54 Stepdown radio antennas

SuperDave

Our Orange Blossom Chapter had a joint meet with several other car clubs in Haines City Florida today.( GREAT meet)..In a conversation with Roy Marks, the subject of the last 54's came up. He has a August built car and it did not have a roof antenna. I have one here at my shop that is an October car..no rooftop antenna. It does have a factory fender mount antenna. Sooo, I decided I would try to gather information to determine when the factory dropped the roof mount and went to the fender mounting. Yea I know idle minds and things like that.. I don't know why i question stuff like this.. Perhaps a bit daft?

Anyway. if you are the owner of a 54 Stepdown that does NOT have a roof mounted antenna, please let me know along with your cars serial number. Either here on the forum or via email at HETdwad1939@att.net. drop the het part... I will publish any results here.. I know some cars had no radio from the factory and would not have an antenna at all, but I think i will be able to weed them out..

Thanks..:eek:

TwinH

Haines City is about 15 minutes from me,but had to work today:(

So much for making more of the chapter meets this year...

SuperDave

TwinH wrote:

Haines City is about 15 minutes from me,but had to work today:(

So much for making more of the chapter meets this year...

Make sure you are not working on the 15th of May and be at the Melbourne Meet at Wickham park..Should be a good one..;)

TwinH

Melbourne is barely a hundred mile, so now we'll shoot for May 15th.

Now,how about those 54 antennas???

frank spring

My grandfather purched a 54 Hudson leftover at the zone lot in Chicago in 1955. The car was built in October 1954. The serial number is 7319672 and the final 54 was 7319720, so 48 from the end. Doing the math would place the build date during the last couple days of production. The antenna is roof mounted! That may end that survey a little early, but gives rise to another. Where is the lastest built Detroit Hudson that survives?

SuperDave

frank spring wrote:

My grandfather purched a 54 Hudson leftover at the zone lot in Chicago in 1955. The car was built in October 1954. The serial number is 7319672 and the final 54 was 7319620, so 48 from the end. Doing the math would place the build date during the last couple days of production. The antenna is roof mounted! That may end that survey a little early, but gives rise to another. Where is the lastest built Detroit Hudson that survives?

Isn't that always the way it is? One question answered by another! Is that October car still around ? Your final SN should have read 7319720. Picky picky... LOL;)

nick s

I'll say that production date does not come into play which I think was Ed's point.
My Hollywood is a October 54 car (not as late as Ed's example) and a Hollywood parts car used in the restoratoion was an Oct 53 car. Both had the fender antenna.

I do know there are newer 54s listed in the roster than mine

frank spring

SuperDave wrote:

Isn't that always the way it is? One question answered by another! Is that October car still around ? Your final SN should have read 7319720. Picky picky... LOL;)

I fixed the ending number in my post. I have to learn to check my work. We still have the car. it had a fairly minor front end collision in 1964, so it was tucked away and not used up. It does need restored though.

frank spring

nick s wrote:

I'll say that production date does not come into play which I think was Ed's point.

My Hollywood is a October 54 car (not as late as Ed's example) and a Hollywood parts car used in the restoratoion was an Oct 53 car. Both had the fender antenna.



I do know there are newer 54s listed in the roster than mine

Nick, here is a note for you. The October car we have has a Hornet Speical Spedo cluster in it... painted on instead of raised letters. Were there any unusual finds like that on your Hollywood?

bob ward

SuperDave wrote:

In a conversation with Roy Marks, the subject of the last 54's came up. He has a August built car and it did not have a roof antenna. I have one here at my shop that is an October car..no rooftop antenna. It does have a factory fender mount antenna. Sooo, I decided I would try to gather information to determine when the factory dropped the roof mount and went to the fender mounting.

Dave, my take on these types of intruiging changes is that they were often done on the run with decisions being made not far above assembly line level.



Something like this. "Hey boss, we're nearly out of roof antennae" "Sh*t! Look, just use the fender mounts for now while I get supply to chase up the roof mounts".



SuperDave wrote:

Yea I know idle minds and things like that.. I don't know why i question stuff like this.. Perhaps a bit daft?

Not at all. Researching minutae is a sign of a questioning and superior intelligence.

dave s

We are second owner of our 54 Hornet convertible that was built in February, 1954. It had fender mounted antenna when we purchased it, but I installed one on cowl, just because I think it mades car more Hudson!

frank spring

dave s wrote:

We are second owner of our 54 Hornet convertible that was built in February, 1954. It had fender mounted antenna when we purchased it, but I installed one on cowl, just because I think it mades car more Hudson!

