he incorporated a new lower grille with chromed vertical bars. This new Hupmobile model was christened “Skylark.”

The Skylark sedan garnered Hupmobile much-needed attention—and orders. When it debuted at the 1939 New York Auto Show, more than 6,000 orders were taken for the new Skylark—a promising number since Hupmobile production numbers of late had been as low as 74 cars in 1936 and as many as 1,890 in 1938.

Hupmobile built four Skylark prototypes for the show circuit in 1938 and 31 more for display in dealerships during 1939, including a Cord body-based convertible, but it soon became apparent that the Cord bodies very labor-intensive to construct on a mass-production assembly line. Between constructing the all-steel sedan roof—which was built from seven different stampings—and the modifications required to accommodate a new front sub frame to the unitized body—Hupmobile was losing money on each car it hoped to sell for $875. It’s been written that more than $550 was lost on each Skylark built.

Also desperate for a winning offering and unable to retool a new car, Graham reconsidered the opportunity to use the modified Cord bodies and made a deal with the ailing Hupp Motor Car Corp. in late 1939 to share the Cord dies for its own car. In the deal, Graham agreed to build the Skylark for Hupmobile on a contract basis while receiving the rights to use the distinctive Cord dies to produce a very similar car of its own—the Hollywood. The Tjaarda front-end design was shared between the Hupmobile Skylark and Graham Hollywood with very minor differences.

Like the Skylark, the Hollywood used a six-cylinder engine, but of Graham’s own design. While the Skylark used Hupmobile’s 245.3-cid six, the Hollywood was powered by Graham’s 217.8-cid six, which more often than not was optioned with a factory supercharger good for producing 116 hp.

Approximately 1,378 Hollywoods were built for 1940 and 1941, which did not stop Graham-Paige’s financial slide. After its public introduction, orders poured in. However, having the bodies built by body builder Hayes did not result in a smoother assembly process and deliveries were delayed by months. Customers tired of waiting and most orders were canceled. Despite an enthusiastic initial public response, the car actually ended up being a worse sales flop for both Graham and Hupmobile than either firm’s respective preceding models. Graham-Paige suspended manufacturing in September 1940, only to reopen its plant for military production during World War II. The Hollywood would be the last Graham automobile model.

This Graham Hollywood is one of the few surviving examples produced before Graham-Paige quit building cars for itself and is equipped with the factory supercharger. Nearly a decade ago it received a concours restoration to exacting, factory-correct standards and remains in superb, show-quality condition. Overall, this is one of the best restored examples of a Graham Hollywood in existence. It has been meticulously maintained and used sparingly since the restoration was completed. The supercharged engine continues to perform like the day the car left the dealership back in 1941.

Today, the 1941 Graham Hollywood is part of the Stahls Motors and Music Experience in Chesterfield, Mich. 

The Stahls’ Automotive Foundation is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that exists in order to preserve, restore and exhibit specific vintage vehicles of the 20th century for educational purposes. The museum, based in Chesterfield, Mich., features continually changing exhibitions of historically significant cars from the Depression and Art Deco eras, along with mechanical music machines and automobile memorabilia. It also hosts many community events open to the public, including an annual fundraising event honoring and benefiting veterans.

Stahls Motors and Music Experience
www.stahlsauto.com
586-749-1078

1941 Graham Hollywood Specifications

• Engine: In-line six cylinder, L-head valve arrangement
• Displacement: 217.8 cubic inches
• Horsepower: 116
• Transmission: Three speeds forward, one reverse
• Chassis: Steel, ladder construction
• Wheelbase: 115 inches
• Wheel Type: Steel Disc
• Tire Size: 6.5 x 16-inches
• Body Construction: Steel

More Graham Reading: “The Graham Legacy: Graham-Paige From 1932” Edited by Michael E. Keller – MT Publishing Co. Inc.

