Such a beautiful car deserves an even better backstory and that is exactly what it got.
Packard is one of those exceptional car companies that always seems to catch you by surprise in many different ways. Whether it's how technologically advanced they were for their time, the classic styling, or the sheer rarity of these vehicles, it's easy to see that they are exceptional. Some Packards are given high praise for being one of just a couple of hundred or even one of a double-digit production number. However, this seems like little more than a silver medal when compared to this great car. Rather than being one of just 100 or even less, this thing is one of three cars of its type ever built. It is so rare that most don't even know it exists, as it was presumed destroyed since its initial sale.
See Andy Griffith's former Packard here.
What happened to this incredible vehicle was that it went to one astonishing young man named Carl Bellinger. The son of a wealthy industrialist by the same name, Carl was an intelligent man with a passion for loud, fast, and wild. This led him to find the love of his life at a very young age, a woman of great beauty who shared the same interests and had fallen deeply in love with him. Even Though it seemed meant to be, Carl's parents disapproved of this relationship and offered to buy him the car in exchange for breaking it off with his girlfriend.
It would appear that Carl's parents didn't know him very well because he took the deal, got the car, and immediately drove away with his love in hand to get married to the very girl who had made this all possible. Years later, Carl would talk about issues he was having concerning the vehicle's paint when the current owner's father stood up and offered his help in fixing the problem. This eventually sprouted into a full-time job of taking care of the car while Carl was on tour in the military, and when it came time for Carl to move away for good, he gifted the car to him. Years later, the new owner would give the car to his son, who was just five years old at the time, who would go on to move the car into his shop upon his grandmother's death. After starting the restoration, the vehicle has sat protected in the shop and will most likely continue to do so as time goes on.
