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I want to paint my 1950 Packard Deluxe Touring Sedan in a factory correct optional 2-tone paint scheme I need 2 bits of information.
1. Was the optional 2-tone paint available in any combination of factory colors or was it restricted in some way?
2. Where was the break between the top color and the bottom color?

Presently the car is yellow (Packard called it something else)including the firewall. Since I do not wish to paint the firewall now I want to repaint the top the original yellow color. The bottom of the car wants to be Packard Blue, a very dark metallic blue. I have the old paint charts. Right now I am guessing the yellow on top should extend from the firewall all the way back to the rear of the trunk, including all the yellow parts surrounding the windows. There would be almost zero masking required as the paint break is at a chrome strip under the windows. I have looked at factory sales literature and have seen both this color arrangement and also one that breaks at the rain gutter with masking on the sides behind the rear windows. This second paint scheme does not include the trunk lid in the top color. Which paint scheme is correct?

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G'day Fred,
See it's your first post so to PackardInfo.

Sorry I can't help with your query but I do invite you to include your '50 in the Owner Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it.

I suggest you take a look at the 48-54 Parts Manual which is availble on this website, it provides a partial answer to your questions with the factory two-tone schemes. They were X over T (black over ivory), L over M (red over taupe), and L over T (red over ivory).

I suspect most would agree that the 22nd-23rd body shell wasn't particularly well-suited to two-tone paint schemes.

EDIT - Sorry, I was reading the list for the 24th series, not the 23rd, thanks for catching my error, JD. No two-tone schemes for 23rd series according to the parts book. It's just as well, these cars don't look good in 2-tone schemes.

Fred,
1. The color combinations for the two-tone schemes were mandated by Packard.
2. The 23rd series were solid color. As best I can determine from the Parts List and Paint Chip Charts, the two tone scheme was dropped for the 23rd series.

You can see the chip chart for the '50 Packards here:

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/1950_Dupont.pdf

Although it's certainly a matter of personal opinion, I agree with Owen that the 22nd series did not lend itself to a two-tone very well.

Hi Fred

If you do want to paint it 2tone, breaking it on the chrome strip would be much easier. I also had to decide on a color scheme recently but in the end painted it something totally different. Not even a Packard color. I guess it all boils down to what you want and can geta hold of.

Personally, I think a darker color, even black, looks good on the streamliners. I have seen a car in 2 tone, and it sure is different. Dark blue over cream.

Hope you come right but it is a personal decision.

Enjoy it anyway!
Barrie

As far as the two-tone 'break' is concerned (22nd series), it appears that it depended on the model. The Sedan broke at the roof crease at the body while the Club Sedan appears to run all the way down the trunk lid. I think the Club Sedan looks better in two-tone than the Sedan but still not great. The break on the sedan looks like an afterthought. In all cases for the 22nd series, the darker color was on top.

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The two tones were promoted for the 22nd series. I don't have the color chart with me, but as I recall the two tone green shown above is the only color combo which does not use Egyptian Sand as the lower color - the top was then brown, green, or blue. The break on a sedan was the swage line below the rear window, and the whole decklid on a club sedan, as you say. Egyptian Sand is not a yellow , it is a putty beige (I've seen original cars). The cowl is painted the lower color.

The general rule in two tone styling is to have the top color lighter to lower the appearance of the car. The 1941 combinations are all that way. So I agree that the 48's are "backwards."

Maybe not for the manufacturers but there was another, more practical, reason for the top colour of two-tone paint schemes to be the lighter one for those of us who lived in the desert South-west.

The 22ns series cars had a yellow, called Packard Ivory, but the color was not used on 23rd series cars as far as I can tell from the parts manual. So, that being the said, if you're not going to repaint the entire car, paint it any way you like. I know it's not a stock color or combination. After all it is your car.

If I were a bettin' man, I'd bet that Fred's car is currently paint code Z 'Maumee Maize' (pronounced Mommy Mays?). I guess that sounded more sophisticated at the time than 'Corn Yellow'.