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

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RE: the photo link in this post... Okay... the first photo link is a picture of the original 1953 Caribbean prototype. Yes, this car had a Packard script mounted low on the front fenders. Final production spec deleted this script from the front fenders and moved one of them to the rear on the continental kit.

A rear view of this same car with the same occupants is shown on Page 81 of "Packard Motor Cars 1946-1958 Photo Archive" edited by Mark A. Patrick. The only wire wheel cap that was different was the one on the continental kit.

RE: the video links in this post... The Caribbean shown in the video links is a regular production version 1953 Caribbean.

Also note that the video announcer correctly pronounces the name "care-a-bee-yun" and not "krib-yun" which is just just plain wrong and is a modern concoction of tourists (no matter how many ships are called that way).

Most people who have long ancestries in the Caribbean (as I do) will tell you that the name of the sea in that area was derived from one of the two original native inhabitants of the region. These were the Caribs and the Arowacs. The Caribs were obviously not known as the "cribs" but rather pronounced "care-rib." Anyway, the name of the Packard convertibles we love is accurately pronounced "care-a-bee-yun."

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Hello... Yes, this would be the winter, 2007 edition of TPC magazine. However my color photo on Page 17 was first published years earlier in TPC. You might also want to look up an earlier TPC article by Dr. E. Gus Mancy and Leon Dixon with a title like "Caribbean Miscellany" which also contains some previously unknown photos and info about these cars.

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Thank you for the very kind compliments. I am happy that these articles, photos and contributions to The Packard Club have had a positive effect. After all these years, I look back to the Spring, 1980 issue of TPC and re-read the story I wrote about the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters 1955 Caribbean. It seems like yesterday when I first drove that car and photographed it, courtesy of my friend Stan, who bought it from Hughes' people. But it was a long time ago.

I tried to set the record straight on the car-which prior to the TPC article had only been seen in Motor Trend magazine with some rather unforgivable gaffes in that story. For instance, they claimed it had "air bags" for suspension...wow. Anyway, a friend of mine at Motor Trend actually gave me some early proofs of the center spread they made in full color. It had a beautiful model posing in the car. I told them that they had cranked up the black ink too far on the lower stripe making it look too dark. But I still have those poster-sized color proofs to this day.

And... I still have more Caribbean photos that have never been published. I'll try to keep them coming.

I also urge everyone to review the back issues of The Packard Cormorant magazine. The Packard Club has done an incredible job in its existence since 1953. They are truly the ones who deserve the thanks of every Packard fan today. Because without the movers and shakers in this club, there might not have been anything for us to enjoy (or argue about) today. They were the original inspiration and keepers of the Packard flame. And the TPC/Cormorant magazines are a treasure trove of wonderful information

no 1953's had the Caribbean script, many were added later by dealers and then enthusiasts later, along with the 54's finned headlight rims

I have seen untouched original cars with either chrome and painted tire tread covers, i would say 90% had painted covers though

all 53's and 54's had black firewalls, not body color

That works for me, painted is definitely easier for me than chrome!

If the firewalls were black, what about the inner fenders? I had heard that because they were shipped with the engines in, inner fenders and firewalls were both black primer because MH wasn't going to disassemble the entire engine bay to paint them?

I think this was the issue I had when I found the other thread where this was discussed. Please understand I'm not trying to start any disagreements, just trying to most accurately reproduce an amazing car.

But it seems as if we have a disagreement between two great authorities -

caribbeandude - The registrar of the Packard Caribbean database has the firewalls (and presumably inner fenders, for the same reason?) as being unretouched black primer (although probably with whatever overspray of top coats got through the hood gaps?)

And Leeedy, with a lot of great pictorial evidence and firsthand experience with the cars has the bodies arriving in red oxide rather than black, and eventually getting painted the same body color as the top of the car.

For what it's worth, I also downloaded and saved every image of Packard Caribbeans in the 1953 section of the photo archive, and find a few pictures with body colored firewalls and fenders, and a couple with black firewalls and fenders, and all of them appear to be restored.

I also have to add that I can't tell from the picture whether the Caribbean shown is a '53 or not - it doesn't have the full sized wheel openings, but I don't know whether that was a piece customized by MB or not. Also, any trim that would point to it being a later one is missing, but it might also not have been shipped installed, since the cars weren't final painted until later.

So I'm not sure how to proceed.

All 51-54s have black inner fenders, which is how I believe the fenders were supplied, and then body paint applied over the outside portion of the fenders when the car was painted. I dont believe this was high gloss at all since it was used as a primer/base for the body color. Probably similar in color to the black e-coat primered replacement panels you get today.

Since Caribbeans were delivered unpainted, just primed to Mitchel, and with drivetrain in place, I don't see Mitchell pulling the motor back out to paint the firewall, hence why the firewalls are still black.

Also the PI Judging guide list the firewalls as being black.

When I stripped the paint off my '54, under the firewall it was red-oxide over bare metal. On my outer fenders it was red-oxide, over black, over bare metal.

Perhaps since the cars were being delivered with drivetrain in place, Packard just decided to paint the firewalls black to match the inner fenders since the body paint was being applied at Mitchell after the rear fender/body modifications were complete.

That's my $.02

I had the opportunity to see a (probably) original '54, even though it had signs of having maybe seen a topcoat touchup at least at some point in its past, with a little overspray on one of the windshield seals.

This one had black firewall for sure, and although the fenders were off (and nowhere easily found) I expect they probably matched as well.

So, it may not still be 100% definitive, but it's definitely pointing toward black from the factory.

I've got a gallon of black epoxy primer on order, and we'll see what the sheen looks like once it's sprayed on (still a ways away)