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As with all other U.S. vehicle manufacturers, Packard automobile production for the 1942 model year was curtailed due to the war effort. Before all production ceased following the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, Packard managed to produce just 19,199 Eight models in six body styles: a business coupe, club sedan and touring sedan in the Special Eight series; a club sedan and touring sedan in the Custom Eight series; and a convertible coupe in the simply named Eight series. By Feb. 11, 1942, all automobile production took a back seat to war production as Packard and all other American automobile manufacturers joined the war effort by offering their knowledge, resources and industrialized mass production techniques to producing military vehicles and armaments. Twentieth Series Packard production—which were the company’s 1942 models—began in August 1941, and by the time the last Twentieth Series Packard rolled off the line in February, some 11,325 Packard Six models, 19,199 Packard Eight models, 2,580 Super Eight One-Sixty and just 672 Super Eight One-Eighty models had been built for a total of 33,776 Twentieth Series Packards.

The last 1942 Packard to roll off the line was a Junior model completed on Feb. 10, 1942. Written on a sign propped against the car’s windshield was “Here’s the last Packard ’til we win the war—It’s “all out” on engines to even the score!” On the day the last prewar Packard automobile rolled off the line, Packard had already produced 55,000 combat engines for the war effort.

The featured 1942 Packard Eight convertible coupe (Series 2021, Model 1599) is well-equipped with turn signals, automatic courtesy lights, electric clock and automatic cigarette lighter, all of which were standard for the model. It was sold new in Detroit and later uncovered in a residential garage in 1969 where it had been stowed since 1954. It spent the next 15 years stowed away elsewhere in the Motor City.

With just 21 similar cars known to exist, this Packard Eight convertible coupe is extremely rare today. According to Packard Automobile Co. records, 960 were produced during the 1942 model year.

The 1942 Packard Eight convertible coupe was the only car in the 1942 “Junior” lines (Packard Six and Packard Eight) to use the 127-inch wheelbase, which was otherwise reserved for the Super Eight One-Sixty and Super Eight One-Eighty “Senior” lines. It’s further unusual because Packard well-equipped this Eight model with Senior One-Sixty bumpers, grille guards, door handles and disk wheel covers. It’s further equipped with factory-installed directional turn signals and rocker splash panels instead of running boards. With automobile production going on hiatus during the war, parts inventory was dwindling and new parts were not being produced, so Packard probably built the last of the prewar models with what parts it had a surplus of as the company probably wanted to use up the parts it had in stock. That might explain why this 1942 Packard Eight was equipped with some components from a Senior line. Additionally, the car is fitted with optional sidemounts, a deluxe steering wheel and the rare radio antenna hood ornament.

The 1942 Packard Eight Series 2021, Model 1599 convertible coupe is also an unusual car in and of itself. In 1941, Packard debuted sleek, new styling on its all-new Clipper model. Clippers dropped the suitcase-style fenders generally found on cars of this era (including other Packards) with a more integrated fender design that flowed into the front doors. The new Clipper styling also visually and physically widened the bodies of Packards. Offered in 1941 as only a sedan priced at $1,420, the Clipper’s price point put it between the Junior One-Ten and One-Twenty models, and the Senior One-Sixty and One-Eighty models. Despite being priced higher than the Junior models, and having been introduced in April 1941—very late in the 1941 model year—an astounding 16,600 Clippers were sold. That figure compared favorably to the total number of lesser-priced One-Twenty models of all body types built (17,100 cars) and One-Ten models of all body types built (34,700 cars) for the full selling season.

For 1942, Packard employed the successful Clipper styling on most of its body types and across all lines. Exceptions that carried over the traditional 1941 body styling include the base-level taxi model in the Six series and many sedans in the upper-end Senior One-Sixty and One-Eighty lines, plus commercial Packards. In fact, all Packard convertibles retained the 1941 styling elements rather than the new Clipper design. As a result, this 1942 Packard Eight convertible doesn’t share body panels with the Clipper-styled Special and Custom models also in the Eight series.

Although styling was mixed with old and new elements in the 1942 Packard Eight series, all were produced with Packard’s 282-cid L-head straight-eight engine with an oil filter, a selective synchro-meshed three-speed on the column with overdrive and a 4.36 rear axle. The engine was rated at 125 hp, and crankcase capacity 5-1/2 quarts.

