Hang it over a pair of sawhorses or a large box, trace the cowl and radiator shape and post these measurements if you plan to eBay it. Nothing better than finding a proper home for something like this while funding a Hot Rod build.
Here's what you do..... Take it to the 45th annual National Packard meet taking place in Gettysburg July 17-23, 2010. Also bring along a large hammer, Sawzall and an angle grinder with a cutting wheel. Wait til a large crowd gathers and THEN cut it up!!! You may also want to consider a body guard. but that's just me.
Haha...that would be great.. Those would be some cool hood sides for my Dodge/Olds *********** project....*********** is the new term for Speedster just incase you didn't know..
Well this super rare hood sat on ebay for 7 days, with only 115 views, a whopping 9 watchers at its' highest point with two bids for $255.00, Reserve not met. Jay Leno never called me. Matter of fact I never got one question on it. So, it's not worth 5K it's worth about what it would cost to have something similar made from scratch. I wanted to use it because it IS old which is the reason most of us look high and low for original pieces that set our cars apart from the next. I don't quite understand?? I'm not suppose to use it on my car because it's old, yet when someone finds an original Henry 1932 coupe it's okay to do whatever you please??
You just don't get it. Work at it a bit, find the guy that has been looking for that (rather ugly) hood for years. Make a fair coin on it then do something not because you "happened to have one"
How about the guys that "happen to find" an car in original condition and turn it into a hot rod? The guys that built what we consider traditional style hot rods in the fifties and sixties used parts off of anything they could get their hands on. Swapped out brakes, engines, taillights, wheels......the list goes on and on. I suppose a lot of your argruments would be that all of those parts could be bolted back on the original vehicle they came off of and this hood would be in everyone elses' eyes "ruined" with it not on a 1909 Packard. Well, we all know that those parts were not reuseble and they were modified to the no limit. If everyone lived by this rule of "Don't cut it up" wouldn't all of us have cookie cutter cataloged ordered hot rods?
how much do you think it would take to MAKE THE HOOD SIDES that you want. tally that up and give me a total. i pay you , your happy , i'm happy , i wait maybe 5 years for the right person to come along that needs it and then i'm really happy! seems your in a hurry so if you want to move on to plan B...... PM me.
I would not expect to find a buyer in only 7 days.Word has to get around to the old restorers that there is a hood out there.They probably don't even use ebay.I would bet good money that if you cut it up then you would find out its worth more than the car you are going to put it on.Check with the Packard car clubs.
I made all the phone calls the second I knew what it fit. The National Packard club gave me the numbers to two restorers, one of them offered me $200.00 for it. The car it's going on is worth a 15K to 20K. So if you'd like to buy the hood for half price I'd happily take $10,000 for it now.
The guys that were bidding were likely going to cut it up for they're car like you were. I'd think about hemmings motor news...
I bought it cheap from someone else who had no idea what it fit. Again, I didn't buy it to make money. I bought it to use! I've had the idea of running louvered aluminum inserts on my 32' coupe hood for several years. When I saw it I had to have it for that soul purpose. That was until, I got curious in the forums and asked what it fit? Then I get crusified for asking whether I should use it or not. In the end I can't complain, I asked and you responded. This is the exact reason why I love the HAMB! You are all straight forward honest people that don't beat around the bush. That being said, we don't all agree. I'm on the other side of the fence. Original parts get cut up everyday, even 100 year old Packard hoods.
I have to buy collectable car parts under market value and sell them at a profit to buy Hot Rod parts I need. I would have taken the $225. plus shipping costs and moved on.
This was my Hot Rod purchase from selling other "****" I didn't want. The things you speak of buying are the things you want. I wanted the hood to begin with. I buy a lot thing to sell and turn a buck all the time. This wasn't one of those times.
Its possible your low ebay response was due to your reserve, or how you listed it. Maybe list it at no reserve, or buy it now/ best offer for $500. If you want to screw with it. All the ebay guys are trying to make a score too. I'd give it one more try before cutting it, if it were mine. Or have at it..
I think you would be happier if you had some panels made to fit your car. Looking at your drawing, I think you might have some issues bringing your headers through the middle of the louvers like that. When you cut through the middle of them, they will loose their structural integrity.
---------------------------- If it is for '09 to '15 Packard, I think you'd be dumb to cut it up. I 'd advertise it on one of the Packard sites or even put it on ebay. I think you'd be amazed at what you'd get for it. By the way too - if it is for an an '09 model, that damn thing is a hundred years old!!! Something to think long and hard about before you start cutting! mart ===================================================
I hope none of you think I had planned on taking a hatchet to do all this work. It has been thought through. I might be dumb enough to cut the hood up but I'm not too dumb to know that a piece of 1/4" aluminum rod will need to be tig welded around the entire opening to hold the loose ends of the louvers. Once I get aluminum louvers on the actual hood I'm using I might s**** the lake headers and make conventional headers so the slot will not be needed.
Don't look now but look what I found. Hmmmm....is that what I think it is? Hey that is an early Packard speedster with lake pipes coming out of the hood!
Jim Dillon owns that car or the sister to it, AND he's a HAMB member, send him a PM. Who is the artist that did the painting? Note the touring cars with their tops opened to allow viewing the race while keeping the sun out.
Br*** era stuff you pretty much have to advertise in Hemmings. The old farts who mess with those cars probably can't even find the on ****on for a computer, but they will pick up the antique car "bible". It's kinda like my grandparents who always joked about how they didn't even have a VCR. Seriously, it's a whole different world. And if you still can't find someone who needs it after running it there for an issue or two, cut it up and post pictures everywhere so the guys who wanted to steal it for $50 will cry and pee themselves in shock. **** those cheap *******s.
The longer I've held on to this thing the more I think it's getting used....by me that is. I've talked to three restorers now and they all tell me that it's worth nothing to them because they don't need it. To me that means, sure it's rare but no one is doing 1909 Packards, and if someone has a million dollars to restore that car, more than likely they can probably have a hood made with some of their moldy money. Which means I'll hack it up, love how it looks and sure enough someone will see this add in a year or two and offer me $2,000.00 for it. Or.....one of you guys will find the add and offer me even more as soon as I post pictures of it in pieces! LOL!!
So when you cut it up are you going to post a tech thread? It would be interesting...I kinda like the idea..
Although this thread has a bit of dust on it, nevertheless it cracks me up. That hood appears to be a shade of pink. if that is the case then it is the same hood I sold out in California back in 1995. It was off of my 1917 Packard Twin Six (whether if came from the factory with the car is another story as it was the nicest piece of sheetmetal on the car -in fact the only one). The aluminum body almost totally disintegrated and I sold the engine to another guy in California along with the hood and few other parts. The ch***is was really bad as well. It had Packard wire wheels with the Packard emblems on them (somewhat rare) I kept the brake drums and wheels and few parts but sold the rest. I was hurting for money and sold way too much stuff I wish I had not but such is life. The hood was so nice when I sold it. I kind of wondered whether it had been an orphan that somehow found a home on my Twin Six. As to the painting it was a painting by Carlo Demand and is of the Packard 905 racer when it made a celebrity appearance out at Santa Monica in 1919 after setting the land speed record in February of 1919. This is the sister car to the 299 racer which I own the engine and radiator off of.-Jim
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