Quote:
DaveB845 wrote:
Leeedy may know the answer, but is Packard's "New Metal" the reason for that exclusive 55 Caribbean part, the metal hood rod? Those 55 hoods are heavy and it would have been marginal if they had to rely on the stock hood springs and hinges. Think of the calamity if a wealthy Caribbean owner had his/her head impaled by that deadly hood latch pin if they had neglected to prop it up with that exclusive custom hood prop. Howard Hughes might have bought Packard Motor Car out of spite had it happened to him or his wife. Note that the 56 dual cowl hoods are much lighter, hence no prop needed. The cost accountants must have been groaning over that sheet metal change, amortized over very few cars. But, they had some savings because no "New Metal" was necessary in the new hoods.
The hood strut (in relationship to the Caribbean) goes back a long way to the first prototype 1953 Caribbean. A friend of mine who was at the showing to Packard execs told me a fascinating story. That first car had a LOT of lead in the hood. So much so that it overwhelmed the hood springs and assured that a remedy was needed. He said that two things had occurred in the cutting of the hood to fashion the air scoop:
1.) Some structure on the first hood was removed
2.) A lot of lead was troweled into the hood to fill the side gaps created
The upshot of this was a very, very heavy hood. One countermeasure was to use stiffer hood springs and counterbalance. This was quickly revealed to be a bad mistake due to a combination of less structure to reinforce the hood, stiffer springs and counterbalance requiring more effort to pull it closed. You can guess what happened. My friend recalled watching in horror while this Caribbean hood (already weakened from someone yanking it to close previously) was displayed to Packard execs while sitting out in the sun. The overweight, stiffly spring and weakened hood began to fold a bit right before their eyes! Somebody rushed over to try and close it. Of course, the hood would not close. Solution? A hood strut was added and springs were returned to normal.
One of the purposes of
Packard New Metal was to
reduce weight in the 1955 Caribbean hood (there were other issues it was meant to remedy as well). Since the 1955 Caribbean hood was so complicated and made up of so many pieces, adding lead was asking for trouble. In addition, the use of torches to melt the lead also brought up the specter of potential warping of the stamped scoop box sections... thus requiring even more lead. In theory,
Packard New Metal would have been lighter and required no heat to apply.
Anyway, I have seen SOME 1955s with struts, others without. The same fellow told me that by 1955, the strut was (at one point) an unwritten customer warranty "good will" item that would be installed without charge. Otherwise, I really don't know more on this story from the inside.
However, all was pretty much remedied for good when the 1956 Caribbean hood debuted as a single stamping with bolt-on cast scoops. Certainly a superior approach covering and resolving many issues: weight savings, cost, parts and labor.
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=142135