Model A Taxi

PalAl

PalAl

Senior Member
Hey Model A guys, did you know that The Henney Motor Company, a builder in Freeport Illinois was stretching the wheelbase on Model A Fords and turning them into taxi cabs. Does anyone know if there are any Model A taxicabs like this listed in the national clubs? Would love to see pictures and descriptions.
 

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I thought it was odd that Ford made a 'Taxi' specific auto. After reading an article on Checker, I found that in the early days the taxi business was cut throat. The larger cities had laws that said a vehicle had to be purpose built to be used in the taxi business. I could not find where the basis of this was, but I would surmise that Checker may have been instrumental in lobbying for this.
 
Chuck Sea/Tac said:
Steve Hamilton in Washington had one for a short time recently and then sold it. Not sure to who?
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Was it one of these custom bodied Henney jobs shown in the first picture or was it the Ford produced 135-A taxi?

-Tim
 

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I don’t have a photo of the taxi, but I knew I’d see a picture somewhere. It was the May 2020 hemmings model A calendar.
 

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Why did an independant maker, Henney, produce what Ford was already producing? Was Henney subbing out work such as Murray and Briggs did on the four doors?
 
Steve Hamilton`s was an original ford production one, and it went to Australia. I remove all the asbestos containing materials from the car and replaced it with non asbestos containing materials in the car before it was shipped.
 
warhorseracing said:
Why did an independant maker, Henney, produce what Ford was already producing? Was Henney subbing out work such as Murray and Briggs did on the four doors?
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Good question. A coach builder would try to expand their business. This ad was from 1929, during the boom, before the crash.

Just because they ran this ad in the Ford Service magazine does not mean that they actually produced many of them. They needed to develop demand for them with ads.

Compare the two photos. The Henney one has a full rear door, no cutout for the rear fender. The chassis is stretched. It looks like they started with a Tudor Sedan body. The front door is wide, like a Tudor. You see there are 2 rows of adult men in the car. This is a bigger car than Ford sold.

This is a cool ad. I'd sure like to know if any survived.

.
 
Jim/GA said:
Good question. A coach builder would try to expand their business. This ad was from 1929, during the boom, before the crash.

Just because they ran this ad in the Ford Service magazine does not mean that they actually produced many of them. They needed to develop demand for them with ads.

Compare the two photos. The Henney one has a full rear door, no cutout for the rear fender. The chassis is stretched. It looks like they started with a Tudor Sedan body. The front door is wide, like a Tudor. You see there are 2 rows of adult men in the car. This is a bigger car than Ford sold.

This is a cool ad. I'd sure like to know if any survived.

.
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That is what I noticed was the door being a full door like a regular four door front as it is smaller than the front one on the Henney. Is the ad an actual picture or an artists rendering? Hard to tell.
 
warhorseracing said:
Why did an independant maker, Henney, produce what Ford was already producing?
Click to expand...

Because Ford's were a flop. They weren't as big as most other specifically designed taxis so they weren't really a preferred car for large fleets.

Henney, already familar with producing ambulances and hearses on other manufacturers chassis probably thought it would be easy to modify a Model A into a stretched taxicab.

This is from coachbuilt.com
"Henney Motor Co. produced 100 taxicabs on stretched Model A Ford chassis as well as their normal professional car line. They also supplied 3-piece ash roof rails to Ford who used the sub-assemblies on the 1929 Model A Fordor body framework."

The originally posted image can be found on pg 217 in the book Those wonderful Unauthorized Accessories for the Model A Ford.

-Tim
 
I read that the Ford built taxis had a few inches of the top opening with the back doors to provide more head room when getting in and out.
 
jw hash said:
Steve Hamilton`s was an original ford production one, and it went to Australia. I remove all the asbestos containing materials from the car and replaced it with non asbestos containing materials in the car before it was shipped.
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Other than brake linings, what would have contained asbestos?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That’s true that the top opening was lifted a couple of inches for more headroom but not on the Model A Taxi. It was introduced on the 1933/1934 Taxi
 
Ford didn't make very many taxi cabs (5354 units) and production was short (January 1929 to February 1930). Briggs made all of them from Town Sedans modified for a meter and a rear facing jump seat on the passenger side (no front passenger seat). There was a partition wall that had glass windows between the drivers compartment and the rear seat area. Taxi lighting for the flicker lights and vacant sign were optional.

There were several other companies that built cabs from Fordors & Town Sedans so there was too much competition for the market and Ford was selling the other builders cars any way so it's no wonder they stopped production.
 
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