This car’s original color is Packard Ivory contrasted by a red leather interior and a black convertible top. It sold new for $1,531 before options.

When Dr. Charles Colombo was young, his father bought a 1940 Packard coupe. Over the years, the youngster grew fond of the family Packard and vowed to follow in his father’s footsteps and buy a Packard of his own one day. In 1986, his dream finally became a reality when he added this ’42 Packard Eight convertible to his automobile collection. He purchased it from a private seller in Rochester, Mich. The car was in rough condition after years of use as a daily driver, then more time in long-term storage. Soon after taking ownership of the neglected Packard, Dr. Colombo reached out to Henry Seitz, a respected automobile restorer in the Detroit area, to have the automobile added to Seitz’s restoration schedule. The restoration process began in 1990 and was completed in time for the ’42 Packard convertible to debut at the 1994 Meadow Brook Concours d’ Elegance. After its debut, the car returned to Complete Restorations, a shop in St. Clair, Mich., where Seitz fine-tuned the ’42 Packard convertible in preparation for subsequent appearances at other highly regarded automobile events.

Since its restoration, the ’42 Packard convertible has appeared at additional prestigious events in the Detroit area, including the Eyes on Design event. Dr. Colombo is especially proud of the Best in Class award his ’42 Packard convertible coupe received at the Packard Automobile Club (PAC) car show event in 2013.

Held each year at the historical Packard Proving Grounds Historic Site in Shelby Township, Mich., the popular Cars ‘R’ Stars Car Show at the proving grounds hosts all makes, models and model years of collector and special-interest cars and also includes a swap meet. Packard vehicles, including many owned by Motor City Packards members, are well-represented.

The annual Cars ‘R’ Stars Car Show allows participants and showgoers the unique opportunity of exploring the Packard Proving Grounds Historic Site and witness the extraordinary progress that has been made to the restoration and upkeep of this historic property. The proving grounds features buildings designed by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn, and in addition to its importance to Packard history, the facility was also used by Chrysler Corp. to test tanks during World War II. Earning a Best in Class at the event is a great honor for a Packard owner since judging is conducted by PAC members who are experts in Packard automobiles and how they were originally built.

Dr. Columbo plans to attend the 2024 Cars ‘R’ Stars Car Show with his 1942 Packard once again in 2024. Nearly 30 years after its restoration, his 1942 Packard Eight convertible shows no signs of being restored nearly three decades ago. The paint remains flawless, panels are laser straight and the 282-cid straight-engine performs flawlessly. 

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Bruce Garvey refused to believe his car was cursed. His 1949 Studebaker Champion Regal Deluxe sedan was just too lovable, and too solid, to ever be a permanently doomed by bad luck.

But it’s a good thing Garvey has a good sense of humor.

“I had a ’46 Studebaker that I wanted to re-do, but it was too far gone,” recalled Garvey, a resident of DePere, Wis. “I wanted a runner, and so I bought this one in northern Illinois, just north of Chicago — and it blew up on me on the way home! [laughs]. That was in 2005, 2006, somewhere in there.”

Garvey soon decided that the Champion was going to be his maiden automotive restoration project, and with the help of family friends it turned out great — with the exception of one other little hiccup.

“Well, we had a little explosion in the garage,” he says. “I don’t want to point any fingers or get into specifics about how it happened … but I had second- and third-degree burns over about 21 percent of my body. UW-Madison did a phenomenal job [with his treatment and recovery] and the volunteer fire department did a great job of saving the rest of the house as well. Overall, I’d say I was out of commission for about two months, I guess, and it took about a year to recover.”

The ’49 Champion was in the garage at the time and was slightly luckier than Garvey. “A few panels had to be re-done, but luckily the interior was out of it at the time,” he says. “All the interior and chrome were elsewhere in the house. The main chassis had to be repainted and I think two doors and two fenders.”

So how good did the project turn out? Last September Garvey decided to have the car judged at the Studebaker National Meet in Manitowoc, Wis., not far from his home. 

