Re: 1940 Packard Super 8 160 Station Wagon (Cantrell) Factory Air Conditioning!
Posted by Joe Santana On 2020/4/22 12:34:21
Cantrell lost the contract to build SW on Packard 110 and 120 chassis in 1939 to Hercules Body who started making them in 1940. So there are 1940 SWs built by both companies, but none had air conditioning and none were 160 or 180 chassis.
Henney built commercial cars with air conditioning (e.g. ambulances, hearses, floral cars) but the cooling coils were under/inside the front passenger seat, not out in the middle of the cargo/patient/casket area. They were only accessible from under the car.
My guess is that Harrah took a SW body from a 1940 120 and married it to a 160 chassis. He then added air conditioning from a sedan/limo/touring car by removing the cooling coil unit from the trunk and sticking it in the cargo area, perhaps not realizing it belonged under the front seat.
I made contact with an owner of a florist company in SFO. Refrigerated floral cars actually date back to the 1920s using a ice box system under the wood floor in the back. In San Francisco there's no need for AC most of the year. In today's flower vans there, AC is only for driver comfort. Flowers stay fresh and the high humidity is perfect for them without it. What the floral cars (as opposed to funeral flower cars that are like Packard El Caminos) were used for during Prohibition was cold beer delivery. Beer was put in vases with flowers. After repeal, the floral cars were used to deliver booze and other items to circumvent taxes.
Here are some photos from Jim Hollingsworth's book on 1940 Packards.
CORRECTION EDIT + PHOTO: Apparently a handful of woodie bodies were built for the 160 chassis. My bad, but in Jim's book none were recorded. If this car is indeed one, then maybe the numbers associated with the chassis/engine might tell more.
"Cantrell was forced to lay off a substantial portion of their workforce during the Depression and helped make ends meet by refinishing older suburban bodies for existing customers.
Luckily business picked up and between 1936 and 1940 Cantrell built hundreds of production station wagon bodies for Packard's new Junior One-Ten (122" wheelbase) and One-Twenty (127" wheelbase) Series as well as a few for the Senior One-Sixty (127" wheelbase) Series. Most were built with mahogany framing and yellow birch-veneered panels, in contrast to the rock maple framed, mahogany paneled wagons they were building for Pontiac and International at the same time. Packard added Hercules as a wagon supplier in 1940, and dropped Cantrell later that year."
Also, these wagons were 8-passenger vehicles, for taking hotel guests to the train station. They had a 2/3 seat where Harrah put the cooling coil unit and a full wide seat, fold down at the very back.
I would to have someone pick my car apart. It's just that it's so extremely done, besides the missing woodgrain dash, the clock is from another year, maybe '39. 1940 didn't have those big pointers on the hands.
Attach file:
(317.24 KB)
(357.83 KB)
(257.90 KB)
(15.60 KB)
(16.27 KB)
Henney built commercial cars with air conditioning (e.g. ambulances, hearses, floral cars) but the cooling coils were under/inside the front passenger seat, not out in the middle of the cargo/patient/casket area. They were only accessible from under the car.
My guess is that Harrah took a SW body from a 1940 120 and married it to a 160 chassis. He then added air conditioning from a sedan/limo/touring car by removing the cooling coil unit from the trunk and sticking it in the cargo area, perhaps not realizing it belonged under the front seat.
I made contact with an owner of a florist company in SFO. Refrigerated floral cars actually date back to the 1920s using a ice box system under the wood floor in the back. In San Francisco there's no need for AC most of the year. In today's flower vans there, AC is only for driver comfort. Flowers stay fresh and the high humidity is perfect for them without it. What the floral cars (as opposed to funeral flower cars that are like Packard El Caminos) were used for during Prohibition was cold beer delivery. Beer was put in vases with flowers. After repeal, the floral cars were used to deliver booze and other items to circumvent taxes.
Here are some photos from Jim Hollingsworth's book on 1940 Packards.
CORRECTION EDIT + PHOTO: Apparently a handful of woodie bodies were built for the 160 chassis. My bad, but in Jim's book none were recorded. If this car is indeed one, then maybe the numbers associated with the chassis/engine might tell more.
"Cantrell was forced to lay off a substantial portion of their workforce during the Depression and helped make ends meet by refinishing older suburban bodies for existing customers.
Luckily business picked up and between 1936 and 1940 Cantrell built hundreds of production station wagon bodies for Packard's new Junior One-Ten (122" wheelbase) and One-Twenty (127" wheelbase) Series as well as a few for the Senior One-Sixty (127" wheelbase) Series. Most were built with mahogany framing and yellow birch-veneered panels, in contrast to the rock maple framed, mahogany paneled wagons they were building for Pontiac and International at the same time. Packard added Hercules as a wagon supplier in 1940, and dropped Cantrell later that year."
Also, these wagons were 8-passenger vehicles, for taking hotel guests to the train station. They had a 2/3 seat where Harrah put the cooling coil unit and a full wide seat, fold down at the very back.
I would to have someone pick my car apart. It's just that it's so extremely done, besides the missing woodgrain dash, the clock is from another year, maybe '39. 1940 didn't have those big pointers on the hands.
Attach file:
(317.24 KB)
(357.83 KB)
(257.90 KB)
(15.60 KB) (16.27 KB)This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=221608