48 Digital tools are great – but there are so many ways to use them and find the information needed. A few hours of searching revealed the name of the owner, but the information was many years old. And repeated attempts to reach the owner were unsuccessful. Every time I got a phone number or address, the information turned out to be old and out of date. Perseverance turns out to be the key to most research out there in the world as it would on this car too. So I jumped out of the track I had been taking and into social media – Facebook, LinkedIn and others websites. I felt like a stalker, but I was persistent, and I left messages for the owner again with all my contact information. I heard nothing back. Three months later a message appeared in my Facebook account that said…..”Yes I still have the Monte Carlo.” Within a few weeks we had a deal and in spring of 2018 good friend Craig Johnson and I hit the interstate and were off to Texas to retrieve the Packard Monte Carlo. But just what had I found? That’s certainly is the right question for this story. Richard Arbib was the talented design hand behind the 1949 Packard Monte Carlo – the one that was a documented car in stories about his years with Packard. In fact, it was his first project for Henney – one that was used to help showcase what Henney and their designers could do to enhance and stimulate sales with the current Packard model. As reported in the 2011 book “Packard 1948 to 1950” by Robert J. Neal, the author felt it was a reasonable possibility that Packard might pick up the Monte Carlo design for Henney production as a specialty car. Production of the first Monte Carlo began at Henney and they acquired a 22nd Series Custom Eight convertible which was built at Henney under Richard Arbib’s supervision. This was then modified to be a 2 door hardtop with several body modifications which included: Pick Up Day: February 16, 2018 John (left) and Harlen (Right) Neagle had purchased the Packard Monte Carlo at Auction in the Early 1990s
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