Three Henneys (beats a full house)

[Jim Tighe - Deceased 1942 - 2012]

Over the years, Briggs made bodies for lots of cars, incl Fords, Hudsons, Packards and Chryslers. This is the same Briggs that owned the Detroit Tigers and the stadium there. In 1941, Packard gave its production body business to Briggs, a move that was later regretted, because it made Packard dependent on Briggs. In about 1952, Old Man Briggs died, and the company was put up for sale, with Chrysler winning the bidding. Chrysler then told Packard that the 1954 bodies would be the last that the Briggs plant would build for Packard, forcing Packard to build its own bodies for the '55's. Packard leased the Conner Ave facility from Chrysler and decided to build the whole car there, a move that led to a Murphy's Law disaster that helped sink Packard. Henney folded in mid-'54, leaving Packard with no source for Pro Cars for '55.

 

[Steve Lichtman]

...what whistle does the Junior have?

#66 under the hood.

Hamlins Henney Derham limousine counts as 1/2 Henney doesn't it...

Sure it does. It was about 50 yards away at the time, but we were going for shot of the three ambulances and it's not an ambulance...

Nice looking line up, I like the one on the far right the best though. I just love the color combo you picked out for that car. It fits it perfect.

Thanks. I wish I had invented it, but it actually was the color combination used in Henney ads around that time, and I liked it better than Air Force blue.

Gettysburg PA, my wife has an aunt about 10 minutes from there in Littlestown, very nice country.

Yup, I drive through L'town to get to Gettysburg. In fact, Bob Herb actually lives in L'town and the ambulance is garaged there.

...The 1954 shown in Steve's pictures shows a "molded in to the body" front tunnel lights, like our 1954, while George Hamlin's 1953 look "added-on", similar to Steve's Junior. The small local VFD in Fallbrook (CA) our 1954 came from had several other Henney-Packard Ambulances over the years dating back to 1939, and ALL had "molded-in to the body) front tunnel lights. Is is as simple as that.... they could be either way.... or the molded ones were strictly that way and ordered from the factory?....

Mike, we were discussing that while we were there. We came to the conclusion that we don't have a conclusion as to why some have the welded tunnels and some have the bolted tunnels. Note that George's has 4 bolted tunnels, two front and two rear.
I can tell you why mine has the bolted ones - it didn't have any and I bought them on e-bay.

 

[Robert C Baker - Deceased 1958 - 2015]

Great color choice

Really nice looking car there Steve, it sure looks alot different now than it did a few yrs. back all that faded blue Air Force paint. Yes, I remember looking at it for the first time in your ambo barn. Congrats and a great job.

Bob.

 

[Hester Foster]

Steve, very nice picture. The one on the right is stunning. What kind of expenditure are you incurring on mantainence and also let me know where this beauty is being taken care of?

 

[Steve Lichtman]

Steve, very nice picture. The one on the right is stunning. What kind of expenditure are you incurring on mantainence and also let me know where this beauty is being taken care of?

Thanks. Right now, no maintenance as such as I've only had it back from the restoration shop for a month. All the "problems" (several but nothing major) have gone back to the shop for repair. The restoration was done at Penn Dutch Restorations in Glen Rock, PA.

OK, folks, we had the Packard National Meet today, and the three Henneys showed together again in class #10. There was apparently a '41 Henney limo present that I didn't see, as well as George Hamlin's limo.

And the topic of who built what on the limo came up in conversation. This is what George Hamlin told me, so since he's the "expert" and, most importantly, it's his car, this is how it goes. It's a Packard. The limousine body builder was Henney. Both Packard and Henney used parts manufactured by Briggs under contract (as well as by other manufacturers). Modifications to the Henney bodywork were performed by Derham, and a Derham logo was applied (presumably since this was the final builder and they did the completion work). So that's the story and we're sticking with it.