Owen, I don't recall - are the 48-50 327 cars (Super 8, Super Deluxe) classified Senior or Junior?

John, I mean absolutely no offense to you, nor am I implying that what you reported was otherwise than accurate. I agree that all OEM's toot their own horns when they can. My comments were also factually accurate.

And I enjoy enchanging car ideas with the folks here, and learn a lot in so doing. But you are probably aware that the discussions of current autos over in Buick land get personal, jingoistic, and perhaps racist. And perhaps worst of all for someone with your regard for distinguishing facts from opinions, a good deal of "don't confuse me with the facts" creeps in. I'm fine with an exchange of uncensored informed opinions, as I think you are, but the wheels fall off the discussion over there virtually every time it comes up.

The data John refers to is the Initial Quality Survey - it is was it reports to be, but is often misused. It surveys defects on newly purchased cars - the OEM's like it because it pertains to what they are selling now. It has little correlation (I mean that in the statistical sense) with repurchase decision. There is a much less sexy survey done on defects after several years of ownership. That one correlates highly with repurchase decision. Makes sense.

Please , let's go back to Packards - we don't have the political diatribes here that the Buick forum is plagued with.

the plastic sheeting isn't 3 mm - that's about 1/8"!

I thought the Pelican name came from the heraldic description of the crest as being "a pelican in her piety" i.e. feeding her young by plucking at her own breast (hence the curved neck), rather than any resemblance to the bird with the pouch. Sorry, can't recall where I ran across this, so perhaps another can add a piece here.

This remains a disputed area in my housa as my son keeps lobbying for me to replace my doughnut chaser with a cormorant.

other than the first version, which has a Hudson/Lancia fuselage body look to me, I think that the others which resemble Jaguar/Mercedes styling of the 50's would have looked very stodgy in their time. Consider the styling themes of the era - jet aircraft, wider and lower. They look attractive to us now as late 40's designs, but they don't very forward-looking for the era.

I think the photo is Egyptian Sand, but lighting of a photo can make identificatio tricky.

I agree -Do NOT use the printed pages of Packard colors or old formulae as color standards. Not accurate at all. The advice on using an unexposed area of an original car is excellent. Often the underside of a deck lid or under a trim piece that was masked during respray gives a good standard.

the second series of colors replaced the first 3. The only point I would make, having seen a low mileage original Egyptian Sand car, is that it is a grayish putty color, not the yellowish beige that your car appears to be. I've seen the blue, green and brown top colors still around(and a lot of non-authentic combinations too). The color divide in the rear is different on club sedans - the deck lid is the top color.

The trim moldings require a different process - they are roll-formed instead of stamped. I believe that the 22nd series lower ones are repro'd (Chirco perhaps). If you look for them used, the 2-dr/convt door ones are hard to come by, but the other pieces are pretty common as far as Packard parts go.

I'd like to encourage our friendly supplier to look at a patch/lower fender for the area around the wheel skirt on the 48-50's, a frequent place for rust with a curved opening that hammer and dolly hackers like me are challenged by.

I agree that most modern metallic colors use too big a flake. Silberline and Mearl are the flake manufacturers and they sell the flake by particle size and some have colored coatings.

Don't be embarassed by Gremlin Green - my car turns out to be Plastikote Truck Light Smoke over GM Medium Garnet Red.