"Push the ivory knob on the left, just under the dash!  That's the hood release for the drivers side.  The hood opens side to side, or both hood releases can be pushed down and the entire hood can be removed."

        This was all new to Bryan, who was just getting to know Jeff's '48 Packard.  It was a Super 8 two-door with a 327, 145 hp straight 8.  The '48-'50's had the then & now controversial bathtub design.  Pop had always liked it, remembering when it was first introduced in mid-1947 with a Super 8 convertible.

        "I remember," Pop said, "there were many people involved in the '48's styling.  It was inspired by Packard's styling director Edward Macauley and his designer John Reinhart, who was responsible for the mouth harp grill, but most of the credit went to the Briggs designers.   You know Briggs built bodies for Packard, beginning with the '41 clipper, through mid-1954.  They had been asked by management to freshen the Clipper design by beefing up the body panels, lowering the grill and making the front end chrome design horizontal.  Hudson and Nash would soon come out with similar designs.  Packard was so sure that its public would like it, and would know without doubt that it was a Packard, that they left the name off the car on the Custom series, and in their ads, they used the headline: 'One Guess What Name It Bears!' " 

        The Custom also received the egg crate grill and the longer, 127"wheel base, as well as the 9 main bearing, 356 straight 8.   Mechanically, the cars were the same as the Clippers.  Jeff's '48 had the 120" wheel base and was Packard Ivory with Tan broadcloth interior.  The two-door was called the Club Sedan.  It had the one-piece stainless strip along the lower rocker panel section, running from the front fender, continuing into the fender skirts.  This kept the bright work low, not interrupting the through-fender design.  

        Inside, there was the straight-grained, wood grained dash with circular gauges and juke box styled radio.  Jeff's was a very reliable car.  Even the accelerator pedal starter switch worked!  As the guys walked around admiring the car, Pop asked how the car was running.

        "Well, I do have a question:  I was tuning it up and I noticed that the points were black.  What would cause that?" Jeff asked.

        "There could be several things to cause it.  Excessive oil vapors in the distributor, caused by poor crankcase ventilation; worn distributor bushings; maybe there could have been oil or grease on the face of the contact when it was installed, or it could be one other thing."

        Do you know what that is?

 
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