I am selling a 1953 Packard Hears. It is a little rough but very unique. They only made 500 of these. This one was in storage till 1982. The body was built for Packard by Henney. It is a flat head six with a standard tranny! Yes, a standard in a hears! Restore it and go into business or hot rod/ rat rod it and be guaranteed to be the only one there with a Packard hears. Yes, these "hears" are the rarest of the rare. Questioning the decision to take it out of storage and put it in a field to rot.
That would be among my least worries. Still as a custom or hotrod the shell is not bad. Getting it cheap enough and home in the garage could be a problem. It's different and looks rust free and straight. All plus' plus eventually we'll all need one.
Considering computer scan technology, new glass might not be a huge problem. The only difficulty might be having something to copy from. Hey, is the windshield cracked? It looks almost as if a driver hit his head on it but I'm not seeing damage elsewhere that correlates.
My guess is something contacted the driver side of the windshield a bit harder than a June Bug leaving a nasty defect. Hitting an Army Tank with that massive bumper may not have done much even though an object inside could hit the windshield. Seat belts were not popular back at that time. You're not gonna find many good '53 Packard windshields laying around so most potential buyers will be scared off.
That's what I was thinking, the car probably never had seat belts. I suppose it wasn't a fast enough collision to make the steering wheel go farther into the cabin though. Looks like the windshield's cracked, alright. It's a little hard to tell between the two photos but I can see lines from here. As for glass replacement maybe there's a new option I haven't heard of but I don't expect a restoration (or partial restoration) to come cheaply. The car may be good for a Mad Max movie (no need for glass) but other than that I'm not sure what practical use it may have. Maybe some glass could swap from a Packard Sedan? Then again it won't be safety glass. I do think the car could work as an ICON Derelict (or a similar take on it) though. While I can understand "Keep it original" and I appreciate that I'm not entirely opposed to some modifications to certain cars used as drivers; three point seat belts and fuel pumps which shut off in collisions are a couple useful modifications if I'm going to drive it frequently.* Jonathan Ward has this company and they modify vehicles, the Derelict line is about making cars look unrestored but powerful and keeping the interior looking very close to stock. * I've seen too many people tailgating me, passing me on double lines up hills and veering into my lane to ignore it. I've never been in a collision but I've come close enough.
Pricy for what you get IMO. I posted this one, a local sale some years back. I didn't look for the thread but found a old link from Google, a smaller version but for the $3500 Canadian at the time I remember you were getting a un-trashed complete car........ http://bringatrailer.com/2013/12/07/1954-packard-clipper-military-ambulance/
That does look a lot cheaper. By the time the glass is replaced in the aforementioned surface rust king let alone every other issue it might possibly have where's the money going to be? I still think it (price aside) could make an interesting vehicle were someone to make some modifications though. I don't have my hopes up but I did submit this car over to ICON under their "Contact Us" section. Maybe if all the planets line up (joking) we'll see this car on the road. Not as if I know a lot about how they conduct business, I'm only a fan of their Derelict line and nobody here seems to want it for that price.
Just realized I'm using my old computer tower and can't view these videos. I'm not into rat rod or ratty looking cars so wouldn't be interested. A cheap custom or resto rod would be fine.
Man, that Packard looks a little crusty, but it sure is cool! I bet you could sink a fortune into getting this one ship shape.