Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Thank you all for your posts. Glad to know all of the decals are available. I have Dwight's decals for the air filter already, and tons of pictures of his Caribbean, which I took last year in Hershey, and which also has the inner fenders in body color, white in his case. Dwight is a great guy and has always been very helpful.

So, the only doubt that has surfaced here is how the inner fenders are supposed to be finished, as body color and satin black have been mentioned. I have seen several cars with them in black and several other with them in color.

Can't say about the convertible, but the inner panels (splashers) on my Carib H/T (#1135) are painted in body color - same as the other unrestored Packards and Clipper of same year that I've inspected. The coverage further down the inside panels diminishes to that of overspray. IIRC, the inside of the wheel wells showed body color, unless covered in undercoating.

Perhaps some restorers have mistakenly adopted a production approach used in later years, with other makes (like GM product of the '60s and '70s), where inner fender/wheelhuse panels were painted in "underhood black" - inside and out. That would be "non-authentic" for these Packards

Some allowance for the color of the wheel side of the fender wells should be made, however, as it would be impractical to even try to keep up with "road rash" if the car is gonna be driven like it was meant to be (not trailered everywhere).

My inner fender in engine compt is also body color. Fender wells, I painted flat black. The PO had gotten carried away with so much undercoat, couldn't really tell those when I did it and black won because of the frame.

Speaking of inner panels, what is correct for the section of fender seen behind the grill. It appears it should be body color from what mine was and then looking at Randy's two different Caribbeans in progress. Being white, it really stands out when at a distance seeing thru the grill and having almost everything surrounding it black. Am I correct in the body color?

One other area of question is the space at base of windshield between defroster slot and dash. Mine is also body color and stands out with a charcoal dash pad. Does anyone else have a light color behind the dash seen from outside looking in and is it objectionable.

Have debated painting both a darker color since so much is apart while I do the AC.

The inner fenders are a satin or flat black
I don't know where my mind was when I wrote that, but inner fenders are the main body color.

Fenderwells on my untouched (as far as paint goes) '56 Patrician were body color:

Attach file:

---

  (54.80 KB)


  (221.33 KB)

Proposal: How about we collectively go through as much of the V-8 cars, starting with the engine compartment, state what we think the finishes or materials should be and have it as a page in the info section. There are enough of us with cars that have not been excessively altered, and others that have done restorations that are considered authentic that we seem to have the combined knowledge.

I have been sawing at this for a while, see this thread:
packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=470

I think Packardinfo.com may be a good place to start this ad-hoc guide, which avoids the costs of printing, and makes corrections and updates very manageable. Ideally I would like to see the sort of thing the Lincoln Club does for the Continental models--taking the parts book exploded diagrams and adding the types of finishes to each part. I could do some of that even with my rudimentary computer knowledge.

what you guys think?

As for me, I think it is a great idea! I have been learning a lot and I see that a bunch of you guys have great original cars and tremendous knowledge.

I guess that now it is pretty evident that the inner fenders go body color. I will eventually get to correct it. Thanks for all the help!

Victor

Howard -

WRT to your queries:

Quote:
Yes, that area (technically, the radiator side splasher) was painted in body color by the factory - that is, same as fender color. (On two-tone cars, reference the color on that portion of the fender above the upper body side molding.)

Quote: All of my cars are still stored offsite, but based on the fuzzy recollection of removing the i/p from my dad's Exec, decades ago, that area appeared to have only overspray of the body color (Holland Blue). Hard to say what the factory intent was.

MrPushbutton -

Your proposal sounds like an admirable undertaking.

I'd be willing to provide input/data from my own cars, but I think the problem will be coming up with a "shell" that supports user participation - in addition to linking all the data together in a viewer-friendly presentation.

I suspect this will be a lot more complicated than any other feature we've attempted, here. Also, it could require a lot of discussion to arrive at an agreed-upon point of authenticity - something on the order of Wikipedia.

Again, I wouldn't want to duplicate PI's effort if their project is still alive. Has anyone who purchased that judging guide ever received any updates?

Speaking of decals, the original 4 bbl air cleaner on the 400s and Patricians had the printing silk screened on. My original air cleaner still has the original silk screening and a new old stock air cleaner that Roscoe Stelford got from South Bend last november is the same. They have been selling a repro decal for years to try and duplicate the original but it isn't correct if you are a purist going for judging. With that said I will never have a car judged and would put the decal on my car if I had to restore the air cleaner. I guess the point is if we do this project then we should have a lot of details spelled out and let the indivudials make their own decisions how to proceed with a correct restoration.