“I drove it to the show and lost a headlight, but we got still 391 out of 400 points! I thought that was really good, for a car that was pretty much all done at home with friends and family!”

THE POST-WAR CHAMP

The Champion model was a success almost from the beginning for Studebaker. The nameplate was introduced in 1939 and sold more than 33,000 copies that first year. As was the case with all the American car companies, World War II put a temporary halt to production, but thanks to its war contracts and the early traction gained by the Champion, Studebaker emerged from the WWII hiatus in good shape financially and ready to hit the ground running with postwar production.

The 1946 Champion was basically a warmed-over 1942 model, but a year later Studebaker launched what was considered the first true “new” car lineup. The new Champion was a product of Raymond Loewy’s design studio and had a love-it-or-hate-it look with a wrap-around rear window futuristic styling that made more than a few observers joke that they couldn’t tell whether the car was coming or going. In addition to the new rear glass, the redesign included flat front fenders and interior niceties such as courtesy lights and backlit gauges. Under the hood was a 169.6-cid L-head six-cylinder rated at 80 hp. It was hooked to a three-speed manual gearbox.

For 1949, the Champion continued as the base model in the Studebaker hierarchy, a step below the Commander, and was available in Deluxe or Regal Deluxe trim levels — the difference was mainly a chrome windshield surround and rocker moldings on the Regal Deluxe. The Champions were available as a base coupe, two- and four-door sedans, the five-passenger Starlight Coupe, and a convertible in the Regal Deluxe lineup. Prices ranged from $2,019 for a bare-bones coupe up to $2,467 for the droptop.

The main updates for ’49 were new standard wraparound front and rear bumpers and a different grille with a full-width horizontal stainless steel bar.

Garvey’s ’49 is one of 10,005 Regal Deluxe four-door sedans built for the model year. It would have had a base price of $2,149.

The Champion line underwent several other dramatic changes in the following years. The memorable “bullet nose” Studebakers arrived a year later in 1950, and another major redesign came in 1953 with another makeover from the Loewy studios — this time a racy new facelift courtesy of Robert Bourke.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

The Studebaker enthusiast community is famous for its members’ willingness to share knowledge, sell stuff and go out of their way help each other. That was exactly the experience Garvey had during his first restoration attempt. He not only found helping hands in his own social circle, but from total strangers as well.

“I did a little homework and the Studebaker community is just so helpful,”: he says. “You can buy parts at some of these wholesale houses out of the original catalogs, the same parts numbers… Parts are available and people will help you anytime to get you what you’re looking for. That’s one of the big reasons I chose a Studebaker.”

Garvey’s sedan was originally sold in Alma, Neb., on May 31, 1949. It was originally titled in Illinois, he said. Beyond that, he’s a little fuzzy on the car’s history. Somebody had obviously taken very good care of the car, however. Overall, it was in excellent original condition.

“Structurally, it was very good, but the paint was pretty well shot. It did have some rust in the posts — in between the front and back doors, so we welded some metal in there,” he said.

Much of the interior is original. The front seat still has a cover on it that Garvey suspects has been there almost from the beginning. The engine and transmission are original and have accounted for all 79,000-plus miles on the odometer. The six-cylinder did require some work after the breakdown on the maiden voyage home to Wisconsin.

“The guy hated to get rid of it. It was blowing a little blue, we just didn’t know how bad it was gonna get … A little more smoke and I knew it was done. Broken rod,” he recalled. “So we re-did it, but that’s the original six that’s in it.”

Garvey admits he wasn’t dead set on keep the Champion all stock and authentic when he first acquired it, but he’s glad he did — especially after getting it judged last year.

 “We had some plans, but when we got into it we decided to go straight original,” he says. “Actually, a lot of the paint was done in a plastic booth with 2x4s in the garage. A friend of ours is very good with paint, so he did the paint job … We took every component out of the engine compartment and sanded and painted it. I mostly did the grunt work on the grinder!

“The bumpers are original, the bumper guards were re-chromed. Otherwise, we did all the stainless steel trim by ourselves, pulled it all off, put new glass in it, except the back windows are original. The paint is Midnight Blue. Studebaker always stapled their paint tags under the glove boxes, so we knew that was the original color.”

