"J" at 2400# stock as built factory with the 6 cly* vs not the small 4cly { Red Seal Cont. Jeep 4 } 6 cly was a bit of a hotrod already. I got a $75 ,used 1950 "J" 4cly,no trunk or glove box with broken tranny ,in 1960. A buddy going into Navy ,gave me his Olds 88 n tranny ,from the rod I had been helping him with! The "J" engine bay was pretty big,so could fit most V8s n tranny hump fair too. I stuffed V8, Olds Rocket 88 into my own "J". I already had built my 28A hotrod,an "J" was my #2 car* ,didn't take long before I started custom work on it. Custom work went pretty fast,as I was working part time at Body Shop after school n sat. By the time I was done=It was a show winner,full custom an in Car Craft mag. So ya,I went another way,not to the drags with "J".
Henry J, my favorite car when I was a kid. I too, always wanted one. My uncle Stan Noble drove the 6 cylinder stock car “J” when they were new. That was a car that was way ahead of its time.
I like to think I'd be willing to put up with the headaches of a trunkless model to have one just for the novelty. I bet that would wear off quickly in real life, though. Gawd, I love racey Henry Js. -rick
Another car in this genre but rarely seen is the Willys Aero, I would see one while on my paper route when I was a kid, it was parked in a driveway some distance from the street, always thought it resembled a Henry J, one day it was moved closer to the street and a guy was working on it, I don't recall any other features about it though. I had been indoctrinated fairly early on from seeing Henry J drag cars in my pals' older brothers' hot rod magazines so when I spotted the pie crust slicks sticking out of the wheel openings it really impressed me as I had never seen a race car in person. Here's a neat one.
Joey, I was indoctrinated at young age too, more like 8 or 9. My folks owned a small bakery in an older part of town with the store front directly on the street. People would walk down the sidewalk and “window shop”. About three doors down was a corner gas station and parked in the front corner was their altered Henry J with fender well headers, straight axle and the best part I thought was the replacement orange windows with plexiglass. I also build several model kits styled after actual drag cars we watched at Edgewater Drag strip on Saturday nights.
Joey, Love that J! A buddy and I started to build a J one summer. A $25 car, ford i beam axle, a 371 Olds engine, and a cheap '57 Olds for the reared and misc. parts. Driveway build, chassis done (mostly)cleaned and painted, rear installed ( basically a bolt-in) engine installed. That's about as far as it got, we probably would have hurt ourselves if it ever moved under it's own power!! Oh, we went back to talk to the '57 Olds owner about the complete J-2 set-up that he had mentioned previously. He wanted x number of dollars for it, but his wife ragged on him so bad that he gave it to us! Those times are surely gone.
I had a little fun yesterday in my street car, the trunkless novelty wears off fast when trying to figure out battery and fuel cell locations.
They're neat cars. There's a very stock one somewhere in my town, I see it every couple years. Here's Ryan Hartman's "Abomination"... such a rad car, built to thrash.
Our second family car was a 1952 Henry J without a trunk. My dad overhauled the engine in his BIL's junkyard, found a bent valve stem, reassembled and it ran like a top. Mom was so impressed with my dad's ability to fix his own car that it made an impression on me - mechanics are cool! Our third family car was a 1953 Aero Ace hardtop with a 161 c.i. F-head six that I rebuilt the engine when I was 15 and expected to receive as my first car. Mom nixed that, insisting I would kill myself in an unsafe car. Man, I had that F-head running like a top!
Henry J's are still one of my favorite cars....I have yet to own/build one. Funny what DDDenny said...I own an Aero Willys. In passing I told someone Id like to build a henry J, he told me he knew of one and when I went to look at it, it was an Aero Willys. long story short, I bought and built that Aero, but I often think about building a Henry J for my next car. Couple of pics: The first (gray J) was put together by a gentleman from Martha's Vineyard! It raced often at NED, it was then sold to a friend of mine and re-lettered. The second has to be one of my favorites of all time --- beautiful blue blown nail head J with all the right stuff. I'm told this one is being re-built. Third pic is the model I built as a pre-teen that gave me this obsession (much like you J.Ukrop).
My only involvement with a Henry J was not about racing down a track, but racing to the emergency room. I was 5 years old and fell off a float, one day at the beach. A lifeguard finally found me and started the old style resuscitation, but didn't realize my lungs were full of salt water. That night I had a raging 105 degree fever and my mother called our family doctor and he made a house call. He said he wasn't going to wait for an ambulance and put me and my mother in the backseat of his blue Henry J. I don't remember much more, but my mother said my lungs were so infected that I spent 30 days in a hospital oxygen tent. I do vaguely remember the oxygen however. Teach your kids to swim!!!!
And where to park your Sears Allstate, aka Henry J? In your Sears Roebuck kit garage, of course: Next to your Sears Roebuck house!
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