What a Difference Color Makes -- Packard Towncar

[DLynskey]

This wonderful Packard is advertised in Hemmings.

 

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/packard/custom/2399518.html

 

I photographed the same car at a meet in 1962.

 

 

While it gives the car an entirely different feel, the lighter color certainly shows off the custom styling by Brunn.

 

Don

[8E45E]

Its also a lot of difference a good background makes.

 

Craig

[Matt Harwood]

I sort of prefer everything about the car when it was in the older photo. OK, maybe not the mis-matched tires, but the soft patina of the car is quite appealing. Unlikely that it looked like that nearly 60 years later when it was restored, but I like the look.

 

PS: I still hate landaulettes.

[gossp]

I say the only real improvement is all those whitewalls!  
 

Sorry, I had to say it. 

[DLynskey]

42 minutes ago, 8E45E said:

Its also a lot of difference a good background makes.

 

Craig

I was lucky to get  the photo. The Packard was on the move and I was using a 1950's manual Argus C3 camera that was given to me. I jumped out of my car, guessed at the speed, aperture and distance and snapped the photo. With that old camera you had a 50/50 chance of getting a good picture or garbage. And either way you had to pay for the film and pay to have it developed before you found out what you had. 

 

Don

[DLynskey]

50 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

I sort of prefer everything about the car when it was in the older photo. OK, maybe not the mis-matched tires, but the soft patina of the car is quite appealing. Unlikely that it looked like that nearly 60 years later when it was restored, but I like the look.

As was the custom of the time the car was completely disassembled decades ago when a previous owner decided to restore it. The current owner received it as three truckloads of parts. What a service he has done in preserving this piece of history!

 

Don

[58L-Y8]

Pleasant, but the light color would have been consider gauche and inappropriate on a formal town car in the 1920's.   Conservative, dark colors were the only acceptable hues unless one wanted to be considered a person of questionable taste.   The landaulette is meant to allow the chauffeured dowager and companion to 'take the air' without undo fuss.   An archaic body style for an archaic societal tradition shortly to fade away. 

[34LaSalleClubSedan]

Really liked this survivor car before restoration in its original monotone dark color with black wall tires rather than the big white toilet seats on the wheels now.😮

[alsancle]

I like the 1962 version better.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Unless it is an open (truly open roadster, phaeton or touring) lighter, or brighter colors rarely seem to look right on prewar cars.

[Rusty_OToole]

2 hours ago, gossp said:

I say the only real improvement is all those whitewalls!  
 

Sorry, I had to say it. 

Seems it took him a while to save up for the other 4 tires.

[gossp]

54 minutes ago, Rusty_OToole said:

Seems it took him a while to save up for the other 4 tires.

It took me a while to save up for the last set of old car tires I bought. 

[Graham Man]

I do like the colors as it has been restored but most likely not historically correct.  After researching Graham-Paige color combinations the only wheel color available on all models was black, when was the last time you have seen any 1930's car with black wheels?

 

1928 advertisement...

 

 

1929 Pope Pius XI Graham-Paige being delivered to the Pope

 

[John_S_in_Penna]

11 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

Pleasant, but the light color would have been consider gauche and inappropriate on a formal town car in the 1920's. 

Conservative, dark colors were the only acceptable hues unless one wanted to be considered a person of questionable taste.  

 

If any of us were adults in the 1920's--or if we had

some good written records to judge the thoughts of

the times--we could say for sure whether brighter colors

were considered bad taste for formal styles.

 

But for 1928, Cadillac and LaSalle printed the catalogue

"Colors from Nature's Studio."  It was truly inspired by natural

color combinations--and it showed a formal town car in coral

and black.  I don't suppose the "Standard of the World"

would intentionally depict a car in bad taste, so there must

have been SOME acceptance:

 

 

[alsancle]

There were occasional instances of bright colors used in the 20s and 30s.   More typically you see a 1970s-80s restoration of a car that originally had more subtle colors painted something gaudy.   It was de rigueur for the era.

 

I honestly don't know if I have ever seen an instance where the newer colors were an improvement in my eyes.

 

Now,  in fairness to the subject car we are discussing the newer colors are not the worst I have ever seen.    Also,  the earlier photo is further away and just a more flattering angle.

[Walt G]

We all have opinions, many are influenced not so much by what is period correct but what has been restored and just seems to work well for one person or another , particularly for the person who owns and is restoring or having the car restored. Formal cars 90 % of the time had darker colors. The Cadillac sales piece shown was a way for the Cadillac sales division to attract attention. White wall tires were very often dual sided white wall tires. At one point in the collecting hobby every car got white wall tires ( especially true in the 1960s) at the same time the colors silver and maroon were also popular and everything got painted those colors as well, including 7 passenger sedans. IMHO the light color on the body with the dark roof and the white walls make the car appear very perpendicular - the darker color with white walls would work better visually and because the whole car is a dark combination of color and roof material it would seem to sit lower.

