Sorry, forgot to update my email so I didn't see the response. I didn't see any branding on the kit that I could tell. If it's not right, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. At least I have a couple of good examples I can compare to when I get to that stage.

It's been a while since my update, but I've been carving up a lot of Clipper. Here's all that's left, after stripping, sandblasting, and the first coat of Bill Hirsch's wonderful whatever POR15 substitute is called.

From the guide, the frames have different numbers, but based on other information, that has more to do with position of outriggers.

After all the work on this, I'm really sincerely hoping that the 2678 body fits. :D

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Awesome, thanks for the info! I have the side windows upstairs so I can take a look, but I'm pretty sure they're clear, so I'd probably want a clear windscreen as well (with or without the shading) I guess.

Pricing replacement windshields, and they come in clear, tinted, and shaded

Anyone have any ideas which one is correct for '53? or does it just come down to preference, since windshields are a thing that gets replaced?

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The one I saw when I picked up my '53 Caribbean didn't have the senior taillights, or I would have made a bid for them. :D

Ordered a set of reproduction emblems for the Caribbean, and had them sitting on my desk. I thought "That looks almost the same size as the ones on the side of the Clipper Deluxe".

Lo and behold, it is, so any 53 Clipper Deluxe (or similar) owners who need reproduction emblems, you can order the reproduction Caribbean emblems from American Muscle Car Parts, or vintagepartsclub.com, and they're a fit.

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Picked up some more parts today, including a gorgeous steering wheel, reverse lamps, and the center plate for the continental kit.

Unfortunately, that made me stop and take a look at the continental kit I bought for the car, and it doesn't look as though it belongs to a Caribbean. Attaching pictures, can anyone confirm? I don't see how the center button would release it, and prior it had to be released from behind the wheel.

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Well, keep up the good work preventing other car companies from spying on GM! I'd hate to see other car companies copying GMs styling cues!

... and you can take that any old way you want to.

I kid, and GM makes a good car, but I've always found their styling to be a bit 'vanilla' for me. Other than the new Cadillacs, like CTS which was on my short list a couple years back when I was looking to replace the BMW. And as a younger person, if you'd said 10 years ago that I'd be looking at a Cadillac (less than 40 years, anyway) then I'd think you were nuts.

Cleaned up and reassembled the good grill that will go on the car today - the one that came with had a small kink in the bottom rail, so I swapped it with the better condition outer from the Clipper. Here's the completed grill assembly.

Also continued scraping and cleaning the new engine. I got a lot off, but I'll probably have to break out the wire wheel to get the best of it. I also ordered the Packard gray paint from Bill Hirsch today, along with a quart of his silver rust encapsulator that I'll use on the inside panels before topcoating.

Plan is, after work today to go back to the storage building and try again maybe to get the Clipper spun around - if not, I'll at least get it up on dollies and get the driver's fender off, and hopefully start on the interior.


The panel that goes behind the lower grill bar - that looks to be just painted silver/gray, not chrome, is that correct? It's close to what the dull chrome looked like, but as you can see the chrome shined up pretty well, that panel didn't.

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This is awesome information, thanks! That means even if my (obviously repainted) black dash were original, I'd likely have had a Sahara Sand car.

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The title/registration that came with mine listed it as red, but not only have I not seen anything to support it being red originally, I can't even find a trace of red PERIOD. It also occurred to me that with the lack of imagination of the state registration system, they likely would have called Matador Maroon red as well, which is why I was leaning toward that color on the respray.

Started cleaning up the good engine today. Man what a beast! I thought it just had a lot of grease and grime on it (and I mean a lot) but it's looking like some sort of undercoating type material.

I made a lot of headway but there's a lot to go - when I say there's a lot of grime, I mean that I had to chisel with a screwdriver to get to the bolts that hold the engine mount on, and I didn't realize until about 30 minutes in that the bracket on the driver's side wasn't actually a cast part of the block.