Re: Should I repaint my '56 Patrician another color?

Posted by BH On 2008/1/1 19:44:11

Funny you should bring that up, Chuck.

Two-tone paint schemes are a hallmark of '50s styling, and what I like to call the "over-and-under" approach used on the '55 and '56 Four Hundreds looks great. However, I prefer a solid-color on the Patrician. There's something very stately about a Patrician sedan in a monochromatic paint, and dark colors seem to help play down the pillars and posts.

Although I generally prefer a car be painted in its factory-orginal color scheme, I may just refinish my '56 Pat in all-black. The car was originally painted in a Dover White and Corsican Black two-tone, but someone repainted that car in a single shade of dark blue metallic decades ago. However, the finish is in terrible shape, poorly repaired in several places, and will require a complete strip and repaint.

If authenticity for judging is not a factor, I can't knock anyone for changing colors on their car - as long as the color is selected with good taste and applied with craftsmanship. Selecting a color from the palette of the same model year (or series) is usually least controversial.

I saw a '56 Caribbean convertible done in a dark blood red (a color Packard never offered in '55 or '56), two-toned with white, and hated it. Yet, that's just my opinion. To each their own.