Re: Adventures with a 1955 Clipper

Posted by Ross On 2011/6/8 12:41:09

JW: Looking very fine. Here is an extra detail that many folks miss: The area around the engine # was white. From taking many engines apart, here is how it seems Packard did it:

1: The engine # area was given a dab of white paint with a brush.

2: The engine # was stamped right through the white paint.

3: A piece of 3/4" masking tape was placed over the engine number.

4) the engine was painted and the tape was pulled off.

So basically you end up with the engine number in the middle of a white rectangle. If you look carefully, you can see this in many original factory/shop manual photos. I believe this holds true for all postwar engines and possibly some prewars as well.

All that said, I usually just mask off a little rectangle and dab on some white paint after the engine has been painted.