Re: RIk's 56 ultramatic

Posted by HH56 On 2019/7/15 8:37:05

The 14kt ring looks good to me. I bought a NOS hood crest from one of the vendors and the gold is such a pale yellow that in sunlight it almost appears to be chrome. Was a bit disappointed when I first saw it. Not sure on the purity of that crest but I would imagine Packard had to make a compromise between the look, the cost and the longevity.

I think there was a discussion of the gold plating and purity of the items on one of the forums some years back. As I recall the consensus was the original finish was fairly low 18kt or less because it needs a hard finish and the number might have been documented in sales literature.

I had mine replated at 24kt because I didn't know better at the time and wanted a deep and rich gold look. As was pointed out in the discussion that much gold has too soft a finish and can be polished or worn away which I did find to be the case if you are aggressive around the emblems -- but it sure looks good even after all these years. Of course, if the car actually saw driving and sunlight then maybe it would not look as good.