Quote:
patgreen wrote:
Quote:Elsewhere in the same section you will find a full page advertisement for Parker Rust Proof Company on Page P-57. This company provided a special primer called "Bonderite" for both Studebakers and Packards.
Apparently no one today remembers what rust buckets these cars were in the day.
I bought my first Packard in 1959. By then all the Packards were on the last row of the lot, and all lacked rocker panels and most had other rust related issues. I finally found a 1956 Patrician in good shape, for which I paid $550. Much as I ;liked the interior, the headlight area had pinpricks, as did the rockers. the door bottoms were suspect as well.
And we all remember Studebaker front fenders and the lack of a proper interior splash guard.
Bonderite must have been associated with bondo, another fine product of the era....
I lived around them, watched them grow old, owned more than I want to count, and like I said previously, I can think of so many other cars that out-rusted these Packards. I lived in Detroit... grew up there. I knew
real rust!
I had a cousin in Detroit who swore that Nash had the best bodies when they went to unit body construction. He kept his opinion... until the rear suspension on his car came right up through the floor and the trunk one day, locking up the rear tires in the wheel wells! Even
IF Packards were parked at the end of the used car lots in 1959...at least they were
ON the lot!
I also had an uncle who argued that Buicks and GM cars had the best rust resistance... until one day when we were headed in his Roadmaster out to Hines Park for a picnic (old Detroiters ought to know this location). We hit a good-sized bump in the road and two melons sitting on the rear floor went right through it ...and ejected out behind the car ... exploding like WW2 depth-charges off the back of a Navy ship!
And speaking of GM's supposed great resistance to the elements, we also bought two brand-new 1955 Pontiacs. Assure you... one of them never made it to the good 'ol used car lot by 1959... mainly because it wasn't drivable past our garage! Much of that reason was you know what! AND the other car was a wagon. Wanna know how many times yours truly had replaced totally rusted tailgate cable reels
by 1959? Hmmm??? By the way, these little gadgets were only reached from
inside the vehicle... but they rusted like they had been dragged up from the ocean bottom by a deep-sea trawler!
I already gave the example of my aunt's brand new 1957 Plymouth that rusted out (swiss-cheese kinda rust) in less than 16 months! AND.. if it helps any, my family were also die-hard MoPar folks-so this isn't anti-MoPar bias talking. One uncle helped set up a new Chrysler plant in Ohio and retired from Chrysler. My cousin (son of the aunt in question here) also retired from Chrysler and worked at one point with Packard aficionado and fan Marv King. Ask Marvin.
I'm sorry, but if a new Packard out-rusted my aunt's new 1957 Plymouth, I would LOVE to hear the story and see some pics.
RE: "Bondo"... No. Bonderite and Bondo were two different things-the first a primer, the latter a body filler. However since we're making fun of Bondo and whether people can remember things, let us not forget that Packard invented a type of Bondo.
Remember THAT? It was officially known as
"Packard New Metal" and was (at least for a time) considered an advanced new kind of replacement for lead. And for anyone still laughing... wanna know what they used the stuff on at the factory??? 1955 Caribbean hoods. But that's another story for another time and place.
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