1935 Packard  Limousine

Tom Noble’s 1935 Packard  Limousine

I think the best way to tell the story of the car is in two parts – first the part I know is actually true, and secondly the part that might be complete bunk…

The car is a 1935 Packard V-12 limousine that my grandfather, Bert Pulsifer, acquired sometime during the 1960s from a man named Charles Barnes. Charles was renting a house from my grandfather at the time and, having run out of money to cover rent, offered the car in lieu of of rent. My grandfather was a collector of cars and took him up on the offer. He kept the car and entered it in local parades from time to time and my Uncle Scott drove it occasionally- although I’m guessing a V-12 limousine wasn’t something anyone could afford to drive regularly even then! I do remember it sitting in the garage at Grandpa’s farm and pretending to drive it when I was little – as a kid that was the most impressive car in the world!

1935 packard limousine
Charlie Noble, Tom and Michelle Noble’s son will be driving this beast of an automobile some day.
Perhaps to his senior prom dance!
Charlie is in junior-high today and Wheel Tracks has learned he has some dance moves to die for….

I also remember the whole family washing and waxing it in preparation for a parade. This must have been done many times because even then the paint was worn through in places. The parade I remember best – and I think it was the last time it was driven, was in 1982. The Packard had a tendency to vapor lock and I recall it did it at least twice that day. The first time was at a gas station on the way to the parade. We had stopped to fill up, but couldn’t get it to start after. Fortunately, one of Grandpa’s friends was also on his way to the parade, with his similar vintage Jaguar, and offered to push start the Packard with it. This worked and we made it to the parade.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it THROUGH the parade. About halfway through, she vapor locked again and had to be pushed aside to let the rest of the parade go by. I’ll have to dig out the picture of me, with my Grandpa’s Mason’s ballcap on, leaning against the fender, waiting for it to cool down. My grandmother wrote on the back “Thomas guarding the Packard”. (This picture never made it to Wheel Tracks).

1935 packard limoWhen Grandpa passed away, he left the Packard to my Uncle Scott. Uncle Scott didn’t really have a good place to keep it, and knew that I had always admired the car, so he gave it to me. I’ve had to move it a few times since then and it has remained my “someday” project that I plan to get going as time permits. The first project will be to get the gas tank cleaned/rebuilt – 30 year old gas does some bad things to the inside of a gas tank!

The part of the story that might be bunk, is the detail of Charles Barnes – I was always told that Charles was of the “Barnes and Noble” Barnes from Rhode Island. Apparently he was the black sheep of the family and had a girlfriend that the family did not like or approve of. The family told him he needed to leave the family estate, but that he could take any car he wanted as long as he left and didn’t come back. The car he chose, of course, was the Packard. He headed north and ended up near Plymouth, New Hampshire and began renting the house from Grandpa.

From Lester-Steele Handbook & Standard Catalog of American Cars “Packard Twelfth Series- Twelve”

*Price new….$4485.00
*Bore & stroke…3.44 X4.25
*HP….175 @3200RPM
*Weight…5900lbs
*WB– 144.25 inches
*Carburetor….Stromberg-Duplex
*Gear-ratio options,4.41, 4.06, 4.69, 5.07
*Tires…7.50X17
*3-point engine rubber suspension
*15 12-cylinder body styles offered with the limo being #835.
*Engine, 67 degree V-block, modified L.
*Displacement, 473.3 cu. in.
*Four main bearings
*Trans, selective synchromesh 3F/1R.
*Clutch, single plate, vacuum assist.
*Brakes, mechanical, vacuum assist 4W
*Options…dual sidemounts, bumper guards, radio, heater, spotlight.
*Introduced August 1934.
*V-12 model choices, series 1207wb139” & series 1208wb 144.25(the limo)
* Total factory production for all models including V8 & V12…..788

Rust Repair

Recently I have had two cars in the garage for rust repair, a Saab 900 and an MGB.

The interesting thing is, on each car the rust was caused by poor body work. Each car had plastic body filler repairing a dent. The body filler was applied to bare metal. At some point, the body filler cracked and moisture seeped in. Body filler does not stop water.

Water can creep down through the filler to the bare metal, and cause rust. On each car the metal behind the body filler had rusted away, leaving rust holes.

After I do the hammering and welding, I coat bare metal with epoxy primer BEFORE I apply any body filler. I also start with aluminum body filler first, then transition to traditional polyester body filler. Aluminum body filler does offer some resistance to moisture.

To fix these rust holes, I used a cut off wheel to cut out the rusted metal. Next, I traced the cut out piece on new sheet metal with a sharpie marker. I carefully cut the piece out, subtracting about 1/16” on each side. The new piece was carefully mig welded in, only welding about 1/4” at a time to prevent heat warpage. After the weld-ing is finished, the welds are ground flush and the metal is hammered flat. Next I apply a layer of epoxy primer, followed by a light skim coat of body filler.

 

Ramblings of a ‘Mature Lady’

As I ‘mature’ it seems that I become more aware or should say irritated with things happening around me, i.e. the idea that school should start an hour or more later in the mornings, to allow our children to “get more rest”, and thus they will certainly do much better in school. Poppy cot!! What is keeping these children from going to bed at a reasonable hour? I fear it is TV, iPods, computers, tablets, smart phones and NOT reading, homework, household chores, or even a job. Let me say here that I am sure there are some out there that do work or have household responsibilities that prevent an early or even reasonable bedtime hour, but I believe this is the exception and not the rule.

One of my concerns is that every generation (for the most part) are getting ‘softer’ and it will manifest itself in ways that are not good for us or them. I am part of the problem, as I expected less of my children than was expected of me. I am sure my brothers and sister didn’t think so at the time, but Mother expected less of us than what was expected of her. At age ten she took over as chief housemaker for her Dad, 3 older brothers and 1 younger than her. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry and went to school. Because she was 10 and not very tall yet, her brothers made her a box to stand on, to make rolling pie crust easier! Now wasn’t that a nice gesture? She never talked about it as a burden, in later years, but something she did because it was needed. My 2 brothers were up in the morning at 4 or 4:30 to go to the barn and help feed and milk the cows, home about 6 to bathe (so they wouldn’t smell of the barn) and still had a mile to walk to catch the bus for school, only to reverse the process when school was out. Walk home, change clothes and back to the barn. Did I mention that the bathroom time was scheduled, so 5 of us could get in and out on time with only 1 bathroom, to some, this would be third world conditions! And believe it or not, there were some people at the time, that didn’t have that in Athens, Vermont in the early 50s.

It was barn work that I threatened my boys with, when they were young, if they complained about doing some chores. Also, just an update, my brothers graduated from school, got jobs (now retired) and survived their early years just fine. I don’t know if they regret it, but I feel bad they didn’t have time for the school sports, etc., that most have access to today and wouldn’t want that to change.

Have school start later? Not in my opinion. Make it mandatory that children work 6 months on a farm; definitely! You can’t know what work is until you do some.

Is Grandma’s opinion popular with her grandchildren? NO WAY! They are thankful I am not raising them, and I am not their school teacher, but I do hope that there will come a day when the 4 of them are sitting around camp swapping stories and they decide that Grandma had a lot of things ‘spot on’.