Re: Hood Bracing

Posted by Randy Berger On 2009/6/19 23:37:40

A followup to the Kirksite and "plastic tooling" comment. A snippet of info from Collectible Automobile, Aug 1998 in an article about the early Corvette.
"At the time of the Waldorf show we were actually concentrating on a steel body utilizing Kirksite tooling for the projected production of 10,000 units for the 1954 model year. Kirksite dies are faster and cheaper to make than conventional ones but have a shorter working life..."
A steel-bodied Corvette???
That explains why Packard could tool a new hood die for the 1956 Caribbean which was only supposed to have 500 units, 250 of each convertible and hardtop.