1939 Packard

Super 8 Sedan

8 - Cyl.

Manual

Gasoline

Greetings and thank you for your interest in my 1939 Super 8 Touring Sedan. First, let me say I am not a used car salesman, and second, I have personally performed nearly all the detailed service in the following detail without regard to cost, simply because I wanted a truly reliable Packard to enjoy. If you are serious about this car, I invite you to contact me to fully appreciate what I hope is communicated in the detail. This 1939 Super 8 was alleged to have been purchased new by a doctor’s family. The story goes that they maintained the car as prideful transportation for the duration of their long-term ownership. I would imagine this to be true, it has a repaint that looks to be at least 25 years old, and vintage and seat covers probably from the 1950’s over what might be the original upholstery. The headliner has been replaced at some point, carpet poorly replaced, and original door panels. Some may call this a 20-footer, a stereotype that I take offense to having invested the past several years enjoying this car which I prefer to call under-restored and over-engineered for reliable touring. For example, the steering wheel is a recast wheel I had done to the tune of $1200. I mean, who would believe it costs that much to restore the plastic on a steering wheel? Oh, and what about the “famous” Packard plastic dashboard? The dash was originally plastic and warped (like every one of them do, regardless of climate or care) beyond salvage. My wife located the dash that is in it now four years ago to the tune of $1700 to which I said “You are out of your mind, there’s no way were doing that”. So, she bought it anyway. This was a reproduction done in the early 70’s cast of aluminum with a burled walnut finish applied. Turns out it is a very sought after setup which doesn’t warp. Then, a fellow offered us $2700 20 minutes later at the same swap meet where we bought it. She said no, and I said “you are both crazy!” we walked 150 yards away and saw samples of the ’39 Super 8 / ’40 180 dash that were available special order only (in plastic) - 1 to 2 year waiting for only $6000 to which I said “I love you honey!”. The car came to us with an incorrect headlamp switch that I replaced with the correct one and a universal ignition switch that I replaced with the proper armored type. We did the shift knob, cowl vent knob, and horn medallion plastic surround when the new dash was fitted. The deluxe heater had been robbed and a standard heater supplemented. Why do I know this? They left the defrost ducts and hose behind. Sourced a correct Packard deluxe heater with piggy back defroster blower and installed it. Almost forgot, fitting the dash and making the pieces all fit together acceptably took about 30 hours, and I had to get a correct radio delete plate for $125. Installed a new glove box lock with key. That’s about it for the interior. In sum, its clean, correct, comfortable and you don’t have to worry about some unwelcome passenger ruining a new multi-thousand dollar interior with one oopsie. Keeps the blood pressure down. Exterior… The paint is fair at best. There are chips, scratches, and shrink cracks in the back corners where the factory did lead work where the top and body are joined, Very common flaw. It is a good “20-footer” paint job. The chrome is fair to good, showing its age but presentable. The trunk rack that came with the car when I bought it was a cobbled mess as the previous owner obviously robbed so many ’39 Super 8 specific items. I sourced the correct rack, badge, chrome strips, stanchions and other sundry hardware. Made the knobs from scratch and had knobs, strips, and medallion chrome plated to the tune of $350 after spending $1200 on the pieces needed. With all that said, it now is nearly correct, and only the most knowledgeable lover of Packard trunk racks could spot the noted minor non-original details. I installed new Bill Hirsch hubcaps for $320 and new Hirsch hub covers for $240. The running board rubber needed replacing. I purchased new running board rubbers and strips from Steele rubber for something like $1200 and spent 100 hours stripping, making new reinforcing struts & mounting struts/stud holders, along with polishing the original embedded stainless strips. I replaced the rubber hood corner protectors for a measly $60, if only to feel like I could afford something from Steele without taking yet another mortgage on the house. The Trippe lights were another subsequent swap meet find. They are installed and wired, but the 70 year-old bulbs I foolishly failed to replace and one gave up after the other. On my to-do list… Bought new door and trunk locks and had a local locksmith install. Locks were $60 and labor including keying the ignition was $90. The car came with 2 fairly new Firestone 