Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

My first encounter with a '56 Caribbean Hardtop was many years before I was lucky enough to acquire one - back in my high school days. It was locally owned, but I only ever spoke with the owner once, and not for very long as he seemed like a busy guy.

That car had all the appearance of a well-maintained, unrestored original. Although I had already read (then) that the Hypalon material used for roof covering was prone to premature failure, I assumed the top on this car was also original. The material on that car had what I call a "diamond pinpoint" texture to it, which I felt was intended to emulate the material used on the convertible models of the day (and up).

However, I recently ran across a glossary at this site:

haartz.com/index.asp?ID=80

...which advised:

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"Crush grain" must be one of those fast and loose terms that are intended to cover a whole bunch of simulated leather textures - as there is not a consistent grain among the handful of samples I've found online.

Anyone have any solid input as to what material is truly authentic for the Caribbean Hardtop?

Not solid evidence, but it was my understanding that Goodyear made the convertible tops and was also the maker of Hypalon. I always thought the external appearance of the top material was same on the convertible and hardtop, i.e. a leather grain (for 1956). My 56 Caribbean top was made by E-Z down in Georgia I believe, and the grain was a perfect match to the grain on the original boot, thus I would suspect that the hardtop had the same pattern.

Brian, somewhere I have a small piece of original material that I took off a hardtop 35 years ago. I'll try and locate it in the swill at my place.

Brian, come to think about it I have a 56 Caribbean hartop that I forgot about. I'll get over to the storage building next week and photograph the roof.

Ihave been under the imptression that Packrd did NOT supply any boot for Convertibles in 55 nor 56.
Either way, i would probably opt for Aligator or snake skin on either the HT or Convert. A siberian tiger print would be excellent with the White upper 3 tone too.

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Nahhh man, I'd do leopard skin man, it's much hipper. Then put a big blue diamond on the dash man, with some baby booties on it, man, that'd be cool!

Leopard skin interior/vinyl roof

trunk straps

super fly headlight rings

22's w/spinners

Ohio players on the Alpine stereo



Mr.Pushbutton--rolling Detroit style

I have an original conv. top boot for 1956. I have had it for 30 years and it is authentic.

Mr. Pushbutton, you'd need one of these: Pimp Hat

Packard most certainly did provide a boot for convertibles in 1955 and 1956. If you look at the open trunk picture of the Jean Peters (Howard Hughes) 55 Caribbean which was published in The Cormorant some years back, you can see the boot bag as well, black with a folding lid and single snap fastener on the short side. This car had been laid up for about 30 years with only a few hundred miles on it, so it's the most authentic view of the trunk you're likely to get.