Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Back in the seventies I two-toned my 55 Constellation. TEDIOUS! All of that taping the jambs is truly time consuming. I see why they stopped for 56.

In the same vein, I once two toned a 52 sedan with the correct early production roof-colored door uppers. I loved the look, but again very time consuming. I see why they dropped it midyear and went to breaking the paint line at the drip rail.

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Factory procedures for painting these cars in bare bodies were not all that complicated. And people forget that these cars were painted in nitrocellulose lacquer. This stuff was dry and rock hard almost as soon as the droplets hit the body! There was not an enormous amount of processing needed to do 2 or 3 tones.

Masking tape and paper at the factory came on a combined roll (tape on the outer end). And masking tape back then didn't have the gorilla sticking power it does today. So doing a straight line back on the bottom and one line back with a straight-angle kink up? Piece of cake.

As far as the paint extending into the door jambs or not... this has varied from car to car in 1955. It was mentioned in the story of the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters Caribbean in The Packard Cormorant magazine. So not all 1955 Caribbeans were painted into the door jambs. There is artwork in the showroom sales book and elsewhere showing this, but it did not always match reality on the actual cars.

Finally, someone mentioned "Good Year Hypalon"... and while Good Year may have had some involvement with manufacture, it was DuPont that invented and made Hypalon. They even trademarked the name. Hypalon was still around decades after Packard was gone, but the issue in this case was finding the exact color, texture and finish used on Caribbeans. That was the tough one to do!

Hi

Packard's layered color breaks might have been tedious enough to mask but one can imagine those on the Dodge Main paint line having aching backs after masking their tri-tone color breaks on the hoods too.

Steve

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Indeed I have viewed this very special and unique Esquire! Since from what we know, most Esquires featured only two colors... your particular car is even more "Caribbeanesque".
So glad to have it in Atlanta as we are now located in nearby Palmetto!