Re: Randy
Posted by Leeedy On 2021/4/17 13:00:30
Nope. This has been argued into the ground over the years. Many times. Repop caps have been made so many times that people today are claiming they have original caps that are merely early repops. And a lot of caps that originally had Scotchlite simply went bad and ended up painted. Especially in California and the southwest. Sun just destroyed these things.
There were/are also different heights in the domes of the caps. Nobody seems to know this either.
Here is a 1954 Packard original compared to an early repop. Most can't tell the difference. But if you look realllllly close you'll see one has a red Scotchlite hexagon... the other has a painted hex. AND there are other differences.
One way of comparing repops to originals is to look at the reverse side and see how the clasp rings are made. The first repops were not made recently... they were made decades ago now. Some who have them are convinced the've got Packard original factory parts.
If you are in the Packard Club and get the Cormorant News Bulletin, look in the recent issue (March 2021) for the 1954 Caribbean as displayed new by Earle C. Anthony in L.A. This is on Page 11.
If you look at the photo you will notice the red hexes on the Caribbean wire wheel center caps appear to be white. This is because they are glowing... reflecting the camera flash. The hexes were made of red reflective Scotchlite, not paint.
There are other photos of original Caribbeans and other Packards of the 1950s equipped with wire wheels that also show glowing hexes. Same reason.
I have yet to find or see an unmolested original that was not done in Scotchlite. Of course when the Scotchlite went bad (and it certainly did) it was fairly easy to remove (sometimes it peeled off on its own) and that's when many caps ended up spray-bombed red.
Another "nobody knows" is that Packard intended to offer wire wheels for 1957. Those center caps would have been a new design that had a red plastic hex. If you've attended one of my presentations, I have twice circulated the only known surviving prototype 1957 Packard wire wheel center cap... from my collection.
By the way, reflective Scotchlite hexes were also a genuine Packard accessory. A dealer counter sales display of them is shown in Nat Dawes' postwar Packard book. These hexes were also sold in bicycle shops during the 1950s and tons of them ended up on bicycles. If you look at the "Packard Bikes" thread you will see a set of them on the rear fender of a Schwinn bicycle.
Attach file:
OriginalVSrepop.jpg (181.27 KB)
There were/are also different heights in the domes of the caps. Nobody seems to know this either.
Here is a 1954 Packard original compared to an early repop. Most can't tell the difference. But if you look realllllly close you'll see one has a red Scotchlite hexagon... the other has a painted hex. AND there are other differences.
One way of comparing repops to originals is to look at the reverse side and see how the clasp rings are made. The first repops were not made recently... they were made decades ago now. Some who have them are convinced the've got Packard original factory parts.
If you are in the Packard Club and get the Cormorant News Bulletin, look in the recent issue (March 2021) for the 1954 Caribbean as displayed new by Earle C. Anthony in L.A. This is on Page 11.
If you look at the photo you will notice the red hexes on the Caribbean wire wheel center caps appear to be white. This is because they are glowing... reflecting the camera flash. The hexes were made of red reflective Scotchlite, not paint.
There are other photos of original Caribbeans and other Packards of the 1950s equipped with wire wheels that also show glowing hexes. Same reason.
I have yet to find or see an unmolested original that was not done in Scotchlite. Of course when the Scotchlite went bad (and it certainly did) it was fairly easy to remove (sometimes it peeled off on its own) and that's when many caps ended up spray-bombed red.
Another "nobody knows" is that Packard intended to offer wire wheels for 1957. Those center caps would have been a new design that had a red plastic hex. If you've attended one of my presentations, I have twice circulated the only known surviving prototype 1957 Packard wire wheel center cap... from my collection.
By the way, reflective Scotchlite hexes were also a genuine Packard accessory. A dealer counter sales display of them is shown in Nat Dawes' postwar Packard book. These hexes were also sold in bicycle shops during the 1950s and tons of them ended up on bicycles. If you look at the "Packard Bikes" thread you will see a set of them on the rear fender of a Schwinn bicycle.
Attach file:
OriginalVSrepop.jpg (181.27 KB)
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