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Hello Friends,
I am interested in opinions from you folks concerning incorrect paint colors. Here's my situation and dillemma.
Sometime in the past, some knucklehead previous owner disrespected my 47 Custom Super with a cheapie paint job with an incorrect color. The color is probably relatively close to 1940 Wilshire Green. To add insult to injury, the door jambs, etc. were painted with a brush.
Given other restoration needs and my budget, I have not engaged in a complete re-paint. Rather, in an effort to guard against water damage to the original interior I compromised by replacing the door rubber, new glass, and having the jambs sanded and repainted with the existing color. Call me neurotic, but I just could not stand the brush marks everytime I opened the door on such a pretty car.
The car is lots better than your average driver, but it is highly doubtful that it will ever be in concourse condition. And, I actually like the existing non-metallic green, save for the fact it is not correct.
So, now, looking forward to a decent paint job someday, how far astray would I go by repainting it in 1940 Wilshire Green rather than a correct '47 color? Comments and advice welcomed.
Mark

Paint it the color u like. if it was 1947 all over again and u walked into a dealer to buy a new car and wanted it painted a 1940 green the dealer wouldn't refuse the sale nor the charge for painting it. Paint it what u want.

Just my opinion, the 46-47 Custom Super Clippers are very desireable bona-fide CCCA Full Classics and properly maintained or restored command very good prices for postwar 4-door sedans as they are such superb touring cars. And finding a "correct" one in good condition for show or touring is not easy. I've got a friend that's been looking for a really nice example for over a year and is willing to spend $30K or a bit more, and they are few and far between. If you're going for a paint job, why detract from it's future value and saleability by going with an incorrect color?

As to a dealer willing to repaint a new car in 1947 at no cost just to make a sale, I doubt it - in that just-postwar market buyers were 3-deep and a dealer could sell every single car he could lay his hands on, probably even if it was pink.

Timely discussion.

Just last night I was looking at '47 paint chips, in anticipation of the color to paint my Sheik of Kuwait inspired custom. I really like the Vanderbilt Grey Metallic -- but the original Derham car was grey, from a Plymouth chip.

Vermont Green is considerably yellower and lighter than Willshire Green. Lexington Green is a bluer, spruce green.
Seeing some other Packards in the colors you are considering is in my opinion a good step to take before painting yours.

Hi Mark,

First, I think it not so "Neurotic" to repaint door jambs, if I found those on my car I'd probably go howling into the night until I could fix them! The real question isn't so much your behavior in response to such regrettable action, but rather the last owner's thought process in taking a brush to a car!

Color choice is personal, you have to ask yourself what the goals here are: Do you value originality (for show purposes or resale or just the satisfaction of knowing it's 'Factory correct')or is it more important for you to express your own creativity? Personally, I go for the former, I bought a Packard b/c I respect and admire the company and what it stood for (and produced), so if I was to restore, I'd do so with a sympathetic eye and choose a factory color. Actually, being the purist I am, I'd probably restore it to it's original color.

The Clipper was/is really a gorgeous car, I haven't ever seen one in a color that I didn't like, so I think you really can't go wrong with any of the available stock choices. Also, note that in the post war years, the dealer might repaint the car any color the owner chose, but at additional expense, and at some local body shop..these cars were not available as customs.

Good luck and post a pic!

It's strange, but some colors I wouldn't choose from chips look so different on a car. And some colors, now out of vogue, look great on a car of a vintage when that color was popular. It just looks right on the car. It works rather than fights with the interior and appointments. I remember thinking There are no good colors (for a conv sedan) in 1940. But I was wrong. I decided to go with the original color, Harbor Gray. It was the "announcement" color, the first cars out had it, with red upholstery (also available with any exterior color). It was appropriate for San Francisco where she put on her first miles.
But I kept an open mind and reconsidered Blackhawk Gray Metallic. I did a search for '40 Packard images and looked for another convertible. I just didn't find another in that color. I guess it was used mostly on 110 sedans, whatever. I choose that. It looks fabulous. So I used the other colors to rule out ones I might like, like a big wig Republican one in Wilshire Green that looks as good as it gets (until you see one in Blackhawk Gray). Here are some 47s. Does anything resonate? Keep looking. The light / dark grey combo looks pretty elegant, but so do others.

google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=1947+clipper+images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I'm also of the belief that it's your car to do with as you please and if you like what's there, so be it. On your present color, perhaps the car was painted at one of the "We'll paint any car any* color for $29.95" places and the jambs were a totally different color after it was over. The paint you have might have been one of the dozen or so "standard" colors (*the "any" part in the tagline was the standard offerings, anything different cost lots extra). Those places used to be all over advertising their weekly specials. Some even did a robust business.

Could be lots of reasons for the jambs but I can almost sympathize if the car did come back multicolored and paint job was done in the days before colors were available in custom filled spray cans. Maybe he didn't have an extra arm and leg to spend on a professional or a well stocked tool collection or talent to do it himself. A brush might be all that was available for the quart of matching color he could buy from the place that painted it.

It could have been worse. An aunt had a car done using one of those advertised "specials". They didn't take anything off or even open the doors. Unless you took something off before it hit the shop, if it was visible on the car's outside, it was fair game. Some bigger items might be halfassed covered but usually wound up painted in some form -- any small items like emblems & nameplates, forget it. Chrome strips -- there might be a shiny center with a paint stripe down each edge.

I remember when the car came back it was complete with painted weatherstrips where they were visible in the opening cracks, body color nameplates, assorted overspray, and one bumper had a half inch wide paint stripe wobbling down the top edge where the masking didn't cover. Hopefully your car didn't come back equipped with those extras -- or at least they are gone by now.

No idea how many storms the car weathered. For that price, most of those paint outfits used the cheapest quality crap you could find. Yours must have been at least a mid quality or well protected to last this long.