|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
 
|
Quote:
Hello. I bought my Caribbean from a licensed used car dealer named Kegebein in Florida. He really didn't want to sell it, but he had two of them at the time along with a pile of other cars. Believe his wife wanted it gone. I was told he acquired the Caribbean from a trim shop in 1963 where the car had been left sitting for several years by a customer who disappeared. By the way, my car had no modification of the pushbuttons and in fact they worked perfectly and I later drove my Caribbean several times with the pusbuttons-and automatic Park feature all still intact. When I bought it, my Caribbean was actually walled into a room along with a white/green/green 1955 Caribbean that had also been sitting there an eternity. No idea what happened to the 1955. In order to move my car, I actually had to tear out a wall to get it out of the guy's house! When I finally got room to open the driver's door, I discovered there was no VIN/serial plate on the door jamb. I got a bill of sale (which I still have), paid Florida tax and was issued a temporary license in order to move the car on streets (got receipts for all these too). I was still in the process of doing searches for the serial number and history of my Caribbean right up to the time it was stolen. I was making good headway in the search. Paint was all original, but due to ocean air in Florida, it was riddled with surface rust. So I stripped it down for a repaint. The convertible top had also been replaced but installed incorrectly with a padded "wire-on" trim piece below the rear window instead of the correct trim. The wire-on filled with water and this rotted badly. There were stenciled numbers very clearly painted on the passenger side of the chassis and I recorded these. But much of my paperwork (and ALL of my spare parts including bumpers, tail lights, power antennas, and a brand-new top in the box) were stolen along with the car. Supposedly someone on this site corresponded with the thief when it was on eBay around 2006 and informed him how to find a serial number on the chassis. Anyway. the photo I posted is how my car looked when I bought it around 1973 in Florida. It was an adventure tow-barring this Caribbean from coast to coast. One cowboy dude in a gas station wanted to pick a fight with me because he thought I was just a stupid idiot who had wasted my money. He thought I was even more stupid when he read my "Packard In Tow" sign on the rear of the Caribbean (I had already removed all of the "Packard" logos from the car before towing it). He took one look and said, "You'd better get yer money back, boy! You done been tricked! That thing's gonna need a ton-a work and that ain't no Packard! Any fool could see... that's a Murk-cree. That ain't no Packard, boy. You done spent yer money on a ole' Mercury. They's good fer racin' but that's all. Ain't no Packard. You Calif-fornya boys and nawthun boys from the big city don't know nuthing 'bout no cawrs!" He thought I was stupid and I just let him have his fun. Anyway after years of work and a lot of money invested, the car was stolen. And it remains out there someplace today... with factory air and wire wheels-original wires at that. Attach file:  (253.24 KB)
Posted on: 2016/6/29 12:42
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
What a saga! It suddenly dawned on me that I could assist in finding your vin number through the process of elimination... narrowing the car/s with factory air and wire wheels which have the paint code MTV (Dover White/Naples Orange/Corsican Black)--which I assume is your paint code. If this is the case, I have your vin number! It is 5699-1049. According to the Caribbean Roster, this is the only 56 convertible in that paint code that had factory air AND wire wheels. You might want to double check this, but I hope I am right, and I hope it helps you locate this car some day!
Posted on: 2016/6/29 13:32
|
|||
|
1956 Packard Caribbean Convertible
1956 Packard Patrician Touring Sedan 1938 Eight Touring Sedan 1949 Custom Eight Touring Sedan |
||||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Esquireman,
I suggest you find all 5699's with that color scheme and air, it was very common to add wire wheels after the car was built.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 13:37
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
According to the roster, only two cars in that trim code were equipped with factory air. Nos. 1049 and 1248. 1248 does not indicate factory wire wheels. By the way, 1049's equipment includes Twin Traction rear axle.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 13:41
|
|||
|
1956 Packard Caribbean Convertible
1956 Packard Patrician Touring Sedan 1938 Eight Touring Sedan 1949 Custom Eight Touring Sedan |
||||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Forum Ambassador
 
|
Supposedly someone on this site corresponded with the thief when it was on eBay around 2006 and informed him how to find a serial number on the chassis.
