1941-47 Packard Clipper parts

?

Please let me know if you have any parts to fit a 1941 packard 110,i believe its a "darrin" style body.

Ralph -- Your '41 One-Ten is a junior Packard, tho' a good car in its own right, so not a CCCA Classic. I refer you to www.packardinfo.com as i do those owning or interested in any Packard, 1899-56 (sorry, they may include the sad 1957-58 Packardbakers, i don't), junior or senior, Classsic or not.

Meanwhile, your 110 uses the older, traditional shell, not the Clipper body introduced midway through the '41 model year, in April, in the midst of what Packard wisely saw as the more active "Lexus" market a trace above Buick Roadmaster, Chrysler New Yorker, a few dollars less than Lincoln, Cadillac Series 61 and 62. Despite using a higher-compression version of the proven "One-Twenty" 282-ci inline eight, the '41 Clipper was neither junior nor senior.

The styling was such a hit, the Company decided to base all their lines on the Clipper in '42, the traditional bodies reserved for convertibles and livery models. Had war not intervened, there'd have been Clipper dropheads and wagons in '43. There were long-wheelbase Clipper limousines in 1946-47.

So the 1942-47 One-Sixty/One-Eighty, postwar Super/Custom Super Clippers are not based on junior cars, as are the 1939-42 traditional-bodied Packard seniors.

However, from 1942-47, the Company also offered junior Clippers, but these were on a shorter 120" wheelbase, the same as the postwar "small HP" R-R Silver Dawn/Bentley R-Type, with a shorter front clip, hood/front fenders. It says much for the Clipper design that the 1942 Clipper version of your '41 110 doesn't look snubnosed nor truncated in the least, even if you see it alongside a 1941 Clipper, or 1942-47 senior Clipper, which retains the original's 127-inch wheelbase, the same as the postwar R-R Silver Wraith.

Sadly, Packard never learnt to market lesser models as adroitly as did R-R or Cadillac, the latter's entire production downsized, rationalized from 1936-on, increasingly sharing components with lesser GMobiles, to the point that, per the Fisher Body Manual, every piece of sheet metal in a '41 Cadillac the same as a '41 Pontiac from the cowl back.

You'll have no trouble finding a vendor or private party with the parts you need on the above site. As for "Darrin," he and his later subcontracted shops strictly took stock Packard One-Twenty (and later, One-Sixty) business coupes, from the cowl back the same as your car, sectioned and channeled them, a la the later "radical California customs," with less than optimum quality.

What became the 1941-47 Packard Clipper was based almost entirely on a suggestion by Dutch Darrin, but all that Detroit Athletic Club/Masonic boardroom ego wasn't about to admit their big production hit of the '40s was from a fast-track raconteur who chased skirts and as an old friend who knew him recollected spending an afternoon as a young man with Darrin and car buff Clark Gable in Darrin's Hollywood shop, "....swore like sailors."

The preceding, and Darrin's own bluster, to this day deny him the credit he deserves.

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton and Little Richard suffered the same later slight when at various times they claimed to have invented jazz and rock 'n' roll, respectively.

G'luck.

While I'm glad to share the above, please note: Any institutions or individuals using my words for studies or projects--

You do NOT have my permission to use any of my above comments in any form or forum both current and future. If you have or do, it will be considered a serious violation, subject to legal action.