Re: 1952 Patrician - Derham or Henney?

Posted by 58L8134 On 2012/4/6 18:42:48

Hi Owen

All I have to add is conjecture for what it's worth. I can think of no cars in the postwar years of Derham's operation that they stretched the wheelbase. Their stock and trade was customizing of sheetmetal and trim, partition windows and application of padded formal tops in tan Haartz cloth.

As far as how the coachbuilder created it, if one covers the image from the B-pillar rearward, it looks to use the production two door sedan front door. The rear door is unique, stretched by splicing together sections from two shells. The trunk looks to be standard length and a tad proportionally short. The 133" to 140" wheelbase range sounds reasonable. As Henney was their primary coachbuilder, I would opine that Packard channeled a customer order for this unique and highly desirable formal sedan to them.

I recall seeing it offered on Ebay 5-6 years ago and dearly hope it is now in the restoration process. As it stood, it was badly rust damaged so a solid donor Patrician and additional component parts would be required to complete a restoration. Note the Phoenix Craigslist listing which demonstrates Patrician ready availability for such an effort.

Hopefully someone with hard facts of the provenence will weigh in.

Steve