Hi

Congratulations on buying such a nice solid car so inexpensively. Makes this easterner jealous, all our supply has been rust ruined. With the 318, should be a nice driver for now, until you can locate a 289 for it.

I'd suggest you keep an eye out for '61-'63 Cruiser model Studebakers that would be runable but parts car for a replacement engine, good earlier engines find there way into Golden Hawks.

There is considerable interest in these with the Studebaker folks as well (the author of whom is one). Sign onto Studebaker Driver's Club Forum for Studebaker-specific posting and show those folks your fortunate good new project, many are glad to help.

By the Way, what is the 57L-#### and the body no.? (found on that tag on the upper cowl, right side, under the hood.

Steve

There are now 472 Packards in the Owner Registry, BUT I believe there are 2 duplicate entries which I'm working on to tidy up so I'll settle for 470!

There are also 1488 Forum members.
A BIG to all those who added their Packard/s to the Registry.

And if you haven't yet added your Packard/s to the Registry -

GET ON BOARD, DO IT NOW - add your Packard/s to the Owner Registry!

Quote:
G'day 51Packard,
to PackardInfo and for including your '51 in the Owner Registry.

Enjoyed your story about buying the '51 at 18 but this prompts a question:- What attracted you to buying a Packard at that young age?

If you can't determine the colors from the VN plate or traces of the original paint as you've been looking for, then the only other chances are to find the build-slip in the car (over glovebox, perhaps behind rear seat back or around gas tank vent), or perhaps get a copy of it from the Studebaker Museum which has some (but not many).

If you are lucky enough to find the original slip, handle with extreme car as it was just cheap teletype paper and by now is probably very fragile.

I believe but can't be 100% certain that the engine-side of the cowl was body color (lower body in the case of two-tone).

PS - if it's not too much trouble, could you get for me the large embossed number on the cowl, above the heater box? Probably begins with the letter "A". Ignore the brackets or diamonds at each end.

G'day beej8508,
for including your '57 in the Owner Registry!

Doubt windshield & back glass molding will help as that is probably primer. If it will be under any, will be door window moldings or panels. There is a slim chance some from door jamb might be under kick panels, but if none found in any of those places then can't think of any other easy to get to likely spots at present. If car cheaply re-painted, then under chrome or adjustable side of door lock is possible. Maybe others can think of more.

As to firewall, good question. I have heard both body color and flat black for the 51. Someone with an original car will have to answer that. The door jamb should be same as body color so if there is a difference, would tend to believe the door jamb correct unless it has had multiple paint jobs.

Dave, thanks for the information on those European dealers. I will update the working spreadsheet with them.

I havent updated the Dealer list here on the website just yet. So far all the work is being compiled in Excel offline. Once I have the data further along, then I will redo the Dealer list feature on the website with the updated dataset.

Interesting...I took a quick look at the door sills. The front ones are missing and full of holes. The back ones are there, but totally rust/holes under them. Found out tiny ants were living under the passenger side one too. Great! I'll have to try taking the trim off around the windshield when i figure it out.

Did Packard paint all of their cars with the blue/gray color on my firewall and door openings and later on put an exterior color on it?

Frequently there is overspray of the original colors under the door window garnish molding or lower panels. There may also be some under the aluminum door sill trim pieces.

Hello All,
I registered in -08, but haven't gotten back into my project until recently. I just signed the vehicle registry. I would like all of your expert opinions as to what color my car was originally. The paint code is worn off on the plate on the drivers side door opening. I see a faint scratch which could be a Q for ash green or a G for Argentine Grey. When I bought the car, the exterior was stripped and under primer. The paint around the doors and on the pillars and firewall is a gray color. It looks untouched. Would this be the correct color of the car? I have seen other cars with this color (at least on the firewall, with different color exteriors). What throws me off is my interior has green vinyl seats and green vinyl on the bottom of the front door panels. The rear door panels have a bluish/gray color to them. The trim around the inside of the windows is a bluish/gray color. My trim code is 49, which is supposed to be gray cloth. The pictures aren't the best. I can take others if there is a location that would help. Any thoughts?

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