Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Howdy all! This is my first topic post, and I know this is an issue that has been covered before, but I wanted your thoughts on my specific situation.

I'm the new owner of a 1953 Packard Clipper in Polaris Blue. I love the color, and want to color match it to keep it the exact same.

My issue is that is scratched, a bit rusted, and beat up all over. To prevent further damage, is my only option to repaint? I've seen some people do touch up work and overspray to blend, but is that even an option?

Wanted your thoughts. What would you do?

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Congratulations and great choice. For years I was the second or third owner of a 1953 Clipper Deluxe and it was a great, fun to drive Packard. It was nimble and handled well.

Seeing your photos, the best bet is to remove all the stainless and pot metal, then take it down to the bare steel as you'll likely find other areas underneath what's there now but which are not obvious that will eventually damage any new paint put over it. Rust has a way of traveling under what seems to be only a scratch!

Thanks, Don. It's a fun drive and I want to keep it around to awhile.

So, full and complete restoration and repaint is your suggestion on the body? I've seen such crazy price ranges for that, and my garage is too small to do it myself. I know the "you get what you pay for," but even "good" paint jobs seem to be quite a crazy range.

Not necessarily a full restoration is necessary and you can probably get by with a "cheap" paint job at one of the places that post signs with prices for such things. Doing so it will probably come out looking nice IF everything underneath is done properly. That's where these places cut corners, in the preparation.

Hi, 1953,

If you remove the bumpers and brightwork, you can take it to Maaco for a $300 paint job. You could have them do the body work (extra and possibly not that great, but ask to see an example) or take it to someone you know who does body work. Then take it to Maaco for the actual paint, extra for a color match to the existing body. You might be under $1,000.

Over 60 years I had my car painted by SprayCraft of SFO and Earle Scheib of Portland: metallic bronze, coffee with cream, racing green, and silver at prices from $29 to $129, before getting a professional acrylic enamel job in cuban tan for $1500 in 1971, and finally an $8,000 job in 2010 in 1940 Blackhawk Gray.

All those early paint jobs would have lasted longer if I didn't get tired of the color or just was sorry I chose it as in the case of the coffee with cream (beige). I saw a '64 Cadillac in that color and it looked to me like understated elegance. On the Duchess, it looked blah. The acrylic enamel, though professionally shot, was a new thing then and after maybe 8 years eventually got chicken feet all over it (probably a technical name for it).

I drove my car ALL the time and each of these cheap paint jobs lasted about 5-8 years. If you garage your car, don't drive it much, keep wax on it, it will last until you have money coming out of your ears. IMHO

5-8 years isn't terrible, actually. Has anybody on this forum done this, or went with a budget paint job?

Small update - seems the car was repainted or at least touched up at some point. Sorry for night shots, but take a look.

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Typically when the door jambs are painted it means there was a color change as there is otherwise no reason to paint them. I thought I saw an area in one of the earlier photos that may have shown a darker color underneath that I suspect is the original color. I see the area for the trim number on the plate and directly to the left of it should be the one for the paint but maybe not stamped into the metal so remove the green from it very carefully!

More bad news for a newbie like me - seems that there is plenty of shoddy bondo work to accompany the shoddy paint work - yippee!

Here's just a few photos of that. So, looks like body work will certainly be a step-by-step process. The only question is whether I have the resolve and courage to do like BigKev did and learn to do it myself.

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It looks to me that your quarter panels and possibly rockers hold the worst surprises for you. One of the top photos of the driver side quarter show a lot of mud that wasn't even shaped well. If it were my car I would either try to feel behind where the filler is or take photo from the backside to try to assess how much filler is there filling a hole vs a scrape or dent. I think that may give you a better idea of what you are up against. You certainly need to do some welding. Whether or not you are up to the challenge is only for you to decide but do you have an adequate work space, tools and is the plan to keep the car outside? Working outside has it's own challenges but if you are planning on keeping it outside you may just want to just do some light damage control and enjoy it as is. Once you start tearing in... point of no return.