REPOST FROM PREVIOUS POST ABOVE:

If you know anything about Hughes and the women in his life...and if you go by who is legally married to whom and get your "facts" by looking at dates and times in Hollywood, you'll have movie people doing belly laughs. Most of the time Hughes was involved with actress Billie Dove, she was married to someone else too! And there were a dozen more examples that were well known to anyone knowing about Howard Hughes. He was also known for being involved with numerous other women while he was either married or involved.

Internet forums are places where anything and everything can be argued into the ground. AND everybody has an "opinion." And everybody is an expert. And everybody can cite "references" to bolster whichever direction they choose to push the argument at hand. Such cynicism!

What is being argued here is pure opinion. The person who bought the Hughes car in the 1970s has the facts. Furthermore, I personally interviewed numerous Hughes people in the 1970s so this is not open to debate. You could have talked to these same people back in the 1970s... IF you were so interested. Perhaps you could have told them to their faces that they were wrong.

And I assure you... presumptions about whether Hughes could do this or that or buy a Packard in 1955 are pure assumptions. Calling the purchase "silly" IS silly. If you knew ANYTHING about Howard Hughes and his companies, you would know that they did not operate autonomously-at least not in that era. Between Hughes and his right-hand men Noah Dietrich and Robert Maheu, they knew what was going on. To suggest otherwise is pretty laughable. Either way, Hughes companies were not just going out and willy-nilly buying one of the most expensive and rare cars in 1955 just to lose it in a warehouse someplace.

Hughes bought the car... Hughes DROVE the car. Hughes even TINKERED with the car (notably with the fuel feed). And his multiple plane crashes (NOT just one) not withstanding, Hughes was certainly well able to get up and get around very well in 1955 and many years later, thank you... despite whatever assumptions and opinions someone might want to express in 2015 on an internet forum.

While one can sit here and throw up one opinionated argument after another on the internet, I can only suggest that you read some of the Howard Hughes histories (I have about 25 of them). I would also suggest that you seek out and talk to some of the people who were actually THERE instead of posing endless arguments based on opinion. Or not.

Either way, this ridiculous argument rave can continue here on this forum isolated from reality and time, but this will be my final response on this matter. CLOSED.

Ahhh. Where was all of this info to refute the story when it actually took place back in the 1970s? Nobody argued with it then... including the persons involved. No place like the internet for irrefutable expertise. Howard Hughes never went by anybody's rules...wife or no wife... married legally or not.

If you know anything about Hughes and the women in his life...and if you go by who is legally married to whom and get your "facts" by looking at dates and times in Hollywood, you'll have movie people doing belly laughs. Most of the time Hughes was involved with actress Billie Dove, she was married to someone else too! And there were a dozen more examples that were well known to anyone knowing about Howard Hughes. He was also known for being involved with numerous other women while he was either married or involved.

As for the Caribbean... the car was indeed purchased BY Hughes for Jean Peters... and the name on the California title was signed off "Elizabeth Jean Peters." AND if you knew anything about the story as it actually happened it was Peters' nephew who got the car out of the garage in Beverly Hills and got it running (he used to take it to the Sunset Ecology Car Wash on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood...would it help if I said I saw it there? AND it was serviced at L.A. Packard dealer Frost & French at least once). It was not "kept by one of his companies." However, Hughes' people got control of the car back after it appeared in Motor Trend magazine... and it went to a Hughes warehouse THEN.

As for Hughes "hiding out in beat-up Chevys"(no apostrophe)... he wasn't "hiding out" in these cars (by the way, he had a 1949 and a 1952)... but he liked having midnight rendezvous biz meetings in them. He wasn't so much hiding as he was expressing paranoia. However, Hughes also had several other cars... among them the 1953 Buick and 1954 Chrysler he had outfitted with the special air filtration systems. And a fleet of others nobody ever heard of (some were in the Hughes warehouse where my friend went to buy the Caribbean back in the 1970s).

As for any troubles Hughes did or didn't have with IRS... Hughes certainly was not hiding from them and if they wanted him or his money, all they had to do was to show up at either Romaine street, one of his many houses in Beverly Hills or Bel Air...or in Culver City or Playa del Rey...he did after all have a few companies operating in numerous states and locales including SoCal-some of them with U.S. government contracts.

You should know that this history was not made up... regardless of what the internet and "bios" may have to say. After all... isn't the internet the same place where the story of 10 Packard Request concept cars still looms?

PAC regent and museum curator Earl Rubenstein recently did a TV news segment on the Automotive Driving Museum in Southern California... and the appearance of one of their cars in Pasadena's fabulous Rose Parade on New Year's Day. Yes, again there was a Packard phaeton in the Rose Parade this year.

