Re: 55 Packard help & questions

Posted by Kevin On 2008/11/18 22:36:56

Hi Mat --

First of all, congratulations on your new (to you!) Packard! It looked from an earlier photo you posted that you and I have the same color combination on our Caribbeans. At least you're a lot closer to driving yours than I am to driving mine!

You mentioned that the question of finding a spare tire is tricky. Why not just find a nice used '55-'56 Packard wheel in the States and have it shipped over?

Regarding the parade boots, I'm not sure that Packard ever offered anything from the factory in the way of a hard fiberglass boot for the convertibles -- perhaps the Panthers and Pan Americans had hard covers for their tops, but those were integrated into the body. If anyone is offering a fiberglass boot for our cars, it's most likely an "interpretation" of what a parade boot would have been like, had they been offered by Packard. I would say that unless you're going to be volunteering frequently to carry the local beauty queens in the parades in your home town, I'd forego the ersatz 'glass and just get a nice soft boot cover.

Good luck with your own new beauty queen, and be sure to post up new pictures as you progress -- they can only inspire me to getting my car back o the road!

Best,

Kevin