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I like the addition of the 56 emblem even though the 55 Caribbean did not carry the lettering OR the emblem.

Thanks. The car has a number "412" on the trunk underneath the Packard logo. Perhaps this number has some relevance if it was "Caribbeanized" by Creative Industries of Detroit.

Does this car have a 1957 engine in it?

If a stock 55 Packard engine did they go to the expense of the dual carb setup in the conversion or was the trim change the only difference.

Yes, dual carb in the conversion.

Hey Leeedy,

How do you go about finding out the registration history of a vehicle. I personally know my Caribbean was in Denver Co, but how do you find out anything further through the DMV or other organizations?

Cheers,

Build slips and all that kind of thing are not likely to tell you much of anything. Build slips are most likely going to tell you what this car left the factory as... and the plate on the driver's door jamb should already tell you the same thing

I'd be particularly interested in two things the build slip/shipping order might provide; (1) any non-standard features like paint or upholstery noted as REQ (special requests), and (2) the dealership or factory branch to which the car was shipped which is likely to be the point of first sale.

As far as tracing the registration thru DMV, unless you have old paperwork listing all the prior owners I think that is an almost impossible task today. Even with names, in California at least the database is strictly off limits now due to the actress that was stalked and killed a few years ago. At the time the assailant was able to trace her car license plate thru DMV so that access was totally cut off to the public. Because of that instance, many other states also changed their laws and will not provide any DMV information to anyone but authorized law enforcement. To add to the problem, DMV databases are scrubbed periodically. Currently in California, if a car has not been registered for 5 years the old information is removed and no longer accessible. If you re-register a car after a period of inactivity all that prior data cannot be tracked and referenced with the current registration so in effect it is a brand new old car with no history.

For once I disagree with Leeedy, and I offer the build sheet for my 56 Pat. I would never have known about chrome wire wheels on this vehicle w/o the build sheet I got from the Stude museum. I did find MITCHELL BENTLEY'S stamp on the inside of the door panels which explains the "SPEC" notation on the slip.

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