After surviving the Great Depression and World War II, the Packard Motor Car Company required an automobile that would reestablish its once-prestigious perch atop the American luxury car market.

For 1953, Mitchell-Bentley Corporation of Ionia, Michigan was sent 750 standard Packard convertibles, which it customized into a new, limited-edition ragtop, to be dubbed the Caribbean.

With its highly distinguished design and luxurious appointments—standard power everything, full leather interior, three-way radio with power antenna, and five Kelsey-Hayes chrome wire wheels—the Caribbean came to represent the penultimate expression of Packard quality, luxury, and style.

The model continued into 1954 with newly restyled headlamp rims, chrome trim added to the hood scoop, lowered rear wheel housings, two-tone paintwork, “Caribbean” script added to the rear fenders, and side moldings that swept off the beltline and slipped below the crest of the rear fenders into a distinctive taillight treatme...