Re: 1958 Packard Starlight/Caribbean

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2018/10/6 14:16:03

Good point, the plant reportedly was constrained somehow such that it couldn't make the big Packards. Whether it would have been able to assemble wider-bodied Studebakers with little or no manufacturing cost would have been a question that would have needed answered soon after idea was offered.

I would think a wider body could have been welded to the inner structure using new tooled parts that connected the outer panels to the inners. Again, a study would have needed to be done to bubble up the difficult issues and determine if resolvable and affordable.

Am not a proponent of vehicles with tracks that are too narrow for their bodies, looks and handling both issues. Was going with the flow on this work-up because the 57 Program has similar situation, just in a wider body/chassis.

The work-up would have still been a bit too tall, not optimally proportioned. On the other hand, taller is easy to get into. A stop-gap in the end. Am going to post a new thread shortly on New Yorker-based Packard, much nicer! And not possible.