Re: 1953 Caribbean Firewall/Inner Fender color

Posted by Richter12x2 On 2014/5/2 14:48:46

I think this was the issue I had when I found the other thread where this was discussed. Please understand I'm not trying to start any disagreements, just trying to most accurately reproduce an amazing car.

But it seems as if we have a disagreement between two great authorities -

caribbeandude - The registrar of the Packard Caribbean database has the firewalls (and presumably inner fenders, for the same reason?) as being unretouched black primer (although probably with whatever overspray of top coats got through the hood gaps?)

And Leeedy, with a lot of great pictorial evidence and firsthand experience with the cars has the bodies arriving in red oxide rather than black, and eventually getting painted the same body color as the top of the car.

For what it's worth, I also downloaded and saved every image of Packard Caribbeans in the 1953 section of the photo archive, and find a few pictures with body colored firewalls and fenders, and a couple with black firewalls and fenders, and all of them appear to be restored.

I also have to add that I can't tell from the picture whether the Caribbean shown is a '53 or not - it doesn't have the full sized wheel openings, but I don't know whether that was a piece customized by MB or not. Also, any trim that would point to it being a later one is missing, but it might also not have been shipped installed, since the cars weren't final painted until later.

So I'm not sure how to proceed.