Joe, here is a photo of my car at the meet.

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It was the belt line moulding on the rear 1/4 panel on a Caribbean. It is about 14 inches long and goes from the door opening to the chrome strip that has the top fasteners. It is Caribbean conv. only. Another pic from the meet.

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The blue & cream, 53-54 Carribean convertible in the pic at the beginning of this thread has got to be one of the most striking Packards ever. My bro-in-law said if he could choose only one of the many Packards present, that would be the car.
Personally, I fell in love with the late 40s look. Soo many potential toys, and soo little time & money...

Joe H

Thanks Joel,
It was nice meeting you in person too, though as mentioned there I have occasionally bought Packard parts from you since the late 1980s, beginning with an Ultramatic DD clutch disc. I have reached the conclusion that Packard people are every bit as friendly and helpful as the Stude crowd :)

As fot the cars in your pic, the blue & white is mine; the doeskin & mocha is my bro-in-law's, and the solid gold belongs to an old friend. (I sold him that car about a couple of years ago.)

Joe H

Just out of curiosity, what was the moulding?

Joe, it was good seeing you at the meet. Here is a photo of some of the Packard powered Golden Hawks in the parking lot.

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Brian, there were about a 100+ Packards at the meet. At the joint judging site, I suspect there were 700 or more Studebakers. All in all there were Studes and Packards everywhere you looked all week. I got a new original headliner still in the box for my 400 and a rare moulding for my Caribbean that I had been looking for the last 10 years plus.

I have not had to remove the entire actuator assembly, but can empathize with some of the stories I've heard from other owners. Perhaps Mr. Pushbutton will enlighten us further on this matter.

Meanwhile, Randy mentioned this to me yesterday, but I couldn't fully visualize it - until he provided a mock-up in the pic above.

My initial concern would be for the use of the muffler clamps. I'm concerned that cinching them tightly enough to prevent assmebly from moving might have some negative effect upon operation of the motor. Could a more sophisticated mounting bracket be designed that would elminiate the need for such clamps?

Oh, I gotta come clean on this.

As for being a special advisor, there are surely Caribbean owners out there who know a lot more than I do, but I've always been willing to exchange good info with and learn more from other savvy, hands-on Packard owners.

I wasn't assembling much, either, on this trip - just looking for that special intake manifold shield for the 2x4 set-up that so few people even know about.

Truth be told, I'd been wanting to see this car since Randy first told me he purchased it. I was finally able to make some time for that this weekend, and I got to compare notes with Randy on many things. This car must have been off the radar for decades and is an bona fide factory-sprayed two-tone exception - truly a great find.

Anyone who picks up with a restoration in progress has their work cut out for them, but I can think of no better hands than Randy's for this job. He has a good start with a workable repaint and plenty of parts that have been nicely rechromed - plus his own private stock of parts and the experience of restoring his Four Hundred.

I suspect many people will follow the story with great interest here, and I especially look forward to the day this car makes its debut on the South Lawn at Warren.

What a great way to enjoy your retirement! Keep up the good work, Randy!

Joel -

National Meets in South Bend are naturally a big draw for Studebaker enthusiasts, and I've heard that they've had well over 1,000 cars at such events in years past.

Yet, since this was a joint meet of Studebaker and Packard clubs, I'm curious to know the total number of registered cars and, of that total, how many Packards were there.

Got any stats?