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My 55 Clipper Super's trunk lid has an anti-drumming layer sprayed on the bottom of the trunk lid and it has been painted, along with the bottom of the trunk lid, body color after the lid and supporting structure were assembled. The car still wears its original paint. Probably difference in trunk lid insulation treatments from the 51-54s and the 55 and 56s is Briggs made the earlier bodies while Packard made the later ones.

(o{}o)

Thanks for the observations, JW. The material on the 51 lid was also clearly sprayed, unlike my 56 Carib which used the asphaltic felt. Sounds like there was a lot of variation over the 6 years of that that body shell.

Two views of the trunk lid of my completely original and unrestored 53. Been awhile since I have looked at. I can go over this weekend if anyone needs more images.

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I found that photo of Stephen's trunk lid interesting because it has a combination of both the sprayed material and the asphaltic matt. That's a Derham, Stephen, is it not? Since the car is black you can't say anything about whether those two materials were painted or left in their natural black.

But that picture prompted me to go out and pull with winter cover off the 56 Carib and take a closer look. Now the Carib trunk lids may be different that the other models as the lids were shortened and the substructure was partly hand built (cut, shortened and welded). Mine has the sprayed material unformly on the underside of the skin and then a bulky and thick fiberglass-appearing matt bulging out a bit from the 4 upper center sections, from the light fixture to the edge. The sprayed material is black, the fiberglass (?) matt is grey, both unpainted but showing some overspray of the upper body color. Anyone else with a 55 or 56 Carib convertible care to take a look at theirs and comment?

Dave, My hardtop is about the same as your convertible so apparently they didn't change yours much with the hand work in shortening. The mat appears very dark gray to black and is located as the convertible is.

I think my undercoat may have been painted when the car was redone as it's uniformly white but there is very little of it. Just on the rear. Starts about the lock level and goes up to the top of the curve and in a bit. Essentially it's confined to the "squared off" portion. A little can be seen in the very rear spaces visible thru the inner bracing but no overspray on the bracing as has been mentioned.

Howard, thanks for taking the time to look and comment. Ours do vary a bit then, mine has the undercoat-type material from edge to edge, top to bottom - everywhere where you can see and presumeably also under the fiberglass-type matt material.

Just as an aside, have you ever looked at various Carib convertibles to see the differences in the handwork to form the substructure? Some are very neatly done, but most look like they were done by a high school sheet metal class while the teacher was on break. For those not familiar with what we're talking about, here's a picture of one, I forget which # 56 Carib this was from.

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That rework is kind of crude isn't it. Guess that one must have been one of those done by the class --- or more likely the frame straightening guy with the big hammer was called upon to pinch hit when the body guy went on his break. Kind of disappointing in a way. Wonder if Cadillac let them out like that.

Regretfully I've never had the opportunity to examine closely for that or even the bracing exclusive to convertibles. I've been curious about several aspects of convertible construction -- not the least like how they could possibly put a trunk mounted AC in that some have reported seeing.

If ever luck stays around long enough to get up close and personal with one, that will be something else I'll try and look at.

Not a lot of room between the floorpan hump over the differential and the bottom of the top well. I believe this photo is attributabe to Mike Grimes and has a correctly done 56 Carib trunk liner which is somewhat different than the 400 or sedan.

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Wow - fancy trunk! I wonder if the 51 200 was supposed to have the side dividers, parallel with the fenders, under the hinge mechanism. I guess you get the fancy houndstooth if you could pony up the bucks for the Caribbean.

A similar hounds tooth pattern covered the panels and floor in my 55 Clipper, albeit with an inexpensive material. It must have been attractive when new and unsoiled. I used the original panels and floor covering as patterns for the new carpeting pieces. I may fabricate two of those side shields, like in O_D's trunk, for an added flair.

(o{}o)

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