Packard perfection
<p>Glenn Vaughn discusses some details of the restoration of a classic Packard Monday with upholsterer Rick Hunt at Glenn Vaughn Restoration Services in Post Falls. The car, that belongs to California resident Richard Comstock, is among an elite group to be invited to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.</p>
<p>Glenn Vaughn's Post Falls auto restoration shop has been meticulously restoring a 1929 Packard Calder Runabout for its owner over the last four years.</p>
POST FALLS - The passenger machine gleamed, sitting Monday just inside the open door of Glenn Vaughn Restoration Services in Post Falls.
Long, sleek and shining, the 1929 Packard 640 Runabout looked nothing like the charred, crumpled heap it was when its California owner found it in a field in 1981.
Vaughn and his staff have worked on the Packard for the past four years, reaching back into history and returning it to the condition it was in when it first rolled away from a dealership.
"Packards were considered by many to convey understated elegance," Vaughn said. "You were making a statement, but it wasn't a flashy statement."
Now Vaughn is ready to travel with the vehicle back to California for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, a contest of automotive excellence, considered by many, including Vaughn, to be the Holy Grail of car shows.
Just 175 automobiles and motorcycles are accepted into the competition which takes place each year on the famed Pebble Beach golf course's 18th fairway. Entries are judged for their historical accuracy, technical merit and style.
Vaughn learned the art of auto restoration at his father Kenneth's side. What began as a hobby grew into careers for each of the men.
In the 1970s, Kenneth partnered with race car driver Phil Hill, a three-time Lemans winner, to build Hill & Vaughn, an award-winning classic car restoration business.
"It was a wonderful time. There were cars coming in from all over the world," Glenn recalls.
The elder Vaughn and Hill have both passed on, but the spirit of their work lives on in Glenn.
Cars are still coming to him from all over.
"If I wasn't reading and hearing about the recession, I wouldn't know it exists," Vaughn said.
He attributes the continued success to the business' reputation for quality.
"I owe that all to my father and his partner. They kicked down the doors for me," Vaughn said.
He also credits the people who work for him.
"Historically, this will be my restoration, but I did one of the whitewalls," Vaughn said. "It's my staff. I have the best of the best of the best."
There are several Packards in the shop right now, along with a Corvette, a Mustang and a rarely seen vehicle, a 1951 Muntz Jet. The product of Earl "Madman" Muntz, a successful California car salesman, consumer electronics developer and all-around enterprising entrepreneur, fewer than 400 of the vehicles were manufactured between 1951 and 1953.
Many of the cars that come into his shop are from people who want to have fun with them, he said, take them out on the road rather than to shows.
But the Packards seem to have a special hold on Vaughn.
He climbs into the driver's seat of a 1937 model and shuts the door, savoring the luxurious standards.
"Everything is organic, wool and cotton," he says, pointing to the upholstery.
Vaughn looks to the rear of the vehicle, where on either side of the back seat, next to the window, there are little doors on the wall, with lighted beveled mirrors behind them. There is also a writing tablet, a pen, and a spot for a perfume bottle.
"It's a 1937, but it accelerates like a modern vehicle," he said.
Packard owners were discerning and well-funded, usually with old family money, he said.
"This was probably a $2,800 car back at the time," Vaughn said. "You and I would have been lucky enough to be working for about $1 a day."
The average cost of a car in 1929 was between $400 and $600.
The 1929 Packard headed for Pebble Beach isn't the first car Vaughn has brought to the competition, and it likely won't be his last. He has seen multiple "Best in Show" awards go to vehicles he has worked on.
He compares restoring a vehicle to the birthing process. It starts out fun and exciting, midway the process often becomes tiresome and seems never-ending, but the end always comes, and when it does, it's spectacular and exciting all over again.
The Packard's owner, Richard Comstock of California, selected a rich violet shade for the vehicle.
Vaughn said when the car appeared at a Packard show in Anaheim, Calif., earlier this year, Comstock wasn't sure how the bold color would be received.
The owner's fears were groundless.
"All the buzz, all day was about this car," Vaughn said. "I'm really happy to have worked on it."