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Several people have commented on my avatar which was created for me by Mahoning63 from sketches I had made many years ago. It was to be based on my 1951’s 156” wheelbase chassis with modified suspension and have 1954 trim with a 359 engine and Ultramatic rather than the Henney’s manual with overdrive. To that end I have most of the hard to find trim and mechanical pieces to build it but at my age (I was born the same year the Henney was built!) I realized it will never happened. It was just a dream.




To document a non-existent car and show the general construction plans, I hope someone finds this dream blog of interest!

To begin, here is the original sketch that I drew which was used as a starting point. Of course, it has a mixture of years with a 1954 front along with 1951-1952 Henney side trim because, at the time, that's what I had available. The plan was to use as much stock Packard or stock Henney parts as possible.

The photo looks better enlarged so please click on it.

For the outline starting here, this is really the first that I've written it anywhere other than inside my head and, as I go along, I will likely go back and add to or rewrite earlier sections as long as I am able. I had mentally filed this away out of my conscious mind long ago so I'm having to revisit it myself as I remember details once again!

The senior Henney-Packards weighed close to three tons depending on model and equipment with my 1952 Nu-3-Way side loader topping 6200 lbs and the base car here, a 1951 USAF ambulance, being close to that. Not lightweight at all and much of it was in its huge chassis. I wish I had the skills to illustrate these things properly but Maybe a few photos will do, especially for the Henney bits.

Chassis:
I couldn't do much about the size of the chassis frame rails which would actually help support an open front body but the Henneys also had a much wider rear with the fenders being much farther apart which would have looked a little odd on a passenger car. To correct that, the plan was to use the tail end of a sedan of which I had several at the time (but only one now). As I recall, there is more rear overhang on the Henney so that will take some extra thought. Fortunately the frame is the same width as that on the passenger car.

This central X-member shot gives a good idea of just how heavy-duty the chassis is but also it reminded me of the extra hump on the floor which I’m not sure that passenger cars have. With the Henneys, the steel floor was at the bottom but inside, the floor (aka Mound) was wood and sat above the steel by a foot or more depending on model so the hump isn’t inside but for this project and with the wood structure removed, it may be in the way.



Rear Suspension:
The rear axle itself was even wider with massive 14" drums and 7.50 X 16 6-ply tires. The rear spring shackles on the Henney mounted on huge casting attached to the outside of the frame in order to space them out farther while those on the passenger cars were on the inside of the frame so the plan was to use passenger car springs and brackets, then adjust/rebuild the springs as needed if they were not strong enough. Of course, there would also be a passenger car rear axle and 12" brakes.

Here’s a photo of the Henney rear spring brackets attached to 10-leaf springs. These were mounted outside the frame but in order to use a passenger car rear end it will be necessary to replace these, moving then inward, to match while using lighter duty springs. The frame itself has the same width as the passenger cars.



Front Suspension:
As with the rear, the front was also very heavy duty but simply changing the springs from the huge Henney type to the passenger car type would have been the starting point. Also, the front brakes and backing plates would need to be replaced with the passenger car type due to the larger drums and 5.5" bolt circle. That way the standard 15" wheels count be used all around.

Mechanics:
It was to have the 1954 359 engine as I have a second one needing rebuilding, mated to an Ultramatic. Brakes would be stock Treadlevac with power steering added. Neither power steering nor power brakes is difficult to add as I did so one my 1952 Henney-Packard.