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After months of trying to get a picture of the underneath side of my buddies Caribbean hood, I finally got one. Unfortunately it's not all I hoped it would be. The metal work on his is quite finished compared to mine. Some one asked a while back if the fenders had a steel backing behind the brazing. Take a look at the photo showing the hood ornament area.

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Here is a shot of my hood scoop metal work.

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Two shots my buddies and mine from front of scoop.

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The bottom of your hood is typical of the metal work I have seen on C-beans. Typically they don't have the the rework in the hood ornament area as Packard supplied the hoods without the holes punched. Your buddy's has been smoothed over.

Thanks Ross, I tried to get a peek at another Caribbean a few hours away, but the ad is down. So like the fenders, Packard supplied MB with blanks with no holes?

Its been 8 months since I have done anything with the car or its history research. I will need to peel back the layers of stuff that have accumulated around the car. When I got the car my only goal was to see and hear it run, maybe this will still occur. At the very least I need to reinstall the head, starter and put the radiator back in. that should keep me busy for awhile.

Hi, a new member to PackardInfo.com, and just noticing this interesting thread. I have a '53 Caribbean, also Gulf Green Metallic. Most everything I notice about your car seems to indicate a normal production vehicle. The fender scripts potentially could have been added by a dealer or customer. (There is at least one Caribbean out there with a cormorant hood ornament on it, where this was done for the buyer). One thing does look unusual though. The tail lamps appear to be either modified or unique. What does the bottom of the chrome tail fin you have look like where it meets the lamp assembly? The Caribbeans used the production 1951-54 senior tail lamps, that rose up to meet the bottom of the senior tail fins. It appears from your photo that slots were cut into the tail lamps for some reason. I would explore this a little more to see if this was some form of prototype work done on the vehicle. Another question is, what is the theft proof number stamped into the top of the firewall just above the heater box? It would be interesting to try to determine when your body was produced relative to other Caribbeans. (fyi mine is C25329, mated to Caribbean # 447 out of 750).

Lowest theft-proof numbers for '53 Caribbeans that have found their way into my database are:

B96605 - #44
B97852 - $61

G'day wgb1956,
to PackardInfo, and I invite you to include your '53 Caribbean in the Packard Owner's Registry.

Done. Thank you! This site is a fantastic resource.