Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Wrong color but NICE!

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The car obviously has had a lot of work, but a lot of mispent money on the wrong color upholstery and paint.

I like the twin spotlights and the trunk detail. Too bad it's not the original MES 92.

Is anybody reproducing the houndstooth trunk set?

Thanks,
Robert.

Notice the incorrect heat shielding for the 2x4 setup.

Robert,

Trunk detail on that car is not quite correct, and I have yet to see a fully-authentic trunk lining set repro'd for these 56th Series cars.

The pattern on the material used in that Carib skips a row and column - something an owner might not notice if they only had a small scrap of original material from their '56 Packard. I believe Joel (packards1) pointed that out, at Perrysburg this year, and told me that pattern was used in Mustang of the 60s.

A few years ago, Randy Berger announced that he had found a supply of the original Burtex material - in the correct pattern. I was skeptical, but he sent me a scrap and it exactly matched the the original trunk lining in my Patrician sedan and Carib H/T. However, that inventory appears to have since been exhausted.

Also, the original lining sets in my cars does not have contrasting binding.

As many '56s as I have seen with incorrect lining, and in this day and age of digital imaging and printing, you would think that someone would have repro'd the material and sets by now.

Of course, money is always an issue - on both the supply and dmenad side fo the equation

Can someone shed some light on AC unit? I can"t make it out but it almost looks like a Packard script and crest on unit. I don't recall ever seeing mention of anything but the in dash factory unit or the trunk unit Studebaker had. Dealer item or someone making it fancy or am I hallucinating??

that is NOT the factory AC set-up. That appears to be a York compressor (or at least it looks somewhat like a York) and the Packard OE air conditioning used a Lehigh V-4 compressor, looks nothing like the York-style sidewinder.
I've never seen a V-8 car where the body/VIN plate was painted. Looks like Billy-Bob and Cooter set up shop and have gone "professional"

Brian,

Thanks for the detail on the original houndstooth trunk lining. I too noticed the pattern was off but still felt the overall appearance looked good for non-original. My Carib still has the original lining although very worn.

I agree with you that in this modern digital age that reproducing the pattern on high quality material would be a winner for one of the larger Packard vendors. And if two of tbe larger vendors produced it then it would hopefully be competitively priced :) And to paraphrase the words of Arlo Guthrie, "if three vendors produced the same thing they it would think it was a movement..."

Have a good weekend folks...its 102 here in Atlanta.

Robert.

The evaporator is an aftermarket Mark IV unit. I have one in my 56 Exec. Someone had indicated several years ago (i think it was Brian) that the dealer could install the Mark IV unit and sell it retail with labor cheaper than dealer wholesale on the factory option.

Im not sure anout the pump because i never got a pump with my car. I used 84 toyoata pump mounted similar to factory set up. What appears to be a Packard AU crest on the evap was probably added by a former owner or is POSSIBLY an F crest . The Mark IV was popular in Fords (and they made it with crest) 50's and early 60's.

Quote:
'Twas not me, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. I have seen a number of V8 Packards that had aftermarket A/C with evaporators that hung under the dash or were mounted on the hump - some even touted (incorrectly) as being factory original.

That style of system was very popular in the 1960s, and I seem to recall it being the factory-installed system on some cars back then.

Factory-installed A/C did not become a popular option until the mid-1970s, but it was fully-integrated into the instrument panel by then.

Chrysler was still marketing dealer-installed systems, from Lone Star, for its vehicles well into the 1980s, and dealers really bought into them. While they had a "factory" look and integrated into the I/P, there were plenty of subtle, yet significant, differences between the two systems. However, by the mid 1980s, Lone Star and Chrysler shared many of the same (if not all) of the A/C components between factory- and dealer-installed systems for Chrysler vehicles.