My ‘49 Hudson Brougham taildragger has a steering wheel that I do not know the origin of. It seems it’s not original to this Hudson if I have to believe google. I also tried googling for different makes and years but to no avail. I do like the design very much but this one is seriously broken so I would like to find another one. What could it be? Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met H.A.M.B.
It’s a good guess and it makes sense that it’s probably something as niche as a Hudson as it is hard to find, but some details are just off. The Kaiser hub isn’t rounded at the back and the top of the Kaiser wheel has sharper corners. Also the spikes of my wheel seems to taper just a little bit more. Thanks for your suggestion though, I forgot about Kaiser!
So, the mystery wheel fits the original Hudson steering column? That seems to me to narrow the search somewhat. Do you know the history of the car at all? Has it always been in the Netherlands, or where?
The car was a one owner car, it belonged to Jade Rhodora who bought it new in 1949. She probably sold it to a wrecking yard or it may be sold via an estate sale when her husband, movie star Wes Hudman, was shot on their AZ ranch in 1964. This is what I think because the ‘pink slip’ (old yellow paper to be precise) says the car was on her name since 1949 and licensed to drive until 1965. It has been standing in the AZ sun until in 2012 the second owner from Sweden bought it and I bought the car last year from him. I haven’t asked him about the steering wheel. Maybe it was original, or an after market wheel. I just can’t find any similar wheel when searching online for Hudson. It is a snug original fit though. So the splines and depth and everything matches the steering column. It really befits the car and it looks like it has been baking in the AZ sun also for a long time too, but it also has the typical damage of a forcibly removed steering wheel so it has been off the column at least once, probably more.
Wow scrap metal 48, how cool, so it maybe the original steering wheel after all? Stupid that my search engine (not Google btw) only showed the other (more common?) steering wheels (the one with flat ivory colored stretched oval and the horn ring). Mine is a Super and not a Commodore, maybe that makes a difference too.
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