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1929 633 Standard Eight Roadster owned by Veronique & David McCredie

The car was originally owned by a Mr. Barr the owner of the Comet Gold Mine in Marble Bar WA.  Some time in the 1930’s it was involved in a major smash that buckled the chassis and broke the crankcase.  It was then abandoned to the rubbish tip at the mine.  It lay there until discovery by a Packard enthusiast Karl Greatz in 1976.  The hot dry climate had preserved the metal work reasonably well but the car had been stripped to little more than a bare shell.

The next owner was Clem Ryan of Adelaide and the story of its recovery from Marble Bar to Adelaide is well told in the Third James Flood Book of Motoring.  Clem purchased a 1929 633 sedan that had been cut down to a truck, as a parts car.  He also purchased many parts from US.   All of this was transported to Sydney in 1986 when I purchased it. We purchased the car in 1986 in very incomplete and poor condition. 

It was totally rebuilt over a 16 year period with all mechanicals rebuilt, all woodwork replaced, all panels repaired and or replaced, resprayed and finally re-trimmed. It would not have been possible to return this car to the road without many parts generously provided by various club members and 2 trips to the Hershey Swap meet in US. It was most gratifying to finally get it on the road in 2003. Since then it has completed the rallies to Echuca and Toowoomba but not without problems.   The cylinder block cracked not long after the car was finished and had to be replaced with another one.  Overheating and vaporisation remain a “pain” in hot weather. The 1929 633 sedan that came with the Roadster as a parts car is now almost fully restored back to its original 7 passenger sedan.  A few more months and it too would have been at Mittagong.

 

1922 packard