31 Packard 833 Roadster Woodgrain Q

[Guest]

I am restoring a 31 833 Roadster and had a question regarding the woodgraining on the dash. I have seen several other Packard open cars of the same year and all of them have had the Burl style woodgrain. Upon removing the weathered dash on my car, I took off the intruments and discovered the standard horizontal woodgrain, not the burl. My question is this: Was the burl woodgrain an option or is it only correct for certain models? I prefer the burl, but authenticity is important to me. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them with me.<P>Thanks!

[Jdee]

As far as I know Packard would work with the customer to give them just what they wanted. Woodgrains vary much more on Packards than on any other cars we woodgrain, mostly in the base colors though, more than the graining itself. All the 32s we have done have been Burl I know, and a few late 20s we did were Straight Grain. So 31 would be right about the time Burl came into wide use. <BR>Jdee<BR>PS:This photo is Straight and Burl, not a 31 though.<BR> <BR><A HREF="http://24.26.87.219/WoodgrainPhotos/page%5F01%2Ehtm" TARGET=_blank>More woodgrain Photo</A>

[Guest]

regarding wood grain on classic-era Packards. You will find that the "straight grain" was typically in the "lesser" cars, and the burled rose-wood style was typically in the more expensive/larger-engined models. Obviously, dealers went out of their way to make a customer happy - as an example...I have seen many MANY 32-34 Super Eights with painted radiator grill shells and plated shutters, "mimicing" the Twelves.