New member with "new" 1951 Henry J

[DylanFan]

About a month ago I bought a 1951 Henry J fro a friend of mine.  He got the car from his father but I don't know if his father bought the car new or not.  Before selling me the car he did a lot of work on the car including new seats and taking the car down to bare metal and then having the car sprayed with flat black primer.  Before I bought the car my plan was to drop in a new drive train with a small V8, automatic transmission and new rearend.  Now I'm having second thoughts because it appears that these cars are getting rare and I should just restore it.  It is a 6 cylinder car with manual transmission and overdrive.  It has both a trunk lid and a fold down rear seat.  It runs and drives good.  My friend would drive it to weekly Cruise In's and car shows.

[DylanFan]

The previous owner added the gas tank to the front of the car to make it look like a Gasser but I have the original bumper and grill so I can switch it back to stock.  More pictures.

[AZ_HJ]

If you plan to restore it I would be happy to help you in anyway. I am 2/3 into a body off restoration of a 1952 Henry J Vagabond (Late 1951 Henry J). Another good source is FID in here.


Mark Steele
e-mail   AZSteele123@aol.com
KFOCI # 9311
1952 Henry J Vagabond Deluxe
Sun City, AZ

[Jim B PEI]

...and with one of the 'not many' with BOTH the trunk AND the fold-down rear seat, that is the nicest combo going!

[joefrazer]

It looks like a solid car. Well worth restoring to stock. The 6 cylinder engine with OD will deliver good fuel economy...and with gas near $4 a gallon, you'll be the envy of everyone in a gas guzzler!

[DylanFan]

Actually I have not even driven the car yet.  I was at a Mustang club meeting when this friend of mine said he was going to sell his Henry J.  I immediately said I would buy it seconds before the guy on the other side of him said he would buy it.  I had seen the car at Cruise In's and knew it ran and drove good.  I bought it that week and my wife said we would leave it in his garage until we got home from a month long vacation in Florida.  So, I'm anxious to get back to Kentucky and pick up my new car!  We are going to a car show in Panama City Florida on Saturday.  I hope we see some old cars there and maybe evan a Henry J or two!  LOL!

[Fid]

The engine is a Willys built 161 CID and parts availability is quite good. You can get all tune up parts, and a lot of others, at your local NAPA. Very easy to keep it running too.

[DylanFan]

Thanks for the information about NAPA.  there is a NAPA within 2 miles of my house.  The guy I bought the car from did a complete tune up, oil change and new brakes on the car recently so I should be set for this summer's car shows.  The only thing I know the car needs is a new headliner.  I don't even know how many miles are on the car.  The first thing I want to do is get the numbers from the car and figure out what they can tell me about the car.  I think the car was originally a dark green.

[DylanFan]

It looks like a solid car. Well worth restoring to stock. The 6 cylinder engine with OD will deliver good fuel economy...and with gas near $4 a gallon, you'll be the envy of everyone in a gas guzzler!

Speaking of gas, can I just use regular gas in this car?  It wouldn't need any special additives, such as lead, would it?

[pnw_oldmags]

I like adding lead ... burnt valves between 4 and 5 sounds bad

[Fid]

I always add a lead sub with each fill up. Here in MN we have that awful "corn gas" (ethanohl) but certain stations sell non-oxygenated fuel if the car is older than 1980 or so.

[BobWolterbeek]

When I had my HJ engine rebuilt I had them install Chevy hardened valves and valve seats. It took care of the lead problem. The problem now is the ethanol in the gas. I was told by a fuel wholesaler that if I'm going to let it sit for more than two weeks I need to put an additive in the gas to keep it from separating and rusting the cylinders and gumming up the carburetor.

[superk226]

Which Chevy engine did the valves and seats come out of to interchange with the 161 components?

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Dale Hammon and Bob Fox in Dixon IL (the person selling the 1954 Aero Ace in the bulletin) worked out which seats to use back in the early 1980's; check with them.  Our old 1951 Kaiser Business Coupe was the first engine they upgraded and as far as I know, I never burned a valve in it and it went all over the country before going to the museum in Ypsilanti.

There is a short bit about current gas in the March issue (going out by mail this week) of the KFOCI MONTHLY NEWSLETTER.  I was able to attend part of a meeting with a senior chemist from Lubrizol who talked about gasoline content present and future and impact on cars already built.