Hi Im off to look at a 1950 Hudson this weekend. Its advertised as a four door rust free runner. No pics and the old guy says he has no idea how to send pics. Have read another thread where its recommended to take a torch, magnet(?) and trolley jack. Whats the magnet for? Plan to have a couple of car guys along with me to help out. More I look at Hudsons the more I like them. Like a mild chopped merc but cheaper. I think I like the four doors more than coupes even. Admittedly I have never seen a Hudson in real life yet but seen tones of Mercs at shows that I love. I fear im fulling for them. Do any of you guys know much about Hudsons? I mean like sure they won races etc like three of my life spans ago but is the inline six very good these days? Would it be better off to get a V8 and is that a hard process? Lowering and handling much of an issue? Im not a very solid built girl and wrestling a car around a car park dosnt light my candle. So info on custom Hudsons guys please! Not finding many pics on the net. Seems most people restore them. Thankies
When you say torch, I assume you are referring to a flash light, and I'm guessing you're not from the US, although your profile doesn't say. The magnet is to stick onto the body in places where body filler would be common, to see if the magnet sticks. If it doesn't, (or if it doesn't stick well), there's filler there. That's the basics. If the car has nice paint, you should ask the owner before you try doing that, and preferably put a piece of masking tape or something over the magnet, depending on what type of magnet it is, to keep from scratching the car. The 308 Hudson 6 cylinder is the one that won all of the races. The 262 is a smaller version although most parts do not interchange between the two. The 1950 is most likely to have a 262 in it, although you don't mention what specific 1950 Hudson model you're going to look at. That would help.
Where ya long from ? The magnet is to check for filler in the body The Hudson’s drive really well, the inline six has plenty of power If it has power steering will be easy to park Be prepared to either do work yourself or pay to have it done It’s an old car so they need a bit of “ love” and compassion” ( ie: $$$) If you can do most of the work yourself it keeps costs down. Drive train stuff is available Trim and body not sure if anyone is repoping that stuff
do a search here in Classifieds Cars For Sale then up use the search at top of page (magnifying glass) and put in Hudson and click search - might help you to see more pictures and info on them and to get an idea of value. do you have someone that has built/repaired old cars that can look at it with you? sometimes when looking at a car we fall for just the good stuff and do not think through all of the work and money it will take to get it safe, reliable, etc. be sure to drive it to make sure that you will be comfortable navigating around in such a big car - good luck with your adventure
Working on a 49 four door at the moment. You can follow along the build on the link below. Should give you an idea what a step down Hudson looks like underneith etc and give you a few ideas on what may be ahead should you modify anything. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/49-hudson-kustom.1057251/ Sounds like this is your first curvy ol lady so my advice is to get a driver with no rust and drive it before you start to think engine swaps etc. If you upgrade the engine then you need to do pretty much everything under the car to handle the extra power safely. Drive it and do the upgrades when something fails and needs to be fixed. Good to see a younger dame getting into old cars. head over to the HET forums. The guys have a huge amount of knowledge on the cars and are active and happy to help. Pretty much all are into keeping them stock though. https://forum.hetclub.org/discussions
OMG thats an awesome build thread. its going to take me some time to read it and reread me thinks. thanks guys.
Hudson's are unibody car's. Take a good look underneath. Check the perimeter frame for rust. The outside of one can look good but the bottom be eat up with rust. Hope this helps.
To expand on the rust/unibody comments above pay particular attention to the bottom edge of the quarter panels. These panels bolt on and the lower edge, depending on the model you're looking at, will have a piece of trim that will obscure your inspection. It helps to remove the fender skirt. Hudson put a piece of foam deadener under the sheet metal on top of the structural member and it tends to hold moisture encouraging rust between the two pieces. Unusual to Hudson, the inner structure is outside the wheel/tire face so newbs may not realize the importance of that area.
I second the earlier comments about rust and unibody. These are great cars and can actually have quite a bit of rust and still be safe to drive but you should strive to get as rust-free an example as you can afford. The perimeter frame is notorious for rusting. The engine and drive train are very good as they are and can easily handle modern traffic. Handling is very good. Brakes are at least adequate if in top condition. A very good car to drive, just watch out for the rust. You can actually mix and match parts between the 3 series of engines. And like somebody said, go over to the Hudson Open Forum. Those guys are more than happy to help.
Hudson stepdowns(1948-54) were sold in Australia by Dalgetys, which was a pastoral supply company dealing with farmers, graziers etc. They were imported as knockdown and assembled here using some local suppliers for glass,upholstery I believe. Many of the Hudson were sold to country folk and used on dirt roads a lot. Consequently the perimeter frame and sub-frame filled up with dust and dirt and then when it rained the water got in there too and turned it into solid mud. And of course rust started. My first Hudson we spent hours on getting the mud and dirt out of the sub-frame and under car frame rails.
ohh yeah. water blaster rained mud & gravel. Then compressed air made clouds of dust. repeated countless times and still I have a few odd bits of gravel stuck in the rails rattling around I wasnt able to get out even on the rotated and blasted on the rotisserie.
Turned out to have rust in the places you mentioned. Inside was a mess as well so I passed it up. Thanks for the advice guys.
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