Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I realize that the tri-color Caribbeans were factory painted prior to the installation of the pot metal and stainless trim, but how were the actual colors applied at the factory? What kept the application of the various colors clean and straight prior to the body being trimmed out?

Not sure I am getting your question. Lots of masking tape and masking paper is the answer then and now.

Wow...are you serious? At the factory, masking tape was hand applied to each car prior to the painting process? That was a lot of hand work for 500 units in 1956! I would have thought that Packard would have had some kind of rigid component that would be applied to the body before each successive coat.

Hi

Yes, every two-toned car underwent painting of the main base color, through the drying process then back through again for surface preparation and masking, application of the second color, drying again. Tri-tone Caribbeans went through a third round.

In a back issue of the Cormorant News Bulletin is a photo of a '55 Clipper sedan in the preparation stage being masked for the second color. After masking hundreds of car bodies over and over, one bets paint lineworkers hated two-tones!

Steve

Steve, thanks so much for this fascinating bit on information. I am simply astounded over this. Did GM and Ford do a similar process with two and three-toned cars? With their higher production this would just be almost too much to believe!

I guess there was some kind of jig to allow workmen to attach the masking tape as straight as possible. And, yes, I can understand the dread when another Caribbean rolled into the prep booth!

One detail sometimes missed on restorations is the way the lower colors originally terminated at the door jam.

I believe you mean door "jamb"...and yes, that is a detail often missed and one I hope to do correctly when I get my Esquire painted! Thanks again for all the great--and surprising--information.

In that regard: on the 55 cars the two toning carried through the jambs, on the 56 cars the two tone stopped just inside the jamb.

Esquireman:

You've seen my Esquire hardtop in person. Since that time I have been amazed to uncover all the detail taken by the previous owner who painted it in the MES color sequence to please his wife. Just as Ross has said, the tri colors stop at the door jamb when he painted it, himself, over a weekend 46 years ago. He also said that he went to a lot of trouble to procure the Goodyear Hyplaon vinyl material for the top. As long as the top and paint look as good as they do now, I'm not planning to touch a thing.

Part of that joy I take is because he went to the trouble of procuring NOS trim back in the late Sixties when it was still available and selling at bargain basement prices. Headlight surrounds for $13 that went into NOS new front fenders that sold for $50 apiece! His only regret was that he didn't buy more for his other V-8s at the time. At one point he had six around the house, all running nicely and in decent shape. Mine was the last of his collection to go, simply because his wife still liked the three color scheme the best. Who knows, some of those other cars may still be running as property of Forum readers.

Ross' comments on the differences in painting the 1955s versus the 56s is fascinating. Learning to do it better or just doing something a bit cheaper? We will never know.

Thank you, "jamb", not "jam". I knew better!