[edinmass]

The town car looks ok with its new paint. I would have made a few changes.......no white walls, and darker on the body. At least it isn’t resale red. I have painted CCCA cars in correct conservative colors, and in one case I was accused of poor taste. I have never regretted a color choice......it all depends on a multitude of factors. Is it a show car destined for Pebble? A tour car? Or, maybe something else. We have a really great car in totality inappropriate colors............and it wins trophies everywhere it goes. 99 percent of thr public has ZERO clue what is appropriate. I can verify this.........brightly colored cars get lots of attention. If that’s what your looking for.......go for it. Even today, color choice seems to run in fads..............the browns, greens, and maroons, Of the past decades have given away to the earth tone pastels. We usually try and paint cars their original factory color as built.........and not from all the choices offered in any given year. Usually factory colors are very tasteful. Like this 1931 Series 43 Pierce in its original paint.........one of my “barn finds”.......a that actually was still in it’s 1927 built carriage house from the Palm Beach estate. I found it in 1991, my first “internet” lead. The wheels were repainted in the mid 50’s. It was a one owner car, came with all the documentation from new, and the tool kit as well.

Edited July 26, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[edinmass]

Here is the Pierce today......on the right. Two identical cars, the one on the left belongs to Trimacar.........aka Dave. I would have chosen different colors for the car on the right..........I think Dave hit it right on the money. The silver metal flake is correct on the right......but a bit bright for my taste on an open car, and the contrast is heavy on the belt line, unlike the car on the left. Both correct and appropriate when new or today, just a bit different in the details.

Edited July 26, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[58L-Y8]

Cadillac may well have endeavored to broaden the range of acceptable colors through their advertising and display of such cars at Custom Salons.  Just the same, social mores and taste change more slowly, presenting oneself in an orange and black LaSalle town car would have been greeted with raised eyebrows and disapproval in many quarters of polite society at the time.   Being socially correct was primary for the formal car equipage, a properly attired chauffeur driving a conservatively finished motorcar the accepted norm.

[edinmass]

7 minutes ago, 58L-Y8 said:

Cadillac may well have endeavored to broaden the range of acceptable colors through their advertising and display of such cars at Custom Salons.  Just the same, social mores and taste change more slowly, presenting oneself in an orange and black LaSalle town car would have been greeted with raised eyebrows and disapproval in many quarters of polite society at the time.   Being socially correct was primary for the formal car equipage, a properly attired chauffeur driving a conservatively finished motorcar the accepted norm.

 

100 percent correct.

[John_Mereness]

17 hours ago, DLynskey said:

 

 

 

I am for the most part a "whatever color it was painted as a new car" - I probably would have called it a day after repainting wheels the same color (or Maroon), putting a set of 6 matching Firestone Double Whitewalls on it (or maybe even a set of Firestone Blackwalls), and re-pinstriped it - then I would do a bunch of little projects.  

[John_Mereness]

2 hours ago, edinmass said:

 

I am not a green fan and I assume this photo is complimentary verses its appearance in person, but a set of plated lock rings, Firestone Blackwalls,  Lyon metal spare tire covers, new pinstriping, and a chrome replate - I could live with it just fine.   A lot of fish to catch in the ocean and when something stands half a chance of being left alone then I generally preach leaving it along and going to catch another fish for your restoration project.  There is a flip side of the coin - if you are going for the best or the best example of the marque with the best of the best of authentic restorations - your car deserves that.  As to the aforementioned, I have seen far too many people "restore" things that probably should not have been restored, but yet end up with a product that fall short in authenticity, color choice, and ....   And, I too have restored cars that probably should have never been restored, but we did it for the specific purpose of having the best of the best with every nut and bolt correct authenticity.

[John_Mereness]

2 hours ago, edinmass said:

Here is the Pierce today......on the right. Two identical cars, the one on the left belongs to Trimacar.........aka Dave. I would have chosen different colors for the car on the right..........I think Dave hit it right on the money. The silver metal flake is correct on the right......but a bit bright for my taste on an open car, and the contrast is heavy on the belt line, unlike the car on the left. Both correct and appropriate when new or today, just a bit different in the details.

 

This is my definition for the use of Black, Silver, and Red - it took me about 2 seconds to figure out how I was going to tu-tone it.

