1953 Packard Henny Jr

Posted by Tom Still On 2012/12/27 0:33:11

I use the Cadillac, Jaguar & Mercedes Forums a lot, now it's your turn. One of my British car friends found this about 7-8 years ago, and I, of course, grabbed it. It came with the entire front loaded in the back and Ca Historical plates from 1984. I'm finally finding time to attack it. The car was on some property my friend bought and the only clue to its history is a nicely lettered but faded sign on the side, "Professional Detail Complete Car Care". It's been sitting outside with everything past the fire wall exposed for years before I bought it and about 8 years after. By some miracle, the engine is free and runs nicely on starting fluid. Whatever it hit was higher then the bumper. The frame and bumper escaped injury but every thing above was shortened about 2 feet. The hood, fenders and grill in the back were un-repairable as was the generator and water pump. The radiator was missing. I salvaged the bits I could and scraped the rest. The Henny badges were both missing from the fenders, but the un-faded paint showed where they were. I've collected all the major pieces needed through friends and junk yards and now I'm deciding where to start. I've started on the brakes which, surprise, blew a front wheel cylinder some time back.

I'm trying to identify what I have. The grill and fenders are 53, based on the corner pieces. I don't have the grill center so I don't know if it was a Senior or a Clipper. The windshield has the curved corners which I thought was 52 Clipper and most of the pictures of Juniors I saw have the square corners. The dash is 53.
The Henny data plate shows the following;
Engine #; L-200049
Serial #; 2633-2008
Body #; 20124
Factory Order #; 59163
Mound # blank
Leveldraulic # blank

Now, with everything exposed, is a great time to clean and paint. I just haven't figured out where to stop. Step one; get the engine running on its own and the brakes to stop, so I can move it around.

My son's company builds TV and movie sets. If he can use it for advertising and write off the expenses, I may go further then just operational.

Either way, it will be fun. Tom.