Re: Tonneau Cover bag
Posted by Leeedy On 2017/3/1 0:23:05
RE: the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters Caribbean... Yes, I took that photo and published it back in the 1970s when I wrote the article about the car's discovery for The Packard Cormorant magazine. I thought it was important for everyone to see this rare part that usually got tossed. The fellow who bought the car from the Hughes people was my friend, Stanley Zimmerman who was a member of PAC Earle C. Anthony Packard Club Region in the 1970s. This very Caribbean now resides in Stan's museum... the Automotive Driving Museum. But no-it is not driven with the other cars there.
RE: the Packard Parts Book for 35-41 term "envelope"... One of the oddities of the car biz is that different car companies (or technical writers) sometimes make up their own names for things that have standard terms. And thus defy or drift askew of industry standard terms that both OEMs and aftermarket people know and understand.For instance is you went to a trim shop anytime between say the 1930s and the 1970s and asked for an "envelope" for your convertible, the most likely response would have been... "business size or legal? Manilla or plain?" But in the overall sense of things, "top boot" or "dust boot" is a very commonly used standard trim shop and convertible industry term. It was used throughout North America for most of the golden years of convertibles. "Envelope" is whatever the guy who wrote that Packard parts book decided to call it. Just like some Ford tech writer decided "cigar lighter" was more appropriate than "cigarette lighter." Or a Packard tech writer somewhere decided to use "Cormorant" and somebody else along the way decided "Pelican" was more appropriate... and since the only standard would likely have been "bird," that particular controversy will continue on ad infinitum ...after all of us are long gone.
Anyway, many of North American trimmer's terms were attempted to be defined by the godfather of that industry, my old friend Nat Danas. Many decades ago, Nat wrote the Auto Trimmer's Handbook (yesss, I still have mine) and did his best to keep definitions straight in his automotive industry periodical, Auto Trim News-which was once the bible of the business.
As for a boot storage bag of the late 1930s being like the one used for 1955-56. That's a bit of a stretch since the parameters of the top differed considerably. But I will say that somewhere back in the recesses of my wretched salvaged Packard components tucked away is a top boot back from the early 1950s and one from the 1940s. These (the ones I saved out of old desert cars) were not made of vinyl, but rather of canvas. They appeared original and are the only ones I have ever seen. Saved them back in the 1970s.
And before we end up back on this 3rd aspect... yes, I know "boot" is the term much of the world (particularly Europe) uses to describe what is known as a "trunk" in North America. There was a lively discussion about this terminology of boot vs. tonneau and boot vs. boot in an issue of the Packard Club's Cormorant News Bulletin several issues back. Now... see what ya started? LOL.
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