Leeedy, tell me more or about this, I wasn't aware that the serial number (do you mean vehicle number?) could be found on the chassis. And checking the build slip analysis, I agree with Equireman; assuming the wire wheels were on the car as it left the factory, #1049 is the only car that fits the description.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 14:07
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
As I recall the Mathews 34 Dietrich was white with the bullet hood ornament and a black top. I saw it several times and it drew a lot of attention. More than a restored car to be sure. It was better left alone.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 17:00
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
Nahhh, nope, nope. Process of elimination is appreciated, but one needs to eliminate all of the variables and all eliminations if following such process. 1049 is a blind alley- and that was a MTV car anyway, not MKN. You'll have a very, very, very tough time determining the correct number of my MKN car this way. !.) Paint code would have been MKN, not MTV. MKN = Dover White, Scottish Heather and Maltese Gray.... which, hopefully the photos show white/pink/gray. 1049 was MTV and a car exported out of USA. MTV would not be in the equation at all. 2.) I also owned 1043 at one point and others, but you are going by a printed up list and not by a true roster like mine which I have been keeping since the 1960s. I have been keeping serial numbers on Caribbeans a long, long, long time. And while not recognized as an official roster-keeper, if you look back in Hemmings listings of orgs back in the 1970s you will see "The Caribbean Roster"(complete with logo and address) which was not club oriented nor was it club affiliated. It was my own deal and gathered info, pics and numbers from all Caribbeans for 30 years. This was decades before the internet. So you'll have a tough time out-snooping the data both factory and gathered personally. In the case of the number published in the magazine you refer to... someone went to where I had some of my cars stored, got into them and saw a Vin/serial whatever ya-wanna-call-it plate in the doorjamb- not even installed, just there for a show & tell demonstration as a replacement for the one that was missing. Instant presumptions, assumptions. Once it hit print, everything was set in stone. And here all the way in 2016, it is still having an effect. Gotta know all of the details, then eliminate. 3.) Looking up which cars had wires and factory air will reveal absolutely nothing. Bad method. It is not even accurate in all cases for factory air done at the factory-which I discovered some kits were installed OFF-line but still AT the factory too. As I have said many times, not ONLY cars built on the line had factory air. Factory Air for 1955-56 was also installed by dealers and there were special kits to do so. And there are absolutely no records or ways to tell how many factory air units were installed at dealerships or otherwise. I have also pointed out in the past how to tell dealer-installed factory air from factory-installed factory air in previous postings. 4.) As you can see in the images, my MKN Caribbean was not originally equipped with wires. I installed them after I bought the car. Not reproductions, but a nice original set... which was rare back in those days before repops hit the market a few years ago. BTW... center caps for Packard postwar wire wheels used to be harder to find than the wheels themselves until repops appeared a few years ago. At one point I had about 10 sets including 2 sets with cloisonne centers-one of which was done (for sure) at Earle C. Anthony's Los Angeles dealership (yessss, they did such things). Thanks for trying... but wrong conclusion and wrong number.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 21:21
|
|||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Quote:
As I thought, I am listed on the roster as owner, but there is a notation that the car is stolen. If anyone should ever have information on 5699-1179, I would appreciate hearing from you! John (Esquireman), on the hunt for 5699-1179 I scanned the public web, using several search methods and tools but without success. Radio silence after Dec 2011.
Posted on: 2016/6/29 22:17
|
|||
|
The story of ZIS-110, ZIS-115, ZIL-111 & Chaika GAZ-13 on www.guscha.de
|
||||
|
||||
|
Re: 1956 Carribbean Convertible 5699-1001
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Home away from home
|
Thanks so much for your efforts. I did the same, for several years in a row. I truly believe that whoever has my Caribbean is aware of my search and has kept same under cover. We'll see what the future brings, now that I have once again posted my particular situation prompted by another stolen Caribbean!
Posted on: 2016/6/30 6:03
|
|||
|
1956 Packard Caribbean Convertible
1956 Packard Patrician Touring Sedan 1938 Eight Touring Sedan 1949 Custom Eight Touring Sedan |
||||
|
||||