The link here is to a special KTLA News segment that was broadcast on SoCal television. In this segment you get a free tour of the Automotive Driving Museum. As a bonus, you get to see the Howard Huges/Jean Peters 1955 Caribbean which is virtually new-old-stock! This car was covered back in the 1970s in The Packard Cormorant magazine (issue?) and I personally drove it way back then. At that time it had about 1200 miles on the odometer. It now has about 1700 miles logged. So for those wondering what ever happened to the car... here it is!

Earl is also one of the founders of the Earle C. Anthony Packard Club region of The Packard Club! He owns several Packards and is a font of information.

Of course in the video you get to see many of the other treasures at the museum including a very rare fabric-bodied Stutz.

Take a look here and see it all!

KTLA News Packard

"Ebony Gold Metallic" continued to return in various incarnations and applications. It was rather stunning for its time.

Yes, it was nitrocellulose lacquer and yes it was supplied by R-M (nice to see R-M finally getting its due in these discussions).

The very last official use of Ebony Gold Metallic by Packard was in two applications:
1.) On a full-sized mock-up of a proposed Detroit-built 1957 Packard.

2.) On a scale model of a 1957 Four Hundred built for Packard, at Packard by a friend of mine who worked for Packard. This model is often seen in internet photos and is sometimes referred to today as a real car. Wrong. It may appear to be real full-sized in some photos but it was purely a scale model. It DID have a working torsion-level suspension and full chassis however.

The color on both of these cars shows up as straight black in photos, but of course it was not.

And of course "Packard would have done it" as this color was planned for 1957-58. Cadillac eventually had a similar color later. And remember where metallic paints originated??

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Some of this "Packard mystery" contains some passages of info/writing not credited to the actual source. Let you guess about this.

Anyway, the so-called "mystery"continues to turn up all over the internet and in publications numerous times-sometimes with people jumping in and making some pretty wild guesses. However, it is no mystery at all. In fact, anyone who has read the history of the Predictor in The Packard Cormorant magazine (issue #131, Summer 2008) from the Packard Club will know exactly what this photo is and where it was taken, etc., etc. The entire accurate history of this car is in that issue... including explanation of the photo. No guessing needed and no mystery at all.

In fact, the article also has a link to the Packard Club web site where there is an original film clip video (in color) actually showing the uncrating of the Predictor in January, 1956 in the styling studios on East Grand Blvd. after the car was received back from Ghia in Italy.

The photo in question merely shows the Predictor sitting in the driveway of 3050 East Outer Drive in Detroit. What was this address? Today-a vacant lot. But in Predictor's time, the headquarters of Creative Industries of Detroit (the company's proper name at the time). Yours truly sat many times behind those very windows overlooking the driveway. And many, many other Packards (especially concepts) were parked in this same driveway back in the 1950s... on a regular basis. Used to see them all the time.

WHY was the Predictor sitting in Creative's Driveway? Because Creative was busy setting the car up to be shown at auto shows. Creative also did all of the maintenance on the car and repaired all of the messy electrical problems that were quickly discovered after the car was uncrated at the Packard factory on East Grand Blvd.

By the way, a serious new book is presently being written about the history of Creative Industries of Detroit and the author-while very knowledgeable about the company-is currently looking for more photos and info.

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Okay, but no response about adjustment on rearmost driver-side pivot and shoulder bolt?

This is adjustable and affects side rail elevation/alignment.

There are other adjustments too.

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Word to the wise: don't use ANY brake fluid at all in the convertible top electro-hydraulic system. Use automatic transmission fluid. It will never turn into rock-salt-looking crystals from lack of use and won't destroy your paint or seals.

As for cracked side rails, this phenomenon is not limited to Packards. Many other American-made convertibles of the 1950s had such brittle cast aluminum side rails. All of which is an absolute reason to never, ever try to manually force your power convertible top up or down. To do so is just begging for trouble and damage that will require parts to be replaced. The castings were not the strongest in the first place (they didn't need to be if used as designed)... and due to the nature of old aluminum, they have a terrible tendency to a condition known as "age hardening." As such they become even more brittle and less likely to flex under any out-of-plane pressure.

Take photos and show what you are talking about, don't just describe.

When you say "rear glass" suspect you mean rear side quarter glass.

The entire top frame has many adjustments, some not very obvious.

Some are hinged folding pivots.

Make certain that no pivot point or hinge is binding.

Note position and anchor placement of rearmost pivots. These can affect side alignment of frame rails.

Also be absolutely certain that BOTH hydraulic rams are traveling full and equal length.

Hope this helps.

Ahhh. Another interesting auction.

A Scottish Heather/Dover White 1956 Four Hundred disappeared several years ago from a Long Beach, California museum storage when the museum went broke. This car had original upholstery and wide whitewall tires.

It was indeed a California car since new too.

AND... it had a selector lever rather than pushbuttons...Hmmmm.