Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Photos of the work I did on the trunk are on page 9 of my project blog: Adventures with a 1955 Clipper. They may help you with your project. All the pieces were there, but badly soiled. Good luck with your project.

(o{}o)

I see. very nice work. Your carpet is all cut and bound in the stepped areas and all the edges. I will have to read thru the text in detail. Thanks. No experienced seamsdress in the house though. I see where the factory panels are. They are very far outboard so as to leave access to the taillights. Also an option to align the panels with the pinch welds on the tubs and the inner trunk lip to cover the whole area of the filler housing though removal to change a bulb would be required. this leaves the snap head a mystery as the rt side panel is no where near it.

JW i read through the blog post and i guess i have never seen this technique done on the edges of indoor-outdoor carpet. It sure lookes like the edges are sewn and bound.
Quote: n the original material and pattern on the mats and panels. It is flexible and easy to work with and requires no binding so will not ravel at the edges. The trunk lining would not be authentic, but it would be a nice compromise. Even if I had gone with the 1956 pattern replacement pieces, the trunk would not be authentic.

All of the original trunk pieces were there, albeit badly stained and worn. They made good templates or patterns for making the replacements. The mats were easy to make, including the multiple pieced ones. I cut the stitched seams on these pieces and used black 3M trim cement to fasten the new pieces together once they were cut. I laid the old mat pieces on the new carpet material, traced an outline with chalk, and cut. I followed the same method on the cardboard type f...
Are you saying you glue a binding strip to the edges? Do you shave the edges of fibers first? Can you elaborate on this?

I have constructed hot rod door panels and speaker enclosures and race car interiors but the door panels were all flat stock able to be covered by spray adhesive, stretched and wrapped around the edges and stapled. I had even done this with multiple fabricks and also used a thin foam underlay to create a pleet or even ghost flame effect but was always unable to stich seams or edges to really achieve the very high end look. I am interested in the process that was used as are others I am sure

The better Half thinks the light lines may be your chalk lines and not edge binding. If this is the case and you had glued the carpet pieced down- no need to clarify

Your better half is correct. What you think is the binding are the chalk lines. I should have marked it from the back side. The carpet material was glued to the panels (back seat and quarters) and wheel wells with 3M spray adhesive. Later, I found some surplus carpet padding and placed it under the floor mat. The mat and padding are held down by gravity. It turned out to be a most attractive trunk and rich looking with the carpeting throughout.

(o{}o)

Ok thanks. It looks very nice. Those lines did appear to be edge binding in the pix. I agree with you also in the fact that since the orig style liner is not available for a 55 then a clean neat finished result is all that is needed. I think reproducing the smaller side panels is not paramount either so full panels to cover the filler neck housing and outer tubs may be a cleaner nicer more economic solution due to not spending time covering these areas

You could glue lining material to the inside of the fenders and not have to recreate the panels. This could be an easy job and add to the appearance.

(o{}o)

Well upon visual it looks as though the pinch weld flange on the tubs aligns exactly with the inner trunk opening lips as on other makes of the same era so a panel should work here nicely. If it does one could make paper tracings for templates And make them avail. to interested parties if the finished outcome is exceptional and i will make them available if anyone is interested. These may be flat panels with no curve or contour necessary.

Just ran across this photo (56 Caribbean convertible, source unknown) which shows the correct trunk trim on the inside of the vertical trunk hinge support panels; this treatment differed from the 400s and Patricians (shown previously in this thread) in this detail. I don't know if the 56 Caribbean hardtops were done similarly, nor if the 55 Caribbeans had a similar treatment.

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