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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Packard-526-RED-1928-packard-cabriolet-526-/141552602795?forcerrptr=true&hash=item20f5314eab&item=141552602795&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

Is red the original color of this Packard currently listed on ebay?

take care
Garrett Meadows

Gumby

Some of us spend a lot of time discussing this

Most probably not. Reds, for one thing were quite "fugitive" i.e. they faded rapidly. Pigments in paints back then were different and couldn't support the bright palettes that later paints could.

You can find earlier paint carts here, in this period color combinations were carefully chosen and tended towards earth tones, blues and blacks. Red was usually reserved for trim on black cars.

Red otherwise was used for fire engines and people of questionable taste.
Packard did build yellow open cars in this period.


Regards

John Harley

Thank you for your informative response. Given my limited knowledge, I rather figured the red color was a recent choice.

I appreciate your response.
Garrett Meadows

I don't have a card for 1928, but 1929 featured "Mountain Ash Scarlet" as a standard color.

Anyhow, Packard would give the customer any color they wanted so if you like red cars then you could buy one.

Although I prefer to see at least a few cars painted in original colors, I find non-original colors far less objectionable than chroming wheels and painting over radiator shells which is the kind of behavior you expect in a minority neighborhood.

Quote:

Any color that could be made, that is.
I actually find the Chrome radiator shells to be what you'd expect in the neighborhood across the tracks.

Hi

Red was for firetrucks, would be consider gaudy and gauche by polite society then. Any red listed for body panels was usually a very dark, oxblood or garnet hue. Vermillion was specified as pinstripe for accent, which being just that, wasn't considered too showy or inappropriate.

But, leave it to the self-centered, overt ethic abroad now, to finish a car like a circus wagon.

Steve

Red was for firetrucks, would be consider gaudy and gauche by polite society then

Amen to that. In looking at Packard paint charts starting in 1928, it is not until 1938 that a red is offered, Chinese Red. The only prior mention of red is 1934 as an optional underchassis color.