Re: 1936 Packard 12 Owner's Manual

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2009/1/9 14:12:56

the '40 160 7 Passenger Closed Touring, being a Henney conversion, has no anti-theft number embossed on the firewall

Walt, I find that comment extremely interesting and wonder if it's speculation or if you have some substantiation. If the latter, it could be useful in my upcoming article on the thief-proof numbers and would be pleased if you could share it with me.

The reason I find your comment so interesting is that 1940 was unique in that a not-insignificant number of standard factory-bodied cars had the diamond brackets but no thief-proof number in between, and of course Henney started with a standard factory body. Also I have seen one 1940 180 Henney that did have a thief-proof number. I've reached the rather tenuous conclusion that the absence of the TP numbers on some cars in 1940 was related to the packing and shipping of body manufacturing equipment to Briggs for the 1941 model year production. Just guessing.

Looking forward to your comments. PM me if you don't want to post here.