Hi, Let The Ride Decide, unfortunately my car was a Michigan car all its life. The first two owners treated it as a daily driver, and exposed it to our winters and our copious amounts of road salt. The underside surfaces of both fenders in the wheelhouse areas were nothing but broad surface rust, some moderate rust, and a few areas of perforation. There really was nothing left that would have given us any indication of an original finish.

Thanks for the info, 55clipper! I love the MAC color combination! I'll have to check your profile and see if you have pictures posted of your car!

And thank you, Owen_Dyneto, for all your research on the topic! I really appreciate your efforts!

OK, so since my car is White Jade-Jade-Emerald, the part of the fenders visible in the engine compartment should be the White Jade, and on the exterior, the wheelhouse should be Emerald?

Hey guys, I have shocking news -- there's been movement on my 1955 Caribbean for the first time in several years! The guy who is doing some of the "heavy lifting" for me came up with a few questions so far, so I'd like to put these out there and see if I could glean from your collected wisdom!

1. Front Fenders - The inners, as visible in the engine compartment, would be the same color as the upper body, right? Every "white-accent-lower" painted Caribbean that I have seen has carried over the white to the inner fenders. But what about the underside? Did Packard leave them unpainted and in primer, or did they also paint them the color of the upper body, or were they chassis black? I've seen Caribbeans with white painted inners and with black inners, so I'm not sure which way we should go to be faithful to factory intent.

2. Ignition Coil - Can't find where we put the one that was on the car. Do you guys have a favorite brand that you would recommend as a replacement?

3. Heat Riser Valve - To my knowledge, and based on the service manual, it was located on the left/driver's side of the car. Can't find that part in the barn either. Any favorite vendors that have decent prices on such things?

Thanks for your feedback! I'm expecting a big mess when it comes time to play with the brakes, so I may be spending a lot of time in the BTV threads soon!

On one of the very first times I drove my 1955 Caribbean after getting it in August 1973, someone in my small northeastern Michigan hometown called out to me, "Nice Studebaker!"

I like your avatar! But in my case, if I had a similar avatar, the "HELP ME!" thought balloon would be coming from both the car and from me! LOL!

That is a sweet body style for that car! Can you imagine how futuristic that design must have seemed to people back then? When ten years earlier they had still been driving narrow, old-fashioned cars with four separate fenders? These must have seemed like they were out of Buck Rogers or something!

Enjoy!

Another two-alarm fire last night :

freep.com/article/20090629/COL27/90629003/?imw=Y

I think there may be a growing groundswell of support in Detroit for tearing the whole thing down, now that the weekly fires and non-payment of taxes is getting publicized. As much as I've loved Packard, the automobile and the company, it's time to bury the decayed corpse of this plant and help this beleaguered city to move forward. Now that we have a new mayor and the biggest moron on the City Clowncil has pled guilty to accepting bribes and resigned, maybe there's a modicum of hope still alive for this place. Unfortunately, the time for hope for the old factory ended about 10 or 15 years ago.

Don't look now, but Danbury's already gone another step beyond the hardtop:

diecast.org/diecast98/html/asp/list_reviews/xq/ASP/id.DM1587/qx/reviewpix.htm

How am I ever supposed to get my real Caribbean done if I have to keep buying these awesome models?

A very unusual color combination - quite attractive! I wonder what the data plate says on it?

There are probably plenty of collectors out there that have parted out other Senior Clippers and saved the motors as spares, but those are probably sitting in the back of garages and aren't being actively advertised. Your best bet is to advertise that you're looking for a 356 in places like PackardInfo.com and any other Packard groups like PAC or PI.

I don't want to give you bum information, but my understanding is that the 356 was a unique 9-main bearing block and the casting was not shared with any other Packard motor. Do any 1940-1950 Senior owners have better info to share?