I see. My Four Hundred has the vehicle number 5687-3683 which according to the Packard decoder is the 2683rd Four Hundred produced, but I am not sure whether this constitutes it as late production or not.

It could be possible the grille was taken from another parts car at some point in time however, I have yet to fully read through the documents that came with the car that detail everything done with it.

Problem is I still don't know what to restore the grille as, chrome or gold, the latter would probably mean finding or making an aluminum grille however.

This is not the only design question I have either with further improving the condition of the car, tough to find information.

After some reading about the subject, I still require more information. According to a lot of posts as well as the Revere Aluminum Packard advertisement, the textured grille on the senior Packards of 1956 is supposed to be made of anodized aluminum.

However on my recently acquired 1956 Four Hundred it appears to have been swapped at some point as it is rusty and not made of aluminum (picture attached), as it is very magnetic. I have been looking around online too and I keep seeing old grilles for sale, with a similar rusty appearance. I have heard of the illusive chrome textured grille, but it'd not be rusty in that way either.

So I'm wondering whether then if this is a swap from a previous restoration, as the car has been restored and repainted once, or whether the actual anodized aluminum grilles were rare. Furthermore, would it even be possible to obtain the anodized aluminum counterpart that should be there, or should I fix up the one that is already there?

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  Rusted Grille.jpg (222.24 KB)