[DLynskey]

5 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

I have seen far too many people "restore" things that probably should not have been restored,

 

That was then, this is now. Today it would be anathema to "restore" such a fine original car, but times were different then. I know a 1926 Packard sedan that was a "barn find" in about 1958 with less than 200 miles on it. A family bought the car new and hired a chauffeur for a trip to Florida. None of them could drive. The trip fell through, the car was parked in a dry garage and never moved. When I first saw the car it had the 1926 tag, some of the protective paper still on the door panels from the factory and had never even had gasoline added since it left the dealer.  The Packard enthusiast who bought it immediately did a full restoration including all new upholstery and then drove it 14,000 miles the first year to AACA shows around the country collecting many awards. That's how it was done 60 years ago.

 

Don

 

Don

[edinmass]

The best restoration I have ever seen, was done 100 percent by the owner, except the plating......which he did the polishing. It was a 1931 Packard Standard Eight sedan with black paint and black wall tires............exactly as his grandfather purchased the car. Both grandfather and grandson were workers at Ford in Detroit. Listening to him explain how he learned to sew was fascinating. The car had no accessories on it at all, just the way it was delivered. It justifiably won first in class over a bunch of “much better” cars. 

Edited July 27, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[John_Mereness]

17 hours ago, DLynskey said:

 

That was then, this is now. Today it would be anathema to "restore" such a fine original car, but times were different then. I know a 1926 Packard sedan that was a "barn find" in about 1958 with less than 200 miles on it. A family bought the car new and hired a chauffeur for a trip to Florida. None of them could drive. The trip fell through, the car was parked in a dry garage and never moved. When I first saw the car it had the 1926 tag, some of the protective paper still on the door panels from the factory and had never even had gasoline added since it left the dealer.  The Packard enthusiast who bought it immediately did a full restoration including all new upholstery and then drove it 14,000 miles the first year to AACA shows around the country collecting many awards. That's how it was done 60 years ago.

 

Don

 

Don

Yes, the 60's, 70's, and 80's and even 1990's were pretty tough on cars.  The double edged sword to many has been that the cost of restoring has deterred many from restoring cars that should not be restored, but it has also filled the back of garages with many that need restored too. 

[John_Mereness]

On 7/25/2020 at 6:23 PM, DLynskey said:

 

 

 

By the way, there is nothing wrong with the restored version, but generally speaking I tend to see 99.9999 % of people loosing "something" in the translation between "original and restored" and there is plenty of the stuff truly needing restoration.  

 

An observation I have made for example is that there really are very few CCCA Senior cars that I call a true 100 point restoration as to what it probably was sitting on the showroom floor as a new vehicle (in 70 years of CCCA the numbering system for Senior Awards winners are still somewhere in the 1000 to 2000 number range and again a mixed bag as to quality/authenticity as standards have varied over time).  

 

The best of show winning car at the 2019 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival was a 1936 Cord Westchester - a comment the owner made that stuck with me was that they did not rub out the door jams as it was just a production car (still the nicest of nice door jams though). 

[trimacar]

On 7/26/2020 at 9:20 AM, edinmass said:

Here is the Pierce today......on the right. Two identical cars, the one on the left belongs to Trimacar.........aka Dave. I would have chosen different colors for the car on the right..........I think Dave hit it right on the money. The silver metal flake is correct on the right......but a bit bright for my taste on an open car, and the contrast is heavy on the belt line, unlike the car on the left. Both correct and appropriate when new or today, just a bit different in the details.

Thanks for complement, Ed....what the picture doesn’t show is that Bob’s car on the right is an incredible, correct, high point restoration.  My car on the left was restored by me to be a driver, and it does that beautifully.  I bought the car in 1985, it was restored in 1960.  I re-restored it about 20 years ago.  With the help of friends, I have very little money in that restoration.

 

Another interesting thing about the two cars pictured, they’re only a few serial and body numbers apart.  I’d say they were built within a week of each other, maybe much sooner....

[SC38dls]

Both are good looking cars,  I would rather have yours so I could drive it and have fun the way the car was meant to be used. 
dave s 

[edinmass]

Having driven both...........IF I remember correctly, as I have driven more iron than you can shake a stick at.........both are GREAT cars. Both owned by true "car people" and both are good friends. As a matter of fact, out friendship is more important than the cars. Having shared both good times and bad with both gentlemen, having been a guest in their homes, and toured with both of them. If all the cars went away today, we would still see just as much of each other...........that is what makes the hobby great.

 

[trimacar]

3 hours ago, edinmass said:

Having driven both...........IF I remember correctly, as I have driven more iron than you can shake a stick at.........both are GREAT cars. Both owned by true "car people" and both are good friends. As a matter of fact, out friendship is more important than the cars. Having shared both good times and bad with both gentlemen, having been a guest in their homes, and toured with both of them. If all the cars went away today, we would still see just as much of each other...........that is what makes the hobby great.

 

Yep.  To all of it....