Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

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1953 and 1954 Caribbeans were made (converted and trimmed) at M-B. However, 1955 and 1956 Caribbeans were made at the Conner Avenue Packard Plant.

Leeedy may know the answer, but is Packard's "New Metal" the reason for that exclusive 55 Caribbean part, the metal hood rod? Those 55 hoods are heavy and it would have been marginal if they had to rely on the stock hood springs and hinges. Think of the calamity if a wealthy Caribbean owner had his/her head impaled by that deadly hood latch pin if they had neglected to prop it up with that exclusive custom hood prop. Howard Hughes might have bought Packard Motor Car out of spite had it happened to him or his wife. Note that the 56 dual cowl hoods are much lighter, hence no prop needed. The cost accountants must have been groaning over that sheet metal change, amortized over very few cars. But, they had some savings because no "New Metal" was necessary in the new hoods.

The "New Metal" filler wasn't the entire reason the 1955 hood needed the prop rod, but it sure contributed to it! Basically, the 1955 Caribbean hood was the standard Packard hood without the piercings for the hood ornament and the letters on the front, to which two additional pieces of stamped sheet metal were added to form the ersatz air intakes. After these were attached and the seams smoothed out with the "New Metal" body filler, a beautiful R-M paint finish was applied. Finally, a pair of nice, heavy, chrome plated scoop trim pieces were bolted onto the front of each "intake," complete with an anodized aluminum piece to simulate a screen or grille! I'm not sure offhand what the metal was for the scoop trim, but I seem to recall that it was a bronze casting. They definitely are not plain old pot metal! (The 110-degree angle vertical trim pieces that lead up to the twin antennas are also of the same bronze material. You could tell that they never intended to build these in any great volume!)

Anyway, it's all that added hardware that created the need for the prop rod. Now, the 1956 Caribbean hood outer panel was, in contrast, a one-piece stamping. So even though Packard had to create a new die just for this operation, it didn't have to be a particularly stout or expensive piece of tooling given the low volumes it was going to see. They must have felt there would be sufficient cost savings in not having to stamp out the two separate scoop panels like they did for the 1955, then do all the hand-work operations to attach them and then fill in their seams, etc. And I think the 1956 chrome scoop trim pieces are less elaborate (and therefore cheaper) too. Too bad it was all for naught... At least they certainly went down swinging...

Wasn't there an article or poster who mentioned the probable use of Kirksite for low volume stamping dies. If so, those would have been cheap to make -- essentially a low melting point alloy that hardens to something like steel.

Don't know a whole lot about casting but imagine they could have made a single oversized hood out of steel or wood to account for any shrinkage and either done a couple of sand castings to make the final form for the Kirksite or maybe being low melting point even poured directly over the steel. Sand was obviously a method of choice since some of the bronze pieces appear to be sand castings.

Once they had that pattern and the form done the Kirksite could be poured and finished off smooth for the stamping die and if it didn't hold up very long, another one made.

I am curious about how they did the longer quarter panels. Articles I've read would seem to indicate it was some sort of metal stretching operation to add the 5 inches in the middle. I believe some modern panel forming is done that way so was Packard so much ahead of the time?

They did use Kirksite for the 56 Caribbean hood die.
I used Kirksite in the foundry to copy wooden patterns that had to stand up to more wear than the normal wooden pattern.
It does not expand when melted nor contract when it cools so it is ideal to copy a pattern. It is a very tough metal, not as strong as steel, but of sufficient strength to stamp out sheet metal.

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RE: Packard New Metal and the hood strut... The hood strut (in relationship to the Caribbean) goes back a long way to the first prototype 1953 Caribbean. A friend of mine who was at the showing to Packard execs told me a fascinating story. That first car had a LOT of lead in the hood. So much so that it overwhelmed the hood springs and assured that a remedy was needed. He said that two things had occurred in the cutting of the hood to fashion the air scoop:
1.) Some structure on the first hood was removed
2.) A lot of lead was troweled into the hood to fill the side gaps created

The upshot of this was a very, very heavy hood. One countermeasure was to use stiffer hood springs and counterbalance. This was quickly revealed to be a bad mistake due to a combination of less structure to reinforce the hood, stiffer springs and counterbalance requiring more effort to pull it closed. You can guess what happened. My friend recalled watching in horror while this Caribbean hood (already weakened from someone yanking it to close previously) was displayed to Packard execs while sitting out in the sun. The overweight, stiffly spring and weakened hood began to fold a bit right before their eyes! Somebody rushed over to try and close it. Of course, the hood would not close. Solution? A hood strut was added and springs were returned to normal.

One of the purposes of Packard New Metal was to reduce weight in the 1955 Caribbean hood (there were other issues it was meant to remedy as well). Since the 1955 Caribbean hood was so complicated and made up of so many pieces, adding lead was asking for trouble. In addition, the use of torches to melt the lead also brought up the specter of potential warping of the stamped scoop box sections... thus requiring even more lead. In theory, Packard New Metal would have been lighter and required no heat to apply.

Anyway, I have seen SOME 1955s with struts, others without. The same fellow told me that by 1955, the strut was (at one point) an unwritten customer warranty "good will" item that would be installed without charge. Otherwise, I really don't know more on this story from the inside.

However, all was pretty much remedied for good when the 1956 Caribbean hood debuted as a single stamping with bolt-on cast scoops. Certainly a superior approach covering and resolving many issues: weight savings, cost, parts and labor.

Very interesting and detailed history. Fun to read! I don't have much to add except that I think Packard used Valspar finishes in its earlier years. The Valspar plant is in Minneapolis, and I have been in their offices, where numerous old Valspar ads are displayed which feature Packard cars and tout their Valspar finishes, much like the R-M ad posted earlier.

Rust was a very minor problem on our '55 Clipper, which experienced over 60,000 miles of Minnesota driving. At that time, the bottoms of the rear fenders had small dots of rust showing through the paint and the car was touched up and re-painted. It never even developed "eyebrow" rust. The rocker panels were not replaced, either. Funny, another '55 Packard, a 400, developed a pretty substantial case of "fender cancer" at lower mileage.

Some cars have across-the-board reputations for early rusting. Others, it seems, are luck-of-the draw. Some of the same model are terrible, some much better. I think that has a lot to do with variations in steel supplied for the stampings over the model run, and of course poor finishes.

Also, speaking of hood springs, remember the Chevy pickups of the '70s that inevitably had a kink about midway in the hood? The hood was not reinforced enough for the spring tension so pulling it down eventually kinked it.

Here's something I didn't know existed until I hunted around for some of the Valspar/Packard ads (that I may or may not recall correctly)
A cross-reference for Packard paint colors, and just about every other make and model, too:

paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?manuf=Packard&con=m&page=4&rows=50

Also, speaking of hood springs, remember the Chevy trucks of the '70s that inevitably had a kink about midway in the hood? The hood was not reinforced enough for the spring tension so pulling it down eventually kinked it.


And Studebakers with the long hood and that double action up and forward moving hinge. Invariably you will find a split or a repair a few inches ahead of the hinge mount.