Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

De nada, Doc. Have often thought it sad that the nitrocellulose lacquer used in the '30s and '40s on Packards, and other cars, got chalky, faded so quickly.
There were so many lovely, soft, sophisticated, quiet, subtle hues. You really can't get an idea looking at a tiny
chip in an old paint book, or even the rare original, unmolested, always garaged car.

So many cars wind up painted the same small handful of colors today. My car's black merely as it was black from the factory and is one of those cars that just looks right in black.

But i could easily see, if i were redoing a car, using one
of the many all but forgotten factory colors.

Their disappeance is one of the crying shames, perhaps the
greatest loss of all, as well as rarely seeing a car NOT laden with every option possible.

Now, so long as there's one Packard with that dirt brown hogs hair carpet somewhere we can all visit and feast our eyes on, perhaps stroke that coarse, funky hogs hair, enjoy the hogs hair carpet experience, that's fine. So i won't shed many tears over the dearth of hogs hair carpet akin to that you'd see in a Plymouth or any number of hohum cars.

But those original colors that connect us to the tenor of the times, their loss diminishes our cars. Mightily.

Again, '46, you've a lovely car. It deserves one of those nice original colors, as close as you can get it.

Keep us posted.

Have often thought it sad that the nitrocellulose lacquer used in the '30s and '40s on Packards, and other cars, got chalky, faded so quickly. There were so many lovely, soft, sophisticated, quiet, subtle hues.

Oh, how true!

Some colors in nitrocellulose held up better than others; black held up particularly well, my 34 (black) still has mostly original paint and is very presentable with high gloss and just the beginnings of some crazing. The old-time blues were especially vulnerable. Though no one can dispute the advantages of modern paints, especially durability, fortunately for those interested in complete authenticity and those lovely old colors, most of those original colors are still available in nitrocellulose from Bill Hirsch.

I'm not about to spend many, many hours stripping, metalworking, filling, sanding, priming, blocking, and hand sanding to apply an inferior nitrocellulose finish to my Packard.

Having been a painter in the auto body industry since 1976, I plan on using the latest technology available.

I will apply a basecoat/clearcoat acrylic urethane system along with the requisite epoxy primers and urethane surfacers underneath, and enjoy my ride for years to come.

My curiosity extends to the visual representation of automobiles from the past. It would appear that from photos I have observed, autos back in the day suffered from an inferior gloss due to the poor finish technology that was available at that time. Or was it the photographic technology? Were the cars exhibiting a high gloss that the camera and film, limited by the antiquated image processing, was unable to convey, or were they simply more dull than we are used to today.

I lean toward the latter.

One difference is in today's paints the gloss or lustre in on the surface and nitrocellulose and to a lesser extend acrylic lacquer gave the appearance of depth of the lustre.

Some very high end restorations still use nitrocellulose lacquer though I fully understand the desire to take advantage of today's paints, and I did so when I had the Caribbean repainted, though the paint supplier (PPG) had a devil of a time matching the metallic flake appearance to the original.

Single stage (regardless of type) to me always has more of deep shine, as opposed to Basecoat/clearcoat that has more of a mirror like shine.

Best way I can explain it.