Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

The Old Motor has this article on the Pan American and Henney:

theoldmotor.com/?p=145882

Included in the text is a link to a Henney history recollection by H. Reid Horner, Director of Personnel:

genealogytrails.com/ill/stephenson/history.html

genealogytrails.com/ill/stephenson/henneycompany.html

Enlightening comments are invited by The Old Motor.

Steve

Quote:

I've made note of this same article several times in the past... over several years. The first time I have the Old Motor article posted here was in 2015.... then I have it again in 2017. Now it is up again with dates of 2019 on it. I don't understand. This is not a new article and not new photos.

Furthermore, the photo of the car body under construction is not showing a Pan American at all but rather some kind of formal sedan or limo. It clearly has a hat section reinforcement for a C-pillar and an obvious B-pillar with spatial representations for four doors. No Pan American had such stuff-before, during or after construction.

But it is good to see people talking about the Packard Pan Americans. I just don't understand what is going on here with this article. It is not new and now has been repeated several times.

Steve (58L8134), thanks for the link.

Interesting though inaccurate article as outlined in the comments. When I toured the old Henney factory during a Prossional Car Society meet in Freeport, by then it was Honeywell Microswitch and my 1952 Nu-3-Way that was parked outside (it won the long-distance award) actually used some Microswitches for the power seat and side-loading table mechanism. Anyway, Fun riding up and down in the huge elevator designed for hearses and other long wheelbase coaches! There was only one still in service that was deemed safe.

While The Old Motor article pales in comparison to Leeedy's comprehensive and in depth examination of the Pan American's history in the current The Cormorant, the one image included is of particular interest.

This photo of the body jigs and fixture platform shows how they built their bodies, in this case one of the lwb sedans or limousines. Unlike later practices by other specialty coachbuilders where a standard assembled body shell was cut and length stretched to insert the necessary addition parts, Henney built the works up completely from stampings supplied by Packard as a kit as well as those they created in-house.

Very labor-intensive and costly, part of the reason the '53-'54 lwb models weren't price competitive with those from Cadillac. Only the Chrysler Crown Imperials were on the same price level and returned the same miniscule sales numbers.

Steve


Photo credit: The Old Motor

Added 1-9-2019

Another The Old Motor feature on the Pan Americans appearing a dealerships, this including nice photos of the John Ramp, Inc. Indianapolis 1953 Grand Opening:

theoldmotor.com/?p=173511

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