Well, sorry, but it's not your old car. The Michigan car is # 2447, and was sold in or near Grosse Pointe. Interestingly enough, this car was also a 1954 sale.

I know of just such a car here in Michigan, but I don't know the serial number. If it turns out to be your former, car, it was bought by a college student around 1975. It was fairly rusty and received a trunk floor transplant as part of its restoration. It's still owned by the same family, and is maintained as a car to be driven and enjoyed. I'll let you know what the VIN is when I find out!

What city were you in at the time that you owned the Caribbean? What color combination was it? Electric windows or crank? Any other identifying features you can remember?

I agree with BigKev -- I'd really like to see you finish this sweet project!

That's amazing! Can't say I've ever had anything even remotely like that happen to me!

It could be that the few hard-core customers that bought them in 1957 and 1958 had a sense that these might be the last Packards and hung onto them. Either that, or the cars were so worthless on the used car market (or the owners were so embarrassed about being seen with them) that they simply hid them away rather than try to sell them.

I'd be interested to hear other people's ideas on this too.

Hi Mat --

First of all, congratulations on your new (to you!) Packard! It looked from an earlier photo you posted that you and I have the same color combination on our Caribbeans. At least you're a lot closer to driving yours than I am to driving mine!

You mentioned that the question of finding a spare tire is tricky. Why not just find a nice used '55-'56 Packard wheel in the States and have it shipped over?

Regarding the parade boots, I'm not sure that Packard ever offered anything from the factory in the way of a hard fiberglass boot for the convertibles -- perhaps the Panthers and Pan Americans had hard covers for their tops, but those were integrated into the body. If anyone is offering a fiberglass boot for our cars, it's most likely an "interpretation" of what a parade boot would have been like, had they been offered by Packard. I would say that unless you're going to be volunteering frequently to carry the local beauty queens in the parades in your home town, I'd forego the ersatz 'glass and just get a nice soft boot cover.

Good luck with your own new beauty queen, and be sure to post up new pictures as you progress -- they can only inspire me to getting my car back o the road!

Best,

Kevin

It can't be a 1965 Packard -- Photoshop hadn't been invented yet!

I just got home after driving past the remains of the Packard Plant, and whoever bought the smaller of the two entrances didn't waste any time -- it's already gone. Scaffolding has been erected around the "Packard 1907" entryway, so it's just a few days away from being gone too. Beyond the two radiator shapes on the Boulevard bridge and the bases of the two bridge clocks, there are really no other artifacts left at 1580 E. Grand. It's a pretty forlorn looking mess now.

Sic transit gloria mundi