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

Mmmm... ivory. When I was a teenager in the sixties, my dad bought a new Mercedes 250S, and it had an ivory steering wheel. Subsequently, when I was in art school in the early seventies, I owned several Mercedes with ivory wheels. I've been fond of them since then, but they weren't translucent. The Packard wheel must be something.

I'll bet I can duplicate that translucent ivory Packard wheel. Base coat ivory with a tri-coat clear pearl over it is what I can imagine without seeing one in person.

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Dave, clear translucent plastic? Howard, no metal supports? Sounds like Packard!


Pacifica Concept

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Interesting, but as far as I know not a correct authentic wheel for a Pan American. They used essentially a stock senior wheel.

PS Gusha, is that photo supposed to be a bona fide Pan American? Window sills and some other features don't look correct though I suppose there were some small differences between the cars.

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Dave, when it comes to inspect a Packard, then you have X-ray eyes but to read captions isn't your strong point.
The pictures show this dubious "retro concept car" --> Pacifica with retractable hardtop.

Thanks Gusha, Calling it "dubious" is being too kind.

I've had a nice result by painting the wheel ivory or antique white and then giving it about 4 coats of clear with a tad of the antique white mixed in. This give a hint of the translucent effect at a fraction of the cost of a recast. Always do the shift knob and turn signal knob at the same time so they match.

Joeyearl, if you want to see what it looked like, just check out your hood release knobs. They were cast from the same Tenite material as the deluxe wheel.

Ross, that makes sense. I only have the right hand knob, and it's yellowed with age, but I may try wet sanding and buffing it to see if I can determine the original color.

Tenite. I'll have to Google that. I think there was a song in West Side Story...

I see now... Tenite is a cellulosic plastic made from wood. Eastman Kodak formulated it in 1929. Interesting.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenite

If your remaining knob is yellowed and not good enough for a decent match, Yesterdays Radioyesterdaysradio.com/ reproduces some knobs for the 48-54. Perhaps he might have an inexpensive knob in the ivory or some scrap material you could obtain to get a closer match on the paint.