1953 Packard Henney Clipper Jr

Ambulance Hearse Flower Car

429 ci Ford

Automatic

54332019

Clear

Gasoline

This vehicle is being sold with a bill of sale only. Georgia does not issue titles for vehicles before 1986. 1953 Henney Packard Clipper Jr Ambulance/Hearse/Flower Car with 17,737 original miles. Could be restored or made into a Hot Rod, or Rat Rod without too much effort. I am going to describe it the best I can but I may not be 100% accurate since the car is together and some areas are impossible to view. It has a 429 ci Ford engine with automatic transmission installed. The previous owner said that the car was running and drivable 2 years ago but not used. It has been sitting unused for about 5 years stored under cover. The car has bad floor pans in the front driver and passenger floors. The rest of the metal on the bottom appears to be ok. It has a heavy undercoating and not much can be seen because of that, so no guarantee on the bottom metal. There is also some rust in the front fender rear edges. Overall the car is very solid and everything is there and original except the drive train. I do not know if the rear end is original or not. All the upholstery is original and in the car but not in very good condition. The chrome on the exterior is mostly off and surface rusted...see pics. The only glass that is broken is the driver side window...it is cracked. The brakes are not working and the rear may be bound...we were able to roll it backwards but it had resistance rolling forward. I have not removed any parts to inspect the vehicle. As you can see in the pictures, the dash and gauges are in very good condition. The original radio is there and nothing appears to have been changed. There is a Hurst shifter on the floor. A total of 500 of these were made and I would bet that less than half that have survived making this a very rare automobile. It does not have the rear step bumper, so I don't think it was used as an ambulance or hearse. The previous owner said it was used as a flower car. There are no tracks inside or anything that would lead you to believe it had any other hardware in there. (No guarantees here, just guessing.) There is a concealed hatch in the floor behind the drivers seat that houses the spare tire and jack. It looks like the spare is an original and the jack and handle are there too. Surprisingly, all the doors open and close solidly without the normal clanging of old cars. The Junior was an attempt by Henney to get into a lower-priced, more popular, segment of the professional automobile market. Henney promoted it also for use as a funeral car, combination car, first call car, or a flower car. It was built on a one-piece Packard Clipper chassis, "NOT a lengthened, spliced-together passenger automobile chassis". The frame and front clip are a standard 1953 Clipper with a 127" wheelbase. A little more info.......In 1953 and 1954 Henney offered a budget-priced short-wheelbase (127") companion to their long wheelbase (156") professional cars. In order to keep down it's price, the Junior's chassis, unlike that of the Senior, was from the budget Packard series and the interior trim was made from cheaper materials. Henney was well into the production of the Junior before it realized that they were losing money on every Junior built and instituted a huge price increase that effectively killed the model. Total production of the appropriately-named Henney Junior's totaled 500, 380 in 1953 and only 120 in 1954. A substantial number of the 1953 coaches were sold to the US Government at a loss a fact that helped contribute to Henney's already-poor financial picture. The Junior was awkward-looking at best, a window between the side door and the rear quarter window would have helped the car's looks immensely. Another factor that hurt the car was its rear compartment length, which looked good measured at the floor, but translated into a less than ideal length at the beltline because of the angle of the rear of the body and the amount of floor length that ran under the top of the front seatback. Stiff competition from emerging "budget" coach producers in Indiana and Tennessee doomed the project, and Packard's cancellation of their long-wheelbase chassis for the 1955 model year doomed the full-sized coaches as well. That's all I have...look at the pictures and decide if it is something you want to undertake. It has really attracted attention in my neighborhood due to it's dated and bizarre look. If you want a specific picture of something or have any questions, email me and I will do my best to provide the pics or answers. On Sep-16-12 at 14:23:17 PDT, seller added the following information: Adding to description....tires are not good. Three will hold air, one will not. Trim ring is on the spare wheel in the spare compartment. All wheel have trim rings and hub caps on them. They are the original 16" wheels. I saw some fender skirts on Ebay for $60.There are no patches on the roof where lights or anything could have been, further leading me to believe that it was used as a flower car.On Sep-16-12 at 23:19:46 PDT, seller added the following information: Please understand that this is a very rare automobile and any information stated here is from Internet research. Sometimes it reflects only one persons version of the truth as it might be stated on a related website or from old literature. Any help from you identifying or describing the car is very appreciated. Below are information given by a reader and my reply, please do the research yourself and become as versed as possible if you desire to have the complete and true facts about the car. I think that Henney took trim parts from different Packard models and used them as wanted making identification of a specific year, hard. The taillights, I found on 53 models on the Internet, and the 54 was different, as was the 52...so I call it a 53. It probably doesn't matter what you call it because the vehicle number does not use the newer format and from what I can find out, does not designate the year in the digits....if you know differently, please let us all know. The car will be registered from what numbers and year you state, and what is on the bill of sale, since the DMV will not be able to pull it up on their computer.On Sep-16-12 at 23:55:36 PDT, seller added the following information: I am going to add Don's last reply since it contains very good info...as follows: Hello, The Patrician and Cavalier, which were senior model cars, we're on the 127" wheelbase chassis, as was the Henney Jr. The Clipper was on the 122" wheelbase. Likely the Clipper name on the dash was either because someone had replaced the glovebox or more likely that the Henneys used the cheaper non-textured dash finish which was drilled for the Clipper lettering so it was left in place to fill the holes. Nevertheless, the Henney Jr was not a Clipper. As for the numbers, the engine number - if it had the original engine, which it doesn't - is also the VIN and is coded to give the year. In any event, the '53 Packards and Henney-Packards were 26th series cars but the designation was changed for 1954, which became 54th series so the 5433 confirms that it is indeed a ' 54 car. Sorry for all the typos but I am using the touch keyboard on my iPad which doesn't allow scrolling through for proof reading! Don _________________________________________________________________________________ On Sep-20-12 at 09:17:50 PDT, seller added the following information: More information and lots of pictures at http://s816.photobucket.com/albums/zz84/Bobbinalong/ The car is a 1954 and I found the original Owners Manual in the glove box/drawer. also in there was the original column gear shift lever, a Packard logo piece?, original gas pedal, battery hold down, a napkin from the famous Varsity Drive Inn and some odds and ends. You will see that I found the plate that Henney installed and the pictures are at the link above in Photobucket. (Any problem viewing these new pics, email me and I will send the link.) Engine # M-200073 (Engine or original transmission is not included or available.) Serial # 5433-2019 Body # 20679 Model 2733 Factory order # 59718 The reserve is very low and will be met soon! Good luck bidding!