Re: Hub Cap CLOISSONE

Posted by Tim Cole On 2015/10/29 19:40:26

None of this proves anything. I can only rely on what I have on hand - not a single original car coming out of a barn with other than standard hubcaps, and not a single period picture or car (eight) coming out of a barn with a painted radiator shell with the exception of black out cars (shell and shutters painted on custom bodies).

I know a little bit about Turnquist's frame of mind as regards some of his "historical" facts. His book has a lot of verbiage about body swaps and how they are legitimate and that caused enough car chopping that clubs started to place restrictions on those cars. But what isn't well known is that his 840 Individual Custom Eight by Dietrich was made up from two cars. The body came from a car that was a wreck. The running gear, fenders, and trim parts came from a car that Ted Kavenagh found on a railroad property. It was an 840 club sedan that was converted to a railroad inspection car. It was totally straight and complete right down to the original Adonis and stone shield. What Turnquist didn't mention is that body swapping only works if the springs and shocks are transferred with the body, so a lot of these made up cars do not ride the way they are supposed to.

Another example is his talk of painted hexagons. I never saw the car in person, only in pictures that Ted Kavenagh had from the fifties before it was totaled, but Turnquist's 38 Super 8 convertible sedan supposedly was a Twelve with a Su8 motor and that was original. However, it could have been a prototype or something that got out. And there was something fishy about the hubcaps on that car.

I know someone whose grandfather worked for Packard and had access to the corporate fleet. He told me that his grandfather was always coming home with different cars and that cars were also being brought over from the plant to his house. So who knows what might be floating around in the photographic record?

What I also don't see is any blatant evidence that coachbuilders were using anything other than standard hubcaps. Blacked out yes, but painted crazy colors? no. I do have one period picture of a 36 that looks like it could have this painted hubcap stuff. Except that the spares look standard, the hexagons look very light, and the picture is overexposed in black and white.

So I think all these supposed special exceptions is nothing but crap made up for a self serving purpose. Back in the 60's and 70's, when chrome plating was cheaper than painting, people were plating everything under the hood and saying that Packard would do that if it was ordered. That was complete crap. Today plating is expensive so they have to make up new stuff.

Do I think cars were modified at the dealer? Sure. There are reports of that in the Packard archives. But that doesn't mean that sealed beam headlights should be on a 29 Packard.

I think that people are making this stuff up because their assertions are not supported by any meaningful corroboration other than so and so the expert says this and that is correct without a shred of evidence to support it.
Not even one picture of a car being towed out of a barn with any of these modifications. What I do see are cars that make me want to throw up because I remember when they were original.

Today's Packard restorations are baloney. The last show I was at I spent most of my time looking at the beautiful original Cadillacs.