Re: Henney Executive Sedan

Posted by HH56 On 2023/8/28 9:12:53

I would wonder if it might be an aftermarket trunk unit or maybe something custom was made and installed instead of factory vents. If it is aftermarket would be interesting to know the mfg as those vents do not show as offerings with Vintage or Old Air units.

Along with the cold air outlets, the center air return grill does not have the correct look and placement and for a factory system, there are knobs missing that should be on either side of the air return grill that worked like the windshield wiper control. Those were used to open and close the fresh air vents outside on the fenders. They may be present but can't really see any fender vents in the photo.

In 53 the factory outer cold air supply vents would have been flat oval shaped pieces of plastic like the fresh air vents below the dash on the firewall in front only with straight across louvers. The vents were expertly placed to direct cold air straight to the passengers necks and back of heads. Sometime later in production Packard started offering the clear plastic vents other mfgs used which directed air upward above the passengers to the roof where it went across the headliner toward the front. Looking at the forward pointing air direction with those aftermarket vents, unless they also swivel side to side am not sure they would be any more comfortable than the first factory offering.

The center air return grill would have been two castings shaped like the rear seat speaker casting and separated by several inches -- enough that a rear seat speaker could be squeezed in between the grills. The returns had a fairly coarse wire mesh in the opening instead of the crossed bars.