The Packard Caribbean was one of the most luxurious, glamorous cars for sale in the 1950s. Loaded with goodies, a drop top, and not 2 but 3 paint colors, it was a car that stood out everywhere it went. Not many were made – only 500 were produced in 1955 and this car is #105. It’s currently up for sale here on eBay in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with bidding starting at $70,000.
The seller is the second owner – the original owner passed away in 1971, and his daughter sold it in 2013 to the current owner. It was running and complete as seen in this photo, but he decided it was worthy of a complete restoration. Unfortunately, as we all know, life happens. After 8 years of work, with the car being 90% complete, he has to get rid of it.
There are some great photos in the listing of the various stages of restoration, and he states that he has over 2,000 photos to document it as well as several walk-around videos. All the trim still has to be reattached, but the new paint and glass looks fantastic.
After WW2, there was a huge pent-up demand for cars, but market saturation had really been reached by around 1950. During the 50s, many of the independent automakers just couldn’t sell enough cars to maintain profit, and Packard was no exception. They merged with Studebaker in 1954, though they continued to make many of their existing cars as-is until 1956, the Caribbean line included. It’s too bad really, since they had some excellent designs. It’s hard to tell from the image above, since the entire interior still has to be reassembled, but take a look at this photo to see what it could look like when it’s all finished.
1955 brought a new 352 V8 engine to the Caribbean, and apparently this one was still running when the restoration started. The engine, transmission, and rear end are all numbers matching. All 3 items were disassembled, cleaned, and rebuilt using completely NOS parts. The hard work has been done, now all the accessories need to be installed, and all wiring and lines need to be run. Speaking of wiring, the wiring harnesses have been custom made and are ready to be installed. And even all the accessories like power assist, steering pump, master cylinder, power antenna, and radio have been rebuilt. The starter and generator are NOS. It certainly seems like the greatest amount of care possible has gone into maintaining the factory feel of this Packard. Whoever owns it next will not have to do much work to get this Packard to be a head-turner.
Quite a car. If you put one model from each manufacturer in the same space in the mid ’50s it would look like someone blew up a paint store with all the colors.
Ironically, all the cars on tv back were shades of black, gray or white – unless you had a color tv.
& today when you look out the window, what color “cars” do you mostly see?! & you would be hard pressed to find any true colors other than 1 shade of red or blue offered on most “cars” & many times you have to buy VERY expensive option packages just to get either of those colors!
Actually, whoever takes this on has a lot of work to do. Everything has to be checked and verified and hope the drivetrain rebuild was done right. I know from experience that it is often more expensive do backout completed work and redo it correctly than doing it right from scratch. I’d rsther buy a restoration with 1,000 miles on it than one with 0 miles because the former hasn’t been shaken down and “debugged”. It’s called risk.
Don’t get me wrong, this is hopefully a beauty done right. However completing it isn’t simply a matter of attaching a few trim pieces. We all get weary on some builds. If it is so close to finished why not pay someone to finish it off and get top dollar? IMO owner is asking all the money, with all the uncertainty born by the prospective buyer.
70000 for what? An unfinished car? Prices of stuff today, makes a guy want to stop the hobby car business.
Complete frame-off restoration. What has been done looks super good. HOWEVER – the amount of restoration needed to complete the project will cost at least another 40,000 to 50,000 and that means a total expenditure of close to $140,000.00.
Does anyone believe it will get that at auction?
I was in the market for a Studebaker Daytona this past year. Several of the cars I passed on were project cars that were listed for way too much money to get them to a refreshed state. I finally found my current car. I paid more that I expected but all the ‘heavy lifting’ has been completed and more importantly the price paid was in line was it’s fair value. Unless you are very experienced and have lots of time and/or money, project cars may not be best for everyone. This is a rare Packard indeed, but in its present state, IMO it’s price is far too much.
I hate the way these fish eye lenses leave a pic. Here? too many of ’em.
Altho not much left I’d like to see it undistorted.
Painter neglected to angle the red up at taillight. Unless corrected will look odd once moldings are replaced.
Chuck,
Good catch! Unless the same painter does the touch-up, with the same paint mix, it’s never going to be perfect, so in all likelihood the entire red section will need sanding and repainting.
Car also needs complete interior, and it’s all leather and matching vinyl. While these have been sourced by the owner, the bulk materials still need to be bought and then fashioned into an interior. That’s gonna cost at least $15k.
As mentioned by someone else above, while it’s likely the work has been done correctly, a buyer is still taking a chance that there could be multiple mistakes lurking.
Plus, someone who can afford to spend $70k, could probably afford to spend a bit more for a completed car. And over the past couple years, the prices for Packard Caribbeans have been dropping. Several complete V8 Caribbeans were sold at auction recently, all needing full restoration, selling for under $8k.
Anyone know where I can buy a dual quad intake from a Caribbean?
Scottymac,
email me at billmccoskey@aol.com. I might be able to help