7.00 X 16s and 2 junk Lesters. I bought 2 new matching Firestones and tubes for $400 with shipping. Spare is trustworthy. All in all, the exterior is very presentable and correct. Looks great as you drive past glass storefronts. Don’t panic if it rains, or you actually drive on a non-concrete surface. The car has a fully functional working overdrive. I was appalled at the seemingly top speed of 45 mph with the factory equipped 4:36:1 gears. I contacted Gary Brinton, former owner of Packard Seattle, and purchased a refurbished R-11 overdrive transmission, relay, switch, actuating cable, mount, brackets, O-D solenoid, torque snubber, and other sundry items for $1800 and had YNZ make a new a cloth woven Overdrive wiring harness. I shortened the drive shaft on a buddies lathe, made step down plate to mate the yoke, and heli-arc welded the assembly. It balanced out perfectly and runs smooth. A zillion more hours to install and debug… Best thing that could have ever been done to the car. It now cruises comfortable at 60mph+. Wow, what a difference. You can actually drive on the interstate and not be in fear of being run down by a concrete truck. OK, more about the mechanicals… Nightmare! Where to start… Had exhaust leaks, so the back into the garage and presto, new Kepich complete system and tail pipe deflector. Next, why wouldn’t the idle stay smooth? Answer - worn out carburetor throttle shaft bushings (refurbished for $190) and while under the hood, a bit of work on the distributor (worn more than any other I have ever seen in my life) therefore, new bushings, ball bearing advance plate, vacuum advance, and rebuild including curving to factor specs. The exhaust manifold was cracked and poorly repaired. Bought nice replacement with 80% of the porcelain still intact and restored the thermostatic heat damper. One day, after about 20 minutes of driving around and looking at Christmas lights, it developed a rod knock. Upon dropping the pan I discovered someone had rebuilt the engine probably at a time when little was available and had the old shells re-babbited. It was failing miserably. On the advice and detail of the founder of PI, Bill Lauer, and Mickey Thompson’s former chief mechanic Fritz Vaught (who built many winning Packard Marine racing engine), I modified the connecting rods to accept modern insert style Dodge slant 6 rod bearings. This involved about 200 hours of combined effort between me, my machinist buddy, and machine shop in sizing and reconditioning the rods properly. I worked with an engineer at ARP and we created 120,000 PSI replacement rod bolts. This is a notoriously week point of the ’35 to ’39 320 engines which I now know more about than I ever would have anticipated. While doing that, I replaced the pistons with fresh set of Egge pistons that are equipped with modern rings, compared to the massive 4 ring set up that was original. Works very well! The head gasket was NOS old style asbestos as is the intake/exhaust set. I found the rollers on the roller cam followers to be woefully loose – replaced with new ones from Egge. Took another bunch of hours just to do the rollers. Egge did not get the side thrust correct. I had to correct with a mag base surface grinder. Sadly, the cam follower box(s) gaskets leak – next time I will use a more modern sealant. Bought a correct AC fuel pump and installed new kit, no problems with modern gas, but for “just in case” I have installed a new electric fuel pump for priming in parallel. When I bought the car, the prior owner had installed a new, correct, reproduction wiring harness. Conclusion: The car runs extremely well. Smooth, powerful, and so far, very reliable. And I’m not talking about just on and off a trailer - We have put about 3000 miles touring in it, just this weekend putting 200 miles on it going to a distant car show and going to 2 cruise nights. It looks good from 20 feet, and like a very respectable specimen up close considering it has been maintained as transportation for 71 years. Doesn’t overheat, vapor lock, shift funny, wobble, wander, smell funny or make offensive noises. It is always met with feverish enthusiasm anywhere we go. The advantage of the ’39 Super 8 was getting the traditional engine in the newly designed all steel body. This is a “Senior” Packard recognized as a full classic by the Classic Car Club of America, and an all around drivable car. Frankly, I would prefer this car go to an enthusiast with mechanical ability and understanding of what has been done, and what driving a Packard is all about. I have a pile of hard cash in the car, and hundreds of hours of labor sorting, fixing, maintaining, upgrading and de-bugging this car for reliability. I am not interested in over promising and under delivering. This is a driving Packard, not a trailer queen to park in your living room.