Even in Studebaker circles, the early post-war year cars are a bit on the oddball side. That’s precisely why guys like Garvey like them. The ’49 Champion is both nostalgic and different, and it has a certain charm that’s hard to define.

“It’s just a fun car. When we take it to shows, it is unique. A lot of people coming up and looking at it,” he says. “And it’s not bad to drive. It brakes very good… When you get into tight quarters it’s a little tough with no power steering — and like an 18-inch diameter steering wheel, like you are driving a semi! But the three-on-the tree is fun, and with the overdrive we’re getting 60, 65 mph an hour.”

“I just kind of like it. It’s only a 3-year window that they made these. And like they say, with these you can’t tell if they are going forwards or backwards!”

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In this “Tales From the Garage,” we stumble upon a “Sleeping Beauty” resting peacefully for 62 years and waiting for that automotive kiss to open her eyes.

Let’s turn back a few pages to the fall of 1940. Packard, having struggled through the Great Depression with weak luxury car sales, introduced a lower-priced model wearing the famous nameplate. The Model 110 was a less-opulent six-cylinder Packard for 1940 and 1941. That first year saw more than 62,000 new smiling Packard Model 110 owners driving out of the dealership.

This particular Packard caught the attention of a Los Angeles surgeon who had an eye for practicality and a desire for something more refined. The Model 110 was the perfect solution. Nothing fancy: no radio, just four doors and that fabulous wheel-holding goddess pointing the way at the end of a forever hood.

It was a daily driver for the good doctor from home to office to hospital and, given the time period, some long-forgotten house calls. From the day of purchase in 1940 until the year our doctor could not heal himself, the Packard saved others by transporting him on his weekly rounds.

Some time in 1961, the doctor pulled the Packard into his garage for the last time. Most likely, even he did not know it was for the last time. He turned off the ignition and closed the door. The car closed its eyes and fell fast asleep. For 62 years.

The doctor’s house and all of its contents sat vacant and undisturbed for many of these years, the car all but forgotten, tucked away in the last of three garage bays. Time marches on and suddenly the family realized it was time to actually deal with the house and the 90 years of accumulated history.

My phone occasionally rings with calls like this. Someone knows someone who knows someone who knows me. “He likes old cars, call him.” You do not have to ask twice. Within a few hours, I was standing in the garage, staring at Sleeping Beauty. The rarity of the story — one owner, secure dry storage — overshadowed the rather plain spec of the car itself. Complete and dry, nothing taken apart in failed attempted repairs. The trunk was not full of “parts.”

One owner, 63,000 miles and an uncreased owner’s manual sitting on the front seat, its story waiting to be told.

The family had no idea what to do and looked to me for guidance. I offered to take photos and spread the word to my community of car guys, knowing that “six degrees of separation” to find a “Packard Guy” could not be that difficult.

More than six decades is a long time to wait for the awakening kiss, but I feel certain that our beauty will wake up soon and “The Goddess of Speed” will fly down the road again and, who knows, perhaps she has more lives to save.

Want more “Garage Tales?” Rodney Kemerer’s new book “Tales From the Garage” is an illustrated collection of his best essays and will be available from Amazon Books. Learn more about the book at TalesFromtheGarage.com.

*Editor’s note: Rodney Kemerer’s “Tales From the Garage” column appeared for many years in Garage Style Magazine. This is his first column for Old Cars, and the staff is proud to welcome Rodney and his contributions.

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Paul Rest has affectionately named this 3100 “Gracie.” Gracie has made herself a part of the family.

“Here’s my 1949 Chevy 3100 “Gracie”, pretty much original, except upgraded 235 from original 216 and paint color, still 6 volt w/vacuum wipers. She spent her first 60 years in Lemont, Illinois with just 2 owners before coming to Pennsylvania in 2009… I adopted her a year ago and have given her much love! She’s a happy family member now, enjoying cruising the back roads of Western Pennsylvania just like it was 1949 again!”

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