Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I thought they were painted with black primer?
This eBay photo shows something different.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1956-Packard-Caribbean-Convertible-Coupe-Factory-Photo-Ref-62151-/130754656814?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7195ba2e

I've been told by several folks who should know that on tricolor Caribbean covertibles (white upper) the front wheel wells were white. Yet this 1956 photo of a new delivery seems to show otherwise. Perhaps like some other things with 56 Caribbeans it wasn't consistent during the production run.

It will be intereting to see what Leeedy and others have to say, and any other truly original factory or delivery photos.

PS - perhaps the wheel wells were white and the Filer car has been undercoated?

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Hello... Nahhhh. The black you are seeing in this photo is almost dead certainly undercoating-WHICH was a big dealer option in those days-especially in the eastern USA. My dad never bought a car in Michigan that was not undercoated. Of course the trick was to get a dealer that wouldn't spray the durned stuff on the mufflers (which some did ON PURPOSE and it stank for 2 months afterward). Even dealers in areas like Southern California sold undercoating as a treatment, not just referencing the anti-rust benefits but claiming it made a car "ride quieter"...which was somewhat true. I had a 1955 Patrician delivered at Earle C. Anthony in Los Angeles... and it certainly was undercoated. Some people back then even thought this raised the resale value of a car.

Otherwise, the wheel wells were painted white. The splash aprons inside the engine compartment were also the same Dover White as was on the fender tops. OF COURSE, if it was a Caribbean with special body colors... say black... then that special color on the outside top of the fender was in the wheel wells and engine compartment side of the splash wells.

This gets complicated for earlier non-V8s done by Mitchell-Bentley where SOME were actually masked and painted. ANd, of course, the pre-conversion Packard convertibles delivered to M-B were indeed originally with front fenders painted in black primer. But ... I have numerous original factory photos of even these Caribbeans (as finished) with white wheel wells... AND the Conner Avenue V8 Caribbeans normally were white in these areas.

By the way, my old friend, Joe Clayton-who was legally blind-was the first I ever knew to actually take measurements on just how far the white paint went down on the splash well and fresh air housing on the inner passenger side fender! The factory actually kind of "fogged" the white over this housing. Joe could feel the end of the lacquer spray with his fingers!

People of today forget or never knew that most cars were not undercoated in the 1940s and 1950s-even in places like Michigan where I grew up. I always paid very close attention to details like this, even as a youngster. And like I said, my dad always, always paid extra to get his cars undercoated.

We used to have a little game that we played in the 1950s when driving around Detroit: you could usually tell if the new car in front of you was undercoated by looking for a shiny silver gas tank and mufflers. Some maniacs used to shoot undercoating all over mufflers in the mistaken notion that it made them last longer. Fact was, most mufflers then were rusting from the inside out-not the outside in. Anyway, undercoating on mufflers usually smelled bad for a couple of months after you bought the car!

On the other hand, dealers (including Packard ones) merely viewed the situation as another opportunity to make additional cash by selling an undercoat job to the new car buyer. So... as bizarre as it may seem today in the 21st century, cars (including Packard) sold in rough weather areas like Michigan back in the 1940s and 1950s indeed were normally and often sold with no undercoating, just paint. It was up to the owner and dealer to do any undercoating.

And... this is how companies like Ziebart and others were born!

Leeedy, thanks for confirming my belief that the wheel wells were white.

I can't say, with any authority, whether the body color had been intentionally painted over the black enamel base coat on the inside of the fender tubs.

However, while the application of undercoating was a necessity in areas subject to snow/salt, I can't imagine any paint of the period holding up to all the stuff that gets thrown off the front tires under normal operation in ANY part of the country.

Black undercoating not only offers some protection for the sheet metal against road rash, but provides a bit of sound deadening.

Here is the inner of a rusty 55, with the undercoating, it looks like a gloss black

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Ahhh... but can't go by that.

? First, the thread discussion here was based on V8 Caribbeans... which, as previously stated were white here unless an unusual color scheme was factory done, then the color would be the same as the factory color on top outside of the fender.

? Second, since the photo shown here is a Clipper... this goes to a whole different direction. And again, what was the original factory color that was on the top outside of the fender? And what was the original factory mask color?

? Third, since this fender is undercoated who knows who, how and when the undercoating was prepped and done?

If looking for the original prime and under color of the stamped Packard and Clipper front fenders, it still would not have been gloss black, but rather dull black-no gloss.

Sorry for the confusion, this is a 55 Caribbean.
White, red, black

As a kid (and for the next ten years) I was the primary car caretaker for our neighbor's 1954 Buick Skylark convertible. I was present when it was first driven home and presented to his wife as a "make-up" present. Given the very limited production (500 or so) of Skylarks, I would expect that either Mitchell-Bentley or Creative Industries may have also had a part in their building, just like the Caribbeans of that era.

In any case, this car (Malibu blue, white top) had semi-gloss black wheel wells from the start. I cleaned them weekly, and there was no undercoating on them.

Since 1954 Skylarks are now astronomically valued (I have another childhood friend who still has their family's car, same Malibu color and black wheel wells), you now see some interesting variations on how the wheel wells on these cars are painted. Whether or not Buick originally painted them that way, I have see red, white but no blues. Frankly, chrome wheel wells would not surprise me on some of the quarter million Dollar cars.