Now Dave that is cheating. We are going to have to move you to the modified Hudson page. I got my humor back, tax season is over.

48super6

Many cars came through without radios. It was common for the dealer to install one as part of the sale or as an accessory sometime after the customer took delivery. It is a lot easier to install a fender mount than the roof mount, so that may be the reason. You also can find earlier stepdowns with the fender mounted ones.

That being said, I also agree that the factory may have made running changes based upon what they had available that day, especially towards the end of the '54 production run.

SuperDave

48super6 wrote:

Many cars came through without radios. It was common for the dealer to install one as part of the sale or as an accessory sometime after the customer took delivery. It is a lot easier to install a fender mount than the roof mount, so that may be the reason. You also can find earlier stepdowns with the fender mounted ones.

That being said, I also agree that the factory may have made running changes based upon what they had available that day, especially towards the end of the '54 production run.

I know that if the car had no radio from the factory it would not have a roof antenna. What is interesting, Is that some fender mounted antennas on 54's came from the factory and had to have a little pre-planning since there is a bracket welded to the cowl panel that suports the antenna. It is not like the aftermarket kind, It retracts almost entirely into the fender. To install it after the car was assembled would be far more labor than most dealers would have done. There had to be some reason to switch from one to the other.. Maybe a cost saving change to the fender mount, then again switched back due to wanting to use up existing stock? Anyway it works out.. I'm just curious..Maybe Alex can find some references to the issue in some of his bulletins?:)

Maybe I'm nuts.. I asked a similar question about Model A Fords and never got an answer.. They stamped the serial number on the frame of the car, then installed fenders, splash aprons and a body over it. The only way you could check it is to jack up the body and remove sheet metal to maybe see it with a mirror. the same number was stamped on the engine.. Why spend the money and time to stamp something that most likely will never be seen again.. Considering that Henry was a frugal as they come! But then again, who cares..

Unknown

My Hornet Special is July '54. It has a fender mounted antenna. It also has the inside bracket for the roof antenna but no hole in the roof.

nick s

frank spring wrote:

Nick, here is a note for you. The October car we have has a Hornet Speical Spedo cluster in it... painted on instead of raised letters. Were there any unusual finds like that on your Hollywood?

There weren't any quirky factory items on the car. Other than a regular hornet fender and a wrong front bumper guard from an old repair everything was by the book. The Oct 53 car did have one chrome grille bar one stainless and one of the four pieces of the vertical quarter panel trim was chrome also. Those two areas I believe fluctuated through the due to availability.

SuperDave

lookout! wrote:

My Hornet Special is July '54. It has a fender mounted antenna. It also has the inside bracket for the roof antenna but no hole in the roof.

Do you know if the fender mount is a factory installation, or a dealer add on?

48super6

By the way, a lot of cars came through without the radio and had the dealer install the radio and a roof mounted antenna. My dad installed quite a few back in the day. He said it was always a pain to drill the holes in a brand new vehicle without a slip or scratch.

[Deleted User]

SuperDave wrote:

Our Orange Blossom Chapter had a joint meet with several other car clubs in Haines City Florida today.( GREAT meet)..In a conversation with Roy Marks, the subject of the last 54's came up. He has a August built car and it did not have a roof antenna. I have one here at my shop that is an October car..no rooftop antenna. It does have a factory fender mount antenna. Sooo, I decided I would try to gather information to determine when the factory dropped the roof mount and went to the fender mounting. Yea I know idle minds and things like that.. I don't know why i question stuff like this.. Perhaps a bit daft?

Anyway. if you are the owner of a 54 Stepdown that does NOT have a roof mounted antenna, please let me know along with your cars serial number. Either here on the forum or via email at HETdwad1939@att.net. drop the het part... I will publish any results here.. I know some cars had no radio from the factory and would not have an antenna at all, but I think i will be able to weed them out..

Thanks..:eek:

The cars ordered with radios came with roof antennas. No radio, no antenna. Dealers would install, as they made more money, I know because I did it this way. $3.00 was a good sum in those days. Right Alex? Walt.

Unknown

Since I don't know what an original should look like i wouldn't be able to say for sure.

hudnut1tmr

I traced my '54 sedan back to October. Sold it to Dennis Borger so I can't find the serial number. It had a roof mounted antenna.



Don't know if Dennis still has the "Dasein" mobile.



Tim