wood in hudson bodies

tigermoth

misposted this the first time...what was the last year hudson used wooden framing in its cars? thanks, tom

Jon B

that depends on how you look at it. By 1929, the only wood structural members in Hudson closed cars, were the two massive roof rails running the length of the car at either side. (Still, Hudson was way ahead; many brands of cars in those days still had bodies consisting of a wood framework to which the body panels were tacked.) I believe that by either 1934 or 1935 they had done away with the 'insert roof' so were completely steel.

Unknown

Hudson used wood into the stepdown years, as well...



under the window frames, that wierd wood piece.

tigermoth

thanks jon and hudsonkid, i appreciate the info. so my next question is, why the heck were people buying chevy/fords when you had a manufacturer so far ahead technologically?? was it marketing? motors? what? thanks. tom

Unknown

Price and availability are my best guesses. Hudson generally was more expensive than Ford and Chev even with the Essex line. Also Hudson's dealership network was more loosly organized and usually handled several marques rather than devotion to one maker. Even in the 30's Hudson just didn't have the capitalization to compete with the low price two and three when Plymouth was added in.

Aaron D. IL

Hudson was an engineering company and they were way ahead... or you might say they did things their own way. In 1929 They were doing well and hit No.3 in the industry sales (although some Historians dispute that) My opinion.... The American people don't buy the BEST or the best in quality they buy what gets the job done CHEAPLY. You are talking about a car buying public that bought VW's that couldn't keep you warm in the winter. You are talking about a car buying public that bought 15 million Model T Fords over the life of its' production and it had a gravity fed fuel system so you had to drive up hills backwords or risk stalling out. If Americans only bought the best Ford wouldn't have made it. If they bought the best Microsoft wouldn't have its' operating system on every computer. Both companies grabbed marketshare by practically giving away their inferior products and what's the replacement when your Model T or Windows operating system breaks down ?????? The next version of course! Still crummy, although slightly improved and only a hair more expensive than the last one you bought. LOL But it is true Hudson was a more expensive car. IF you were lucky enough to have $450 in the depression you coulda bought a little Essex Terraplane roadster instead of a Ford though (according to Butler's book). Hudson always tried to offer something in the low price field when they probably should've moved upmarket.. they couldn't quite achieve the economies of scale of the Big 3 but then again they would've had tough competition in the expensive car market too. There aren't many makes of cars that are middle-class middle-price range anymore, those lines that used to be pretty well defined are kinda blurred now.

As far as the engines Hudson insisted upon advancing and developing their inline 6's. Nothing wrong with this except that the public wanted V8's and even if the public is completely stupid about what constitutes great engineering in business you still have to give them what they want!. Hudson instead elected to offer a compact car (again ahead of their time) but the public wasn't really ready for it and it cost about the same as a full size Chevy or Ford. Granted, there was probably other mistakes made by the executives at that crucial time in the '50's but in hindsight they lasted a lot longer than 100's of other manufacturer's and I guess that's a testimate to the kind of cars they built that earned so much loyalty from customers.

[Deleted User]

Yep, we are a country of consumers! We buy cheap because we are supposed to buy more and more stuff. You can buy more things if you buy them cheaper. Whats quality anymore? We all just keep on consuming like the sheep we are! :-) In fact its almost patriotic to buy and buy! We save the least of any industrialized country. With most real wages shrinking and the loss of so many middle class jobs........I don't see this changing anytime soon. Why do you think Walmart and eBay do so well? And I shop at both! And besides, the more you shop the less you see how much the government is screwing things up! :-)



Jay

Aaron D. IL

Yep this country runs on credit no question about it but you can spend beyond your means at almost any income level, even if you're a billionare you could collect stealth fighters. LOL But perhaps it's the quality issue that leads many people to become interested in old cars and other antiques...even old tools. Because so much is so cheaply constructed out there. You're right about the middle class....and with the shrinking middle class the middle-class car Makes have dissapeared and continue to dissapear. Hudson, Desoto, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Studebaker, all middle class Makes.

Geoff

The last true wooden frames would have been in 1930, when Biddle & smart produced some bodies for the Hudson 8 Landau and 7 passenger sedans. The '26 thru '29 Essex and Hudsons with Hudson built steel bodies still had extensive wood in them, mainly in the bearer between the body sub-frame and the chassis, and in the top assembly, and all models right through to the step-downs used small sections of wood around the window frames and other places to tack the upholstery on to. These of course were not structural members. The Jet has no wood in it at all.

Geoff.

Unknown

What killed the independents - basically all of you are pretty much on the mark. It boils down to this; if you wanted engineering advancements, you bought independents - if you wanted glitz and cheap, you bought Ford or Chevy, or maybe Chrysler.

Sooner or later the advancements that were intro'd on the independent cars was offered on the big three, tho.

A good example of the big boys killing off competition was the introduction of 4-wheel brakes by Rickenbacker in 1925. It didn't take the competition - read that Ford, etc, long to start screaming that it was a safety hazard. It killed off Rickenbacker - but it wasn't to much longer before everybody went to 4-wheel brakes without a murmur.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

bob ward

HudsonTech-1909-1957 wrote:

A good example of the big boys killing off competition was the introduction of 4-wheel brakes by Rickenbacker in 1925. It didn't take the competition - read that Ford, etc, long to start screaming that it was a safety hazard. It killed off Rickenbacker - but it wasn't to much longer before everybody went to 4-wheel brakes without a murmur.



Hudsonly,

Alex B

Not to neglect the short lived Rollin, '23 to '25, intended as a car for the masses, which had 4 wheel brakes from its inception.